Check out For Grace founder Cynthia Toussaint’s latest column on Pain News Network. Cynthia takes a deep look at the recent Netflix documentary, “Take Care of Maya”, and how so much of this eye-opening exposé pierced her heart. The deepest cut was Maya’s mother’s Herculean, yet ultimately tragic, effort to save her daughter. Cynthia recalls her own mother's decent into a chronic pain nightmare - and how that intersection between chaos and heartbreak almost cost them everything. Link HERE to read "Take Care of Maya: The High Cost of a Mother's Love."  

22 years ago, the landmark report "The Girl Who Cried Pain" spotlighted the gender bias toward women in the treatment of their pain and was a catalyst for expanding the mission at For Grace. A  recent follow-up to that report, "The Woman Who Cried Pain: Do Sex-Based Disparities Still Exist in the Experience and Treatment of Pain?" took a retrospective look at how much better, if at all, women in pain are faring. The report concluded, that while some progress has been made, there remains a significant shortage in research about how and why men and women experience pain differently and that there is a nagging implicit bias among healthcare professionals that impedes equitable pain care. For Grace founder Cynthia Toussaint was a key advisor on the report.

Check out For Grace's special July Story of the Month as we explore medical trauma's impact on chronic pain.  Maya Kowalski was a happy, healthy 10-year old when a severe asthma attack led to burning arms and legs and a diagnosis of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS.) Ketamine gave her some sustained relief, but it was a CRPS flare five years later that sent Maya to the ER. What followed was a nightmare of unimaginable grief, abuse and loss. Maya's story is now a Netflix documentary, both searing and eye-opening in its unveiling of broken systems breaking families.

Check out For Grace founder Cynthia Toussaint's latest thought-provoking column on Pain News Network! When you've been wrangling with the ebbs and flows of life-altering, high-impact chronic pain for decades, sometimes you can't help but gauge when enough is enough. Cynthia shares how a pain-rocketing complication of cancer treatment has taken her over the line to a place she hoped she'd never again travel. Once there, how does one conjure up the courage to fight the impossible?  Can one find the mercy and peace to go on? Link HERE to read "Painfully Stepping Over the Line."