Joletta Belton

Using neuroimaging to understand the mechanisms of pain is an important task. But we must understand that the gold standard of measuring pain will always be the self-report.

Hey folks. How are you doing in these fraught times? What is giving you hope? What is bringing you joy? Last week we went on our first camping trip with our rescue doggo Luna Bear. We went to Goblin Valley in Utah, where we had no cell reception whatsoever. It was glorious to disconnect for a bit. To reconnect for a bit. Luna Bear did great. We camped amongst the hoodoos (aka the goblins of Goblin Valley), hiked a slot canyon, lived simply, just meeting our basic needs without all the noise.

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to chat with friends in the pain advocacy space. As frustrated and disillusioned as I can get with the pace of change in pain research and care, it is always refreshing and rejuvenating to connect with people I love and respect and remind ourselves of how far we’ve come, even if we have a long way to go.