Franklin Pain and Wellness Center

Back pain, neck pain, and headaches are three common pain conditions that affect millions of Americans every day. About 116 million people suffer from chronic pain, with 27% of pain sufferers complaining of low back pain, 15% headache or migraine, and another 15% neck pain.

Some of this pain is the result of chronic underlying medical conditions, and requires pain treatment. But in some cases, you can manage pain by taking a few simple steps in your daily life.

Posture

If you could do just one thing to lessen the amount of pain you experience daily, it would be to improve your posture.

The average person slumps forward over their pelvis. This puts a lot of strain on the lumbar spine and can add to low back pain. We also tend to sit with our arms and head extended forward. That stretches the posterior structures of the back and can cause muscle tightness in the shoulders and neck. The forward positioning of the head can also lead to headaches.

So how should you be sitting? You can set up your work station for a pain-reducing posture. Some tips:

• Don’t work on a laptop.
• Set up your monitor so that you’re looking not straight ahead, but just about 10 degrees down from straight. “You shouldn’t be leaning and rounding forward.
• Add a footrest beneath your desk. “You want your ankles to be slightly flexed. This realigns your entire lower body, putting more weight onto your hips and less on your back.

Take a few minutes every hour to stand up and stretch, or even just lie flat on your back behind your desk.

Sleep

More than one-third of all adults -- 39% -- get less than 7 hours of sleep each weeknight. That may also be part of why so many of us are so achy.

During sleep the body heals. When you’re not falling into REM sleep or limiting that type of sleep, you tend to be clumsier and your muscles aren’t as quick and resilient. So if you’re not getting enough REM sleep, your potential for injury increases, and decreases your ability to heal from an existing injury.

There are many culprits behind sleep problems, from sleep apnea to wakeful children to work stress. But if you are not getting enough sleep at night take a look at two things: your mattress and your sleep position, you can also experiment with pillows.

If you suffer from chronic pain or pain from an underlying medical condition, contact Franklin Pain and Wellness Center.

Original article WebMD

All Chronic pain treatments offered at The Franklin Pain and Wellness Center are minimally invasive and are usually a good alternative to surgery. Chronic Pain Treatments can range from injections to stimulators, depending on the type of chronic pain the patient is suffering from.

For example, low back and radiating leg pain can be treated with Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injections. Spine fractures caused by osteoporosis can be treated by a minimally invasive procedure called Kyphoplasty. Kyphoplasty provides fast back pain relief by using a thin hollow tube to insert a cast into a collapsed vertebrae and help straighten the spine. A procedure that can be very effective in relieving certain types of pain in the back, legs and arms is Spinal Cord Stimulation. This is also a minimally invasive procedure that uses electrical stimulation to mitigate pain sensations.

Our pain specialists will work with your doctors as a medical team to offer the best type of pain solution for your chronic pain. To schedule an evaluation and talk about the chronic pain treatments that are available at The Franklin Pain and Wellness Center, please call (508) 507-8818 or e-mail us at staff@franklinpaincenter.com.

Spinal Cord Stimulation is a minimally invasive procedure that controls chronic pain. A pain specialist will most likely first need to do a trial to understand if the Spinal Cord Stimulator is the best solution to manage your specific pain. During the trial, the pain specialist will place one or more leads in the area along the spinal cord. The placement area will depend on where your specific pain is.

The leads will also be connected to a trial generator. The pain specialist will use the trial generator to test your leads and make sure they are in the right place to treat your pain. You will be asked questions like:

• Do you feel a tingling sensation?
• Where do you feel the tingling?
• Does the tingling cover your pain?

By answering these questions, you will help make sure the leads are positioned well. The pain specialist will then show you how to use the trial generator to adjust the strength of the stimulator so you can experiment with what makes you comfortable. You will then be sent home to carry out your trial period with the Spinal Cord Stimulator.

At the end of your trial period, you and your pain specialist will determine if you should have a permanent system and which system would be appropriate for your pain. The pain specialist will consult and collaborate with your primary care physician and any other specialists you are under care of, to ensure that the best treatment plan is being carried out for you.

To schedule your initial evaluation to see if Spinal Cord Stimulation is a good solution for your chronic pain, please call (508) 507-8818 or e-mail us at staff@franklinpaincenter.com.

Cathy T from Attleboro, MA was in pain for five years, which she described to be constant. “I was taking medication every three hours and did not want to be on pain meds anymore” she tells The Franklin Pain and Wellness Center.

Cathy was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and lumbar facet syndrome. Dr. Boris Shwartzman successfully performed Radiofrequency Neurotomy and was able to increase Cathy’s functional level while decreasing her medication dosage. She is able to continue her full time job and her quality of life has significantly improved.

“I would recommend to everyone to go to this pain center because the people there will care about you. I want to thank all of them for taking care of me” praised Cathy.