A New Approach to Pain Mangement

Have you ever been on the ground playing with your grandchild or pet, or kneeling on a mat while tending to your garden, and when it’s time to stand up, a sharp pain hits your knee? Unfortunately, this is very common in individuals over the age of 50. Knee pain affects 20% of adults and can limit mobility, function, and reduce one’s quality of life.

There could be many reasons for knee pain such as osteoarthritis, patellofemoral pain syndrome, bursitis (inflammation from repeated pressure on the knee, such as kneeling for a long time, overuse, or injury) or even just a sprain.

When you are experiencing knee pain, or any pain, it is best to:

• Avoid activities that cause pain
• Rest
• Apply ice
• Keep your knee raised to reduce swelling
• Take over the counter pain medications (with your physician’s approval)

If, after some time, the knee pain doesn’t go away and increases in severity, it may be time to call your provider to explore additional pain management options.

ECHN has a new pain management program that utilizes a holistic individual approach to treat patients with mild-to-severe chronic pain issues. The ECHN Pain Management Program can help with knee pain as well as, hip and shoulder pain, nerve injury pain, headaches, cancer pain, pain in the neck and back and post-operative pain. Pain treatments include:

• Non-opioid pain treatments, such as pain injections, blocks, physical therapy and osteopathic manipulative medicine
• Cancer pain treatments like nerve blocks and ablation to dramatically reduce pain
• Integrative medicine, including massage therapy, reiki and acupuncture

ECHN’s pain management services can help you take back your life and live with less pain!

From our Patients

One grateful patient, who suffered from chronic knee pain even after undergoing a knee replacement surgery (an estimated 10% to 34% of patients experience long-term pain after total knee replacement), utilized ECHN’s pain management services and received a treatment of genicular radiofrequency ablation from Interventional Radiologist, Dr. Robert Gordon.

The genicular nerve ablation is a minimally invasive procedure and is a 3-part series. The first 2 procedures are nerve block injections scheduled 2 weeks apart. The nerve block is used to determine whether the patient would be a good candidate for the ablation. If the nerve blocks are successful, the genicular nerve ablation is scheduled 1 week following the second nerve block. Each procedure takes less than 45 minutes and the patient is free to leave immediately following. A local anesthetic is administered for comfort, and sedation is not necessary. After a few days, the patient should notice a decrease in pain and continued improvement in the following weeks.

After undergoing this treatment, our patient has seen a significant decrease in overall pain. They are now walking approximately 5 miles a day, walking up and down the stairs, tending to their garden, all with no pain! Something that wasn’t even possible before the procedure. They described the procedure and its benefits as “fabulous and life – changing”!

“I wanted to express the wonderful experience with the ablation procedure. I was getting depressed and gaining weight because of my knee pain after my knee replacement. I was unable to keep up with friends while walking and the worst was not being able to keep up with my grandchildren. I am 65 and felt like I was 85 years old.

ECHN’s Dr. Gordon and his team took great care of me during the procedure! He explained what he was doing every step of the way and they all made sure I was comfortable.

Now I can walk much longer and without pain. It had been a long time since I had seen ten thousand steps on my activity app but that’s what I can do most days now. I love that I no longer dread going out to my garden and being in pain; I enjoy it again!

I am now able to take walks with my girls and my grandchildren. I didn’t realize how much I was missing out on, but now I don’t have to!

I never believed my knee would be without pain again. I’m so glad I had someone who encouraged me to do this and would recommend this procedure and especially Dr. Gordon and his team to anyone suffering from debilitating pain.”

– Mary, Grateful Patient

If you want to learn more about the pain management options available to you, please talk to your primary care provider who can help provide information about ECHN’s services. You can also visit our webpage!