Lisa Coan

Hi. I'm Lisa Coan and I live in Kansas City, MO. I am a wife to Rick (we've been together 30 years this year!) and Mom (to son Colton) with a wonderful family. Life has not always taken the directions I had hoped and consequently I have had to learn to live with chronic pain. I developed both Fibromyalgia and RSD/CRPS. RSD/CRPS is a disease of the nervous system which causes it to overfire and send the nervous system into overdrive. The biggest symptom is burning nerve pain causing it to feel like someone has put gasoline in your body and lit you on fire. My RSD/CRPS started in my left ankle and foot but has spread throughout my body and even into my autonomic system. When I developed the RSD/CRPS, there was basically no support systems out there - there was virtually no social networking - very little information on the computer and it was hard to find any support in the real world whatsoever. I wanted to change that! With a friend, I co-founded and now I personally run the KC Chronic Pain and RSD/CRPS Support Group; am the Midwest Regional Manager for the US Pain Foundation; and am a Moderator for the Chronic Pain Lifestyles Support Forum on Yahoo. I am consistently trying to find ways to advocate for people in pain. Living in constant pain is hard. Damn hard! But attitude is everything! Have you heard of THE SPOON THEORY? Look it up. It will give you a REAL idea of what it is like to live a day in the life of someone in pain. You can find more information about RSD/CRPS at www.rsdsa.org. You can find more information about US Pain Foundation at www.uspainfoundation.org. But most of all - I have a great life... I have 5 brothers and sisters, lots of nieces and nephews and 2 fabulous parents who are so supportive. I have a wonderful extended family as well. I wish I could say I were closer to a lot of them but I am not. Life goes on :) I love dogs - We have two right now - Casey - an English Springer Spaniel (we love ESS's) and Lucky (who we lovingly call LuLu). Rick, my husband, rescued her from the country 4 years ago out in the country as a little puppy. She is just a sweety. Our lives would not be complete without the love of a dog... they just show so much love and compassion. Some day I may need a service dog - and I am glad they are service DOGS! So, anyway, this is a bit about me.. Come and find out more!