months.A popular alternative definition of chronic pain, involving no arbitrarily fixed durations is "pain that extends beyond the expected period of healing. Do you Know? Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy specialists at 2011 PAINWeek and 2011 AAPM, say 10,000,000 Americans have been diagnosed and even more are awaiting proper diagnosis for RSD. Read More ? As a chronic pain patient, one of the things I dread most are the ever-frequent doctor's appointments, and occasional trips to the hospital. Inspired by some recent trips of my own, paired with a few tips from fellow advocates, I have laid out some specific guidelines that, when followed, can be a great aid towards easing trips to get medical care. Patient Power is devoted to bringing significant news from medical conferences to patients living with the conditions covered. Patient Power is a one-of-a-kind resource bringing in-depth information to patients with cancer and chronic illness. Audio and video interviews, with transcripts, help patients make informed decisions in partnership with their medical team. Founded by patient-advocate, medical journalist, author and cancer survivor Andrew Schorr. The Power of Pain Foundation (POPF) is proud to support the Fail First Hurts initiative. Fail First legislation will prohibit health insurers from requiring a patient to try and fail medications before allowing the patient to have the medication prescribed by their doctor. The POPF adamantly believes that applying step therapy protocols rigidly to a pain patient is not in the patient's best interest and simply creates undue challenges to pain patients.