This is an open letter to those suffering from pain.
Long-term, persistent pain is nothing like the pain of an acute injury or even a really bad case of the flu. In those cases, you may feel bad – really bad – for days or weeks, but the pain gradually lessens, letting you know that you’re on the mend. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is unpredictable and unrelenting. It can occur every day, or it may appear on random days. But there is never any indication you are getting better. With pain like this, you may feel fine one day, then can barely move the next. You will find your life – and plans – in constant flux, never being able to predict when or how the pain will strike.
Living with chronic pain is tough but finding relief for it is even more so. Getting an accurate diagnosis for what ails you and finding a treatment that works typically involves a lot of trial and error. That’s where interventional pain management comes in, utilizing mostly minimally invasive techniques to lessen a patient’s pain.
Pain management injections are safe, effective, and can provide longer-term solutions than, say, oral medications – and are a less invasive option than surgery, to boot. They are used to treat a wide variety of orthopedic or neurological conditions and injuries.
One of the most common pain management injections is called an epidural steroid injection. This injection is common for lower back pain but may also help with upper back and neck pain. When injected, steroidal medication is injected into the epidural space around the spinal cord. The medication reduces inflammation and pain.
Nerve blocks are another common pain management injection. These injections deliver an anesthetic close to particular nerves, in an effort to interrupt nerve signals before they can get to the brain, where they would register as pain. These injections are used to treat pain caused by inflamed nerves and can be used to help identify the source of your pain. Some types of nerve block injections include medical branch, lumbar sympathetic, occipital, and genicular nerve blocks.
Joint injections deliver medication into the joints for quick relief of pain and inflammation. Trigger point injections can help relax knots of muscles that may be causing pain in other parts of the body (for example, a trigger point in the neck is a common cause of tension headaches).
At Pain Specialists of Austin our interventional pain management doctors are here with one goal: to relieve chronic pain and help our patients return to being their former active selves. Instead of relying on medication, we intervene in a much more effective manner using a vast array of therapies such as pain management injections, to help relieve pain. We aim to improve one’s quality of life and help to regain function and mobility.
To learn more about interventional pain management, and how pain management injections may help you, call the Pain Specialists of Austin at (855) 876-7246 to request an appointment, or request an appointment online.