Virtual Reality Has Real Promise For Pain Relief
Recent studies show how it can help a wide variety of patients
Over the last 10 years, two of my very favorite people in the world have had to fight advanced cancer, and I’ve come to learn what pain looks like.
I’m not talking about average pain — slamming your hand in a door, cutting yourself badly, even breaking a bone. The pain I’m referring to is the sort that leaves you pale, gasping, weak, and nearly unable to function. This sort of pain continues without end for days, weeks, months. It is all-consuming.
It’s not just cancer patients who suffer. Burn victims, people with severe back injuries, and soldiers badly hurt in combat (among others) live with intense pain like this.
There are, of course, powerful drugs available to reduce pain, and I am truly grateful for them. They make it possible for people to live and work, and they at least partially alleviate suffering. My family and I have endured questioning and sidelong glances at the pharmacy when picking up opioids for my daughter, a cancer patient. We’ve had to place pleading calls to doctors to make sure she didn’t run out of meds when the pain ramped up unexpectedly. Having those pills on hand is sometimes the difference between her living a nearly normal life and being curled in a…
