John S. Michels, MD, is a pain management doctor with a thriving practice in Dallas, Texas. As a former NFL Super Bowl champion (Green Bay Packers) who retired due to a career-ending injury, he has a unique compassionate perspective on the complex nature of pain and how it can impact your daily activity.
Today, Dr. Michels is a top-rated and well-respected expert in interventional pain medicine. He focuses on relieving pain by addressing conditions like peripheral neuropathy at the source. His goal is to provide long-lasting relief from your symptoms and prevent pain from controlling your life.
Dr. Michels is happy to provide information regarding peripheral neuropathy and the treatments he finds highly effective in managing this painful nerve disorder.
Peripheral neuropathy is a condition that affects the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. Depending on which nerves are affected, you may experience pain in your legs and feet, loss of sensation in certain areas, unexplained drops in blood pressure, muscle weakness, and a variety of other symptoms that can make life difficult.
Oral medications can help but often fail to control the painful sensations adequately.
Nerves associated with peripheral neuropathy include:
Damage to your sensory nerves, whether caused by disease or injury, can result in pain that may include:
You may also notice a sock-glove phenomenon, or the feeling that you’re wearing socks or gloves when you’re not.
Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy generally begin gradually and progress over time. They often start in the feet and/or hands and move upward into the arms or legs but can occur wherever there are peripheral nerves.
The symptoms may occur periodically but often become much more frequent, even constant as the nerve damage progresses.
A priority in controlling peripheral neuropathy is addressing the injury or condition, such as diabetes, that is causing the symptoms. Tight control of your blood sugar if you have diabetes, for instance, can help prevent progression of the nerve damage.
A healthy diet that includes whole grains, leafy greens, vegetables, lean meats, eggs and fatty fish (which are high in Omega-3 fatty acids) provides valuable nutrients for nerves. Routine exercise as well as avoiding repetitive motions that put pressure on your nerves is also helpful.
Advanced interventional treatments that Dr. Michels has found highly effective in his practice include:
These injections include a local anesthetic and steroids delivered to the epidural space near the affected nerves, which runs along your spinal cord. This relieves the inflammation and pain caused by irritated nerves.
Spinal cord stimulation uses painless electrical pulses to block communication between your nerves and the brain, effectively silencing the faulty pain sensations transmitted from damaged peripheral nerves.
The treatment is targeted at a bundle of sensory nerves in the epidural space, called the dorsal root ganglion. This approach uses spinal cord stimulation to treat a more focused area than what’s possible with other stimulation techniques.
For solutions to your peripheral neuropathy pain, schedule a visit with Dr. Michels today. Call his office or request an appointment online.
