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Doctor is pain-savvy By Katherine Spitz Beacon Journal medical writer Dr. Mark Pellegrino of North Canton has to make excellent eye contact with his patients; severely hearing impaired, he reads lips. And he silently empathizes when a patient talks to him about unrelenting pain -- not a day goes by that he, too, doesn't hurt. However, to describe the 48-year-old physician as burdened with physical problems is to see only the surface of the hard-driving, yet kind physician. Pellegrino has a thriving, recently expanded medical practice and has written 15 books. His latest: Fibromyalgia: Up Close and Personal (Anadem Publishing, 2005). Pellegrino has a personal, as well as professional, interest in fibromyalgia. For two decades, he has suffered from the condition, a syndrome defined by chronic, widespread muscle pain, fatigue and tender points, according to the American College of Rheumatology. He believes having fibromyalgia gives him a particular empathy for his patients, all of whom suffer from some sort of chronic condition. As a physiatrist, a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, Pellegrino specializes in patients who won't be ``cured'' in the technical sense, but who are seeking a better quality of life. Many of those patients are like fibromyalgia patient Brenda Haggerty of Canal Fulton, who came to Pellegrino last week for a nerve conduction test, which involves a series of electric shocks. ``It's really not painful, it's electrical sensation,'' Pellegrino told Haggerty, as he readied the equipment. ``That's all right, I hurt all the time anyway,'' Haggerty told him. Haggerty said she likes going to Pellegrino because even though he doesn't talk about his own problems, she feels he can be particularly empathetic. ``He takes the time to talk to you, and get to the bottom of things,'' she said. Pellegrino has lots of experience solving problems. He was a typical toddler growing up in Canton when, at 3, he was given streptomycin, then a common antibiotic. His sister also was given the medicine. Months later, both children, along with several of their cousins also given the drug, started to lose their hearing. Later, it was discovered that the drug caused hearing loss in a certain population of patients, and that Pellegrino and his relatives had a genetic susceptibility to the toxic effects of the drug, he said. Because Pellegrino had learned to talk by the time he suffered his hearing loss, he retained his ability to speak; his voice sounds like he has a heavy cold. ``I'm considered about 90 percent hearing impaired,'' he said. ``I can't hear any of the high tones, but at lower frequencies, with amplification, I'm OK.'' Pellegrino never learned sign language, but learned to read lips very well. Educated in parochial schools, he resisted wearing hearing aids at first, but always sat in the front of the class. At Canton's Central Catholic, Pellegrino was an able student, and also was athletic, playing center and forward on his high school basketball team. Fighting negatives Despite his academic and athletic successes, he said, he still had to resolve a lot of negative feelings about himself, because of his hearing impairment. ``I felt like people would think I'm not normal,'' Pellegrino said. ``I came to realize that I'm a normal person with a hearing impairment.'' He gives credit to his family for providing him with the strength and support that he needed to cope. ``When I accepted myself, I got more confidence,'' he said. Pellegrino said he decided on a career in medicine at age 14, after he was impressed by the doctor who treated him for a broken shoulder. At Ohio State University, Pellegrino concentrated in microbiology. His college adviser, however, discouraged him from his goal of medical school. ``My adviser told me, because of the hearing loss, that I should probably think of something else,'' he said. ``You know what? I changed advisers,'' he said. Pellegrino graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was accepted at Ohio State's medical school. Armed with an amplified stethoscope, he thrived in the training, and looked for a speciality that would be a good fit. Operating staff wear masks, making it impossible for him to lip-read. He became attracted to the specialty of physiatry, and was accepted into the residency program at OSU's Dodd Hall rehabilitation center. Pellegrino's residency mentor, Dr. George Wayonas, remembers his student as being extremely bright. ``He had a mind that was reaching out all the time. He was a true innovator, very creative,'' said Wayonas, now a professor emeritis of rehabilitation medicine at OSU. Problem diagnosed It was during his residency that Pellegrino began suffering severe, unexplained aches and pains around his shoulders. At first, he attributed the problem to long resident hours and wearing a coat that was laden with heavy items. He changed coats; the pain didn't stop. Finally, he was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The encouraging news was that he could still be a doctor. The downside: the pain he had wasn't curable. Pellegrino said he drew on his experience coping with hearing loss to help him learn to accept chronic pain. ``I think having my hearing impairment has better enabled me to cope with fibromyalgia, because they're both chronic conditions, they both interfere and there are no cures for them,'' he said. ``But, there are things you can do.'' For his own pain, he relies on stretching, supplements, topical medications, careful nutrition and exercise. His family -- wife Mary Ann, and three children -- provide strong support to help him compensate for his hearing loss. Said his wife, Mary Ann, ``When the 3 a.m. phone calls come from the college kids, saying they are locked out of their home, I'm the one who gets the phone calls, because he doesn't sleep with his hearing aids.'' The family has closed-caption TV, and all of the children are conscious of looking at Pellegrino every time they talk. ``The kids are very patient,'' she said. ``I think they look at him as a role model.'' Pellegrino's best quality, she adds, is ``when he puts his mind to something, he just does it.'' Beacon Journal staff writer Katherine Spitz can be reached at 330-996-3581 or at |
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