Transitioning from pain to relief is life-changing, whether a dentist relieves your toothache or you finally take a pain-free step after recuperating from a sprained ankle.
Chronic pain is a different animal — it lasts for months or even years. Long-lasting pain can stem from a health condition, like arthritis or fibromyalgia, or a traumatic incident, such as a car accident. Many experience chronic pain related to diabetic nerve damage.
Whatever the cause of your chronic pain, it can leave you exhausted, depressed, and hopeless.
Our experienced care team at Advanced Spine and Pain can get to the bottom of your chronic pain so you can get on with your life.
September is Pain Awareness Month, an ideal time to discuss effective chronic pain treatments.
With the shackles of constant pain taken off, a person can see light at the end of the tunnel and picture themselves enjoying life again.
We mentioned some causes of chronic pain, including pain related to an ongoing health condition a person may live with, but it can also be mysterious. You may sustain an injury but be left with pain even after it heals. People living with cancer are also often subjected to pain without a break.
Chronic pain can emerge virtually anywhere on your body, from the soles of your feet (diabetes) and in your face (trigeminal neuralgia) to many back and neck conditions. People who live with migraine disorder often suffer debilitating symptoms for days.
Even psychological factors like stress, depression, and anxiety can cause stubborn pain, known as psychogenic pain.
Unfortunately, chronic pain comes in many forms:
Chronic pain isn’t rare. About one-quarter of adults in the United States experience some type of chronic pain.
At Advanced Spine and Pain, we explore your history of pain, whether you can pinpoint why it started, how long it’s been going on, if you’ve noticed patterns of flare-ups and relief, and its location. We also ask you to rate your pain’s intensity on a scale of 1 to 10 and talk to you about how the pain interferes with your daily life and activities.
There are effective treatments, but every patient responds differently to them. We might offer:
Sadly, some patients try all of these treatments and still find no relief from their nagging, severe pain.
At ASAP, we offer an innovative chronic pain treatment that’s often the solution for those who have had disappointing results from other methods. Pain pump treatment, or intrathecal drug delivery implantation, automatically sends medication to your cerebrospinal fluid, which contains many pain receptors.
The medication comes from a sophisticated medical device implanted in your abdomen or back and runs through a catheter into the cerebrospinal fluid.
We’re proud to share that ASAP providers undergo rigorous training to deliver this treatment and that we’re the only practice in Northern Virginia and Maryland to offer pain pump treatment.
The first step is winnowing down your pain medication by at least half before you start your pain pump trial period. At this time, we also implant a temporary device to see if it’s effective and placed correctly.
Initially, we place your catheter using a fine needle during a brief 30-minute procedure, using live X-ray images to ensure proper placement. Over the next few days, you receive small amounts of pain medication. If it’s effective, you undergo an outpatient procedure where we place the catheter more securely and permanently.
Patients are often stunned because, following their pump placement, relief is startling and immediate. We’re dedicated to solving your chronic pain issues in the long term, and our approach is evidence-based yet highly compassionate.
Contact the ASAP office nearest you to learn more about pain pump treatment, or make an appointment online.
