The sciatic nerve is located in the lower back and branches out toward the buttocks and legs. When the sciatic nerve is pinched, a person may feel severe pain in these regions that radiates down the legs.
In order to confirm a sciatica diagnosis, your physician may analyze your movement to determine the exact location of your pain. An x-ray may be necessary to see if any of the vertebrae in your spine are pressing into the sciatic nerve.
Sciatica may be caused when a herniated discputs pressure on the sciatic nerve. While herniated disks are the most common reason for buttock and leg pain, there are a number of other causes such as an overgrown bone or a previous injury.
Although there is no cure for sciatica, there are different treatment options available depending on the severity of your pain and the condition’s progression. Anti-inflammatory medication may be prescribed to reduce pain, but if that is not enough, your physician at Chronicillness.co Site may recommend having an epidural steroid injection.
This injection goes into your spine and releases steroids to reduce inflammation and ease the pain. The effects of an epidural steroid injection will not cure your sciatica, but the procedure can be repeated if the pain comes back.
In severe cases, your physician may recommend having surgery. The bone or section of the herniated disk pinching the nerve may be removed. Typically, surgery is reserved for cases where the patient’s sciatica is causing issues such as a loss of bowel control. Nevertheless, our team can discuss this option with you if it’s something you wish to pursue.
While exercisecannot cure your sciatica, exercises for sciatica may help relieve your symptoms. Strengthening areas around your spine like your core and buttocks can strengthen your body’s support system and get the pressure off the sciatic nerve. By staying active, you are increasing the blood flow to your legs and lower back, which may ease your sciatic nerve pain.
Your physician will be able to talk to you about these sciatica treatment options as well as other procedures Chronicillness.co Site offers to ease your sciatic nerve pain.
Spotting gray hairs on your head. Forgetting where you put the car keys. Waking up a bit earlier. These things all can be a part of life as we get older.
But what about your back. How much back pain is normal? Is it OK to be in pain or is something bigger going on? Yes, basic aches and pains are facts of life. So, a little spine pain is totally normal and common.
Still, back pain shouldn’t be severe and significant. You shouldn’t have sharp pain when you wake up and you can’t recall doing anything out of the ordinary, says Roy Nissim, DC, a chiropractor who practices in Santa Monica, Calif.
If you did yardwork and you normally don’t, it’s normal to be a bit achy. But if you’re in construction and you’re in back pain (even after taking some over-the-counter medicines to help relieve pain and inflammation), something may be wrong. “We can wake up with aches and pains,” says Dr. Nissim. “But a sharp and dull pain isn’t normal. For most, if pain lingers for more than 48 hours, that’s a red flag. A light bulb should go off that something’s not right.”
He also says you want to look out for pain that goes away and then returns feeling worse. That can be a red flag that something is going on.
Don’t wait to visit a health care professional if you’re in pain. “Don’t let pain linger longer than a week,” says Dr. Nissim. “If something is bothering you, seek help. It’s easier to treat and resolve something that’s new, fresh and acute rather than treat something that’s chronic.”
Why prevent falls No one likes to fall. It’s embarrassing and, as you get older, it’s dangerous. If you prevent falls, you ward off most fractures and serious injuries. According to the National Council on Aging, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries for older Americans. In fact, 25 percent of Americans ages 65 and older fall at least once each year. What’s worse, falling once doubles your chances of it happening again.
You can take some general measure to help prevent falls. Work on balancing exercises, says Dr. Nissim. For example, stand on one foot. Or sit and then stand without using your hands to help you up and down. Be aware of your surroundings. For example, sit a moment before you get out of bed. Then stand and get your balance before you walk. Women should avoid high-heeled shoes, which may make them prone to tripping, Dr. Nissim says.
Vertebral compression fractures Vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) are the most common fracture in people with osteoporosis, affecting about 750,000 people annually, says the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. VCFs affect about one-quarter of postmenopausal women in the United States. The risk of this condition increases with age; about 40 percent of women age 80 and older are affected.
VCFs happen when the bony block or vertebral body in the spine collapses. That can lead to severe pain, deformity and height loss. These fractures happen more commonly in the middle portion of the spine.
Most of the time, VCFs happen without an injury or pain. It can be caused by something as insignificant as a sneeze. One of the first signs of a VCF is height loss. Do your adult children seem taller? Do you need to hem pants you’ve worn for years? Are you suddenly unable to reach a shelf? This may mean you’ve experienced VCF.
