Advanced pain management designed around you.

While some types of pain come from primary sources such as headaches, and others from secondary sources such as from surgery, the field of Interventional Pain Management treats all of it as a disease. This allows for the application of science, and the latest advances in medicine to relieve your pain. And while many patients, especially those in chronic pain, see a psychiatrist or therapist as part of the experience, learning to cope with pain is less and less the focus of treatment.

Currently we have many modalities to help treat and manage your pain, including medication, interventional pain management techniques (nerve blocks, spinal cord stimulators and similar treatments), along with physical therapy and psychological support. At our clinic, we focus on managing your pain with procedures such as nerve blocks. Medications are added when necessary.

The goal of Interventional Pain Management is to minimize pain, rather than eliminate it — because quite often it is not possible to completely do away with it. Two other goals are to improve function and increase quality of life. These three goals go hand-in-hand.

The goal of interventional procedures is to diagnose the site of pain, decrease inflammation, and provide pain relief to help patients improve the quality of their lives. Pain that comes from injured or inflamed nerves can often be improved through medications delivered specifically to the area of injury. Patients who may benefit most are those with symptoms of radiculopathy or other types of nerve injuries. An epidural steroid injection or selective nerve root block can target the nerve causing the pain — injecting a mixture of steroid medication and local anesthetic often gives patients immediate relief, with steroids beginning to decrease inflammation around the nerves in approximately 2–3 days. These nerve blocks also allow patients to work effectively with physical therapists or start personal exercise programs to regain strength and function with less pain.

Dr. Danya Godoy has the expertise to perform a variety of nerve blocks that deliver both temporary and permanent pain relief. Implantable pain therapies such as spinal cord stimulators and intrathecal pumps are utilized when more conservative therapies have failed. Spinal cord stimulators deliver an electric current directly to the spine, which masks the pain patients normally feel — instead, patients experience a pleasant tingling or numbing sensation over the area of pain, controlled by a remote device.