Some folks claim they can tell when it’s going to rain or there’s a cold front on the way because their arthritis is acting up. Images of an old-timer on his porch, saying “there’s a storm coming, I can feel it in my knees,” might come to mind. But does weather have anything to do with your chronic pain?
The answer to that question is a bit ambiguous, unfortunately. While there is no definitive research evidence that the weather has a direct effect on your bones and joints, most rheumatologists will tell you that many of their patients do experience joint pain as the climate changes.
Here in Texas, the climate ranges from arid in the west to humid in the east. Temperatures are moderately cold in the winter and extremely warm in the summer. Plus, thunderstorms are quite common with average annual rainfall of more than 34 inches.
How would that affect you if you had arthritic or any other type of pain?
It is widely acknowledged that a change of season – particularly from spring to summer – can cause arthritis flare-ups. The theory is that rising or falling temperatures force a change in the level of the synovial fluid that lines the joints.
Also, while dry, warm weather helps soothe aching joints, days of high humidity and low barometric pressure – such as just before a storm – increases pressure on your joints. That’s because your tendons, ligaments, and muscles are expanding, and that can irritate already sensitive joints.
There may not be much you can do about the weather, but there are ways you can manage your pain during hot, steamy summer months. These include:
Are you tired of taking pain medication every day, only to still be in pain? If you need relief that lasts for weeks or months, we can help. If you have any type of pain, call (855) 876-7246 for an appointment today. We have 10 convenient locations in the Austin, Texas area, and you can also request an appointment online.
Whoever coined the saying “Pain of mind is worse than pain of body” probably never experienced chronic pain. Chronic pain can be caused by a number of factors – genetics, anxiety, injury, or disease; and in some cases, doctors might have difficulty discovering just what it is that is leaving their patients in peril. According to a National Health Institute study, 11.2% of all Americans suffer from chronic pain.
It’s important to understand the difference between acute and chronic pain. Acute pain is severe or sudden and can be attributed to something that you can pinpoint, for example, a surgery, illness, or accident. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is persistent – lasting for months and possibly longer. In many cases, physicians can go to great lengths to detect the root of this mysterious malady. It often takes patience and multiple visits to medical specialists before a diagnosis can be made.
One of the first steps to diagnosis is rating your pain. How we describe our pain can reveal a lot of valuable information to our physicians. Numerical ratings are sometimes used as a scale; in other cases, doctors may ask you to keep a journal or log of your pain, or to describe your pain in words. One famous verbal rating scale is known as the McGill Pain Questionnaire. All of these assessments are key factors in determining whether the cause of our discomfort is muscular or neurological in nature. There are many tip-offs, but pain that is described as having a burning, tingling, or “pins and needles” feeling leans toward nerve pain, whereas a tender, throbbing, or stiffness is indicative of muscle pain. For those who have trouble communicating, or exhibit mild cognitive impairments, tests such as Wong-Baker and Observer scales make assessments based on facial expression and heart rate.
According to a study published by the National Institutes of Health, there are over 30 years of research and evidence that verify the importance and validity of psychological assessment in chronic pain evaluation. Anxiety and depression often coincide with the incidence of chronic pain; in fact, in those experiencing chronic pain, concurrent depression occurs in up to 52% of those in pain clinics. It’s a vicious cycle, as depression can cause chronic pain, but chronic pain can also lead to depression.
Physical and neurological exams will delve deeper into the ratings test information collected previously. A comprehensive physical exam will allow your doctor to examine your strength and posture, as well as denote any abnormalities that could be the culprit of your chronic pain. Your physician will most likely check your balance, reflexes, and coordination, as well.
Blood tests are never a bad idea. Most people know the value of having their blood tested yearly for lipids, cholesterol, and so on. However, did you consider the role these factors are playing in your pain? Blood tests are highly valuable for ruling out causes of your pain that may have gone under the radar. Everything from vitamin deficiencies to autoimmune disorders can be validated with a simple vile of blood. Persistent pain in muscles and joints has been linked to a sluggish thyroid, while achiness coincides with a lack of Vitamin D.
