Rodney Brunson, D.O. is a Board Certified Family Physician treating chronic pain, chronic pain medication management. He treats complications that may occur from chronic pain medications. He also provides treatment of chemical abuse and chronic pain medication misuse and abuse.
Dr. Rodney C. Brunson, D.O. is dedicated to providing patients with relief from chronic and persistent pain. Recent medical advances, along with a new understanding of the physiology of chronic pain, make it possible to accurately diagnose and effectively treat many types of persistent pain previously thought untreatable. Health care professionals offer a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to pain relief and rehabilitation therapies coordinated to manage chronic pain syndromes. Dr. Rodney C. Brunson, D.O. is board certified and have specialized training in pain management.
Doctor’s Note
If you have suffered with pain for a long time, then you have learned that some doctors are not very good at making your pain better for any prolonged period of time. We are skilled at making your pain better for short periods of time or prolonged periods of time. You can ask just about any person that you know who may have had treatment by a doctor for chronic pain “was your pain relieved for as long as you would have liked it to have been?” You’ll likely find that the answer was no. We can not promise you that we will make your pain better for long periods of time, but we can promise that we’ll do everything we can to make your pain go away completely and permanently, or at least a lot better than you were before receiving treatment. What is true is, depending on your particular problem, the longer you stay in treatment, you will either keep getting better or you will get worse much more slowly. So if I can’t make you better, then I will do all I can to slow down your worsening and keep you functioning as normal as possible for as long as possible. After all, you probably have more things to think about every day than pain somewhere in your body. My goal is to keep you at work or engaged with the the things that you love to do and in a nearly pain-free manner.
My Practice
My chronic pain patients will see me, a medical doctor, for each scheduled visit. My practice is private. That is, I am one of the only approx. 35% of doctors in this country who choose to not be employed or owned by a large hospital or group of doctors. Just to give you a frame of reference I am a solo practitioner with a small practice. Patients are carefully selected for appointments with only me. If past medical records are available, every attempt is made to review those records before the initial office visit. I use available information technology, an on site CLIA WAIVED laboratory employing a medical technologist, and I’m personally serving as the laboratory director. Our laboratory fees are incorporated into your bill and are the most affordable that you will find, in my opinion). Patients are seen by me, the physician, at least on a monthly basis for follow-up. You will see on this website my different areas of medical practice I focus on.
The goal of this pain practice is to get to know you as an individual first. To make you feel at ease and comfortable with me and to never feel intimidated. Then I’ll need to empathize with you and to get to know what your pain is like. Then I have a discussion with you about your previous pain treatments, and how you are getting along living with your pain. You will receive a relevant, general and focused physical examination with special attention to your neuromuscular skeletal systems. Then I put everything together by making you think back as early in your life as possible (maybe as early as childhood but at least elementary school) to see how events in your life may have played a role in the evolution of you current physical state, if any. Finally, I can come up with a plan to help you to manage your pain. You would be correct in assuming that this will be a time consuming process. Most patients express relief that an extended amount of time was spent with them finally.
Simple Basics About Pain
Normally, but not always, the cause of your pain is known to you. Pain is a signal from some part of the body to the brain to make you aware that something has been or is injured somewhere in the body. Normally, such injuries will heal and return to normal (e.g. Return to normal after about five minutes for a bump or bruise; three months for a strain, sprain, or maybe even a broken small bone). At about three months approx. your pain is considered CHRONIC. Chronic pain may eventually go away, but if not, we may start using the term PERMANENT PAIN.
It may be a burning sensation, a shooting or shock-like sensation. These differing sensations may be caused by differing insults to your body. One final definition that you may have seen written on one of your prescription forms is CHRONIC INTRACTABLE PAIN. This term means that no matter how the doctor has tried to treat your pain, it stubbornly does not get better and is not expected to. It is there all the time, 24/7.
In any case, the chronic or permanent pain may become an overwhelming or dominant, consuming thought everyday. It may cause you to complain about it to others, and sometimes to incessantly complain. The pain may cause you to limit your participation in family activities, sports, work duties, and social functions in general.
Some persons live with pain by putting it in the background of their mind, everyday. That way they may be able to function, seemingly to others, quite normally. The pain may become less severe. But In others, pain may not be able to be regulated to the background in the mind, or it may not diminish in severity. In any case, in my opinion, pain should be treated in some way, and the goal being to give one his or her life back, allowing participation in the activities of daily living, hopefully in a pain free manner; or at least to live a life that is more comfortable. My goal is to help to restore you to your pre-pain level of functioning so that you will again have a high quality of life.
Can A Pain-Free Life Be Achieved?
It is unlikely that the person with chronic pain will return to a zero pain level (but that depends on what the pathology was initially). Some conditions may be completely and totally resolve, but that is rare. My success rate for managing pain borders on 60 – 75% reduction of pain. That is the normal range for most pain treatment attempts. So the first helpful point I make with my patients is to let them know that “you will not achieve zero pain.” But a 60 – 70% decrease in pain is not something that is unreasonable for someone to shoot for. Some persons with minor injuries will have, on average, some degree of pain on a daily basis (e.g. migraines, chronic back strain, daily bumps and bruises). But the difference that you will feel by having a lower level of pain, on average, will make for a much more tolerable and happy life.
Can Pain Cause Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia, Irritability, Stress, and Other “Negative” Symptoms?
Short answer, yes. More precisely, take all of the above symptoms put them together and they spell “POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER.” This is especially likely in patients who have suffered with pain for more than one year.