Answering Pain's Alarm: There Is Help
Specialist Have Many Tools In Battle Against Aches
UPDATED: 10:53 a.m. EST February 7, 2003
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Pain is the body's alarm system. For some people it's a distant bell, but for others the alarm rings loud and long.
The road to pain relief can be tough and full of detours, but there is help. And getting that help is a matter of finding the right tool for the problem.
The journey starts with finding exactly what is causing the pain.
Whether it's burning, aching, throbbing, shooting or stabbing, pain can change anyone's view of the world.
Pearson said that she has been in pain since 1996.
"It robbed me of all my energy," said Lynethia Pearson.
Pearson said that she had trouble tracking down what it was that made her hurt.
It turned out she has a connective tissue condition called fibromyalgia. It's difficult to diagnose and can be even harder to treat, doctors said.
Pearson's doctors prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs and then painkillers, but they didn't seem to do the job.
Pearson began her road to relief when she made an appointment with Dr. Robert Schwartz, a rehabilitation doctor who specializes in treating pain.
Schwartz said that pain treatment starts with talking. Keeping a pain journal can also help.
In the journal, the patient records exactly where it hurts, how it feels and how much it hurts and when the pain is better or worse. Doctors say that the journal should use specific words like "aching" or "stabbing."
A patient can share that information with his or her doctor as well as written versions of any questions about symptoms and possible treatments.
Pain specialists will perform a thorough physical exam and check for points of muscle or joint weakness and pain. The doctor will also look for tender spots, which is a distinguishing characteristic of fibromyalgia.
No matter what kind of pain a person is suffering from, there are tools that can get to the root of the problem.
Ultrasound machines are one example. Ultrasound treatment can help pinpoint problem areas in muscles and ligaments throughout the body.
An ultrasound diagnostic machine found a number of ligament tears in Pearson's back and upper neck that were contributing to her pain.
Another diagnostic tool uses a mild electrical shock to determine if nerves are working properly and an ultra-fine needle to measure how well muscle tissue is functioning.
"If that membrane had nerve damage to it, you could see when I pressed it, it would make noise," Schwartz said. "I would press it and it would go 'braaaaaaaaaaaaaa.' It wouldn't stop, it would be irritating."
Once doctor and patient are armed with the knowledge of what's causing the pain, the fight against it can begin.
Some studies have found that people with fibromyalgia have low levels of a growth hormone, which can lead to sleep disturbance.
From there everything can snowball, researchers say.
For Pearson, an important step was to stop using pain-killing medications.
"They just seemed to make the pain worse when they wore off," Pearson said. "I would get a rebound pain that was (even) worse."
Schwartz treats Pearson by using ultrasound diagnostic as a guide to applying proliferative injections, shots that heal the ligament tears that are causing some of her pain.
"Think of a scab healing skin. We are literally regrowing the ligament," Schwartz said.
An injection three times every two weeks allows the ligament to get 40 percent thicker, Schwartz said.
Schwartz does not prescribe narcotics, but other other pain specialists said that the drugs, when used responsibly, can have a role to play in pain relief.
"Oxycontin is an excellent pain reliever and it produces very little side effect," Dr. Kevin Kopera said. "Rarely are there any issues with it when it's taken properly."
Even so, Kopera said that he believes effective pain relief involves more than medication.
The gentle stretching moves of tai chi and yoga give pain patients physical benefit and important relaxation as well, he said.
Doctors also said that there is much that patients can do for themselves.
"Good old-fashioned heat," Kopera said. "Acupuncture is becoming more popular. Sometimes we use a device called a tens unit. That's a device which people use to receive electrical stimulation that can block the pain."
The road to pain relief can be tough and full of detours, but there is help. And getting that help is a matter of finding the right tool for the problem.
The journey starts with finding exactly what is causing the pain.
Whether it's burning, aching, throbbing, shooting or stabbing, pain can change anyone's view of the world.
Pearson said that she has been in pain since 1996.
"It robbed me of all my energy," said Lynethia Pearson.
Pearson said that she had trouble tracking down what it was that made her hurt.
It turned out she has a connective tissue condition called fibromyalgia. It's difficult to diagnose and can be even harder to treat, doctors said.
Pearson's doctors prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs and then painkillers, but they didn't seem to do the job.
Pearson began her road to relief when she made an appointment with Dr. Robert Schwartz, a rehabilitation doctor who specializes in treating pain.
Schwartz said that pain treatment starts with talking. Keeping a pain journal can also help.
In the journal, the patient records exactly where it hurts, how it feels and how much it hurts and when the pain is better or worse. Doctors say that the journal should use specific words like "aching" or "stabbing."
A patient can share that information with his or her doctor as well as written versions of any questions about symptoms and possible treatments.
Pain specialists will perform a thorough physical exam and check for points of muscle or joint weakness and pain. The doctor will also look for tender spots, which is a distinguishing characteristic of fibromyalgia.
No matter what kind of pain a person is suffering from, there are tools that can get to the root of the problem.
Ultrasound machines are one example. Ultrasound treatment can help pinpoint problem areas in muscles and ligaments throughout the body.
An ultrasound diagnostic machine found a number of ligament tears in Pearson's back and upper neck that were contributing to her pain.
Another diagnostic tool uses a mild electrical shock to determine if nerves are working properly and an ultra-fine needle to measure how well muscle tissue is functioning.
"If that membrane had nerve damage to it, you could see when I pressed it, it would make noise," Schwartz said. "I would press it and it would go 'braaaaaaaaaaaaaa.' It wouldn't stop, it would be irritating."
Once doctor and patient are armed with the knowledge of what's causing the pain, the fight against it can begin.
Some studies have found that people with fibromyalgia have low levels of a growth hormone, which can lead to sleep disturbance.
From there everything can snowball, researchers say.
For Pearson, an important step was to stop using pain-killing medications.
"They just seemed to make the pain worse when they wore off," Pearson said. "I would get a rebound pain that was (even) worse."
Schwartz treats Pearson by using ultrasound diagnostic as a guide to applying proliferative injections, shots that heal the ligament tears that are causing some of her pain.
"Think of a scab healing skin. We are literally regrowing the ligament," Schwartz said.
An injection three times every two weeks allows the ligament to get 40 percent thicker, Schwartz said.
Schwartz does not prescribe narcotics, but other other pain specialists said that the drugs, when used responsibly, can have a role to play in pain relief.
"Oxycontin is an excellent pain reliever and it produces very little side effect," Dr. Kevin Kopera said. "Rarely are there any issues with it when it's taken properly."
Even so, Kopera said that he believes effective pain relief involves more than medication.
The gentle stretching moves of tai chi and yoga give pain patients physical benefit and important relaxation as well, he said.
Doctors also said that there is much that patients can do for themselves.
"Good old-fashioned heat," Kopera said. "Acupuncture is becoming more popular. Sometimes we use a device called a tens unit. That's a device which people use to receive electrical stimulation that can block the pain."
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