Risks if left untreated A VCF is painful. Even when you don’t feel it, says the National Osteoporosis Foundation, it can be serious. People who’ve had one VCF are at five times the risk of having a second one. Risk for death goes up to more than 50 percent a year after a vertebral fracture. Each broken vertebra raises the risk for another since it changes how weight is balanced on the spine. You’ll experience pain in your back and chest since these muscles have to work hard to hold you upright. It gets harder to walk. You develop stomach troubles and difficulty breathing. If you do nothing, you may experience disability.
Treatment options Current therapies for vertebral fractures include nonsurgical and surgical treatments. Nonsurgical management includes analgesia, bed rest, physiotherapy, and back bracing.
A balloon kyphoplasty (BKP)—a minimally invasive surgery that can stabilize a fracture or compressed vertebrae due to osteoporosis, cancer, or non-cancerous tumors—is another treatment option. It can reduce your back pain from a spinal fracture and restore vertebral height and proper spinal alignment. Other benefits include improved mobility, ability to perform daily tasks and better quality of life. During the surgery, balloons are used to elevate the fractured vertebrae to return them to the correct position. The balloon creates a cavity that is filled with a special cement to prevent collapse from happening again. Good candidates are people with severe pain, those too frail or old or whose bones are too weak for spinal surgery, or younger people who have osteoporosis caused by steroid treatment or a metabolic disorder.
Although the complication rate for BKP is low, as with most surgical procedures, serious adverse events, some of which can be fatal, can occur, including heart attack, cardiac arrest (heart stops beating), stroke, and embolism (blood, fat, or cement that migrates to the lungs or heart). Other risks include infection; leakage of bone cement into the muscle and tissue surrounding the spinal cord and nerve injury that can, in rare instances, cause paralysis; leakage of bone cement into the blood vessels resulting in damage to the blood vessels, lungs, and/or heart. Talk to a health care provider about both benefits and risks of this procedure. A prescription is required. Results may vary.
Taking control of painful symptoms is challenging under even the best of circumstances. Yet, taking affirmative steps in this regard can be empowering. These five tips can help you manage your pain both on your own and in connection with others.
1. Become aware of your baseline pain and create a self-care plan. Gain familiarity with your symptoms. This will allow you to recognize when further intervention or changes need to be made, or if your treatment is working. Next, develop a self-care plan. Create a schedule, routine, or checklist for your treatment so that you can comply with your physician’s directions and engage family and friends where you may require assistance.
2. Self-manage your pain alongside a comprehensive treatment plan. A comprehensive treatment plan can empower your health. There are many components that can go into a treatment plan such as proper diet and exercise. Another way to keep up with an active lifestyle is to make massage part of your daily routine. In fact, according to research, a significant reduction in pain levels can be achieved with therapeutic massage. In addition to relieving tension, massage can help decrease swelling and improve blood circulation to promote the healing of soft-tissue damage, bruising and muscle fatigue. It also helps improve flexibility and mobility faster while reducing overall stiffness.
Massage can also impact the healing process by improving relaxation, sleep, emotions and overall recovery. There are many options for massage, and often at-home tools may be the most convenient for individuals who are limited by function or time. For example the Wahl Deep Tissue Massager is a useful tool to add to a pain management regimen that’s convenient, cost-effective and respectful of your busy schedule.
3. Communicate your limitations to people close to you. By communicating clearly to your close friends and family, misunderstandings and stigma can be avoided. Clear communication can create a path toward additional support for better health outcomes. Pain is a subjective phenomenon, and until you communicate about it to your doctors, they cannot help you make a road map to reach your destination of pain relief. Communicating about your pain will help you garner support and it is the first step to alleviate the cycle of mental stress related to your painful symptoms.
4. Create a goal-oriented daily routine that you can achieve. Setting a reasonable framework will help you cope with your pain and stress in an effective manner. Clarifying roles and responsibilities for yourself and those within your support network can ease anxieties that could exacerbate pain. Perhaps you are taking on a function that is better delegated, oralternatively, maybe an already delegated task could be better accomplished on your own. Creating reasonable expectations for the people in your circle can help you ultimately gain traction in your health goals.
5. Learn coping mechanisms to address your mental health wellness. Coping is key to dealing with chronic pain. There are negative emotional consequences of chronic pain that require one to think positively and practice gratitude. Meditation can give you a spiritual experience and support. The regular practice of meditation creates a relaxation reflex. It calms your mind and releases tension in your body tissues. Practice positive affirmations and continue to stay focused on your goals to better health.
