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Pindara Private Hospital Magazine - Issue Five

Advertorial Importance of managing chronic pain For those who live with chronic pain, it can be so unbearable that it can make even the simplest task difficult to perform. For others, the biggest challenge they face is not knowing what sort of day it will be, making it difficult to go to work or make plans with family and friends. If left unmanaged, chronic pain can lead to permanent disability and manifest other health problems, such as chronic fatigue, sleep disturbance, decreased appetite and depression. Managing chronic pain Because pain is such a subjective experience, the same treatment does not necessarily work for everybody. The most common method for managing chronic pain is prescription medication. Interventional therapies involving injecting local anesthetics directly into the nerve at the site of pain or the use of heat to alter the nerve or nerves that are sending pain signals to the brain are also popular. Spinal cord stimulation is another well established therapy that uses a small implantable system (called a neurostimulator) to deliver electrical signals to nerves. Patients experience a comfortable tingling sensation in the area of pain or in some circumstance the absence of pain all together. Clinical data shows that applying an electrical field to the DRG may provide improved pain relief to patients by restoring the firing threshold of the nerves that have become hypersensitized due to chronic pain. This therapy has proven particularly successful in managing pain indications involving anatomical areas including the hands, feet and groin, which have traditionally been more challenging to capture with traditional spinal cord stimulation, as well as more targeted and specific pain areas. Pindara now has trained doctors offering these procedures. If you would like to find out more or feel you may be appropriate for this therapy, please call The Pain Doctors on (07) 5527 8025. pm This therapy has proven particularly successful in managing pain indications involving anatomical areas. Patient Story: Jason Campbell, aged 25 from Gold Coast, Queensland Jason’s story began five years ago when complications during a routine surgical procedure to his patella resulted in him needing several surgeries in short succession. Jason subsequently developed chronic pain in his knee and the impact it had on every aspect of his daily life - from work performance, to family life, to social interactions was profound until management with DRG stimulation drastically improved his condition. I was in the army leading a very physically orientated and active life. During morning training one day I dislocated my patella. It required me to have surgery to correct damage to my cartilage. A post surgical facture lead to a further 12 surgeries in short succession. The pain in my knee was so bad I could no longer perform my duties, and I have been unemployed since. I couldn’t walk or stand for any period of time. All physical activities just came to a sudden halt and all I could do was sit around the house and watch TV and that’s when the depression set in. I was living on medications – Morphine, Targin and antidepressants but they were not managing my pain. When I was selected for Dorsal Root Ganglion stimulation therapy I hoped and expected the pain to decrease a small amount but certainly not to the extent it has. As soon as the neurostimulator was turned on there was an immediate reduction of my pain which has progressed to a 80-90% reduction over the last few months. The stimulation only affects the area of pain in my knee and the light sensation of tingling in the area is fading as time goes on. The device is on all the time and I have been able to stop all my regular painkillers that I was having to live on just to get by. I’ve started to become more active. I’m walking the dogs every day, and I’m walking for over an hour straight twice a day, which is something that I wouldn’t have even dreamed of doing before. I feel like a normal 24 year-old again. My message to others who have chronic pain who have been selected for this new therapy would be don’t be scared about it. Give it a chance. It may change your life. 12 Pindara Magazine 2015


Pindara Private Hospital Magazine - Issue Five
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