The Doctor’s Pain Points

 JULY 9, 2022      Imagine if someone that you never met told you that you had to wait to move into your house that you bought through a licensed realtor. Or suppose you could not drive your beautiful new car that was sold to you until some random person looked things over but not until 3 to 4 weeks after the sale. It just seems crazy, right?! Well, that’s how many of the tests and procedures are handled within pain management. As a doctor, I perform a thorough history and examination and document my reasons for ordering a test or interventional injection procedure. However, the patient’s insurance company is often giving the yes-or-no response before anything is done. Worse than a delay is the often confusing and vague reasons for denial.      This is unfortunately all too common in medicine as a whole and pain management in particular. There is medical evidence that serves as guidelines for treatment but often the decision-making control is wrestled...

  JULY 2, 2022 I have to admit that I had no idea what a pain management physician was when I entered medical school. Truth be told, I did not even know that such a specialty existed. It all makes so much sense now but at the time I had not a clue. It was not until my later years of medical school that my career as I know it really started to take shape. At first, I wanted to be a heart or brain surgeon but then changed and set my sights on being an orthopedic surgeon. However, through fate, misfortune, or God’s calling, I did not match into orthopedics and instead trained in anesthesiology. It was during my anesthesiology training that I set my sights on being a “pain doctor.” As an anesthesiology-trained interventional pain specialist, I serve patients at the intersection of orthopedics, rehabilitation, counselor, diagnostician, and coach. I enjoy the work that I do and how I am able to help people. The interplay of pharmacological and biological knowledge and the technical sk...