When Pain Takes its Toll, New
Approaches May Offer Hope
By Jon-Paul Harmer, M.D.
CEO and Medical Director, Lone Star Pain Medicine, PLLC
If you’re a Texan suffering from chronic pain, be it from
an injury or surgery or an underlying medical condition,
you know how life-altering that pain can be. Sadly, you’re
not alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (US CDC), millions of Americans suffer
from chronic pain – defined by most physicians as pain
lasting six months or more – caused by a variety of factors,
including conditions such as fibromyalgia, oncology-related pain syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome or
diabetic neuropathy. And, frequently, that pain may take
an emotional as well as a physical toll on themselves and
their loved ones.
…and the potential for hope
If you suffer from chronic pain, as you read this you
may know firsthand how difficult it can be to find a pain
management approach that really works. You know how
much it may hurt when your doctor or the people around
you dismiss your concerns. And you know how disappointing it can be when a new approach to mitigating
your pain fails to really help.
Jon-Paul Harmer, M.D., is board-certified in anesthesiology and
pain management, and serves as the CEO and medical director of
Weatherford-based Lone Star Pain Medicine, PLLC (www.lonestarpain.
com), a center for excellence in the treatment of pain disorders committed to the recovery of function and the restoration of wellbeing.
DECEMBER 2015 PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
The nature of pain…
Whether episodic or continuous, mild or excruciating,
inconvenient or totally incapacitating, coping with pain
that remains active in the nervous system for months or,
even, years, may prove overwhelming at times. Your pain
may have originated with an injury or an infection or, at
times, from an underlying organic cause – or you or your
loved one may be suffering in the absence of any obvious
cause or physical damage.
Common chronic pain disorders comprise headaches;
joint pain; tendinitis; sinus pain; generalized muscle or
nerve pain; or pain affecting specific parts of the body
such as the back, neck or shoulders. What’s more, chronic pain may spark feelings of depression, anger, stress or
anxiety and may sap your energy in ways that not only
can inhibit your body’s ability to regulate its level of pain
but may actually amplify sensations of pain, putting into
play a vicious cycle of suffering fed by hopelessness or
irritability.
Many people coping with chronic pain may experience overwhelming fatigue and sleeplessness, or find
themselves forced to either withdraw from activities they
enjoy or stop frequently to rest – and recent research
published by medical researchers at organizations ranging
from Harvard to the National Center for Biotechnology
Information indicates that unremitting pain may further
serve to suppress the body’s immune system.
What you may not know is that innovative and effective
approaches for managing chronic pain frequently become
available– and many go well beyond medication and
biofeedback, although both clearly may serve as part of
a comprehensive pain-management program for many. If
you’ve been conditioned to believe that pain management
starts and stops with your doctor’s prescription pad, you
may be selling yourself – and your suffering – short.
Many research-driven pain-management programs
comprise a range of treatments aimed not just at reducing
or eliminating physical pain, but at alleviating the mental
anguish that so often accompanies it. Many approaches
may help, and may include surgery or minimally invasive
surgery, exercise, changes in diet, nerve blocks, biofeedback, electrical stimulation, hypnosis, physical therapy,
bone and joint manipulation and counseling.
If you’re suffering from chronic pain and nothing you’ve
tried is working, you owe it to yourself and your loved
ones to explore a fresh, comprehensive approach to
improving your health and your outlook on life – working
with a board-certified doctor who understands just how
complex your symptoms can be.
As you begin this multi-modal exploration, keep in mind
the following things:
• Not all doctors are board-certified in pain management. Doctors who are board-certified in pain management – like the doctors at Lone Star Pain, PLLC (www.
lonestarpain.com) – are required not just to know about,
but to keep abreast of emerging treatments and effective
approaches for mitigating chronic pain.
• An effective approach to managing chronic pain may
involve more than prescription painkillers alone.
• Over the last decade, medical research into the nature
and treatment of chronic pain has resulted in a breadth
and depth of therapeutic, interventional, multi-modal
approaches to mitigating or ending pain that, quite simply,
didn’t exist before.
Medical professionals on staff at Lone Star Pain Medicine
understand your pain and are passionate about helping
you. We stand ready to develop an individualized treatment plan designed to improve not just your suffering, but
your quality of life.
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