If the abovementioned diagnostics point to nerve damage, there are a number of supplemental tests that can be administered. Measuring the speed at which an electrical impulse travels through your nerve, Nerve Conduction Velocity (NCV) tests are advantageous for diagnosing pain disorders such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and Sciatic nerve problems. Often used in tandem with NCV tests, Electromyography (EMG) involves the insertion of a needle into the muscle to record electrical activity. Electrical activity in a “resting” muscle is a sure-fire sign of a muscle or nerve disorder, or inflammation.
One thing is clear: there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to diagnosing chronic pain. Pain Specialists of Austin offers a comprehensive approach to diagnosis and treatment, and has the tools needed to tackle everything from spine disorders, to cancer pain management. For more information, call (855) 876-7246.
Pain-relief injections are a highly effective, nonsurgical way to provide lasting relief for muscle, joint, and nerve pain. Depending on the location and source of your pain, different types of injections may be used to provide relief. Two of the most common and effective treatments are facet blocks and nerve blocks.
Facet Blocks
A facet block is an injection of local anesthetic and steroid that reduces the inflammation in the joint space of the spine. The facet joints are located in the neck, chest, and back at each vertebral level. A medial branch block is similar, but the difference is that the medication is injected outside the facet joint space near the medial branch nerves that supply the joint.
Facet blocks and medial branch blocks are typically ordered for patients who have back pain due to injury, arthritic changes in the facet joints, or stress on the spine.
The injections can be diagnostic as well as therapeutic. For example, if the pain does not disappear as a result of the block, it indicates the pain may be coming from a source other than the treated facet joints. Or, if the pain goes away for a few hours but returns and isn’t any better, it may help rule out steroids as an effective treatment.
Often, the injected steroid has a long-lasting effect on the pain. In these cases, a facet block may be repeated. Another procedure, radiofrequency lesioning, may help ensure relief that could last for years.
Facet joint injections are a common outpatient procedure that usually takes just 10-15 minutes to complete. It is performed under imaging guidance, such as fluoroscopy or a CT scan, to enable the doctor to better see the area being treated. You may notice your pain subside for a few hours immediately following the injection, due to the injected anesthetic. Then, if the procedure is successful, you’ll notice lasting relief within 48-72 hours.
Nerve Blocks
The type of nerve block performed will depend on the source and location of your pain. Two primary types are:
During the procedure, your pain management doctor will inject a local anesthetic and steroid into the affected area. Immediately after the injection you may notice that your pain has subsided or lessened considerably.
Both types of pain-relief injections, facet blocks and nerve blocks, are safe and have an extremely low risk of complications – especially when compared to surgical alternatives.
Are you tired of taking pain medication every day, only to still be in pain? If you need relief that lasts for weeks or months, we can help. Pain Specialists of Austin helps patients like you every day. To discuss your pain-relief options, call (855) 876-7246 for an appointment today. We have 10 convenient locations in and around the Austin, Texas, area. You can also request an appointment online.
Your wrist is one of the hardest-working joints in the body. The work that many of us do with our hands, including writing or typing, can contribute to repetitive stress pain in the wrist. Part of the wrist’s complex anatomy is the transverse carpal ligament; the main ligament involved in carpal tunnel syndrome.
Most activities involve your wrists to some extent, especially the dominant hand. Many nerves, muscles, ligaments, bones, and tendons work together to move your fingers and hands. With repetitive stress disorders, parts of the wrist become damaged and inflamed from moving in the same way repeatedly without enough rest or movement to strengthen complementary muscles.
The carpal tunnel is a narrow opening through which tendons and a nerve (the median nerve) run along the forearm, to the fingers. They are involved in most of the hand’s sensation and movement. The tunnel is formed on the bottom and sides by the bones of the wrist, and across the top by the transverse carpal ligament. It stretches across the heel of the wrist, and connects the wrist bones together.
Stress and repetitive movement of the wrist can cause the tendons in the carpal tunnel to become inflamed and swell against the median nerve. They press the nerve between the wrist bones and the transverse carpal ligament that form the carpal tunnel. This increased pressure and inflammation around the nerve causes pain and other sensations that would indicate carpal tunnel syndrome.
The movement that produces carpal tunnel syndrome varies from person to person, and so do the symptoms. Many people feel pain, some will experience tingling or numbness. One thing is certain, however: It will generally worsen over time without treatment.
Conservative treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome ranges from anti-inflammatory medication to wrist splints, or even cortisone injections. These may be temporary solutions, but can alleviate the issue if there are changes in the way the wrist is moved and used. That may mean resting from certain movements, or changing your workstation to something more ergonomic. In some cases, surgical correction is necessary for lasting relief.
