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Heights woman turns chronic pain into a mission

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By Beth Anspach, Contributing Writer 2:24 PM Thursday, July 8, 2010

Dee Browers, who lives in Huber Heights, suffers from chronic pain and has for decades.

“Seven years after high school, while I was working in Florida, I was helping someone carry a heavy bench and it was dropped on me,” Browers said. “The next day I could barely move.”

That accident was the beginning of decades of struggles with doctors and diagnoses. “That accident in Florida caused a herniated disk in my back and lower back pain that got progressively worse,” Browers said.

Throughout the next 16 years, Browers struggled as she moved from city to city with her military spouse. “I was diagnosed with so many conditions over the years, from fibromyalgia to severe arthritis to multiple sclerosis to cancer,” she said. “All of these things have caused me a lifetime of pain and the constant need to take medications.”

Browers isn’t alone. It’s estimated that more than 76 million Americans suffer from daily pain.

“There were several barriers to my care,” Browers said. “I had different doctors each time we moved, and each time I had a new doctor, they wanted to run tests all over again.” Browers was overprescribed medications and often didn’t take them, which she said only aggravated her condition.

“Everyone has a right to timely, effective pain management,” she said. “But there’s a stigma, and not everyone will even mention it to their doctors.”

People suffering from chronic pain are often looked upon as drug addicts and find it difficult to get proper care, Browers said.

“I actually had a doctor tell me I was a drug seeker,” she said. “And that my problems were female- and hormonal-related, even though I had already had a hysterectomy.”

Rather than suffer in silence and despair, Browers vowed to get well enough to help others suffering from chronic pain.

A few years ago, she started researching chronic pain on the Internet and found the American Pain Foundation, a nonprofit group whose goal it was to improve the quality of life of those living with chronic pain. “I had to leave my full-time job as a therapist, but I promised myself even if I could just sit at the computer and make phone calls, I would do it to help others,” Browers said.

Today, Browers is the Ohio leader for the APF Action Network and is networking with other pain sufferers in Ohio, as well as working with local hospitals and networks to spread the word about the organization. And she continues to be optimistic about her life and her health.

“APF has helped me talk out about my pain to others and not be embarrassed,” Browers said.

“And I tell them there is help for them out there and that it’s OK to talk about it.”

For more information, visit www.painfoundation.org.

Contact this columnist at (937) 475-8212 or banspach@woh.rr.com.

HEREABOUTS beth anspach

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