Acute Pain and Chronic Pain
Relief Medical Center offers Acute Pain Management treatment. Acute pain typically is caused by an acute soft tissue injury that is resolved within approximately 3 months. Sometimes, it means a soft tissue injury has occurred such as:
- Sprains
- Strains
- Muscle tears
- Tendons
- Ligaments
Acute Pain Management involves conservative treatment through procedures such as:
- Trigger point injections
- Joint injections
- Mild doses of short term prescriptions
- Muscle relaxers
- Anti-Inflammatories
- Nerve pain medication
- and more
Also, there are other ways that a Physician may treat an acute injury causing pain is through the use of: durable medical equipment (DME), such as back braces, knee braces, TENS Unit, or topical medications such as pain creams and pain patches. For acute pain management, we refer most patients to undergo an examination with a Physical Therapist, Chiropractor, Orthopedic Surgeon for consultation and treatment.
Relief Medical Center also offers Chronic Pain Management treatment. Relief Medical Center have the capability to provide chronic pain management or interventional pain management treatments in house at the start of the patient’s treatment plan. The patient’s chronic pain may be the cause of an underlying medical disease, condition, injury, medical treatment, inflammation and often an unknown cause. Most individuals with chronic pain have musculoskeletal pain conditions, such as arthritis, rheumatism, chronic back pain, chronic neck pain, and frequent severe headaches, that sometimes result in the patient being referred to neurology consultation for further investigation into the patient’s symptoms. If the patient care should continue long term, Relief Medical Center may enlist a trusted facility that specializes in even longer-term care options for chronic pain sufferers.
Chronic Pain is defined as a painful medical condition considered to be long term, which can be treated with prescribed controlled substance(s) such as pain medications. Chronic Pain is further defined as pain that last longer than 3 to 6 months that have an effect on the patient’s activities daily living (ADLs) such as:
- Difficulty or inability to get dressed
- Difficulty sleeping or staying asleep
- Difficulty performing household duties
- and even when leaving your home to run errands.
Chronic pain is defined as pain that typically last more than three (3) months or past the time of normal tissue healing. In fact, most patient have had pain lasting for years that interfere with their ability to perform or keep a job. Relief Medical Center works closely with its patients and the physical therapists, psychologists, nurse and medical director to develop an individualized treatment plan.
Relief Medical Center is capable to manage more aggressive treatments that sometimes require a stronger dosage and longer-term prescription pain medication, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatories, nerve pain medication (anticonvulsants) and more. Sometimes a Physician will recommend customized durable medical equipment (DMEs) such as a more expensive customized back braces fitted specifically for the patient, customized knee braces, TENs Unit, portable cervical and lumbar traction units (rent, lease, sell), topical pain medications and pain patches and even home health CNAs for patients that need help at home with ADLs for maximum of 16 weeks.
Injections
Relief Medical Center is capable of administering injections such as:
- Trigger point injections
- Joint injections
- Steroid injections
- Cortisone injections
For chronic pain lasting more than 3 months of treatment, Relief Medical Center provides several options that the patient may discuss with the physician to aide in healing and interventional pain management such as:
- Cervical epidurals
- Lumbar epidurals
- Various nerve blocks
- Occipital nerve blocks for headaches
- Joint injections
Relief Medical Center has installed a C-Arm to provide fluoroscopic guidance to help physicians perform these chronic pain medical procedures for injured patients and patients experiencing pain over several years.
Imaging and Radiology Services
Relief Medical Center may often order radiology services for the patient, and therefore, we have the ability to perform:
- Xrays
- Ultrasound
- CT Scans
- MRIs
Thank you for selecting Relief Medical Center as we are excited that you choose us to be your provider. We take pride in being able to serve others as a team of M.D.s, Nurse Practitioners, Medical Assistants, Physicians Assistants, Medication Aides, Certified Nurse Aides (CNAs), Physical Therapists, Chiropractors, Counselors, Nutritionists, Consultants on board to help at one of our two locations in Houston and Spring.
