Make Pain a Thing of the Past – pain management jacksonville fl – Physician Partners of America

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Interviewer: Well, when the weekend finally rolls around, besides everybody saying, “Woo-hoo,” we all want to do activities we usually enjoy before heading back to work on Monday, but some of those activities, as you might experience, golfing, tennis, even gardening, can cause you pain. Dr. Abraham Rivera from Florida Pain Relief Group joins us now with a solution for all you weekend warriors out there. Now, Dr. Rivera, welcome.

Dr. Rivera: Thank you.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about what kind of pain that we’re zeroing in on here: bursitis, tendinitis, arthritis, all of the itises.

Dr. Rivera: Correct, correct. I mean, this is like you say, the weekend warriors. They go out there. They have very sedentary occupations. Now, it’s the weekend. They want to go out and play 18 holes of golf.

Interviewer: Right.

Dr. Rivera: Or they want to play a couple tennis matches. Of course, they come and see me Monday or Tuesday because they are sore, you know, to be expected. Now, many times when I talk to these patients, I find out that there is a problem with their technique. They have the wrong grip on the tennis racket or they have the wrong clubs. Often, they have shoulder disease, and they’re trying to hit that ball like when they were 22, and they’re 50 now. You can no longer hit that ball that way. So just believe it or not, by going over their technique, many times you solve the problem right there.

 

 

Interviewer: So I assume you’re a good golfer?

Dr. Rivera: Heavens no, but I do play with quite a few, and I see when they pay the price the next day.

Interviewer: So how do you fix, say, for instance, shoulder pain because a lot of people do like to get out there and hit the tennis ball around or play a round of golf. How do you treat them so they can go back to work without the pain?

Dr. Rivera: Yeah, many times, it’s just a case of acute tendinitis. They’re rubbing the tendon that goes over the shoulder joint against a spur that they have in their shoulder, and we typically diagnose that. We can prescribe some topical medication. We can give them some anti-inflammatory. Sometimes we have no resort but to inject the joint with cortisone. It’s something we can do in the office very quickly.

Interviewer: Now that’s something because I’ve had… I have rheumatoid arthritis in my knee, and I’ve had cortisone shots in my knee, but I was told you have to stop them after a while. Is this correct?

Dr. Rivera: Yeah, cortisone is a very seductive drug because it works.

Interviewer: Yes.

Dr. Rivera: You can only get so many of these so many times a year.

Interviewer: Right.

Dr. Rivera: It can have side effects. It can weaken the tendons. It can cause osteoporosis.

Interviewer: So what’s the next level then after that? I’m asking for myself.

Dr. Rivera: Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. You know when patients have disease in their joints, the thing I try to tell them, make them clear they understand, is they cannot travel that joint. By traveling that joint to the full range of motion, they’re wearing it out more. So try not to move it.

Interviewer: Yeah, hard to do. I’m a very active individual, but I was told that stem cell therapy might actually help.

Dr. Rivera: Well that certainly holds a promise. It is… the data is very promising, very tantalizing. It is an alternative. Unfortunately, it’s not covered by most insurances, but it’s certainly an alternative.

Interviewer: And real quickly for the gardeners out there, what can you do about their sore, stiff hands after they’re out there on a Saturday or Sunday?

Dr. Rivera: Preventive. I tell those patients to, number one, take an anti-inflammatory up front, a simple aspirin, Glucosamine, something over the counter. There is a lotion they can put on that contains some anti-inflammatories, and finally, I tell them to avoid impact. Okay, hammers, things that wack.

Interviewer: Right.

Dr. Rivera: Don’t want vibration.

Interviewer: Yeah, don’t hammer your flowers into the ground. Only if they’re dead. Okay, Dr. Rivera thank you so much. If you need to see Dr. Rivera or any of the other great doctors at the Florida Pain Relief group, just hit up their website  or give them a call, 844-KICK-PAIN to schedule your very same day appointment, which is very, very good to be able to get in there right away, right, when you have the pain? All right, Dr. Rivera, thanks again. We’ll be right back.

Interviewer: Sadly, getting cancer at some point in your life is all too common in this country, but the pain from cancer doesn’t have to be. Dr. Rudy Gari is here from Florida Pain Relief Group to talk about this, as well as pain that can persist even after cancer is gone. Dr. Gari, great to have you back.

Dr. Gari: My pleasure, Thank you.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about this. How many patients who have gone through cancer, have been treated, still have pain afterward?

Dr. Gari: Well, unfortunately…fortunately, if they’ve been treated and cured, that’s a great thing, but a lot of times that cancer can spread to different nerves and can cause damage to some of those nerves, so it can leave a long-lasting painful injury even after you’ve been very blessed by having the cancer cure.

Interviewer: Okay, so what are some kinds of different cancer pain that people experience?

Dr. Gari: So, basically, cancer pain is associated with any type of cancer that ends up affecting the organs, your nerves, anything like that. In fact, my first patient that I had after I finished my training out of medical school in residency was a patient that was dying of cancer, and I remember her vividly because she came to me and she said, “Doctor,” say says, “I’m going to die, but my mother died of the same thing. She had breast cancer. All that I want to do is, I don’t want to die in pain.” So I said, “You are not going to.” She was referred to me by an oncologist. Most oncologists, if not all of them, they do a great job of taking care of that pain, but there are some patients that, after medications, you’re still going to, you might have some pain, and she said, “I just want to be able to spend my last days without pain.” We ended up putting in something called a morphine pump implant that allowed medications with a very small amount of morphine to go into the spinal cord that actually gave her pain relief.

 

 

Interviewer: So, apart from this morphine implant pump, and which helped her immensely, what else do you have out there to treat this pain?

Dr. Gari: Well, we have everything. So, we have every possible tool that’s available in the field today, including allografts, stem cells, nerve blocks, medications, physical therapy, things called radio-frequency. We can do what’s called cryotherapy. We can burn the little nerves out that are causing pain. We can put in something called smogra stimulators, morphine pumps. There is an incredible amount of tools available to physicians like myself that specialize in pain management to be able to treat cancer pain other than just giving medications.

Interviewer: Why are they experiencing this pain?

Dr. Gari: Well they experience this pain because of the fact that, just think about it, if you hit your nerves, it’s painful. So that cancer can spread, and it can spread and it can cause a distension of different organs. It can cause…it can impinge on the nerves. It can cause significant pain.

Interviewer: Okay, so for anybody out there’s who’s watching right now, who’s going through this, there’s definitely relief.

Dr. Gari: We can help you, yes, absolutely.

Interviewer: Okay, Dr. Gari, thank you very much. The Florida Pain Relief Group even offers same-day appointments. You can visit their website, or give them a call, 844-KICK-PAIN. Dr. Rudy Gari, great to have you back.

Dr. Gari: Thank you.

Interviewer: We’ll be right back.