Additionally, music therapy can be a useful way to supplement a comprehensive pain treatment plan. Listening to the music of your choice can help your body calm and release the tension in your muscles. As suggested by a research study, music interventions may provide a practical complementary approach for the relief of acute, procedural and chronic pain management. These are only a few examples of coping mechanisms which you may choose to integrate into your treatment plan.
A lumbar medial branch block is an injection procedure that pinpoints which facet joint in the low back is causing discomfort. Facet joints are small joints located in between vertebrae that help the spine bend and twist. Each one of these unique joints is surrounded by medial branch nerves, which help carry pain signals from the joints to the brain. Although the purpose of a lumbar medial branch block is to diagnosewhich facet joint(s) are causing the most pain, this minimally invasive procedure can also provide some pain relief.
Pain in the facet joints usually develops from a spinal condition that causes inflammation. Spinal stenosis, osteoarthritis, or degenerative disc disease are just a few conditions that could lead to facet joint pain. Other causes may include trauma or injury to the low back.
The procedure begins with the patient laying face down and with the physician injecting a local anesthetic. This helps minimize the patient’s discomfort during the procedure. The physician will then use a fluoroscope and contrast dye to locate and confirm which medial branch nerves are causing pain.
Once the physician has been able to identify the affected medial branch nerves, he or she will inject an anesthetic into the targeted nerves. Two adjacent medial branch nerves in the spine are usually treated during one injection.
If the patient experiences pain relief immediately after the injection, then the physician can infer the procedure was a success. This diagnostic process will eventually determine whether or not the patient is a candidate for a procedure called radiofrequency neurotomy (ablation). This particular procedure may provide patients with longer pain relief.
As my mother always warned me that to get older is to feel some aches and pains. And I’m feeling them! My knees, my back, my.… And I’m finding lots of kinship among my middle-aged pals.
I keep hearing that CBD helps relieve chronic pain. Is it really the miracle cure it claims to be? If so, I’m tempted to run out and buy some CBD.
But I’m cautious and have a lot of questions. It seems like the claims might be too good to be true. Are they?
Yes, CBD is all the rage and, if you happen to live in a state where it’s legal, you might be seeing it sold on just about every street corner in many iterations. CBD lattes. CBD gummies. CBD-infused spa treatments. CBD for XYZ.
Here’s what we know, so far.
CBD, or cannabidiol, is a chemical compound derived from cannabis, a hemp plant that differs only from the marijuana plant because it contains less THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, which produces marijuana’s mind-altering effects.
CBD doesn’t produce the euphoric “high” or psychoactive effects of cannabis. Instead, it’s supposed to produce a feeling of calm or relaxation. Read more about CBD for Women: What Are Women Using CBD For?
Instead of messing with your mind, CBD encourages the body to use its own endocannabinoids more efficiently by interacting with them to produce pharmacologic effects in the central nervous and immune systems. (Sounds like a mouthful, but basically CBD influences the activity of endocannabinoid receptors and in turn, activates other receptors that control things like pain perception and inflammation.) There are endocannabinoids and receptors throughout our bodies: in our brains, organs, connective tissues, glands and immune cells—just about all of the body’s organs. One researcher calls them the “bridge between body and mind.”
That’s why a lot of people are interested in using CBD and hopeful that it will help ease or manage their pain.
Still, the jury is still out. Although CBD is widely used, the only strong research and evidence of its effectiveness has been done with a specific and rare form of childhood seizure disorders called Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), which do not respond to antiseizure medications.
Experts say that more studies are needed in humans to determine the scope of what CBD can and cannot do. Some (that have been done on animals) have found CBD to be effective for nerve pain and the pain and inflammation of arthritis.
The studies that do point to CBD’s possible effectiveness say that it may limit inflammation in the brain and nervous system; that it stops the body from absorbing a compound associated with regulating pain and therefore may reduce the amount of pain a person feels; that it may help with insomnia and chronic pain and help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) by reducing spasms, one of the most common symptoms of MS.
The Arthritis Foundation has published advice from Daniel Chow, MD, a chronic pain expert. Here’s what it shares:
Use low doses, which seem to work best for pain relief.
Start with a CBD-only product, 5 to 10 mg twice daily, and then slowly increase, going up to dose of 50 to 100 mg per day. If that doesn’t help, try a CBD product with a low dose of THC. (But remember that THC remains illegal in many states and is only approved with a prescription for medical use in some others.)
Use only at night at first; slowly increase dose if needed.
Edibles’ effects last longer than vaping, so don’t try them until you know what CBD strain and dose work for you.
