The first step in finding pain relief should be with a medical provider that you trust. Pain occurs in the body for many reasons. Pain is a communication tool your body has with the purpose of letting you know that you need to pay attention to something that is injured or not functioning properly. Your medical provider can help decipher what your body is trying to tell you. There are many ways to bring relief from pain, especially chronic pain.
Discovering the reason for the pain will help determine how to treat the pain. Pain is a symptom and relieving it is just one step in becoming healthy. Once the reason is determined your medical provider will discuss alternative ways to alleviate the pain or at least to manage it better.
Physical therapy is one method of dealing with pain. This is usually a highly effective method of coping with pain, especially chronic pain. While you are attending physical therapy, you will meet a therapist who will teach you self-management skills. During therapy you will learn how to build strength and improve your range of motion. You will also learn how to make better decisions regarding activity levels during pain flare-ups. Physical therapy is often used in combination with drug-therapy as the best method of coping with debilitating pain that left untreated causes the patient to lose function and mobility.
Patients who deal with not only pain but swelling as well, such as those with osteoarthritis will find that physical therapy can decrease the extent at which inflammation occurs.
Physical therapy can even decrease recurrences of certain back and neck pain. Your therapist may use one or both of the following techniques to bring relief from acute pain before doing any other physical therapy. The two methods are: electrical stimulation and ice/heat/ultrasonic therapy. These techniques work well and are designed to provide pain relief so that you can better manage your physical therapy routine. Once the edge has been taken off your pain, therapy can be resumed. The therapist may use a combination of massage and stretches. Your therapist will do an initial assessment and then periodic assessments to determine your pain status and how the underlying reason for the pain is progressing.
Other treatments that may be initiated by the physical therapist during the course of your therapy are: medications, injections, and manual manipulations depending on the extent of your injuries, surgical recuperation or disease (depending on what is causing your pain). It is common for your therapy to include many different treatments. All of these treatments have one goal: to provide you with pain relief that will allow you to regain function and mobility and best of all, to lessen or relieve your pain.
You need to be an active partner with your therapist by letting him or her know what level of pain you are experiencing with each treatment. You will most likely be given therapy exercises to do at home in between your therapy sessions. These home exercises are important to your continued pain relief and should be done to the best of your ability and for as long as your therapist prescribes you to do them.
If the pain you are experiencing is in your back your therapist will give you a series of stretching, strengthening and low-impact aerobic exercises to do. These exercises are designed to stretch and ease any stiffness you may be experiencing, as well as to strengthen your back muscles. Your therapist will be happy to explain in detail, what each therapy will entail before starting with it and to answer and questions you have.
