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Hello - this is what i have being sent out on Wednesday to Radio & TV program Directors. This will bE delvered via Fax and email.
Because this is to attract attention and prompt interest (and because we have no single CONTACT here ) we are focusing on ONE CALL to action. To GET interested - to at bare minmium mention it BUT if not to at least broadcast about -- SEE Sound Bites.
Attention -- Interest -- Desire -- Action.
NOTHINg will ever say it all - but hopefull this will NOT be galnced at. Teh request for Action is "get interested" please. Then the FACT sheet (ALSO PUBLISHED HERE) will be attahced with suggested "blurbs" (sound bites). NOT a "sniper" but a "tighter grenade" that i will sned to approx 2,000.
Dear XXXXImagine getting in to your bed with crisp, clean sheets after a tough day at the station …and the touch of your sheets causes excruciating pain! Or living with flu- like symptoms 24 hours a day. Seven days a week. 52 weeks a year. You feel pain every moment. Muscle. Skeletal. And bone pain. Sleep is impossible. And when asking a Doctor for a diagnosis, you hear: “There is nothing wrong with you!” Or worse, “It’s all in your head!.”Your Doctor is simply unaware of an often misunderstood and misdiagnosed disease affecting nearly 10 million of us.Fibromyalgia. A disease of the Central Nervous System with no known cause. No cure. Especially when the affected person CANNOT FIND A DIAGNOSIS! (The average diagnosis takes up to 5 years.)Won’t you please help them identify the source of their suffering? To find effective relief from the many treatments that are available to them? IF they only knew what was wrong?Assist the National Fibromyalgia Association by telling your audience about Fibromyalgia and promote “Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. May 12, 2008.”Of course, we’d love 12 spots a day for a week but we are grateful for anything you can contribute to maximize awareness of this debilitating disease. Attached is a list of “sample sound bites” for your jocks to use in your copy. Learn more about Fibromyalgia at www.fmaware.org. Or call: 714.921.0150 for more information about the Walk of Fame, also on May 12th in Anaheim, CA. You might even want to sponsor a “virtual team” to raise money for this worthy cause.Thanks in advance for your help on behalf of all of those “silent sufferers” who need help to communicate their illness with their doctors.You just might be helping someone you love.Best personal regards, Name and the hundreds of“Fibro” sufferers at MDJunction www.mdjunction.com ~ “People Helping People” ================(page 2)Sample Sound-Bites for FibromyalgiaUntreated pain destroys people’s lives. I know Fibromyalgia patients who couldn’t work or sleep or play with their children. Good pain management gave them their lives back.It is cruel to deny pain patients access to effective pain treatment. People should not be suffering needlessly.The undertreatment of pain is a silent epidemic. Don’t let this happen to someone you love.More than 75 million Americans suffer from persistent, debilitating pain. Pain not only affects individuals, their families and friends, but also drains resources from employers, insurance agencies, health care institutions and the U.S. economy. Pain costs the country more than $100 billion annually in missed workdays, visits to hospital emergency departments, medications and the use of other medical and health care services. Are you aware that pain costs U.S. employers as much as $100 billion in lost productivity per year? Pain causes more than 50 million lost workdays at a cost of more than $3 billion in lost wages. Persistent pain sufferers are among the most underserved patients in the United States. Although pain accounts for the majority of provider visits, few health care providers have formal training or cutting-edge information in pain management. Three primary causes for inadequate treatment of persistent pain have been identified – deficient availability of credible information, lack of validation of pain as a significant problem and the invisibility of pain.Persistent pain is a disease in and of itself and deserves to be treated as such. Persistent pain can be an invisible disease – often diagnostic tests do not provide a clear picture of the reasons for a person’s persistent pain. It is estimated that it takes an average of five years for a Fibromyalgia patient to get an accurate diagnosis. Many doctors are still not adequately informed or educated about Fibromyalgia. Laboratory tests often prove negative and many Fibromyalgia symptoms overlap with the symptoms of other conditions, thus leading to extensive investigative costs and frustration for both the doctor and patient.With some pain conditions, such as arthritis, we can see the changes on x-rays and in blood tests. However, in much neuropathic pain, the damage to the nerves, spinal cord and brain that cause persistent pain is real, but the microscopic and molecular changes are often undetectable by tests. People in pain try to live normal lives, hiding their suffering. There is no way to understand the severity of another person’s pain.One of the biggest challenges pain sufferers face is access to appropriate care. So many individuals in pain are shuffled from one health care provider to another without relief.Information about Fibromyalgia is available from the National Fibromyalgia Association’s website at www.fmaware.org.As you can see, capitalist persistent pain is an often overlooked disease affecting millions of Americans. I encourage all persons in persistent pain to seek the care they need, and hope other physicians will work to educate the public about this debilitating disease.Surprising, but true. Surprising, that is, unless you are a pain sufferer or a pain physician who is too well aware of the devastating impact of undertreated pain on patients and their families. Fibromyalgia patients know this only too well.A study recently released in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association found that 13 percent of U.S. workers lose an average of 4.6 hours per week of productivity as a result of pain. The survey included questions regarding how aches and pains caused workers to lose concentration, repeat a task or work more slowly than usual.The study found that more than half of all employees reported some type of ache or pain every two weeks and nearly one in seven workers experience a drop in their productivity every two weeks due to common pain. Employers can reduce losses by educating workers on how to avoid certain health problems and how to seek appropriate care.
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