Whether you’re coping with the effects of an injury or aren’t quite sure how it started, chronic pain can prevent you from living the life you want. But there are ways to relieve the pain, says Jerry Lewis, M.D., a pain management specialist on the medical staff at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. In honor of Pain Awareness Month, Dr. Lewis would like to point out three key things you should know about chronic pain.
1. Chronic pain is personal.
“Chronic pain is one of the more difficult conditions to treat, because it doesn’t have a marker like other conditions,” Dr. Lewis says. Hypertension and diabetes, for example, have specific measurable endpoints you can diagnose and treat, he explains, but we all experience pain differently and have unique thresholds.
2. There are a variety of causes.
“The contributors to chronic pain run the gamut,” Dr. Lewis notes. Common causes include injury, illness, having a sedentary lifestyle and being overweight, and having an overactive lifestyle that stresses the joints.
3. The treatment is individual.
First, tests, including blood work, MRIs, X-rays, CT scans, nerve conduction tests and more, help physicians diagnose the problem and create a personalized treatment program, Dr. Lewis explains.
Treatment options include medications, physical therapy, interventional injections, nerve stimulation and spinal cord stimulation. Some patients might also see a behavioral health specialist if depression is an underlying cause. Lifestyle changes, such as weight reduction, a change in activity or the use of an orthotic, might also be recommended.
“The number-one thing I tell people is that chronic pain is a subjective as well as an objective issue,” Dr. Lewis says. You can do an MRI and see a herniated disc. But given that diagnosis, one person's pain level might be a 2, while another’s could be a 9. “What’s important is that you find a physician who tailors treatment to your particular problem,” he says.
To learn more about how Baylor Plano’s pain management team can help you return to the activities you love, click here.