Pain Specialists of Austin helps patients with wrist pain every day. If you have transverse carpal ligament pain or suspect carpal tunnel syndrome, call (855) 876-7246 for an appointment today. We have 10 convenient locations in the Austin, Texas area, and you can also request an appointment online.
Regenerative medicine represents what may turn out to be the greatest leap forward in medicine since the discover of penicillin. Regenerative medicine is based upon harnessing the potential regenerative processes of adult stem cells, as well as other therapies such as tissue engineering.
In short, it is an emerging field that may allow for new forms of treatment that can heal or replace tissues and organs damaged by disease, birth defects and even injury. Researchers are working tirelessly to create treatments that can renew and recreate the human body in ways that previous generations could only imagine.
The FDA has already approved several such therapies, allowing doctors to use adult stem cells to help speed healing or create new tissues–such as damaged spinal discs. Adult stem cells are a form of undifferentiated cells, which mean that they have the capability to create other kinds of cells. In a sense, they are mother cells, which can give rise to brand new tissues and organs, as needed.
Each form of tissue in the human body has its very own specific set of stem cells that can be harvested from the patient’s own body, and then used to potentially replace and rebuild things such as nerves, hearts and lungs at a cellular level. In the past, the best we could do was to replace such organs with those removed from a donor. Regenerative medicine may hold the key to affordable, long-term treatments for diseases which are currently untreatable.
Right now, stem cell injections are being used with other non-invasive therapies such as platelet rich plasma, or PRP, to target chronic pain and help patients heal faster. (PRP is created using the patient’s own blood which is treated and then reinjected into damaged tissue in order to speed repair, reduce inflammation, and increase positive outcomes.)
At Pain Specialists of Austin, we are on the leading edge of regenerative medical treatment modalities. We have the advanced skills and training you need to treat injuries and illness, as well as sophisticated and innovative forms of pain management.
If you or someone you love might benefit from regenerative therapies, or you would like to learn more about the latest advances in pain management including stem cell therapy, please call (855) 876-7246 for an experienced pain management doctor in Austin. Or, if you would like, please use our convenient online appointment request form.
Adult stem cells are called undifferentiated cells, meaning that they can change to create other kinds of specialized cells. There are many different types of these stem cells within your body. Each kind of tissue in your body has a specific set of stem cells. This means that they can be taken from your own body from blood, bone marrow, skin, bone, skeletal muscle, teeth and other organs.
Because the cells are extracted from your own body, anything they are used to treat is specific to you. This means that it will not be rejected by your body. Basically, you can think of stem cells as the mother-cells which can build your entire body “from scratch”.
Although rapid progress is being made, stem cell treatment is still in its infancy. The implications of the kind of treatment, however, are massive and far-reaching. New breakthroughs in stem cell treatments are happening almost every day. For example, stem cells can be used to help repair the damage caused by accidents and chronic illnesses, such as injury to spines and spinal disks.
In the future, stem cells are likely to be used to grow new nerves and spinal tissue, as well as to help cure diabetes and help people recover from heart attacks. Right now, research is ongoing and beginning to be applied to re-growing spinal disks, repairing torn cartilage, to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, and even re-growing your own natural teeth. Doctors are using carefully placed stem cells to help people heal faster and more completely.
Stem cell injections are also being used as a form on non-invasive therapies to help relieve chronic pain, such as that of long-term muscle and joint pain. They may be a viable treatment option for people with degenerative disks who are not ideal candidates for a more traditional therapy. Stem cell therapy can be used in conjunction with other treatments, such as surgery and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections. PRP is created from blood taken from the patient’s own body and used to speed healing and reduce inflammation.
At Pain Specialists of Austin, we understand pain and know how to work alongside you to give you the expert medical treatment you need, combined with the compassionate care you deserve. If you or someone you love suffers from chronic pain, or you would like to learn more about the latest advances in pain management or about stem cell therapy, please call (855) 876-7246 for an experienced pain management doctor in Austin. Or, if you would like, please use our convenient online appointment request form.
Facet blocking is a treatment created to provide targeted relief for those suffering from debilitating back pain. Spinal facet joints are the small spaces located between the vertebrae of your spine. These articular processes act as stabilizing joints, allowing you to rotate, bend and move. In short, spinal facet joints provide your spine the strength and stability you need to function on a daily basis.
