Chronic pain can invade every aspect of your life, limiting your ability to work, socialize, or perform activities of daily living. Cooking meals, walking the dog, or attending a neighborhood cookout are often too painful to consider.
Award-winning pain management physician Dr. John S. Michels at ISP Health in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, is committed to relieving your pain and restoring your mobility, thus improving your overall quality of life.
His services include minimally invasive therapies to relieve pain arising from arthritis, herniated discs, nerve damage, sports and overuse injuries, and chronic conditions like failed back surgery syndrome and complex regional pain syndrome.
Read when and why Dr. Michels may consider spinal cord stimulation (SCS), a type of neuromodulation, for chronic pain.
Spinal cord stimulation involves implanting a small battery-powered device (usually in the flank or lower back region) that delivers gentle electrical pulses to the spinal cord. The pulses disrupt pain signals before they reach the brain, reducing pain sensation.
Advanced technology in these programmable devices offers the best possible outcome for your pain level and type. A pre-implantation trial period ensures SCS meets your needs and expectations.
Chronic pain conditions that may respond to SCS include:
Researchers are also studying whether SCS can help control nerve pain caused by shingles (postherpetic neuralgia) and other treatment-resistant pain conditions.
Dr. Michels may recommend SCS for the following:
If you’ve tried conservative approaches like physical therapy, pain medications, injections, and/or surgery without relief, SCS may offer a solution.
Long-term use of opioids or other painkillers can lead to dependency and unwanted side effects. SCS provides a drug-free alternative for managing pain.
Conditions like failed back surgery syndrome occur when previous surgeries do not alleviate pain. SCS can help where surgeries have not succeeded.
When chronic pain prevents you from working, sleeping, or enjoying everyday activities, SCS can help.
Dr. Michels develops personalized treatment strategies for these complex issues. He may, for instance, combine physical therapy, injection-based treatments, and advanced therapies like SCS if more conservative measures don’t provide adequate results.
You’ll also appreciate the reversible trial phase available with SCS, which ensures you experience a noticeable reduction in pain and improved quality of life before proceeding. You actually get to test the device for 5-10 days to make sure you receive life-changing pain relief.
You don’t have to live with chronic pain. Schedule a visit with Dr. Michels by calling ISP Health today.
