What is Comprehensive Pain Management?
Our comprehensive pain management is conceived of different types of pain medications mixed together. These medications include ketoprofen, dexamethasone, lidocaine, ketamine, cyclobenzaprine, and gabapentin. We use these in different variations and strengths to make up what will work for you. These are made into a plo gel for the best delivery possible. Our compounders have gone to seminars to learn about the different delivery systems for our plo gels. We use lipoderm for better absorption without a sticky feeling. We also make a numerous amount of other pain medications that are unavailable commercially. This includes alternate strengths of commercially available pain medications.
Whether you stubbed your toe, broke your arm, or scratched your leg, all you want to do is take away the pain you have. It could take a few minutes or even a few months, but once pain hits, all you want is pain management. However, the way pain is managed can vary depending on several factors. The kind of pain management used to treat something painful depends on the intensity, duration, aggravating and relieving conditions, and structures that caused the pain in the first place. While it would be easier to think to put on a Band-Aid would fix everything, pain management works on a case by case basis. To know how to treat certain injuries, it is important to know what type of injury it is in the first place.
Case by Case: What is Pain?
Pain, by definition, is an unpleasant sensation and emotional experience linked to tissue damage. Once there is tissue damage, it gives the body the chance to begin to fix it and resolve your pain. Pain can be either short-term or long-term, but because the experience of being in pain is different for everyone, it can be difficult to define and treat. There are two ways of dividing the sources of pain to make it easier to pinpoint, diagnose, and begin healing.
Nociceptive Pain
Nociceptive pain is the kind of pain you first associate the feeling with. It is a cut or a broken toe, something that hurts in parts of your body like the legs, arms, and back. With nociceptive pain, tissue damage or an injury sends the brain a signal that something hurts in the first place through peripheral nerves through the spinal cord. This pain is usually described as a sharp, aching, or throbbing pain. It can also be caused by cancer spreading through the bones, muscles, or joints. Nociceptive pain can further be split into two categories to help define what is hurting and what to do with the information.
Radicular Pain
This kind of pain can be found in the nerves, towards the lower part of the spine. Radicular pain stems from the irritation of the nerve roots in the spine. A person who experiences radicular pain will feel radiculopathy, which is a weakness, numbness, tingling or loss of reflexes in the distribution of the nerve. It is most commonly felt in the neck and lower back. Somatic Pain: Also known as skin pain, tissue pain, or muscle pain, somatic pain reacts to factors such as temperature and vibrations. Additionally, it can also come from swelling in the skin, joints, and muscles. Somatic pain can either be superficial in the skin or deep in the internal organs.
Neuropathic Pain
Unlike nociceptive pain, neuropathic pain is caused by damage or disease that affects the nervous system. About 1 in 3 Americans experience chronic pain and of those, 1 in 5 experience neuropathic pain.
Because of where it impacts the body, neuropathic pain is deeper and more serious. It can happen spontaneously, such as the pain felt after nerves are cut or after a stroke. It can also be constant pain or occur randomly. Neuropathic pain can also get worse over time or get better. A few examples of neuropathic pain are reflex sympathetic dystrophy, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome. The key to treating neuropathic pain is to begin to learn the four common causes of it.
Accidents – Let’s say you’re playing a sport and you get a concussion. While you may physically be able to heal and recover, there might be permanent damage to the nervous system. As a result, you might feel pain long after the injury is considered healed. Any accident that causes injuries to the tissue, muscles, or joints can cause neuropathic pain. Anything that injures the spine can also cause neuropathic pain due to the sensitive nerve fibers located there. Infection – An infection that causes neuropathic pain might cause long-term unexplained pain. Individuals with HIV or AIDS feel this pain, and feel it for a long time. Other infections, like syphilis, causes burning, unexplained pain.
Surgery – In cases of surgeries that involve amputating an individual’s legs or arms, you will still feel pain but it is a different kind of pain. ‘Phantom pain’ is when your brain still thinks it is receiving pain signals from the removed body part(s). Instead, your body’s nerves near the amputated area are sending faulty signals to the brain and as a result, the person feels the pain that is not there.
Disease – While having a disease does not guarantee to feel neuropathic pain, it is a possibility. Individuals with cancer will feel a tingly sensation in their hands and feet due to cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation – sometimes even losing all feeling in those body parts. Those with diabetes can also feel numbness and loss of feeling in their limbs; unfortunately, diabetes is responsible for 30 percent of all neuropathic pain.
Starting Comprehensive Pain Management
Due to the range of possible ways for pain management, there are many different types of pain medications. Additionally, because not every person is the same, there are various ways to treat your pain. Whether they like creams, gels, or any other alternative to pills, your pain can easily become managed with comprehensive pain management.
One of the best ways to start comprehensive pain management is to turn to a pharmacy that compounds their medication. Compounding provides customized solutions for a patient’s need. It also provides alternatives to pills so a patient’s body can easily and safely absorb the medicine, such as candy, lozenges, and creams. This form of medicine is especially helpful to patients who refuse medication, such as young children or elderly patients, those who have a hard time swallowing pills, and anyone with allergies.
At Sherry’s Drugs, they customize your medication to not only adjust to your specific pain but in a way that is comfortable for you too. Since each person experiences pain differently, they make sure their compounded medication is what is going to work for you. For example, Sherry’s Drug can mix medications such as ketoprofen, dexamethasone, lidocaine, ketamine, cyclobenzaprine, and gabapentin into a PLO-gel, a medicated cream. Sherry’s Drug also specializes in making creams that are comfortable, absorb into the skin better, and are not sticky. They can also make the medication as strong as you would like and need.
Sherry’s Drug offers this unique service for its customers, one that many pharmacies do not even have. Their ability to compound even over the counter medication means their customers have more options to choose from. Sherry’s Drug has been helping customers feel better since 1982 and you could benefit too! Call us today at (405) 341-1683 to learn more about your pain comprehensive management options.