Sometimes though, because of accident or a chronic illness such as spinal arthritis, a facet joint becomes irritated and inflamed. This adds pressure on the bone and nerves, generating intense pain. In these circumstances, a facet block can literally change lives by providing substantial, almost immediate ongoing relief.
After applying a local anesthetic, your doctor will use specialized imaging equipment to locate the exact facet or facets that are causing your pain. Once located, your doctor will perform the facet block using a numbing agent or steroid-based medication to block the pain signals coming from certain body regions. Depending on the number of injections, the medication used, and other factors, facet blocks can provide relief that lasts for days, weeks, even up to a few months. Sometimes multiple injections will be required to provide you relief.
Normally, facet blocks can be performed as often as three times within a six-month period. Your doctor will work with you to determine the schedule and treatment that is right for you. The facet blocks themselves actually take only minutes to perform. Most patients report relief within 48-72 hours following the procedure. Patients are advised to rest for the entire day and will require someone to drive them home after the fact block is performed.
You should also be advised that it is not uncommon to feel some soreness for a day or two after the procedure. Facet blocks have been in use for some time now and have shown very positive outcomes for the vast majority of patients.
If you have been suffering with chronic back pain, you may be a good candidate for facet blocking treatment. At Pain Specialists of Austin, we treat you as a whole person who has a life to get back to. Our only goal is to help you live as pain free as possible.
If you need help managing your pain, or would like more information about facet blocks, nerve stimulation, trigger point injections or any other pain management treatment, please schedule an appointment at one of our 10 conveniently located clinics in the Austin area. Call (855) 876-7246 or request an appointment online today. Pain Specialists of Austin – We know pain, and our specialty is stopping it.
Combating Pain in the Forces: Challenges and Modern Management
As early as 2006, the military was beginning to see a link between increasing rates of soldier suicides and pain issues. The symptoms in soldiers with chronic pain were the same associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and till today the most important challenge one faces as a Pain Specialist is “How can we really diagnose those very important issues if we didn’t have a good control of Pain?
Specialists now know, that pain itself “is a disease process” and that early recognition and management can prevent its progression into a devastating state whose seriousness has been equated by the Department of Health to chronic illnesses like Heart disease and Diabetes.
On an average more than half of the soldiers in their lifetime may have very likely suffered from blunt or penetrating trauma, extreme physical or extreme heat/cold conditions leading to a highly intertwined web of chronic pain and psychological disorders. Typically described as Anxiety and PTSD these have been a common coexistent with chronic pain. To blur the picture further a similar overlapping disorder known as DESNOS (Disorder after extreme stress not otherwise specified) is now getting wide recognition in the military and even their family members.
There is a lack of understanding as to why one would continue to have ongoing pain despite injuries that may have occurred years earlier during either warfare or otherwise. Patients often left with debilitating physical, psychological, and pain-related sequelae that can persist for many years after the initial event and often lead to severe impairment in many aspects of life.
Timely interventions coupled with physical and behavioral therapy may help postpone or eliminate the need for the removal or correction of structural abnormalities of the spine.
Here at the Pain Specialists of Austin (PSA) with the application of the knowledge of advanced clinical anatomy and an appreciation of the structural basis of spinal pain our Board Certified Physicians aim to revolutionize diagnostic techniques to identify cardinal sources of chronic spinal pain, particularly the discs and joints. Therapeutic techniques are then used in a stepwise logical sequence to isolate specific pain generators contributing to chronic spinal pain.
These techniques range from nerve blockade and nerve ablations to minimally invasive surgical procedures to curb the use of chronic medications and treat pain in a much healthier and promising way.
The recognition that disorders like PTSD and DESNOS often coexist with pain-related symptoms reinforces the need for multimodal, multispecialty treatment and rehabilitation programs. Our team of physicians use this unique treatment model: Bio-PsychoSocial model of rehabilitation – where multiple clinicians work hand in hand to discuss a realistic understanding of a soldier's pain problems, plan early interventions to achieve their short- and long-term goals for function and improve their quality of life.
Pankaj Mehta MD
Interventional Pain Physician
Pain Specialists of Austin/Killeen
Ambulatory Surgery center Of Killeen
