People who have chronic pain can visit a pain management doctor to see what’s causing it and come up with ways to treat it.

Sameh Hanna, a pain management physician at Comanche County Memorial Hospital, says he treats people with neck, back, and joint problems. He says they just started treating patients with cancer.

“So we have that ability to treat our patient with cancer pain. This is something that we’ve been working on over the last few years, and it’s working very well.”

They’re also treating patients with spastic problems.

“Spasticity is a musculoskeletal problem that comes from something like cerebral palsy or post-stroke patient who has a stroke and has certain difficulty with muscle movement.”

Dr. Hanna says there are different methods as to how a person’s pain is treated. One way they treat patients with nerve problems is through nerve burning.

“It reduces the nerve supply that goes and supplies that joint or goes and supplies the back, and that’s how it’s beneficial, and usually it’s done after we do joint injections, knee injections, or hip injections, and it’s not working anymore.”

He says he’s seeing more and more older patients complaining of joint pain. He says they’re complaining of chronic neck and back pain or joint pain because of arthritis.

“We always like to incorporate physical therapy because that helps patients with back pain, neck pain, or arthritis problems because that’s usually the recommended treatment for arthritis or joint pain related to arthritis or neck pain related to arthritis.”

If a patient needs pain medication, he says he tries to start patients on a weaker medication that is less addictive and causes less dependence.

“Of course, we have to try the nonopioid approach of medication, and that includes a wide range of medications. When we fail, we look at starting the patient on chronic opioids therapy, and as I said before, I choose something in the arena of schedule three, not schedule two.”

If a patient needs opioids, they meet with Dr. Hanna every three months to make sure they’re okay, and the medication isn’t impacting their lifestyle.

If someone is dealing with chronic pain, he says they need to be active.

“That is the best way to try to beat the chronic pain syndrome problem.”

He says that can be through stretches at home or physical therapy.

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