For Olivia Se, the most frightening part of his illness was not the pain itself. It was the loss of certainty. As a nurse in a major hospital in the south of France, Olivia had been trained to trust systems—diagnostic pathways, protocols, imaging, referrals. Pain was supposed to follow rules. Injuries were supposed to heal. […]
She did not start out looking for a miracle. She just wanted the numbness in her arm to stop. At first, it was only annoying. Then it became scary. Her left arm would tingle, go numb, and sometimes feel weak and heavy. Some days it felt like it did not fully belong to her anymore. […]
A Simple Question That Changes Everything Here’s a simple question: How does the body recycle energy? Try this experiment. Have someone jump and stop. Jump and stop. Jump and stop. Do that for 50 feet. Most people will say, “I’m done. I’m exhausted.” But now think about this: When you run, you’re doing the same […]
For many people, pain does not start as something big. It starts as a small problem. A little tightness in the shoulder. A strange ache in the neck. A dull, annoying feeling down the arm. At first, you ignore it. You tell yourself it will go away. But then weeks turn into months. And months […]
The Problem with Modern Bodies: Why So Many People Are Still in Pain If you ask people today what hurts, most don’t have to think very long. They’ll tell you about chronic neck pain, or chronic shoulder pain, or that heavy, dragging feeling of chronic neck and shoulder pain that never seems to fully go […]
When the ER Couldn’t Explain His Heart Symptoms, the Real Cause Was in His Shoulder Josh Miller was 29 years old when he went to the emergency room for the third time in less than a year, convinced he was having a heart attack. His heart rate had spiked to nearly 180 beats per minute. […]
The Hidden Link Between Pain, Inflammation, and How You Feel The Body Is Not a Machine. It Is a Spring. Most people are taught to think of the body like a machine made of stiff parts. Levers. Hinges. Blocks stacked on top of each other. But that is not how the human body actually works. […]
Many people live for years with strange and scary arm symptoms that don’t seem to make sense. One day the arm feels normal. Another day it feels heavy, tight, and uncomfortable. Sometimes the hand gets cold. Sometimes the arm changes color. Sometimes it swells after activity. Some people notice poor circulation in arm and don’t […]
The Day a Patient Walked In With a Pulse Oximeter One day, a patient walked into Dr. Stoxen’s office holding a small device in his hand. It was a pulse oximeter — the little clip doctors put on your finger to measure oxygen in your blood and your pulse. He said, “Doctor, I want you […]
The Human Spring Approach: Why Tests Don’t Always Tell the Whole Story January 23, 2026 I’m in Hong Kong right now, on my way to a conference in Singapore on orthopedics. Long flights are good for thinking. They give you time to look back over your work and ask an important question: “What do patients […]
