How should I view my pain?

Pain is a very broad way of describing your mind’s way of informing you of a negative impulse that is persistently originating from a specific area of your body. Pain may be illustrated along a wide spectrum of interpretations and presentations, taking into account many important metrics used for diagnosis and treatment such as pain intensity, transience, functionality, and overall quality of life. Pain can also be classified into different characterizations, most typically under the patient’s description of the pain itself- as an example, dull and ahcy vs. stabbing and burning. Furthermore, pain is categorized as acute or chronic, which typically describes how long the pain has persisted- e.g “I’ve had this pain since yesterday when I jammed my finger in the doorway” vs “I’ve been having this shooting pain in the back of my shoulder ever since my shoulder surgery from 2 years ago.” The inquiry into pain presentations goes far beyond the scope of this conversation, but it underscores a fundamental question of why medical professionals are searching for new ways of treating their patients’ pain. Isn’t pain just a symptom that a quick stop to the pharmacy for some advil can fix? For hundreds of years, physicians and providers have treated their patients’ pain with many different classes of medications while balancing the benefits against their side effects. But over the years, medical evidence and research has shown that most medications are limited to treating pain only with a “broad brush,” which makes them less effective and far too often introduces new risks to patients’ overall health. And on this basis emerged the concept of interventional pain therapy, because it addresses this limitation through a targeted approach for treatment of specific pain syndromes and diseases.