Make Pain a Thing of the Past – Work Injuries – Physician Partners of America

Tag Archive for: Work Injuries

Dr. Rodolfo Gari Talks Work Injuries And Ways To Avoid Them

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Cyndi: The daily grind of working in an office can cause pain that people often try to ignore, but sometimes that pain can affect your whole life and it should not be ignored. Dr. Gari from Florida Pain Relief Group joins us now with more. Dr. Gari, good to have you back.

Dr. Gari: A pleasure

Cyndi: A lot of people try to just ignore the pain, but if it’s really starting to bother them, and it’s affecting their whole life, why should they go see somebody like you?

Dr. Gari: Well because one of the things, for example, the reason why we as human beings have something called pain is because it’s a warning signal. Think of it like you’re driving your car and it starts to flash saying that the engine oil is low. You’re about to get into something really bad. So if you have pain, from whatever that may be, that’s your body telling you, “Hey you gotta go and get this checked out.” Because it can and normally does get worse if it’s not treated.

Cyndi: When you see people that work in an office environment, what kind of pain are they usually coming to you with?

Dr. Gari: Usually some sort of work-related injuries. Sometimes it’s a fall, you know. I get a lot of patients of mine that are workman’s compensation. For example that they get sent over because they are lifting boxes, they hurt their back. Sometimes they’re typing, they’re using a lot of computers, they get repetitive stress injuries like carpal tunnel. They get neck injuries, you know, from maybe reading, from having the head too low. Just about any type of activity can happen…if you sit for long periods of time, that can affect your lower back. In fact, one of the biggest pressures on your lower back is when you’re sitting down.

Cyndi: Really?

Dr. Gari: What I tell some of the patients…

Cyndi: I’ve got that. I’ve got it here, I’ve got it here. So and I tend to just think, you know, that’s just the cost of doing business. But I don’t have to live with this pain.

Dr. Gari: Well, you know, in a way it’s some of the things that we do, but there’s things that can be done. For example, if you sit a lot, you can sit on one of those medicine balls. That helps with your core muscles. Also, if you can stand, there’s a lot of these desks that you can actually raise up. And standing actually reduces the pressure on your lower back, and that helps quite a bit.

Cyndi: I’m looking into that. Back to the worker’s comp situation. How does that all work when somebody comes to you with that?

Dr. Gari: Well, the worker’s compensation was meant to help the injured worker. It’s a great program because people need help. What they’ll do is when someone gets injured, they’ll work with the worker’s compensation, they’ll get an adjuster. That adjuster can send the patient to someone like us to evaluate what’s going on. We can make a diagnosis on what’s happening, what’s causing the injury, and what we want to do is help them out and, you know, try to get them back to work.

Cyndi: Definitely. That’s the goal, right? You don’t want to have more time than you need. What about repetitive stuff like typing? I’m just thinking of everyone around me on our computers, just that alone. Do you see a lot of people coming in just with carpal tunnel?

Dr. Gari: We see a lot of that. We see a lot of people with pain. And our hands weren’t made to be typing all the time. It was meant to grab and doing things with it. So things that are not natural, they can cause a lot of injuries. And one of the things about the worker’s comp that you mentioned earlier is that if we can see that patient earlier…the studies have shown very significantly that the earlier that you treat that injured worker, the more likely that he is or she is to get back to work.

Cyndi: All right. Well Dr. Gari, thank you very much. You can contact Florida Pain Relief Group to schedule your same-day appointment. Visit their website or you can give them a call: 844-Kick-Pain. Dr. Gari, thank you again.

Dr. Gari: My pleasure.

Cyndi: We’ll be right back.

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Dr. Rodolfo Gari Discusses The Effects of Car Accident Injuries

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Interviewer: You don’t need me to tell you, car accidents can be a pain, literally, it can be a traumatic experience, of course, but that pain doesn’t have to become permanent. Dr. Rudy Gari, from Florida Pain Relief Group, joins us now once again to tell us how we need to make sure these injuries don’t go untreated. It seems like a simple thing, right? But most people are rushed right to the ER after an accident, aren’t they, Dr. Gari? Why is it important for them to see a pain relief doctor as well?

Dr. Gari: Well, what happens a lot in a car accident is you get what’s called a deceleration type of injury. Basically, you’re traveling 30 miles an hour and you come to a screeching halt very quickly. So that deceleration type of injury can cause injuries in and of itself. And normally it involves, it can be the joints, it could be your back, it could be your neck. And so that injury, again, a lotta what causes the pain is some sort of inflammation that is a direct result of that injury. So we take care of patients that have been involved in motor vehicle accidents. And whether it’s a disc herniation in the lower back, the neck, joint, wherever that might be. We even have some patients that, you know, they come and see us. And some of those patients, you know, because of a lot of patients that have been involved in a car accident, may have some sort of legal representation. They may not even have insurance. We will even take care of ’em because of that and we can work with their law firm if that’s what it takes. We just wanna make sure that this patient gets better.

Interviewer: Gets better. Now a lotta times you have a car accident and you might feel something, you’re not really sure if you feel something. How do you know when you should see someone when the pain might just be like a minor, temporary pain?

Dr. Gari: Well, what I tell my patients is if something is not normal, you know it Go see a doctor. Because it may be something a little mild…

Interviewer: Right now.

Dr. Gari: …right now, but it might be something a little, you know, deeper that’s going on. And we have to at least make a diagnosis, maybe physical therapy of something to make sure that you can get better, get back on your feet.

Interviewer: Is it typically…when people come and see after a car accident, is it a neck injury? I know you mentioned back, but neck is even more prevalent more than likely, right?

Dr. Gari: Well, one of the things that we see in car accidents a lot is what’s called a whiplash. So whiplash is when the back of your neck hits backwards and there are these nerves in the back of your neck that can cause a lotta inflammation there and you get what’s called an [inaudible 00:02:37], a really bad headache behind your head. We can help that quite a bit because, again, we just go in there, get that inflammation to go away. There’s different types of procedures we can do for that. So the neck injury is common because the head goes back and forth during that car accident.

Interviewer: Sure, yeah, it makes sense. And let’s talk about prevention because, you know, most people hopefully are wearing their seat belts. What other kinds of things can they do in their car because you never know when you’re gonna be hit from behind?

Dr. Gari: Well, some of the things that they need to be mindful of course is in this…you know, I’m not a driving instructor, but of course, you know, be defensive. If you anticipate something…in fact, there’s some car, I was driving my son’s car the other day and the car started slowing down. So these sensors are actually very helpful right now to try to prevent these injuries. Wear your seatbelt, make sure that your air bag is working, and brace yourself if you’re about to hit.

Interviewer: Okay, all right. Good advice. Thank you so much, Dr. Gari. Now you can contact Florida Pain Relief Group to schedule your same day appointment. You can visit their website, floridapainreliefgroup.com, or give them a call 844-KICK-PAIN, simple as that. Thanks again doctor, appreciate it. We’ll be right back with more “Daytime” right after this.

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