Suffering from Chronic Pain or Know Someone Who Is? Here’s What You Need to Know
Chronic pain patients in Canada have had it rough for a very long time.
Whether it’s lack of access or inability to afford proper care, doctors telling you it’s all in your head, or the effects of living in an incredibly cold climate, Canadians with chronic pain have no shortage of problems.
And it’s important to point out that in Canada, chronic pain patients aren’t just part of some tiny minority.
According to a report from the Canadian Pain Task Force published last year, nearly eight million Canadians suffer from chronic pain, which is quite a sizeable chunk of our population.
Even our founder here at Deez Skin Rejù & Pain Clinic, Dr. Dheshnie Thangavelu, has suffered from chronic pain for years.
Her experience with this ailment, not to mention the fact that she’s an anesthesiologist, makes her uniquely qualified to both treat people with chronic pain and speak about this subject.
We sat down with her to talk at length about chronic pain, how it’s affected her life, and how it affects the lives of countless other Canadians.
In addition, she wanted to offer some tips for those suffering from chronic pain, explain the kinds of chronic pain we treat, how we go about doing that, and what makes our approach so much different.
So, if you’re someone who suffers from chronic pain, you have a friend or family member who has to deal with it, or you just want to learn more about this topic, then this article is for you.
What is Chronic Pain?
Most of you probably know this already, but for the benefit of those who aren’t quite sure, we figured we should define it.
Simply put, chronic pain is any form of pain that has gone on continuously for more than three months.
This can be caused by a long list of factors, including surgeries, injuries, or things like arthritis, hyperesthesia, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis.
Dr. Dheshnie’s Experience with Chronic Pain
Dr. Dheshnie has been dealing with chronic pain since 2011, shortly after she arrived in Canada.
One day, she bent down to get her shoes out of her locker, and when she stood back up again, her back locked up, and she was in excruciating pain.
It was so bad that the nurses she was working with at the time had to help her put on her scrubs, and she couldn’t even push stretchers down the hallways anymore.
Several incidents occurred as precursors to her pain, including a severe car accident, and injuries sustained while she was working as a doctor in South Africa.
In addition, she also has hypermobility syndrome, which makes her joints extremely flexible. People with this condition can end up overstretching their bodies to the point of injury, but won’t be aware of what’s happened until they start feeling the pain sometime later.
Needless to say, dealing with this amount of pain has been agonizing for her, making it difficult for her to work, affecting her mental health, and impacting her personal life, as well.
That being said, unlike many doctors and even pain specialists, she’s intimately aware of what it means to have chronic pain.
What is it Like Living with Chronic Pain?
If you suffer from chronic pain, then you already know the answer to this, but for people who’ve never dealt with it before, we felt this was important to explain.
Aside from the obvious physical effects, chronic pain can have an intensely negative effect on your mental health, as the despair it inspires can cause severe depression and anxiety.
This can cause people to lose friendships, and even lose touch with family members, as the pain and other symptoms can be so bad that they don’t want to do anything or see anyone.
Sometimes the pain is so intense that people actually start to lose their minds, and this can result in them turning to substance abuse to try to numb the pain, or even resorting to suicide.
Simultaneously, because chronic pain is an invisible disability, it’s not unusual for friends or family members of chronic pain sufferers to refuse to believe that they’re actually in pain.
And believe it or not, it’s even common for doctors to refuse to believe that someone is suffering from chronic pain, and it can actually be very difficult to get proper treatment.
Here in Canada, the situation is unbelievably bad.
In an Angus Reid survey of Canadians with chronic pain, 23 per cent of respondents said they feel that “life isn’t worth living,” and more than a third of respondents said they’ve had difficulty accessing prescription pain medication, as many doctors in this country refuse to prescribe it.
A survey of chronic pain patients from the Chronic Pain Association of Canada received even more dire responses.
More than a third of respondents said, “their relationship with their doctors has deteriorated”, over 64 per cent said they’re considering suicide, 9.3 per cent said they’ve actually attempted suicide, and 15 per cent said they’re so desperate that they’ve resorted to buying pain medications from street dealers.
As you can tell, it’s not easy to live with chronic pain, especially in Canada, but luckily there’s still hope.
Tips for Those Suffering from Chronic Pain
As an anesthesiologist and someone who suffers from chronic pain, Dr. Dheshnie knows a lot about pain, and how to go about dealing with it.
So, she wanted to share some tips for chronic pain patients, in terms of things they should watch out for when trying to treat their pain.
Because while most doctors will try to do what’s in your best interests, sometimes what they recommend can actually hurt you instead of helping you.
Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy can be very beneficial for people trying to recover from injuries, but in some cases, it can actually make things worse.
Dr. Dheshnie went to a physiotherapy clinic for issues she was having with her neck, she did the recommended exercises, and it made everything worse, to the point where both of her hands went completely numb.
