Most people experience brief bouts of pain when they are sick or dealing with a minor injury. However, millions of Americans suffer from pain that seems to never completely go away. Chronic pain can devastate your life and take joy away from everyday living. You can effectively handle your chronic pain by utilizing one or more of the numerous medical pain management options available to you today at our center in Lafayette, IN.
What is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts anywhere from three to six months. It can range in severity and frequency in how long it lasts each day. Nonetheless, it never goes away and instead becomes a serious health issue that sufferers must contend with on a daily basis.
Moreover, chronic pain affects people’s mental and emotional wellness and can lead to the onset of conditions like depression, poor appetite, fatigue and isolationism. Chronic pain typically does not respond to over-the-counter medications and instead warrants more extensive medical pain management remedies.
Causes and Symptoms of Chronic Pain
Doctors theorize that chronic pain is caused by a number of different factors that individually or combined can lead to pain that never goes away completely. Some of the primary contributors of chronic pain that doctors have identified include:
• Prior surgery
• Fibromyalgia
• Back problems
• Headache or migraine
• Arthritis
• Nerve damage
• Infections
However, in some instances doctors do not know what causes a patient’s particular case of chronic pain.
The symptoms of chronic pain are likewise as varied and can range include:
• Dull aching
• Throbbing
• Burning
• Shooting
• Squeezing
• Stinging
• Soreness
• Stiffness
These symptoms can lead to complications of chronic pain like:
• Fatigue
• Low mood
• Poor appetite
• Trouble sleeping
• Mood swings
• Anger
• Low energy
Doctors have a variety of options available to them when it comes to helping you manage your chronic pain. The best course of treatment will depend on its severity and underlying cause.
Treatment for Chronic Pain
People who suffer with chronic pain often find that they can manage it when they make a sincere effort to partner with their doctors and follow the instructions of their medical teams. Your own doctor may recommend that you follow any number of medical pain management strategies to eliminate or ease your own chronic pain.
Some of the most common medical pain management methods available to doctors to treat chronic pain in patients are:
• Over-the-counter or prescription medications
• Physical therapy
• Aqua exercise
• Yoga
• Counseling
• Acupuncture
• Spinal injections
• Steroid injections
• Weight loss
• Dietary and lifestyle changes
Depending on the option that you choose and best suits your situation, you will learn to utilize it to your advantage each day to help you manage your symptoms.
Chronic pain is more severe than the minor pain that most people experience from time to time. Pain that is chronic can be remedied by a number of different treatments that also help make everyday life easier.
You don’t have to live with your chronic pain. At Innovative Medicine, we can help you explore your medical pain management treatment options. Contact our office in Lafayette, IN today to schedule your first appointment and learn more.
