Pain

Despite chronic back problems over the last year, Westminster junior Amber Nichols has been a key player for the field hockey team. Playing alongside younger sister Lindsay, the midfielder fights through the pain to consistently win balls, then advance them upfield. Her efforts helped the Owls outscore their opponents, 19-0, through the first six games of the season. Off the field, she is an honor roll student who's interests include the arts and nature. You've suffered through some injury problems over the last couple seasons.

Sitting upright and alert on her hospital bed's white sheets, Keonya Christian-Cannon was still in her rainbow-heart pajamas, but she was ready to go home. Keonya, 14, had been recuperating at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center for more than a month, after a stray bullet struck her as she walked across the street from a park near her West Baltimore home. The bullet tore into her abdomen, just below her rib cage. She is one of at least 280 people - 50 of them juveniles - who have been shot, but not killed, in the city this year and a painful example of the many who survive, virtually unnoticed by a city struggling with a surging homicide toll.

Jesse Ventura looks into the camera and says, "I like to call wrestling a ballet of violence."That's what passes for a message, insight or truth in this two-bit, cut-and-paste made-for-TV movie about the life of the wrestler-turned-governor of Minnesota airing tomorrow night from 9 to 11 on NBC.Well, there's also this: "Pain is good. Extreme pain is extremely good." Or how about, "nothing is forever"? Beyond the fact that "The Jesse Ventura Story" celebrates violence, it also includes what is hands-down the worst narrative device of the television season -- having the actor playing Ventura (Nils Allen Stewart)

Third baseman Cal Ripken spoke optimistically yesterday about returning from a nerve inflammation that on Tuesday left him on the disabled list for the second time this season. But at the same time he could not discount the possibility of back surgery should the problem prevent his resumption of baseball-related activities within the next two weeks."Obviously, if surgery was the magical answer it will present itself," said Ripken, who downplayed the possibility when disabled by a similar condition in April.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Gone for 22 games, third baseman Cal Ripken returned to active duty yesterday, striding briskly through the Orioles' clubhouse, sipping coffee, exchanging barbs with center fielder Brady Anderson and at one point stopping at his locker to sniff his batting practice jersey. The pain was gone from his lower back, the enthusiasm back in his voice."This," he said, "does feel like the second Opening Day to me."Before the game, the Orioles optioned first baseman Calvin Pickering to make room for the third baseman.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A nasty scar runs about 3 inches toward the front of Scott Kamieniecki's neck.Its companion is a 6-inch stitch on Kamieniecki's left hip, where doctors rummaged for a sliver of bone to fuse between two vertebrae pinching his spinal cord.Since yesterday's first workout at Fort Lauderdale Stadium was all about show-and-tell, the Orioles' hoped-for No. 4 starting pitcher spent about 15 minutes proving to manager Ray Miller and pitching coach Bruce Kison that he can throw without pain, throw with feeling in the fingers of his right hand throw with purpose.

No heavy-duty bonus to sign. Not even enough money to buy a secondhand car or promises of a partially paid college education. Merely an opportunity. That's what Tony Saunders wanted if only a long-shot chance to prove his ability.He believed in himself if others didn't. To be placed in the ever-demanding arena of baseball was all he asked. And then to see what would happen -- the painful lot that befell him -- after he earned his way to the major leagues as a gifted left-handed pitcher of unlimited promise, became a shock of sudden despair.

Recent discoveries could change the way scientists and doctors view pain."Pain is not just a symptom of an injury," says Allan Basbaum, chairman of the department of anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco. "Under some conditions, it's really a disease of the nervous system."What Basbaum is saying is that pain nerves, when we're injured, seem to subtly change. And those changes, if they stick around, can set people up for longer-term misery -- misery that might be avoided if the initial pain were nipped in the bud.Such nipping should be easier in the future.

PHILADELPHIA -- Orioles pitcher Jimmy Key said the cortisone shot he received in Alabama on Monday removed a pain he described as "a migraine in my shoulder all the time." It also allowed Key to perform cuff weight exercises yesterday for the first time since going on the disabled list retroactive to May 21 with an inflamed left rotator cuff.Previously unable to do weight-free exercises without feeling severe pain, Key made significant progress yesterday by lifting 3 pounds with his left arm. Five pounds is the maximum for cuff weights.

Avoiding pain is one of our most basic survival instincts.It keeps us from putting our hands in the fire, makes us handle sharp objects carefully and causes us to swat mosquitoes off our skin.So why do some kids hurt themselves on purpose?Many psychologists say that lately they are seeing increasing numbers of adolescents engaging in "parasuicide," or what is commonly called self-mutilation."There's no doubt that self-mutilation is on the rise," says Mary Pipher, who wrote "Reviving Ophelia," a book about adolescent problems.

