Skip Baker 'moved mountains' in many's eyes...

He owned and operated A.S.A.P. AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ACTION ON PAIN, a website for Chronic Pain Sufferer's for many years on the Internet. Whether it was for support or information or finding a doctor to treat their pain, Skip helped anyone who needed help.

He understood what it was like to have Intractable Chronic Pain because he was plagued with Ankylosing Spondylitis. Ankylosing spondylitis is a form of chronic inflammation of the spine and the sacroiliac joints. Spondylitis can lead to a complete cementing together (fusion) of the vertebrae, a process called ankylosis. Ankylosis causes total loss of mobility of the spine.

Skip suffers greatly with this condition but his desire to help other sufferers find proper pain management really ended up being his 'life's work'. He spent many hours working on his website and kept it full of helpful information for the pain patient. ASAP was his dream. And he made his dream a reality for all his visitors.

Skip, no longer able to work due to his pain, paid for his website by himself. Periodically, if he found himself struggling with it's operation, then and only then would he mention he needed help with it's costs. But for the most part, the 'costs' came out of his own pocket...and proudly so.

Over the years, ASAP drew in thousands and thousands of visitors from all over the world, searching for Chronic Pain information. His website was linked by many large, well known organizations on the Internet also. His work was well respected.

As time passed, the list of physicians willing to prescribe Opioids for Intractable Chronic Pain had grown and so had the sufferer's numbers. By keeping a list of these Pain Management Physicians names and locations, he was able to send those patients who needed help, to them. Simple enough, right?

WRONG.

What started as a simple case of 'word of mouth' about Skip and these physicians, ended up an ugly and dirty situation for him. By sending people to these doctors who prescribed opioids, his work eventually caught the attention of a certain government agency that didnt like what he was doing. And they certainly didn't like what Skip promoted on his Website. That's when things started going bad for him.

Soon they started harassing Skip for 'promoting ways in finding relief'. After all, 'narcotics' is what Skip broadly stated on his website as the proper form of treatment of chronic pain. (See: http://www.cpmission.com/main/model.html)

The harassment came in many forms, leaving him to wonder how they would 'attack' next. They would periodically place 'plants' on his ActionOnPain mailing list, as a way to obtain information that might be useful to them. It was this way they were able to track not only Skip, but his members and the list of doctor's that prescribed narcotics.

Towards the end however, the activities of this agency took on a more 'personal form' for Skip, as he began to notice a connection between him and his (disabled) wife's ability to receive any federal or state help. Help that any other person in similar circumstances would receive, they have been refused. Even today, Linda, who has been mostly bedfast for two years has STILL not been approved for her SS Disability.

Also, Skip started to receive anonymous phone calls from individuals, with threats to stop with some of the information on his website. These and other types of activities began to happen so frequently, it truly left him no choice...

On December 31st, 2002 ASAP's links stopped working. ASAP no longer existed. The man who gave so generously of himself�a 'Mover of Mountains' so to speak�was gone from the Internet.

We are sorry to see him go. For all that he accomplished for the sufferer...for all he gave to us...we thank you Skip. You will truly, truly be missed.

OCPM Website
01/03