Chronic Pain

Chronic Pain

Have you ever felt like no one believes you?  Have you ever been told that your pain was all in your head?

We will listen to you and believe you!

Some causes of pain are obvious, like a broken bone or bleeding wound.  Other types of pain can be just as severe, but are not nearly as visible or obvious. The not-so-visible problems that cause pain are still diagnosable and can be successfully treated.  Many reliable tests exist to uncover various forms of hidden pain in order to direct therapists to use the right kind of treatment.

Your pain can be tested, diagnosed, understood, and treated!  No two people are the same.   Many people with chronic pain express frustration with being forced into cookie-cutter-treatment-protocols that usually lead to failure and increased pain and discouragement.  Therapy for a person with chronic pain needs to be catered specifically for that person and often frequently adjusted as their body responds.

For instance, connective tissue weakness, hypermobility ( often noticed as “double jointedness”) is a frequent contributor to many kinds of chronic pain.  Connective tissue weakness (including conditions such as Ehlers Danlos Syndrome) need special types of manual therapy to improve movement and posture followed by specifically tailored (and often gentle) exercises.  

Nerve inflammation is another common cause of chronic pain.  In this case, various causes (recurring injuries, surgeries, sprains, strains) can cause nerves to become swollen with inflammation.  The swelling and inflammation will often travel down the length of the entire nerve down into the limb causing muscle soreness and cramps, joint pain and swelling, burning, or numbness.  The actual swelling from the nerve leaks out from the ends of the nerves into the tissues causing the pain.

Basic massage, stretching and exercise alone will not fix it.   Specialized manual therapy techniques have been developed to assess and treat the specific inflamed nerve.  Techniques exist that help to restore the ability of the veins and lymphatics (the systems that remove fluid from a region) of the specific nerve to pump out swelling and to desensitize it (or to retrain to nerve to not overreact).  Physical activity, stretching and exercise is only appropriate as the nerves become less swollen and sensitive. These nervous system techniques have proven a very powerful tool to help control and eliminate chronic pain.

These are just a couple of tools we use to tailor therapy to the individual.  Many physical therapy interventions can treat or even completely eliminate pain and restore your ability to function without the need for surgery or drugs. Most patients respond to a combination of the right techniques and approaches for them.

This content is a good example of treatment similar to what you will find at Atlas Physical Therapy.

The following are examples of some of the specialty options that may help you with your chronic pain.  These approaches are usually a part of a larger comprehensive treatment plan. 

• Manual Therapy 
• Aquatic Therapy
• Dry Needling
• Visceral Functional Manipulation
• TMJ pain (a frequent component for many with chronic pain)

Other frequently treated conditions related to chronic pain:

• Ehlers Danlos Syndrome
• Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CPRS)/ Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)
• Periodic Paralysis
• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Temporal-Mandibular Pain (TMJ)
• Trauma/injury
• Old motor vehicle accidents that you did not fully heal from
• Arthritis, bone spurs, stenosis
• Old surgeries that were not fully or adequately addressed with therapy
• Abdominal surgeries (such as Cesarean Sections/hysterectomies)
• Spinal joint and disc problems
• Diabetes melitus
• Headaches