Make Pain a Thing of the Past – Rhizotomy – Physician Partners of America

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Dr. Rodolfo Gari Talks Pain From Sports Injuries And Best Treatment Therapies

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Cyndi: When you’re active and involved in sports, injuries can happen at any time. But that doesn’t mean you have to live with pain. Dr. Rudy Gari from Florida Pain Relief Group is back to tell us what they can do to help. Welcome back, Dr. Gari.

Dr. Rudy: Thank you very much.

Cyndi: Let’s talk about some of the common sports injuries that you see at the office.

Dr. Rudy: Sure. Common sports injuries are usually former athletes. We’ve had a lot of professional athletes as well.

Cyndi: We know they get injured a lot.

Dr. Rudy: A lot.

Cyndi: And they wanna get better fast. They don’t wanna be out for a long time.

Dr. Rudy: Yes, yes. You know, your body wasn’t meant to be taking that kind of abuse and punishment on a regular basis, and that tends to affect the joints, your muscles, some of the nerves. So it’s just a lot of chronic pain that can be endured from that.

Cyndi: Sure. Well, let’s just say I’m out there and I get injured. At what point do I have to stop icing it at home and come see you?

Dr. Rudy: Sure. So, you know, any time that your pain lasts longer than what it should…if it’s, you know, more than a typical bruise and that sort of stuff, like, you know how long it should last. If it lasts longer, you should come in and see someone like myself so that we can make sure that nothing more than a typical bruise has occurred.

Cyndi: Well, I’m a golfer and I know that I’ve had my share of aches and pains. What are some of the types of pain that you see in golfers that come see you.

Dr. Rudy: We see a lot of repetitive motion in golfers. So if you think about the action of the golfer, there’s a lot of lower back. So your lower back wasn’t meant to twist so much, so we see a lot of low back problems, joint problems and lots of low backache.

Cyndi: And how can you help somebody with that?

Dr. Rudy: Well, you know, we’ve talked before about inflammation, and it’s the same thing. So that constant abuse and that twisting causes inflammation of your joints, your spine and so forth. We can go in with techniques that do not involve surgery to reduce the inflammation of your lower back, which will help significantly and help you get your life back.

Cyndi: Is there anything we can do at home ourselves to prevent the pain?

Dr. Rudy: Sure. One thing you can do is, number one, make sure that you always use proper technique whenever you do any sort of exercise.

Cyndi: Easy for you to say.

Dr. Rudy: That’s true. And just take care of yourself, you know, regular exercises, core exercises.

Cyndi: Core. That’s so important. We you have to think about…

Dr. Rudy: Core is very important.

Cyndi: And when you say core exercises, it’s more than just getting on the ground and doing sit-ups, right?

Dr. Rudy: That’s correct.

Cyndi: What should we be doing to strengthen our core?

Dr. Rudy: Well, anything, like, for example, one of the things you can do is you can get on the horse. And that’s one of the most effective way to strengthen your core, is when you’re almost, like, very flat, that causes your entire core muscles to contract. Try doing that for 20, 30 seconds and then try to go up to about one, two minutes if you can.

Cyndi: So let’s say this method is not working, we’re still in a lot of pain. What’s the next step? What’s the consultation like when we come and see you?

Dr. Rudy: The next step is you wanna come in and see a physician like myself, because we’re gonna take a very thorough history and physical examination. And depending on what that shows, do some imaging studies, maybe an MRI, an X-ray, find out what’s going on. You might have something that’s a lot more that’s going on there that is gonna need some intervention.

Cyndi: Right. And it might not mean a whole lot of physical therapy. It might be a quick fix but it might be something that you have to do.

Dr. Rudy: That’s right. That’s correct.

Cyndi: Okay. Good stuff, Dr. Gari. If you want relief from back pain or any kind of pain, or you’ve had that tweak and you just can’t get rid of it, you can make same-day appointments at Florida Pain Relief Group. Be sure to visit their website. It is floridapainreliefgroup.com, or give them a call today at 844-KICK-PAIN. “Daytime” will be right back.

