Chronic pain
How physical therapy can help
CHRONIC PAIN IS...
...COMMON
Pain that persists longer than several months or the reasonable expectation for healing is considered chronic. Millions of Americans seek treatment for chronic pain each year and it is commonly seen by medical professionals and physical therapists. It can present with any number of diagnoses or names. To name a few: fibromyalgia, low back pain, migraine, pelvic pain, and the list could go on for many pages.
...COMPLEX
The etiology of chronic pain need not be a rare event. Clinically, it is not unusual to see something as seemingly simple as a knee injury from a fall morph into a chronic pain problem for a patient. Why, you ask? What makes one person’s pain episode more challenging to treat than that of another person who experiences a similar injury? The answer is complex and the underlying factors are numerous. They may include such things as the nature of the injury, the patient’s history and/or past injuries, social factors, pain perceptions, and how the injury is processed both by the body and the brain.
...REAL
Regardless of the factors, chronic pain must be taken seriously. It is not unusual for chronic pain patients to feel lost in the medical system. Sometimes they feel like they aren’t listened to or that they don’t get a reasonable explanation or effective care plan for what they’re experiencing. Chronic pain can be frustrating for both patient and health care provider.
...TREATABLE
It is important for patients to know that chronic pain is treatable. There are approaches that can help people reduce or alleviate pain as well as learn to better manage their health. Physical therapy offers many treatment options for patients. For example, dry needling can be a very effective tool. At Sun Physical Therapy, we take chronic pain seriously. We take the time to listen to each patient, the history of their injury and the path they’ve taken to get to where they are. Treatment plans are uniquely tailored to each patient and we adapt and modify the plan of care to address each patient’s changing needs.