Attributed to the complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), this condition causes debilitating pain to an individual’s back, neck, or extremities that can last for months, years, or a lifetime. Employees who suffer from work-related injuries may be left with chronic, enervating pain, even after maximum medical improvement (MMI). At this point, no further treatment can help improve a patient’s condition. Lucky for them, New York Spine Specialist is here to help.
Common work-related injuries that result in chronic pain include soft tissue injuries, acute pain from back injuries, broken and crushed bones, shoulder injuries, repetitive stress injuries like carpal tunnel, burns, and different traumatic injuries.
What Is the Procedure When You Get Hurt at Work?
Going about your daily life can be challenging if you deal with or manage pain involving a work injury. Chronic pain makes it nearly impossible to sleep and perform daily routines like work, school, or attend to other duties. If you are dealing with chronic pain due to a work-related injury, you need to seek medical attention as soon as possible. Your primary care physician will diagnose your symptoms and provide treatment options such as anti-inflammatory medication or ointments.
If these treatment options fail to ease your pain, you will need to consult a spinal specialist who will properly diagnose your injury and develop a treatment plan to alleviate your pain. Here at New York Spine Specialist, we understand that chronic pain can cause uncertainty or anxiety, primarily if you work in an occupation that requires lifting or bending or is physically active. We can give you a medical diagnosis and recommend the proper treatment for your pain, helping you return to tip-top shape in no time.
What Are the Issues With Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain can leave an injured worker unable to perform job tasks or daily living responsibilities. It can lead to an impaired range of motion, loss of mobility, or decreased strength when an individual attempts to guard against movements that elicit sharp pain.
Individuals suffering from chronic pain may also resort to narcotic medications to decrease pain. However, their side effects may make it unsafe for users to operate machinery or drive vehicles, potentially rendering them unfit to work or perform job duties.
Lastly, chronic pain can cause significant mental and emotional distress. It can interfere with concentration. Furthermore, loss of quality life due to chronic pain triggers anxiety and depression, which affects an individual’s ability to work or perform daily living tasks.
Chronic Pain Management after a Work-Related Injury
Chronic pain is a primary issue for injured workers. Additionally, it is challenging to solve. Luckily, our medical providers at New York Spine Specialist are familiar with the treatment options for chronic pain. Some of the long-term pain management treatment methods we can recommend for workplace injuries include:
- Psychological Treatment. If your chronic pain leads to feelings of sadness, anger, hopelessness that affect your motivation, energy levels, and relationships with other people, you may need psychological treatment. This may include cognitive-behavioral therapy and prescription medication, including anti-anxiety medication and antidepressants.
- Muscle Relaxants. Muscle spasms may develop after a work injury. Sometimes they can be visible on diagnostic testing. To treat them, doctors may prescribe muscle relaxants like Soma, Robaxin, Baclofen, or Flexeril. If the spasms continue even after receiving relaxants, we could apply trigger point injections whereby a health care provider targets the trigger point and applies an anesthetic.
- Topical Pain Relievers. Ointments, sprays, creams, patches, and lotions can be used to treat chronic pain. Apply them to your skin directly, right on top of the painful region. Patches can be placed elsewhere on the body and still be effective.
- Pain Medications. These strong painkillers can only be obtained with a doctor’s prescription. Opioid pain medications account for a large percentage of workers’ comp drug claim expenses each year. Studies also link them to side effects like constipation, nausea, addiction, drowsiness, or death after an overdose. Psychiatric disorders and issues such as the patient’s age may also affect treatment and are thus assessed beforehand. Other risk factors include addiction due to extended use of opioids, overdosing, or even mixing the different drugs with sleeping pills, alcohol, and other prohibited commodities, which could lead to adverse conditions like sleep apnea, COPD, respiratory illnesses, and heart failure, among others.
- Physical Therapy. Shockwave modalities, joint mobilization, exercises, electrotherapy, and stretching can be used to treat chronic pain, arthritis, cartilage damage, and degenerative disc disease intensified by work injuries.
- Chiropractic Treatment and Massage. Suitable for shoulder pain, neck pain, and back pain, this pain management option involves manually manipulating your underlying bones and vertebrae, along with massaging your soft tissues to minimize stress and tension by increasing blood flow.
- Epidural Steroid Injections. Suppose you suffer a joint injury at work, like a torn ACL, ankle injury, knee injury, back injury, or a hip injury. In that case, your healthcare provider may recommend you undergo an epidural steroid injection. The epidural steroid injection is also applied to some neck injury cases. It involves injecting an anti-inflammatory into the region surrounding your pain. Epidural injections work by relieving pain and reducing swelling on the irritated nerve or neuropathic pain.
What Steps Should You Take After Sustaining a Work-Related Injury?
The first step you should take after sustaining an injury at work is getting appropriate first aid. Next, you should report your injury or injuries to your supervisor, which will help you with your workers’ compensation claim. First aid is vitally important after an injury because it provides relief and prevents your injury from worsening. If you are still in pain after receiving first aid, you can manage your pain using at-home care; however, if the pain becomes persistent or prevents you from performing your job or day-to-day activities, you should consult your primary care physician.
Consulting an experienced physician is in your best interest because, after an accident, adrenaline can distract you from painful sensations, causing you to lack immediate sensitivity to pain or other symptoms. Here at New York Spine Specialist, we can examine your injury symptoms, including diagnostic imaging studies, and get you started on the proper treatment before symptoms worsen.
Finally, you need to ensure that you follow your treatment plan. At New York Spine Specialist, we provide customized treatment plans to alleviate your pain and enhance function for your daily life activities. We might prescribe nerve blocks, pain medication, or steroid injections to minimize your pain depending on your needs. We also incorporate physical therapy in most recovery plans as it helps patients safely rebuild flexibility, stamina, and strength.
Do not delay treatment after a work-related injury. Call our office to schedule an appointment today.
Schedule Appointment With New York Pain Management Specialist
Are you suffering from chronic pain due to a work injury? New York Spine Specialist can help. We are specialists in the interventional treatment of chronic pain, providing interventions and procedures to alleviate symptoms from work-related injuries such as aches and pain, tenderness, stiffness, swelling, tingling, and numbness. We also treat all types of pain from work-related injuries, including back and neck pain, scoliosis, sciatica, herniated discs, and spinal stenosis.
Our physicians, physician assistants, and surgeons specialize in non-narcotic treatment for chronic pain and work collaboratively to develop treatment plans customized to each patient’s needs. Our underlying goal is to decrease pain, improve your quality of life, and enhance your ability to perform activities of daily living.
Contact us today at (516) 355-0111 or request an appointment by completing our contact form. Our doctors accept workers’ compensation, no-fault, medical liens, and other health insurance plans. We are ready to help you get back to living pain-free!