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Dr. Rodolfo Gari Talks Why Arthritis Doesn’t Have To Rule Your Life and Treatment Therapies For It

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Cyndi: Everyone’s familiar with arthritis, but do you know that it does not have to be a life sentence? Arthritis is a life-altering form of pain for so many people, but Dr. Rudy Gari from Florida Pain Relief Group is here to help. Welcome back, Dr. Gari.

Dr. Gari: Thank you.

Cyndi: So we all hear about arthritis, we talk about arthritis, but really what is arthritis?

Dr. Gari: So arthritis, if you break down the word, so itis means inflammation, and arthro means joints. So arthritis is basically an inflammation of your joints. And of course, your joints are what keeps the bones together. So you have joints throughout the entire body. That’s what allows us to bend and do things. So that can cause a lot of wear and tear. That wear and tear leads to inflammation. There are nerve endings in those joints, and it can get pretty painful.

Cyndi: We’ve heard of different types of arthritis. What’s the most common?

Dr. Gari: The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis.

Cyndi: Osteo?

Dr. Gari: Yes. In fact, most of us get some sort of arthritis. Even our late 20s it begins, 30s and 40s.

Cyndi: Is it pretty much inevitable that we’re all going to get some form of arthritis?

Dr. Gari: Unfortunately, most of us as we get older, we are gonna get arthritis. It doesn’t mean that you have to know that you have it. You kinda get these aches and so forth throughout the day. But most of us go about our daily lives just, you know, living as if nothing’s going on.

Cyndi: But there are some people their arthritis affects their everyday life and it can really be hard for them to function. So what can you do for people who have arthritis, either in the early stage or quite gradual?

Dr. Gari: The first thing that we do is to determine the type of arthritis, and that helps us to determine what the outcome might be. So let’s just say osteoarthritis, for example, because that’s really common. A lot of times, osteoarthritis causes joint pain everywhere. Most of the pain tends to be low back, cervical region. Our necks hold the head up. Our lower backs help us bend back-and-forth. Those are the daily activities. So we tend to focus on those joints because that’s what’s gonna improve your daily living as much as possible. Things that we can do, we mentioned that’s inflammation of the joints, so what we do is go in there to reduce the inflammation. Some sort of injections goes into those joints, there’s no surgery that’s involved. Two or three of these, if it relieves inflammation, there’s even other things such as radiofrequency, rhizotomies that I’ve mentioned before, that can help burn the little nerve endings that only cause pain.

Cyndi: Wow. We’ve heard about taking turmeric and things like that, and adding more things to our diet to help with inflammation, but that’s not necessarily going to be enough, is it?

Dr. Gari: What happens when you eat something, whether it’s a pill or whatever, it goes in your mouth and through your stomach, and then from there it gets absorbed, goes through your liver, and 95% gets broken down. So a very tiny, tiny fraction of what you’re taking is actually going to those joints. By us delivering the medication straight to those joints, we bypass all that.

Cyndi: Is it always a type of medication that you recommend, or do you have different therapies for arthritis?

Dr. Gari: Different therapies. Sometimes, actually, just moving around. Physical therapy, moving. I ask them to go in the pool, just move your joints more. Sleep. If you can get better sleep, your joints are gonna absorb some more fluid. That’s going to help out as well.

Cyndi: Right, but if you’re finding that it’s really hard to function, you can help.

Dr. Gari: Yes, we can.

Cyndi: You can get right in there and take care of it.

Dr. Gari: Absolutely.

Cyndi: Good stuff. Dr. Gari, thank you very much. Contact Florida Pain Relief Group to schedule your same-day appointment. You can visit their website, it is floridapainreliefgroup.com. Or you can give them a call right now, 844-KICK-PAIN, and you too can be pain-free. Thank you, again.

Dr. Gari: My pleasure.