Use caution if you are 25 years old or younger and using CBD products that contain THC. This age group is at highest risk of addiction, dependency or even psychosis.
If you do choose to treat your pain with CBD, it’s best to be aware of a few facts.
CBD doesn’t come without its side effects, which include nausea, fatigue and irritability. And like grapefruit juice, CBD can raise the level of certain medications in your bloodstream (if you take the blood thinner warfarin, beware). Always check with your health care professional before taking CBD or other over-the-counter supplements or medications.
Many products do not contain the amount of CBD they claim.
The amount of CBD in products varies widely. Some contain very small concentrations of CBD, while others contain very large amounts. For instance, manufacturer Bluebird Botanical’s CBD lotions contain 700-plus mg of cannabinoids per 100 mL, while other currently available topical products contain just 50 mg of cannabinoids per 100 mL.
Because it’s not sold as a supplement, rather than a medication, CBD’s safety and purity are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
If you take sedatives or other sleep-inducing medications, use CBD with caution, because it may enhance their effects.
Taking a high daily dose (20 mg per kg of body weight or hundreds of milligrams) may result in decreased appetite, diarrhea, vomiting, fever or extreme fatigue.
Products should be labeled with information on exact dosing and the type of CBD they contain. Terms for real CBD include full-spectrum, broad-spectrum, isolate or nano.
Because there are not enough studies on humans, it’s tough to know what an effective dose of CBD would be.
Brandon Beatty, CEO of Bluebird Botanicals, a leading manufacturer and distributor of hemp extracts and CBD oils, offers this advice: “Look for the concentration of cannabinoids per milligram. Check the ingredients to make sure they indicate the use of a full-plant extract as opposed to hemp seed oil, because only a full-plant extract will actually contain any amount of CBD. Hemp seed oil does not contain CBD, but it is often used as an emulsifier in many beauty products.
“Also be sure to look on the company’s website for third-party lab testing to make sure there are no harmful contaminants in your product, such as pesticides, heavy metals, mycotoxins, and residual solvents. We also recommend looking for products with ‘clean,’ natural ingredients, which is what we like to call ‘wellness the way Mother Earth intended.’”
Also, check the laws where you live. Even in areas where medical or recreational marijuana is legal, some federal agencies and state laws still restrict CBD. It’s all very confusing.
The bottom line? If you do choose to try CBD, proceed with caution and remember that there has been little medical research done on CBD. Check with your health care professional, if for no other reason than to make sure it won’t interact with any medications you currently are taking.
The spoon theory is relatively simple: living with chronic pain is very different from living a pain-free lifestyle. That living pain-free theoretically has an unlimited number of spoons—whereas those living with a chronic illness have a very limited number of spoons available for each day. Each action may cost one or more of them, depending on what the action requires. If a person living with chronic pain must endure a pretty demanding task, he or she will figuratively need to give up more spoons.
This concept may help those not living with chronic pain understand how trying and tiring the condition can be. After explaining this concept to a loved one or friend, an individual with chronic pain could mention they are “running low on spoons” to signify their need for rest.
Even for those living with a chronic pain condition, the spoon theory could be a great way of communicating how you’re feeling at that moment—something your fellow “spoonies” can relate to! We mentioned this in our past blog, “Supporting a Partner With Chronic Pain,” but one of the best things you can do to help someone with a chronic health condition is to provide support. Being there for one another can make a huge impact on the lives of those who must suffer from the “invisiblesymptoms” chronic pain carries.
Pain in your neck. Pain in your back. Pain during that time of the month. We’ve all had pain, some of us more than others. But how much do you really know about how to manage all your aches and pains?
We spoke with an expert on pain management to get you the answers you need. Yvonne D’Arcy, MS, CRNP, CNS, is a pain management and palliative care nurse practitioner with more than 20 years of pain management experience. She has held positions as pain and palliative care nurse practitioner for Johns Hopkins Medicine Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. She is the author of 10 books on pain management and presents frequently on a variety of pain topics.
Here is what she had to say about pain management and her current work.
Question: What is the latest book you’re working on?
Answer: For many years, I thought primary care practitioners needed a book for pain management. The majority of people with chronic pain are showing up in primary care practices. Arthritis, osteoarthritis, migraines, other types of chronic pain, low back pain. They show up in a primary care office. Practitioners need some direction for patient management and support. I thought this is a book that was needed for a long time. It will be published in the first quarter of the year by Springer. It’s for health care providers—physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants; those folks that are seeing and prescribing medications.
