I hope you’re enjoying the last few days of August…  savoring sweet watermelon and soaking up warm sunshine.  Here are the great submissions for the August carnival:

In Sickness and In Health writes about why asking for help, especially from our spouse/partner, is difficult to do in Hard Conversations.
Coping with pain is also hard.  Psychology of Pain [...]

Here’s an interview with me from the website Perfect Breathing.  Hope you like it!  You  might also like to look around the site a bit – lots of good reading.

Reminder:  August Pain-Blog Carnival submissions due today. 
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Have you ever come across something that puts into words exactly how you feel, or what you think?  Your own ideas may be slightly fuzzy, but here in front of you is the finished product.  Maybe you’ve had this experience when reading a poem, or listening to someone [...]

Reminder:  August Pain-Blog Carnival submissions due by 8/22. 
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This is a guest post by Rebecca Rengo, a social worker who works with patients with chronic pain.  Rebecca is also a coach and author, and she hosts the website Beyond Chronic Pain.  I’ll  review her wonderful pain management guidebook “Beyond Chronic Pain” this Friday.  – HtCwP
Rebecca writes:
It’s easy [...]

Today’s topic for Monday Chat:  Do You Go On Vacation?
We’re getting to the end of August, so summer vacation might be on your mind.  Did you know that the average US worker gets 12 days of vacation a year (compared with 21 days in Canada, 23 in England, and 39 in France).  However, 31% of Americans don’t [...]

Pain diagnosis and treatment is continuing to change as we understand more about pain disorders and – thankfully – find better treatments.  Here are some new developments regarding Fibromyalgia.

Cymbalta has been approved for the treatment of Fibromyalgia.  This is an antidepressant, which has also been okay’d by the FDA for diabetes pain (diabetic peripheral neuropathy).  The fact that [...]

Do you need patience when you have a pain disorder?  Well, is chocolate yummy?  Patience is needed to keep on working to lessen your pain, it’s helpful to feel patience towards your body, towards your energy and drive, for hope, and much more.
I was writing an article about patience recently, and went searching online for a photo to accompany it.  When [...]

Our July How to Cope with Pain contest is over (it took an extra week because of tech problems!).  The entries were really wonderful!  Winners were selected based on a combination of my panel of experts, your votes below, and comments the articles received.

The order of winners is…  

Emily wrote 5 Tips to Handle Your Worst Pain Symptoms
Margaret shared What [...]

This article was submitted by a reader Emily, and is in the running to win a prize.  Emily’s is the last submission… stop by Monday to vote for your favorite article.
Emily writes:  I’m working with a great team of doctors, but unfortunately, my body seems slow to respond to the preventative medications for migraine.  Consequently, I’m in [...]

This article was submitted by a reader Kathy, and is in the running to win a prize.  Stop by next Monday to vote for your favorite article in our contest.
Kathy writes:
I have nerve damage on the right side of my face as the result of TMJ dysfunction.  This results in big, nasty headaches on that side [...]