Cyndi: We’ll be right back.

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Dr. Rodolfo Gari Talks What a Rhizotomy Is and How It Can Relieve Joint Pain

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Interviewer: People who are in pain oftentimes don’t go to the doctor because they fear the worst. We all sometimes feel like that, right? But some pain can actually be treated without surgery. Dr. Rudy Gari from Florida Pain Relief Group is back to tell us more. And good to see you, doctor.

Dr. Gari: Good seeing you.

Interviewer: And specifically, we’re talking about something called a rhizotomy. Now, what is a rhizotomy and what does it do?

Dr. Gari: Certainly. So a rhizotomy, basically, what we’re doing is we’re finding ways to deaden the nerves in a permanent way. There are tiny little nerves that give sensation to your joints, and they’re just purely sensory nerve. They don’t do anything else other than just cause you to have pain if you have some sort of inflammatory process, which can happen a lot. So, people, if they have some sort of a chronic inflammatory process through the joints, those nerves are constantly reminding them. What we do is we first make sure that that’s the cause of the pain, and once we’ve diagnosed that, we do something that’s called rhizotomy. And what that does is, we place these needles right into those tiny little nerves. The needle tip heats up and it burns those little nerves off, and that relief can last several months, sometimes up to a year.

Interviewer: So it’s not a permanent relief but it is something that will give you relief for, like you said, a certain amount of time.

Dr. Gari: Yes. Unfortunately, a lot of those tiny little nerves tend to grow back, but I’ve had people who’ve had relief for over a year. And if you have pain on a daily basis, that’s a lifetime.

Interviewer: Yeah, no kidding. And it’s not too much trouble, then, to just come back when the pain flares up again, too?

Dr. Gari: Absolutely. We can repeat this. And the nice thing about it is that this is done through a needle, so we’re not cutting skin, it’s not a permanent operation and it’s a relatively benign procedure. We have a lot of safety measures in check.

Interviewer: So does it hurt at all? You mentioned needle. That’s the first thing I think of, “How much pain is involved to get pain relief?”

Dr. Gari: Yes. No, it’s actually fairly painless. We give a local anesthetic at the skin. We then go ahead and use some intravenous sedatives. And, in fact, just this morning I had four patients that had the rhizotomy done and they went home already.

Interviewer: So what areas does this benefit, primarily? Is it the knee? Is it the shoulder? Can it be any joint?

Dr. Gari: Well, the rhizotomy can occur in just about anywhere. The most common places happens to be at the neck and the lower back. The reason for that, most of the bending takes place at your neck and lower back, so that’s where a lot of the trauma and a lot of the pain comes from.

Interviewer: Now, what makes this kind of a good idea to do as a procedure to relieve the pain, as opposed to other treatments?

Dr. Gari: Well, what happens is, there’s not a whole lot of treatments that are available when you have chronic pain of your joints, for example. It’s usually medications, and those medications have significant side effects. Anti-inflammatories can cause an ulcer, can cause bleeding. You have opioids. We all know about the problems with opiate addiction. So this is an alternative to you having to take medications. Medications are not benign. They’re not mean to be taken on a long-term basis, but people have to take them that way. This is an option so that you don’t have to take these medications long-term.

Interviewer: You know, it’s funny you mentioned that because I know so many people who have their elderly parents actually hooked on opiates, and they don’t even know it. Because that’s what they’re prescribed, that’s what they take. So this is something that’s so much healthier and so much better for you.

Dr. Gari: Absolutely. I had an 81-year-old female today, a very nice lady, that was taking a lot of medications. And the problem with that, if they get a little bit groggy, and they fall and they break a hip, that can be lethal.

Interviewer: Absolutely. All right, Dr. Gari, great information. Now, Florida Pain Relief Group even schedules same-day appointments. Be sure to visit their website, floridapainreliefgroup.com, or give them a call, 844-KICK-PAIN. Simple as that. We’ll be right back.

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