COEUR d'ALENE - Ron Weaver is one of those people who took what others might consider a devastating diagnosis, and learned to cope with it in a positive manner.

Weaver, who was born and raised in Lewiston, moved to Coeur d'Alene 20 years ago.

As a person who lives with chronic pain, he has spent several years teaching himself and others how to manage it without narcotics, and now he is planning to use what he has learned to create a support group designed to help others cope with pain.

He is currently a volunteer counselor at Heritage Health, where he helps with patients who are dealing with pain.

Weaver, a former butcher by trade, has had severe back pain for most of his adult life, and about 15 years ago his doctor discovered why.

He was diagnosed with Desi Ankylosing Spondylitis, an immune system disorder. Essentially, Weaver said, his immune system is attacking his own body.

The result is chronic pain and fatigue. When the pain medication he was taking no longer worked for him, he had to find a way to deal with his pain.

And he has. Now he wants to share that with as many others as possible.

On Nov. 15, he plans to hold his first support group meeting, called "A Way Forward."

At Heritage Health, Weaver said he has had some success, and he would like to develop his skills into an organized expandable program to help others.

While all the details for his first meeting haven't completely solidified, he said people can contact him at 691-8471 for more information.

How did this all get started?

I have had back issues for most of my adult life, and just about 15 years ago my doctor diagnosed me with Desi Ankylosing Spondylitis. It's an immune dysfunction where the immune system is attacking my body.

So what is the treatment for that?

There is no cure for the disease and the symptoms are chronic pain and fatigue. So I did what most chronic pain patients do. I started taking small amounts of pain medication to manage my pain, and 10 years later I was taking the maximum dose and it was no longer helping with the pain. I had come to the end of the road.

What did you do?

My doctor and I came to the conclusion that I needed to look for another way to deal with the pain, and he took me off of all the medication. That's when I started doing a lot of reading and research. I found this program out of Toronto called "Mindfulness Solution for Pain." It was developed by Dr. Jackie Gardner-Nix and I learned some things about managing pain through changing emotional labels.

Can you explain how that works?

Changing emotional labels is the first thing I do when working with other people, and it is the most difficult thing to do.

As a victim of chronic pain, the first thing you have to realize is the pain is not going away. Narcotics are not designed for long-term management of pain. Unfortunately, they are still used for that, but it doesn't work.

The first thing you have to do is realize that pain is not your enemy and it is not your friend. Pain is your companion and you have to find a way to be good with that. That is step one.

What is step two?

There are a lot of other things we do after that first step - mostly healthy living changes. We teach things like changing your diet and figuring out what exercises you can do. Exercise is an important part of this. There is a ton of research on how exercise can help improve pain tolerance.

We also look at the kind of people you surround yourself with. People with chronic pain cannot be around people who are always negative.

So you are helping them change their lifestyle, right?

Yes, it is a lifestyle change. And then we teach them to visualize their pain in their minds. Visualization, meditation and prayer all go together in this step. It is a difficult step because these three things are different for each individual. What we try to do is figure out what combination works best for each individual.

That's where the mindfulness comes in, and how we think about pain.

It sounds like quite a process.

It is. We also use charting. I have a pain chart where they rate their pain and chart things like the weather. Weather, by the way, can be a major thing for someone with chronic pain. We chart other things like the exercise they are doing and what they are eating. We also chart stress issues and figure out ways to reduce that stress and take your mind off the pain.

Dr. Joe tells a story about a patient who actually reduces his pain by going fishing.

That's interesting, so you use the chart to identify the problem areas?

Yes, and we also talk about the real limitations we have to come to terms with.

Myself, I have to have multiple rest periods throughout the day. I say to myself I am going to rest three or four times a day. I just have to shut the door and take a nap or read a book. I am retired so I can do that.

Another key ingredient is helping other people, which is really how this whole support group came together.

You have been doing this for awhile, what is your success rate?

I have been doing this as a volunteer for several years now. We have had some real successes, and other times the outcome is neutral.

Obviously it is successful enough to expand the program.

Yes, but we are exploring new territory here. We are trying to figure this out as we go. Nobody is doing this in the United States right now, but we are going to give it a try.

We are starting with an eight-week initial content-based program. We will go through all of the content, and assess where we are, then go from there.

The goal is to get what I do into a structured format, so hopefully down the road I can train others and we can expand this to become as big as we can make it.

We will have our first "A Way Forward" meeting on Nov. 15. We are still looking for a location, but we have 30 people interested.