Pain

Having succumbed at long last to a winter cold, I felt I would dedicate this Midweek Madness installment to my fellow sufferers. I suggest we all sing through our pain, with the help of Betty Boop and that profound ditty "I Got a Cold in My Nose. " (Her performance makes me want to dig out "Funny Lady" again to hear Streisand's fun version.) Grab a Kleenex and chime in:

Davey Emala 's second five-goal performance in as many games almost didn't occur. The Georgetown sophomore attackman was nearly sidelined by what he described as pain along the left ribcage area that prevented him from practicing Wednesday and Thursday. But he withstood the pain and almost propelled the No. 15 Hoyas to an upset before they fell to top-ranked Syracuse, 9-8, in overtime in the first game of the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium Saturday. "I always try to never even consider not playing," the Baltimore native and Gilman graduate said.

As part of a federal project aimed at better treating pain, the University of Maryland, Baltimore will begin revamping the way it teaches future doctors, dentists, nurses and pharmacists. Pain affects approximately 100 million Americans and their treatment and lost productivity are estimated to cost up to $635 billion, according to the National Institutes of Health, which recruited academic centers to help with the problem. A pain consortium of two dozen NIH agencies received 56 proposals and picked 11 universities to be Centers of Excellence in Pain Education.

A left calf injury didn't prevent kicker Billy Cundiff from rewriting a portion of the Ravens' record book. With a 36-yard field goal near the end of the first quarter and three extra points in Sunday's 24-10 win against the Indianapolis Colts, Cundiff passed former running back Jamal Lewis for second place on the franchise's all-time scoring list with 286 career points. Cundiff now trails Matt Stover, who ranks first with 1,464 points. “It is an honor,” Cundiff said.

A foot and half separated Marc Burleson from the buried bomb he was trying to defuse last December in a narrow alleyway of a small Afghanistan village. The bomb exploded, mutilating the Marine's face, ripping off part of his right arm, paralyzing his left arm, blinding him in one eye and leaving him unconscious for nearly a month. Burleson, a 31-year-old Texan, finally awoke to a pain he never imagined could exist. An excruciating burning sensation came from the paralyzed left arm — a pain that overpowered any of the hurt he felt from his other injuries.

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."

Orioles right-hander Jim Johnson, the favorite to win the closer job this spring, said he believes he's no more than a week behind the other pitchers as today's first spring workouts commence Johnson is slated to have a throwing session on flat ground today as part of a “trunk stabilization” program to aid his recovery from some recent lower back pain. He said he began to experience some pain early last month. “There was no (specific) incident,” Johnson said. “I just went to see the doctor and it's no big deal.

Think back to medical practices of earlier eras and many of them now seem barbaric, futile or even silly -- amputations with little more than a shot of alcohol to ease the pain, bleeding sick people with leeches. But not all of those questionable practices are ancient history. Last month, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study indicating that doctors who minimize the use of anesthetics during surgery on infants may well be endangering their young patients' lives.For many years, surgery was performed on infants with little or no pain relief because doctors feared that the medication would dangerously suppress the child's blood pressure.

Although my diabetes was diagnosed about 10 years ago, I had no significant problems with it until this past summer when both of my feet began to hurt, The pain has been getting worse, and pain killers like aspirin have not helped at all. Is there any treatment?You are almost certainly suffering from a common complication of diabetes referred to as distal or peripheral neuropathy.The most frequent symptoms are numbness and decreased sensitivity to touch and other sensory stimuli; tingling, pricking, or crawling sensations; and pain that can be severe at times.

Here's another tale of toughness from inside the Orioles' clubhouse. Manager Buck Showalter said he had two different lineup cards filled out just more than 30 minutes before the first pitch of the Orioles' 12-2 win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday - one with shortstop J.J. Hardy in it and another without. For the past two days, Hardy has been dealing with a painful hangnail on his right middle finger, and on Wednesday Hardy said it became so difficult to throw that he was gripping the ball with just three fingers.