Visiting the doctor with complaints of chronic pain almost always means walking out with a prescription in hand. While a prescription may be appropriate, there may be other way pain management options that may be more effective. In addition, medications themselves need to be managed properly.
One of the things we stress at KindlyMD is med management. Our providers have treated chronic pain long enough to know that med management and pain management are intrinsically related. They go hand-in-hand.
Med management involves a number of key factors:
Experienced pain management doctors know that their patients feel and respond to pain differently as time goes on. They know that effectively managing pain is not a matter of writing a single prescription the patient can continually refill time and again.
We view med management's relationship to pain management from the perspective of giving patients control. As a patient, you are no longer content to let your healthcare provider exclusively dictate how you're going to manage your pain. You want a say; you want to contribute.
Where med management is concerned, your input is vital. Only you know how your body reacts to the meds you take. Only you truly understand the side effects of those meds. Your pain management physician can know and understand your symptoms, but they cannot actually feel what you feel because they are not you.
As for pain management physicians, their biggest role is to guide and advise. They function as trained assistants to help patients find the best path for their own individual journeys. Sometimes that might involve prescriptions. It might involve med cards and other alternatives as well. But ultimately, the patient is always in control.
Med management can be approached from the Western medicine mindset. But it can also be approached holistically. We prefer the latter here at KindlyMD. A holistic approach to any treatment seeks to care for the body, mind, and spirit collectively. That's a better way to go for long-term pain management.
Holistic med management is designed to combine the best of traditional and holistic approaches. The ultimate goal is to reduce dependence on prescription meds as much as possible. In their place are plant-based medicines and other therapies that work hand-in-hand to help a patient adequately manage pain for a fuller and better life.
The holistic approach to med management:
Med management is just one aspect of pain management. You could probably argue that it's the most important aspect inasmuch as we rely so heavily on medications.
We feel that by helping patients manage their meds better, we are also helping them manage their pain without having to rely so heavily on traditional medications and therapies. We have nothing against traditional medicine in and of itself. However, we do believe that a more natural, plant-based approach with a holistic foundation is a better way.
