PAIN AND MOVEMENT
Fact is, the Daniel Newman you’re going to meet today — the one living the life he wants with the help of DRG stimulation to ease his pain — is just this version of the man.
Because the 1999 edition of Daniel Newman — the one who had a cervical fusion after “years of playing sports” — is not the same man in 2008, is not the same in 2020 and certainly not the same Daniel Newman today.
So you’re not alone if you haven’t known any — let alone all — of the Daniel Newmans. In a lot of ways, neither have his young kids. And, frankly, even he has had times where he wasn’t sure who he’d become and what the future might hold for the next edition of himself.
That is the power of chronic pain, a gravity so strong it bends realities and the people in them.
Newman lives with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). It started in his right hand in 2008 — “It felt like somebody had replaced my blood with gasoline and lit my hand on fire,” Newman said — and now reaches through his legs right down to his toes.
Newman was familiar with the usual bumps and bruises that come from being athletic and playing sports. “Playing hockey for some time, I can deal with pain. I’ll get past it.”
CRPS is something else altogether.
“There is no getting past CRPS. It’s not like a broken bone that heals. CRPS is a nasty beast. It takes over everything.”
Original source can be found here
