Pause

I am taking a pause in writing blogs, columns, and editorials. Over the past 10 years, I enjoyed the opportunity to publish regular articles in The Hill, Pain News Network, Pain Medical News and, of course, this blog. I have also had articles published in the Washington Post, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wall Street Journal, Salt Lake City Tribune, Toledo Blade, and more.

I have asked myself: Why do I want to do this? Taking time away from my professional and personal life is not easy for me, and it is non-remunerative.

The answer has been the same as why I wrote The Painful Truth and co-produced two documentaries. People in pain have not had a voice, and I thought I could help, in small way. I hoped to be a vehicle to correct misinformation, educate people, and advocate for those who struggle every day and live in the shadows.

Honestly, it has also been a way for me to blow off steam against the misinformation and prejudices permeating our society. But it takes a lot of effort, and I have other interests and responsibilities that require my time.

I sincerely want to thank everyone who has followed me. I hope you all will continue to seek factual information. Please know that my commitment to the pain and addiction community is as strong as ever.

One day, I believe we will have better treatments available to people with chronic pain and those with addiction. I hope they will be safe and affordable. It’s important for me to devote my energies now to helping to make that happen.

8 Comments

  1. Audrey Lynn on November 1, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    You will be sorely missed. I hope we can effect some changes, somehow. Thank you for your works.

  2. Phil Amato on November 1, 2020 at 3:48 pm

    Don’t blame you for taking a “Pause”. But I’ll miss your insight and knowledge. I wager you will be back, maybe in a more limited way.
    Either way, I’ve enjoyed your writing and wish you the best.

  3. Donna Corley on November 1, 2020 at 7:49 pm

    Dr. Webster,
    If anyone deserves a break it is definitely you. Thank you for all the time you have devoted to helping bring awareness to patients in pain that are truly suffering due to misinformation, scare tactics by our gov. Officials.
    I hope you take this pause and enjoy spending time with family, friends, or just having some much needed you time.

    3Being an advocate and a voice for others is very hard at times and can drain you quickly.. It is so important to spend time outside of Advocy too from what I’ve learned. We have to take care of us too, or we won’t be able to help others in need.

    Thanks again Dr. Webster and God bless you for all you’ve done to help patients in pain and those who have drug addiction as well.

    Please know you are so APPRECIATED, respected, and loved by so many!

  4. Brenda on November 1, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    Dear Dr. Webster, thank you for being an ever present hope and voice to people in pain. Your educated, well reasoned input is an invaluable strength to all patients in the fight for recognition, proper medication and treatment.

  5. Jacqueline Schneider on November 2, 2020 at 1:38 pm

    The pain community thanks you for your tireless efforts Dr. Webster. Thank you for your support and for bringing attention to this crisis, that has affected so many lives. You were the first professional advocate I reached out to, and I will always remember that! Be safe, be well.

  6. Andrea on November 2, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    Understood, Dr. Webster.

    You will be sorely missed, but I hope you are refreshed and strengthened by your new direction.

  7. Christine Moore on November 3, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    You have succeeded in your mission of giving patients a voice, correcting misinformation, and providing education. I have enjoyed your blog and learned a great deal. You will be missed.

  8. Sandy Miller on November 17, 2020 at 3:09 am

    Dr. Webster, I too, am very thankful for all the work you have done. You are one of the wonders of this crisis with our medications and the government. Drug addicts seem to always get their medication and those of us with REAL PAIN just get pushed around like junkies. My doctor never treated me the way she has the last two years after going to her for over 23 years. My neurologist retired and I have been put thru 4 different pain management clinics. There is no cure for my Central Pain Syndrome as the result of a hemorrhagic stroke in the thalamus of my brainI that I suffered 25 years ago. The first few years were pain clinics, injections, PT, the trial and error of trying so many combination of medications my doctor and I went thru just to give me a little relief, not total, but enough to visit with my family and grandchildre, nothing worked.

    After my constant burning, stabbing, aching sensations, and more……….like cold, heat, the entire left side of my body feeling paralyzed at times and not being able to sleep or have anyone touch me, not even tmy bed sheets, or my clothing, I feel my body has gone thru and is still is in total hell; after my neurologist and I found medications that did give me short term relief, and after having my PCP cut back on my medications that my neurologist had prescribed for years, she knows the pain I’m in because I saw her while my neurologist was treating me, She always told me she could tell I was miserable. Then the one pain medication I had and have taken for years, she curts in half.

    I agree, this country has gone mad. If you live in California,don’t they give you clean needles and medication and let you keep on being a junkie. Then normal people who have worked over 35 years like I did before I had the hemorrhage, and just want to have some kind of life and be with family and friends are treated like crap.I had Scoliosis on top of everything else, I had a 10 hour surgery from my T3 to my L5-S1 into my hips, and 8 years later, I cannot even walk without assistance of some kind, and my back is nothing but rods, screws and still the Scoliosis, osteoportis, degeneratove everything still hurts so bad, I could screa;, I had heart surgery also, but again, nobody cares, except for well educated, exceptional people, especially caring, qualified, gifted individuals like Dr. Webster and Dr. Lawhern. There are more wonderful adjectives to describe all the many years of work that you and many others have done to try to help us, but my cognitive brain is just not the same since my stroke, and the PAIN is so much worse as the years go by., I just don’t understand why people, those who havve been thru medical school, all those years, don’t understand PAIN. My neurologist said he didn’t think they taught anything about PAIN anymore, I believe that.

    Thank you Dr. Webster for all you have done for us. Take care and stay safe.

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