That being said, she wanted to warn people to be wary of excessive physiotherapy, as it can cause pain and other symptoms to worsen if you’re not careful.
Chiropractic
Although it can provide significant relief for some people, chiropractic is another form of treatment that certainly isn’t for everyone.
This treatment involves the manipulation of the body to treat misalignment of joints, especially those associated with the spine.
But in Dr. Dheshnie’s case, because she has hypermobility syndrome, and chiropractic treatment often involves putting the body into awkward positions, it can actually be incredibly dangerous for her.
So, whether you have hypermobility or not, you should be careful of chiropractic treatment, as it has the potential to injure you or make your pain worse.
Opioids
In Dr. Dheshnie’s opinion, opioid painkillers should only be used as a last resort, when all other treatment options have failed.
With that said, it’s important to acknowledge that opioids can provide substantial pain relief, but the fact of the matter is, these substances can be very dangerous.
In addition to being incredibly addictive, they’re also linked to a wide range of side effects, up to and including fatal overdoses.
So, before you start taking opioids, you should try as many alternatives as possible, as there are many effective treatment options that don’t carry the risk of such heavy side effects.
Cannabis
In recent years, cannabis has been advertised as a cure-all, but it’s not going to work for every ailment, and it’s certainly not for everyone.
In Dr. Dheshnie’s experience, CBD ointment can be extremely effective against all kinds of pain, and she actually uses it quite regularly to help deal with her pain.
However, in tablet or capsule form, CBD tends to be ineffective for pain patients, unless it’s combined with THC, so keep that in mind if you’re considering this treatment.
If your pain is very severe, THC alone can provide significant relief, but keep in mind that it has incredibly powerful psychoactive effects, so you’re not going to be able to function properly on this stuff, and it can practically incapacitate you if you’re not careful.
How Dr. Dheshnie Treats Chronic Pain
Here at Deez Skin Rejù & Pain Clinic, Dr. Dheshnie treats chronic pain using two methods: platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and Botox.
She uses Botox to treat patients suffering from migraines, bruxism, or issues with trigger points.
In the case of migraines or bruxism, it works by relaxing the muscles that are creating tension and therefore causing the pain.
When it comes to trigger points, she provides relief to patients, mainly through the action of the needle itself, which digs into the area(s) in question, while the Botox being injected helps to relax the muscle, making it easier to release the tension.
While it won’t work for everyone, some people swear by this treatment, as it’s the only thing that relieves their pain.
If you want to learn more about Botox, you should check out our article, which should tell you Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Botox Injections.
Dr. Dheshnie also uses PRP to treat patients who have issues with joints, tendons, or ligaments, such as plantar fasciitis, rotator cuff, tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, and biceps tendonosis.
This treatment uses plasma separated from the patient’s blood, modified to contain high concentrations of platelets, which are associated with the body’s healing processes. When injected, this plasma can help to regrow lost tissue and speed up the healing of injuries.
Similar to Botox, PRP isn’t going to help every patient, but many of Dr. Dheshnie’s patients say that one injection was enough to give them significant relief, and she’s yet to see a single patient who hasn’t been helped by this procedure.
However, because these treatments aren’t right for everyone, she won’t hesitate to suggest alternative forms of treatment, even if she can’t provide them herself.
In these cases, she prefers to recommend things like acupuncture, massage therapy, thermotherapies like saunas and steam rooms, or the use of cannabis products.
How Dr. Dheshnie’s Approach is Different
Dr. Dheshnie prides herself on providing individualized, compassionate care for chronic pain patients.
She will always listen to their concerns, take them seriously, and recommend the best possible option(s) to help them treat their pain, regardless of whether she offers them or not.
“I’m coming from a place of love,” she said, referring to how she approaches her consultations with chronic pain patients. “It’s not just about them paying me money.”
For example, because Botox and PRP treatments can be pretty pricey, she prefers to send new patients to try out a cheaper alternative first, such as acupuncture.
Or, if a client can’t afford the price of a Botox treatment, but they have extended health insurance that will cover it, she’ll refer them to a dentist for the treatment.
At any rate, as an anesthesiologist who suffers from chronic pain herself, there are few physicians who are better equipped to understand chronic pain and properly treat it.
And just like she does with the aesthetic procedures she performs, every treatment Dr. Dheshnie offers to patients, she’s already tried on herself, so she knows first-hand the kind of results you can expect.
Her main concern is always to help clients get to the bottom of things so they can find safe and effective treatments for their pain.
A pain consultation with Dr. Dheshnie typically takes anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour and a half, during which she will listen to the patient’s concerns about their pain, go through their medical history and perform a proper examination to try to figure out where the pain is coming from and how it originated, so she can ensure she’s recommending the best possible treatment(s).
Tired of dealing with doctors who don’t understand what you’re going through? Contact us today to schedule a pain consultation with Dr. Dheshnie.