A First and Not A Last Resort
Many doctors, hospitals and even patients themselves view pain management as the venue of last resort. You may have heard people say things like "I don't like to take pain medication unless I really need it" and for some, that means waiting until the pain is excruciating. The unfortunate reality to such an approach is that pain feeds on itself and interferes with the healing process.

Chronic pain is often defined as pain lasting longer than three months or continuing long after the original injury occurs, despite the normal healing process. If a person suffers from chronic pain, it can literally take over almost every aspect of his or her life and everyday stress can become magnified. Chronic pain can produce feelings of anger, sadness, hopelessness and despair. It disrupts sleep, alters one's personality and interferes with work and relationships. It can have a profound effect on a patient's interactions with family members, coworkers and friends. Pain due to cancer certainly falls into this category.

Chronic pain may be the result of many different disorders including but not limited to: neck or back injury, sciatica, headache, tempro-mandibular joint syndrome, arthritis, osteoporosis, shingles or circulatory disorders. Chronic pain may leave you feeling angry, frustrated or helpless, but Brookhaven Pain Management Center is here for you, helping to provide appropriate and effective treatments. Our goal is to keep all of our patients as comfortable as we can. Your physician and nurse need to know about your pain. When you are in our care, various members of the health care team will ask questions about your pain. There are many ways to treat pain and your feedback is needed to find the best method to treat you.

The specialty of Pain Management has truly become just that, a specialty of medicine, not unlike other specialties such as Cardiology, Orthopedics or Emergency Medicine. Not too long ago, pain management consisted of prescribing narcotics (pain pills) with little else to offer those patients with chronic pain, be it from injury or disease. Fortunately, tremendous advances have been made in pain treatment.

Treatment, Prevention and Management
Today pain management revolves around the treatment, prevention and management of acute and chronic pain by changing how the body perceives painful conditions. Whether one uses medication, injections, biofeedback or implantable devices, pain can now be managed effectively. The staff at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center is at the forefront of pain management.

Chronic Back Pain
The Brookhaven team offers their patients a new minimally invasive procedure to treat chronic back pain. This procedure called a Myeloscopy and involves a thin tube with a camera at the tip that is inserted into the epidural area of the back. The flexible tube and camera allow the doctors to see the treatment area and to use liquid pressure to eliminate scars, adhesions and other potential causes of discomfort.

Medtronic SynchroMed Infusion System
For patients with severe chronic pain, a highly sophisticated "pump, properly known as the Medtronic SynchroMed Infusion System is implanted in the abdomen and delivers up to three months of medicine. This system is used to treat accident victims, cancer patients and those with severe spasticity. When most people reflect on death, the greatest fear they have is the thought of suffering. For many people, pain and acute physical discomfort are more frightening than the act of dying. Unfortunately, time limiting illnesses such as cancer always seem synonymous with pain and discomfort. This does not have to be the case. Remarkable medical advances and increased sensitivity to patient anxiety have resulted in pain management techniques and procedures eliminating the pain and the attendant discomfort caused by large doses of orally-administered drugs.

Failure to relieve cancer pain adequately can interfere with the effectiveness of the treatment of the cancer, thus limiting the patient's ability to benefit from treatment. Interfering with the ability to eat, sleep, and undermining the patients will to live are also deleterious effects of persistent pain.

Pain is easier to prevent than to control, it is important to address pain from the onset. Once pain is established and severe it becomes much more difficult to control. For example, in treating cancer pain, the method used should be adequate to control the pain, and treatment should be offered continuously, to keep pain constantly under control. Remember, there is no reason for anyone to suffer from chronic pain. No matter what the cause of a person's pain there are treatment options that should be made available to them. The pain specialists at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center are ready to offer relief.

If you or someone you know suffers from chronic pain, take the first step in returning to a life free of pain. We're ready to help. Call Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center's pain management experts at 631-687-4100.