What happens when the pain you thought would go away in a day or two lingers? Perhaps you woke with pain one day and assumed you slept wrong or maybe had overdone it at the gym or work the day before. Sometimes pain develops and you can’t relate it to anything you did at all. You’ve tried the usual things like rest, ice, over the counter medications and maybe even some stretching but things just aren’t getting better. Now what?

Often times people suffer through painful conditions far longer than they should before seeking help. If you’ve seen your primary care provider and followed their recommendations without relief it may be time to see a pain specialist. Seeking the help from a pain specialist is especially recommended if you’ve been experiencing pain, no matter the degree without improvement despite conservative measures.

A board certified pain physician like those found at Idaho Pain Clinic in Sandpoint will take a detailed past medical history and go through a series of in-office examinations to try to locate the source of your pain. There are a number of tools at the pain physicians disposal in order to diagnose and treat your conditions. You may get orders for diagnostic imaging including X-rays, MRIs, CT scans or other tests needed to help determine your pain source.

Medications may be prescribed or modified at your initial visit in order to ensure you are treating your pain in an appropriate and safe manner. Often pain specialists will prescribe physical therapy or occupational therapy to help address your pain in a conservative manner. Your pain specialist may also discuss surgery referrals if they believe you are a candidate for surgery, though certainly not all patients are good surgical candidates.

The most important role of your pain specialist is determining the source of your pain. Once they know the source then appropriate treatments can be initiated. Often, there isn’t a clear and definitive cause to patients’ chronic pain which is where injection therapy can play a role. Your pain specialist may use injection therapy to help confirm or reject an area as the source of pain and to also help control inflammation and pain from that area. Once the source of pain has been found an injection to this area can often allow you to participate in PT or OT in order to strengthen your body to lessen the chances of future re-injury or recurrence of the pain. In addition to medication and injection therapy the pain specialists offer other interventional pain management including nerve ablations, PRP injections, stem cell therapy and spinal cord stimulator trials and implantations.

Idaho Pain Clinic in Sandpoint is focused on helping to diagnose and treat your source of pain through a multi-disciplinary approach. The clinic offers pain management through board certified pain physicians as well as adjunctive therapies including Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Wellness & Fitness Programs and Massage Therapy. It is a truly dynamic and team approach with the primary focus on getting you out of pain and in a position to live life to the fullest. If you have been suffering in pain you are encouraged to see the team at Idaho Pain Clinic.

Information: Idaho Pain Clinic, idahopainclinic.com or 208-263-9757