Chronic Pain

This is a widely used term for pain that lasts more than 3 months with or without an origin. Just about everyone feels pain at some point from a paper cut to a burn, it’s the body’s way of telling you something is wrong. Chronic pain is different however, pain comes from a series of signals from the injury to the brain and the brain sends the signal back that you are hurt. With chronic pain the nerve signals keep firing even after the injury has healed. It is a symptom of so many diseases, illnesses and disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, cancer, torn rotator cuff tendons and back pain. This type of pain can be constant and can be intermittent, it can change in intensity and even move around depending on its source.

This is not the condition but a symptom of the condition. The four major types of pain are -nociceptive pain which typically comes from an injury

-inflammatory pain which is abnormal inflammation caused by inappropriate responses by the immune system

-neuropathic pain which is caused by nerve irritation due to a compression or an injury

-functional pain which is pain with no origin.

Many people don’t completely understand their pain, its origin or its severity. Most chronic pain issues can get worse if left untreated and makes every day living quite difficult. One example most people can relate to is back pain and how limiting this can be once chronic.

Here at PPN we will treat a variety of different pain symptoms with therapy and/or injections. For example we can treat inflammatory pain from a bursitis or arthritis with cortisone, we can treat functional pain from trigger points with lidocaine injections into the trigger point and we can treat neuropathic pain with nerve blocks. 

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