Question: Why did you see a need for this book for health care providers?
Answer: Primary care physicians are being inundated with all these patients with chronic pain. They do see ones with acute pain like slips, trips and falls. The vast majority of low back pain and migraine and arthritis cases are seen in the primary care setting on a long-term basis. Many of the pain clinics send people back to primary care. This book is a long time coming. I’m enjoying writing it. It contains a lot of new and interesting materials that I think clinicians will be able to use efficiently.
Question: Is pain management different for men and women?
Answer: That’s an interesting question because it depends on which side of the gender gap you’re on. I wrote a book on women’s pain and can tell you that there are definite differences. Men use morphine efficiently. Women get a huge number of side effects. Women are seen as catastrophizing more. Women try to tough it out and self-treat it. It’s hard on women because they have to take care of kids, cook, clean and have a lot on their plate. When they have pain, it is more of an issue.
Question: Is it true women have a higher tolerance for pain?
Answer: Tolerance is defined as how much pain someone is willing to experience. Women do have a higher tolerance and are willing to experience a higher level of pain. Pain is produced along the same pathways in men and women. Men tend to want things taken care of. A woman by far and large probably would just keep going with her pain with a migraine. They keep pushing ahead, looking for something to take care of it.
Women’s pain is treated a lot differently. It’s minimalized and marginalized. Male doctors try to make it seem we’re complaining of something that isn’t quite as severe as it is. If you’re a minority woman, they have found that Hispanic and African American patients don’t get pain medications as readily in emergency rooms as patients who aren’t. It’s just part of that medical disparity because doctors just don’t seem to take their pain as seriously as other patients. It’s perceived that they’re just looking for medications, even when they’re not.
Question: What should women consider when seeking pain management?
Answer: Women looking for pain management physicians need to interview them. They want to work with someone who is empathetic to their condition and who is willing to commit to long-term follow up and support. They shouldn’t be focused only on medications. They should give a more holistic response. Women are more interested in essential oils and massage and acupuncture. Look for someone who includes that in your plan of care.
Anyone can prescribe medications. You need to make sure that the provider is someone you can rely on and trust. I feel sorry for women when get sent to a pain management specialist. I think they get categorized even before they get treated. You need to look for someone who is open-minded and listening to you and to what you’re saying about your pain. If not, you need to find someone else.
I encourage women to go on websites with patient testimonials about providers. I think women should spend more time looking at that, so they have a good idea of what other folks have experienced. They don’t need to feel bad if a provider they see doesn’t work for them. You can use the patient advocacy system that you’re working with and have them find a different provider. You don’t have to stick with someone you don’t like.
Question: What should women know about addictive pain management options?
Answer: There are a variety of things. Some patients with chronic pain do better with low doses of opioids. They have jobs and families and they do very well. They should know that there is the potential that they can develop a reliance on them. Women need to know that medications won’t take away all their pain.
The negative thing is that there is the potential for developing substance abuse: Those who take more pills than are prescribed; get early refills; get pills from a multitude of providers. You should be going to one doctor, not shopping around town. But there is always the potential that can happen. Medications do cause addiction for some. But they are a good fit and can provide a higher quality of life, for others. It just depends. Use the lowest dose for a shorter period of time. Health care providers can offer a trial to see if it’s effective. They’re looking at in healthier ways.
Question: Anything else you want to tell women about pain management?
Answer: Women need to be self-advocates. They can’t let the system take over. They can’t be afraid to disagree. They need to say, “That just doesn’t work for me,” and tell people what they need. If we can get more women to do that, we will be in good shape.
A disc extrusion, also known as a disc herniation, usually occurs from degeneration due to a disease like osteoarthritis or the natural aging process. Other causes may include injury, trauma, overexertion, illness, or obesity. Given the circumstances, disc extrusions are largely unpreventable and may heal on their own without surgery.
In most cases, an extruded disc will cause referred pain. Meaning, pain that is felt in an area other than where the disc extrusion was caused. Symptoms of disc extrusion generally include:
For minor cases of disc extrusion, surgery may not be necessary. Many extruded discs heal on their own. Nevertheless, treatment for pain that often accompanies disc extrusion may be necessary for some patients. Treatments usually include pain medication, steroid injections, nerve blocks, and more. If the extruded disc progresses into a severely damaged or herniated disc, patients may want to consider minimally invasive spine surgery.
Talk to your pain management physician at Chronicillness.co Site of United States about treatment for disc extrusion.
Whether you live in a bustling metropolis or a quiet rural area, chances are you’ve been touched by the opioid epidemic in some way—or you will be.