If health is a relative condition, then Ravens safety Ed Reed is relatively healthy. Or healthy enough to suit up each week, at least, and create chaos in the secondary. But the nerve impingement issue he has in his neck and shoulder appears to be worsening. Reed said Wednesday that he has more pain with the injury this season, that he sees his doctor every week and that he continues to take anti-inflammatory medication for it. Still, he says, it hasn't affected his play "that much."

Question: : When directions for medicine say take with food, do I take it before I eat anything, or at midmeal or following the meal? Answer: : Unless there are instructions to the contrary (such as "take 30 minutes before eating"), a medicine to be taken with food can be taken at any point in the meal. The idea is to reduce stomach irritation and, for some drugs, improve absorption. Question: : I am 55 and suffering with vaginal dryness that makes intercourse very painful. I rarely have any more hot flashes, just once in a while.

The Ravens' 2008 season had just ended in frigid Pittsburgh in January, and Todd Heap, a solitary figure along an empty row of lockers inside Heinz Field, was among the last players to dress. He sat there, rigid, struggling at length to pull on a pair of jeans. The dazed expression in his eyes mirrored the pain in his lower back. This was Heap's January reality: paralyzing back pain, sleepless nights and endless painkillers to get him through the days and the nights and the games. This was Heap's reality last Sunday: pain-free, romping through the Kansas City Chiefs' secondary for five catches and one big touchdown, while a repeated chorus of "HEAP" rolled through the stadium.

There will be pain. You put a bunch of grown men in a steel cage, lock the door and force them to fight their way out ... oh yeah, there's going to be pain. Jim Hardwick, whose Eastern Wrestling Alliance grapplers will be bringing their body slams, hammerlocks and full nelsons to Parkville on Sunday night, isn't sure how much pain will be involved. He's not sure who will have to endure the most, or whether chairs, chains and other implements of mass destruction will be involved. But people will be hurtin'.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Daniel Cabrera's six-game suspension for hitting New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez was upheld yesterday, giving his sore right arm a couple of more days to heal and potentially leading to Garrett Olson's return to the rotation. Cabrera was scheduled to start today, but Chris Waters will instead move up a day and start. Brian Burres will start tomorrow and Radhames Liz in Monday's series opener against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The Orioles will need a starter Tuesday, and Olson, who was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk on Aug. 20 with a 6.38 ERA, appears to be the most likely candidate.

Jen Schmidt doesn't show the pain. When the Friends School girls lacrosse team attacks, she flashes for the ball, going as hard and pivoting as quickly as anyone on the field. All the while, her feet and hands hurt, and sometimes her neck and back don't feel so good either. Six minutes into a recent game, the senior left the field to rub Flexall gel on her feet. That takes the edge off the constant pain of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis - a disease that causes inflammation of the joints and prevents many of those afflicted from playing sports.

Ouch, your achin' back. Perhaps you spent last weekend planting bulbs, mulching your garden, cleaning the gutters ... and now you're paying for your efforts with a stiff, sore lower back. You're likely not alone. One in eight people will suffer some sort of back injury during their lifetimes, according to the National Institutes of Health. And autumn (think raking leaves) presents myriad opportunities for back injuries, says Stephen Moxey, physical therapist and board-certified orthopedic specialist at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

Despite chronic back problems over the last year, Westminster junior Amber Nichols has been a key player for the field hockey team. Playing alongside younger sister Lindsay, the midfielder fights through the pain to consistently win balls, then advance them upfield. Her efforts helped the Owls outscore their opponents, 19-0, through the first six games of the season. Off the field, she is an honor roll student who's interests include the arts and nature. You've suffered through some injury problems over the last couple seasons.

Michelle Wie played golf with the men yesterday, and in an exciting twist, it wasn't entirely painful to watch. In fact, it didn't look like it was painful to play, either - and therein lies a bit of a problem. Last week, Wie ended her four-month break and played in her first LPGA event of the year, the Ginn Tribute in Mount Pleasant, S.C. By mid-round on the first day, her card was chock full of bowling scores, and she withdrew with two holes remaining. She claimed her wrist - the reason for that long layoff - was hurting too much to continue.

Surgery is twice as effective as physical therapy and drugs for relieving pain and improving mobility in one of the most common back problems, according to a new report. The study, published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, gives "us more confidence in recommending surgery to our patients," said Dr. Mark J. Spoonamore of University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. The recommendation is "not just our gut feeling, but based on a strong scientific foundation."