Many people suffer from chronic pain. Chronic pain can be caused by a previous accident, injury, or illness, but it may also start for what seems like no reason. The first step in effective pain management is determining the cause of the pain if you don’t know it already. This means scheduling an appointment with your doctor to discuss the pains location, intensity, and when it began. It’s important to note that everyone feels pain differently, so don’t be afraid to be honest with your doctor. Although pain is physical, your brain has a large part to play in how you feel the pain and what will help relieve the pain.
Since pain is both physical and mental, simply giving a patient a pain pill isn’t usually the best option for long-term treatment of the pain. If medication is needed to help manage the pain, opioids aren’t usually the best option. Instead, your doctor may have you try an over the counter pain medication or even prescribe an anti-seizure medication fit the pain is nerve related. Learning how to relieve inflammation in the pained areas is a big part of proper pain management, and that’s when physical therapy comes into play.
Trying to exercise on your own as a chronic pain sufferer is often discouraging and may lead to worse pain. Physical therapists can design a treatment plan specifically for you, designed to target the areas in pain, without making that pain any worse. Over time the therapy works to strengthen the area to help relieve pain without the need for medication. Your physical therapist may recommend minimally invasive or non-invasive pain management procedures to offer quick relief as you continue the therapy process. These can be paired with massage therapy, heat or cold therapy, and many other pain relief options.
Our facilities are equipped to manage your pain from diagnosis to completion of your pain management treatment. Our staff of physicians and therapists will work with you to determine what causes your pain and what the best treatment options are for you. You can speak with your physical therapist to determine a set of goals you’d like to work towards so that as your therapy continues, you’ll feel accomplished, even if the pain isn’t gone yet. We offer multiple minimally and non-invasive pain management options as well. In our facilities, you have plenty of options to explore before turning to unnecessary pain medication!