Preparing for Your First Visit
The day before your appointment, you will receive a reminder call. Please arrive 30 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment and bring the following:
- A current medication list
- Your insurance card
- A photo ID such as a driver’s license or ID card
- Results of any MRI, X-Ray, CT, EMG or diagnostic test related to your condition
- Relevant medical records, especially those from other pain management physicians
During Your First Visit – What to Expect
1) At your appointment, our nurses and physicians will ask a series of questions to understand your pain:
- Where are you hurting?
- How bad is the pain?
- How would you describe your pain?
- When do you experience the pain – is it constant or does it come and go?
- What seems to help and what doesn’t?
- How is this impacting your life?
2) Your physician will conduct a thorough medical examination to identify the cause of your pain. Evaluation techniques include:
- Physical examination
- Neurological examination
- Musculoskeletal examination
Additional evaluation techniques may include:
- Diagnostic nerve blocks
- Diagnostic tests (x-ray, CT scan, MRI, PET scan)
- Electromyography (nerve conduction studies)
3) The Spine & Pain team will present a comprehensive treatment plan to bring you real relief.
Your nurse navigator will be your partner through every step of the process - before, during, and after your first appointment. They will answer any questions you may have and coordinate your care with our teams.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pain management is an interdisciplinary approach to diagnosing, treating, and controlling pain. It helps those living with acute or chronic pain, along with their family members and caregivers, learn to manage the pain in safe, effective, responsible and healthy ways to improve or maintain their overall well-being.
Components of a comprehensive and balanced pain management plan include:
- physical therapy and rehabilitation
- minimally-invasive injection-based therapy
- medication management (non-addictive pain medications)
- psychological counseling
- social support
- complementary approaches
Our balanced and comprehensive pain management program includes the use of safe and appropriate medications. The Rochester Regional Health Spine and Pain Center does not routinely recommend opioid therapy for chronic noncancerous pain.
Additionally, we utilize a team approach to ensure that people with pain can improve their quality of life, increase functioning and reduce suffering.
People develop pain for many reasons. Pain from a recent surgery, injury or medical illness is called acute pain. In most cases, acute pain can be managed immediately and will improve on its own. For more serious pain, however, you may need help from a pain management doctor to help manage your pain throughout the healing process.
If your pain persists after the healing process is over, you might be suffering from chronic pain. If your current course of treatment stops working, or your pain worsens, a pain management doctor is best able to assist.
Spine pain involving the back or neck that persists beyond six weeks requires evaluation for an accurate and quick diagnosis. In general, earlier evaluation leads to greater diagnostic accuracy and faster relief.
Cancer pain is another condition that can be managed by a pain management doctor. The pain can be due to cancer surgery or treatment procedures, including radiation therapy and chemotherapy, or the tumor itself. Pain management can prove beneficial during or after cancer treatment.
Yes, as long as your insurance allows it. Before you come in for your consultation, we ask that you obtain previous medical records from physicians who have treated your condition. These allow us to design the most effective treatment plan.
We understand the urgency of severe pain and will make every attempt to accommodate your needs.
For your best results, it is very important to follow your provider’s full treatment plan, including recommended exercises, physical therapy, or weight reduction. Physical therapy is intended to keep your muscles from becoming too stiff or deteriorating. Healthy strong support muscles are vital to preventing and controlling spinal and hip pain.
Call your Nurse Navigator and tell them what you are feeling. We may need to repeat your treatment or procedure. If the pain is coming from another source, we will work to quickly diagnose the cause.
A spinal cord stimulator is an implanted device that alleviates pain by sending low levels of electrical impulses directly to the spinal cord.
The device consists of thin wires (the electrodes) and a small, pacemaker-like battery pack (the generator). The electrodes are placed between the spinal cord and the vertebrae (the epidural space), and the generator is placed under the skin, usually near the buttocks or abdomen. Spinal cord stimulators allow patients to send the electrical impulses using a remote control when they feel pain. Both the remote control and its antenna are outside the body.
Spinal cord stimulation is used most often after nonsurgical pain treatment options have failed to provide sufficient relief.