Pain Management

Why might I need pain management?

Pain management at Islamorada Medical Center reduces discomfort to a tolerable level or eliminates it entirely. Acute injuries and illnesses often require pain medication, and anesthesia is essential before surgical procedures. Pain management typically refers to helping people cope with chronic (ongoing) discomfort.

Chronic pain is an uncomfortable feeling that lasts longer than three months. For many people, ongoing discomfort can last years or even a lifetime when left untreated. Pain comes in many forms, ranging from continuous aching to numbness, tingling, electric-shock-like pain, or severe stabbing.

The Islamorada Medical Center specialists understand the toll that chronic pain takes on your quality of life. They offer comprehensive pain management services to help you feel more comfortable.

Which conditions may require pain management?

Anyone who experiences ongoing pain can benefit from pain management at Islamorada Medical Center. Some of the common conditions that may cause chronic discomfort include:

• Fibromyalgia
• Migraines
• Arthritis
• Cancer
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Spinal stenosis
• Endometriosis
• Neuropathy (nerve damage)
• Herniated discs
• Sciatica
• Sports injuries

Pain can affect people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), heart disease, and many other disorders. Poorly healed injuries and chronic musculoskeletal problems, such as bursitis, can also cause chronic discomfort.

What does pain management entail?

Islamorada Medical Center’s pain management programs offer effective therapies and other interventions to reduce your discomfort, including:

Management of underlying conditions

If you have diabetic peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage in your feet) or other underlying medical issues, your Islamorada Medical Center provider completes a thorough exam and testing to determine the most appropriate pain-management treatment.

Lifestyle changes

Making lifestyle changes can improve your overall health, helping your body deal with pain effectively. Regular exercise encourages better blood flow, more oxygen, and faster healing of injured tissues. A well-balanced, nutritious diet provides the nutrients your body needs to function properly.

Your Islamorada Medical Center provider helps you make the changes needed to lose weight, stop smoking, eat a well-balanced diet, reduce ongoing stress, and improve your mood.

Occupational and physical therapy

Physical therapy helps you stay mobile if you have arthritis or other potentially debilitating conditions. It also enhances the healing of injured tissues. 

Occupational therapy allows you to better manage everyday functional tasks. A skilled occupational therapist can also help you get back to work.

Medications

Medicines, such as tricyclic antidepressants, anti-seizure medications, and numerous other medications, are often part of a comprehensive pain-management treatment plan. Corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid joint injections reduce joint pain and improve mobility. 

To benefit from the pain management services at Islamorada Medical Center, call or book an appointment online today.