Your Pain
If you’re struggling with a chronic pain issue, you’re not alone. One in 10 American adults – about 23.5 million people – deal with pain on a daily basis. Whether you’re suffering from shoulder pain, back pain, neck pain, hip pain, or other chronic pain conditions, the Heilman Center’s experienced pain specialists can help you find relief. Review some of these common causes of chronic pain, and find out how we can help.
Call the Heilman Center at 734-796-7555 today for a consultation with a pain specialist to learn how we can get you back to enjoying life.
Back Pain
Eighty percent of people will experience some sort of back pain in their lifetime. Sudden back pain can usually be traced to a clear cause, such as a sports injury, work injury, or car accident. Or back pain can build up over time due to muscle strain, inflammation, swelling, or wear and tear on the spinal discs.
Some patients feel sharp, stabbing pains that radiate down into their legs or tingling or numbness. Others feel sore and achy, with throbbing pain that grows more uncomfortable over time.
Treatment
The first step is figuring out the cause of your pain. Most back pain is caused by muscle or soft tissue strains, but factors like a pinched nerve and osteoarthritis can also cause pain.
If you’ve recently injured your back, visit your primary care physician or an urgent care center. If your pain has continued for a month or longer, visit the Heilman Center. Our pain specialists will recommend ways to stabilize your back, relieve pressure on pinched nerves, or reduce inflammation and soreness via interventional procedures, minimally invasive surgery, and other options.
Neck Pain
Many patients first experience neck pain following a car accident or other sudden trauma to the neck. Others report pain during specific activities, such as while taking a golf swing or whenever they try to move their neck.
Sore neck muscles can result from any kind of sudden or repeated movement that inflames or injures neck muscles. Other causes include slipped neck discs, pinched nerves, or a narrowing of the space within the spinal column. This kind of neck condition is often accompanied by shooting or stabbing pain that radiates into the arms or shoulders, and patients may also feel “pins and needles” sensations in their arms and hands.
Treatment
Causes of neck pain range from pinched nerves to spinal stenosis. A Heilman Center pain specialist will design a treatment plan after careful diagnosis in consultation with your primary care physician. Common treatments address the nerves by applying anti-inflammatory medication to the area to help nerves move back into place or even by decompressing a disc or vertebrae in the spine through minimally invasive procedures.
Shoulder Pain
Shoulder pain gets in the way of many things, from doing housework to mowing the lawn to picking up your child. A lot of shoulder pain symptoms originate from diseases that cause pain or from injuries. Sometimes shoulder pain is actually referred pain from a pinched nerve along the spine.
Treatment
Shoulder pain treatment should address pain at the source. By reviewing your symptoms and an MRI, Pain Relief Specialists at the Heilman Center for Pain and Spine Care can determine the source of your pain. After finding the primary cause of your pain, our Pain Relief Specialists recommend treatment options that relieve pressure on spinal nerves, address inflammation in the shoulder itself, or other options.
Sciatica/Sciatic Nerve
The sciatic nerves are the longest nerves in your body, and they extend from your lower spinal column on both sides. Sciatica occurs when your spine puts pressure on the sciatic nerve, due to a slipped disc, degenerated disc, or other condition.
Most people feel shooting pains, tingling, or numbness, which radiates into their legs and feet, on one or both sides of the body. Pain gets worse with sitting but is often relieved when lying down.
Treatment
Our pain specialists will work on relieving pressure on the sciatic nerve, which involves treating back problems like herniated disc, bone spurs, or spinal stenosis. They often perform imaging scans to see exactly what’s pressing on the nerve before developing a treatment plan.
If inflammation or swelling is causing pressure, they may recommend targeted injections at the site of the inflammation, carefully delivered using advanced imaging. When structural problems like a slipped disc or bone spurs are involved, minimally invasive surgery can be a solution.
Pinched Nerve
The nerves that help you feel sensations throughout your body branch out from your spinal column. Pinched nerve pain occurs when a problematic spinal disc, narrow spinal column, bone spur, or other structural issue puts pressure on one of those nerve roots. Sometimes, a joint or muscle can cause a nerve ending to be bent or compressed as well.
Most pinched nerve discomfort starts with a specific activity, such as picking up a child, sleeping in an awkward position, or working out without warming up. Patients may feel a sharp pain, tingling, and numbness not only near the nerve but also in the buttock, shoulder, leg, or arm.
Treatment
Our pain specialists start by asking questions and performing imaging scans to see what’s pressing on the pinched nerve. Then, they figure out how to either take pressure off the nerve or move it back into place. Options may include injections to reduce swelling or inflammation, or minimally invasive surgery to relieve the pressure and allow the nerve to move into proper position.
Herniated Disc/Slipped Disc
Activities like lifting, leaning over, or twisting the back can sometimes cause the rubbery, jelly-filled discs between your vertebrae to rupture. When that happens, you may lose some of the cushioning material within your discs, placing pressure on your spinal nerves.
A herniated disc (also called slipped disc) often results in a burning or stinging type of back pain, and symptoms like tingling, numbness, or shooting pains in the arms or legs may develop. Patients sometimes suffer a herniated disc after a car accident or sports injury. Nothing they do, even lying down and resting, relieves the pain.
Treatment
The actual pain from a herniated disc happens because the ruptured disc material puts pressure on the spinal nerves. Sometimes the pain is felt in other parts of the body due to spinal nerves’ complicated structure. Our experienced pain specialists use imaging scans to determine what’s causing the pressure. Targeted injections can bring some pain relief by reducing the swelling and allowing the disc to fit back into place. If that doesn’t reduce your pain, then our pain specialist may recommend minimally invasive surgery.
Start Treating Your Chronic Pain
There’s no reason to continue living in constant, unrelenting pain. You deserve treatment from our pain specialists, who have years of experience helping patients just like you.
At the Heilman Center for Pain and Spine Care, you get the state-of-the-art treatment options of a hospital environment. You also get individualized attention and an unwavering commitment to your care. Even if you’ve had no success treating pain before, don’t give up. Schedule a consultation or call us today.
Additional Resources
- Don’t see your chronic pain condition? Learn about other pain diseases
- Want to hear from patients who’ve found relief at Heilman Center? Read their stories.