While many people can safely use prescription opioids, others end up addicted to them. In fact, most people who end up using heroin (an illegal opioid) started by using prescription opioids.
Women are more apt than men to suffer from chronic pain, which sometimes means using prescription opioids. Even if you never misuse opioids yourself, your spouse, child or other loved one might be struggling. As the likely gatekeeper for your family’s health, it makes sense that you’d want to find the best resources available—or perhaps even join forces with others in your community to develop new ones. While traditional drug rehabilitation programs (both inpatient and outpatient) play an important role, novel ideas are transforming how communities across the country are tackling this problem from all angles.
Here’s a look at a few unique approaches that are making a difference for women and families.
Many parents worry about keeping their teens drug-free, and school-based early intervention programs seem to be an effective way of making that happen. Research funded by the National Institute on Drug Use found that seventh graders who participated in a LifeSkills Training (LST) prevention intervention program were substantially less likely to misuse opioids compared to children in control communities.
The LST program has been implemented in schools in many states. The LST Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention materials can be ordered online, so it’s easy to get them for your local schools (with the support of your educators and administrators).
Substance abuse often runs in families due to both genetic and environmental factors. Camp Mariposa is a free program for children, ages 9 to 12, who have been impacted by a family member’s substance abuse issues. Campers attend several weekend retreats a year, during which they spend time with mentors, learn mindfulness skills to cope with trauma and gain confidence while participating in fun activities.
There are currently 13 Camp Mariposa locations throughout the U.S., and the organization is open to expanding by partnering with additional mental health and youth support groups.
The first national self-help addiction program created specifically for women, Women for Sobriety, can be used independently or in conjunction with other recovery programs. Weekly support groups are held across the U.S. and Canada. The organization also hosts an annual weekend retreat in June that features presentations on beginning sobriety, relapse prevention and overall health and wellness.
Having a baby isn’t easy; add an opioid use disorder to the mix and things get exponentially more complicated. The Moms in Recovery program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock aims to streamline care so that pregnant women and new moms with opioid use disorder can get prenatal and postpartum care as well as psychiatric counseling and medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction under one roof. The outpatient program also features an on-site food pantry and diaper bank and access to a pediatrician who handles monthly child wellness checkups and gives babies and moms key immunizations.
Opioid abuse disorder and problems with illegal drugs often go hand-in-hand, as heroin use among women doubled between 2003 and 2012. In Oregon, women who have been involved with the criminal justice system can get inpatient help at the Volunteers of America Oregon’s Women’s Residential Center in Multnomah County. Women live in transitional housing while participating in a program designed to prevent relapse and re-arrest. The program boasts a high success rate: Everyone who completes it moves to stable, sober housing, and most obtain solid employment or attend school afterward. Women who have children age 6 and younger can bring the kids with them to the facility.
Opioid use disorder doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and those who have become addicted to opioids aren’t the only ones who suffer. While family support groups abound—you can search for one near you at www.supportgroupproject.org—some Rhode Island residents have been working to heal and shatter the stigma by participating in a “therapeutic theatre production” through COAAST (Creating Outreach About Addiction Support Together). Participants rehearse and perform a short play, “Four Legs to Stand On,” about the impact of opioid abuse on a family, then engage in a “talkback” session designed to get audience members to share how they have been touched by this epidemic.
We’re featuring quick, easy-to-digest information on all things trigger points and referred pain. Continue reading to learn more about treatments for trigger points and referred pain.
Trigger points are palpable nodes in the muscle that are common in the upper back and shoulders. Chronic musculoskeletal disorders may lead to the development of trigger points in other areas of the body as well. Myofascial trigger points are similar but can occur in softer tissues like skin, ligaments, tendons, and scar tissue.
Referred pain is pain that is felt in an area other than where it is caused. Unfortunately, trigger points can cause referred pain, which may feel dull or achy in areas close to the trigger point. In addition to referred pain, trigger points may cause numbness, tingling, weakness, or false heart pain.
Trigger points can be treated with a variety of methods depending on how mild, moderate or severe the condition is. The pain management physicians at Chronicillness.co Site of United States treat trigger points and referred pain with trigger point injections. These unique injections contain a mixture of anesthetics or cortisone medication to deactivate the trigger point and provide subsequent relief. Learn more about trigger point injections by visiting our treatments page.
Other techniques like massage therapy, dry needling, and more may help with trigger point pain. Talk to the team at TPC to discuss treatment options for trigger points and referred pain.
