As a
paraplegic with a spinal cord injury, I often have relatively rare medical
conditions that are not particularly complex, but do need specialized
care. Seattle has some of the best
medical facilities and researchers in the world practicing at the UW Medical
Center, Harborview, and other facilities such as Fred Hutchinson.
The UWMC has
been a top-rated physical medicine rehab facility for decades. Last time I checked, they were ranked as the
second-best facility in the US. In this instance,
second best is really really good. That
is better than Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and so on.
Getting such
great medical care and living so close to the UW/Harborview, I feel some
responsibility to participate as a guinea
pig in research studies. I have participated
in at least a half-dozen studies in the last decade. Counting studies is a bit ambiguous since
the studies have different phases with different titles although they are all
run out of the rehab medicine or psychology departments. The studies I do are usually about treatment
of chronic pain with hypnosis or meditation.
Next week, I
will begin another study where they will do hypnosis and meditation while monitoring
with EEG sensors. It is great getting
free guided meditation or hypnosis by PhD candidates while furthering the cause
of pain reduction research—especially when it is my pain being reduced.
I am extremely
grateful for having incredibly high quality medical care with paid research
projects a short drive away.
No comments:
Post a Comment