Patients dealing with chronic pain often do not get the help they need from their GPs or family doctors. This is not criticism of such doctors by any means. It is just that GPs and family doctors do not receive extensive training in pain management. Fortunately, there is a medical specialty that targets pain. It’s known as pain medicine.
Pain medicine is the specialty practiced at Lone Star Pain Medicine in Weatherford, TX. Lone Star clinicians have received additional training and education to become experts on pain, the same way a cardiologist undergoes additional education and training to become an expert on the human heart.
Lone Star doctors say that one of the most fascinating aspects of their specialty is the limited emphasis on actual medications. Even though ‘medicine’ is in the name, pain medicine doctors are not as quick to pull out the prescription pad.
Medication Is Just One Tool
There is nothing wrong with pain medication in principle. It has done an awful lot to relieve pain over the last several generations. But medication represents just one tool in a much larger collection of treatment options. With that in mind, pain medicine doctors are not so quick to write a prescription.
They are more likely to recommend things like facet joint injections, epidural injections, spinal cord stimulation, and even kyphoplasty. Why do they prefer such alternative treatments? Because a pain medicine doctor’s main priority is to improve wellbeing by both reducing pain and improving function.
Medications Are Short Term Solutions
Anyone who has relied on pain medications to manage chronic pain knows that they are a temporary solution. Pain medications need to be taken every 4-6 hours to be effective. Such a short term of relief hardly makes taking the medications worthwhile.
On the other hand, facet joint injections can offer months of relief. Likewise, spinal cord stimulation can offer continuous relief for the remainder of a patient’s life. And with long term relief comes the possibility of restoring function. This is critical to the philosophy that underscores pain medicine.
Function Impacts Quality of Life
By its nature, chronic pain is a long-term experience. While a patient could experience relief after just a few months, some chronic pain patients live with pain for their entire lives. That is bad enough. But when pain impairs function, a patient has a whole new set of problems.
As the doctors at Loan Star explain, function directly impacts quality of life. A person experiencing a loss of function will typically report a subsequent loss in quality of life. Loss of function limits daily activities. It prevents social interaction. It can get in the way of personal growth, enjoying one’s hobbies, and even spending time with kids and grandkids.
The treatments pain medicine doctors typically recommend are designed to help improve function by offering long term pain relief. When pain is relieved, the affected body part or area can be used once again. And with proper exercise and conditioning, function can be restored.
Doing What Medications Alone Can’t Do
Alternative pain management treatments are known for doing what medications alone cannot do. For that reason, pain management is a growing specialty across the country. Patients unable to achieve sufficient relief with traditional treatments alone are finding themselves working with pain doctors capable of offering alternatives.
Pain medicine doctors place less emphasis on actual medicines. They prefer more long-term treatments that relieve pain and allow for restoring function. That is the best way to go when treating a chronic pain patient who just wants his life back.
