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Welcome to Emory Center for Pain Management's Patient Guide! We hope the following information serves as a mechanism for us working together to defeat your chronic pain.
First Visit
Pre-Registration Form
Education
Acute Post-Operative Pain
First Visit
Your initial visit will include an evaluation based on current symptoms or conditions and a thorough medical history. In addition to a completed Pre-Registration Form, you will need to have any other pertinent information including your medical history, past x-rays and/or test results. If you need assistance gathering this information, please contact your referring physician.
As part of the diagnostic or therapeutic process, we may use injections to determine the source of pain. Since we use x-rays to guide the injection, the procedure should not be performed on patients who are pregnant or who have allergies without first notifying the pain specialist.
Following your initial diagnostic, we ask that you complete a Pain Diary. This diary will serve as an ongoing record of your pain and will provide useful information for your pain specialist to develop an individualized treatment plan.
Pre-Registration Form
Before your first appointment at our center, you may want to complete the Pre-Registration Form (either return to our secretary by mail or bring the form with you to your first visit) to expedite the administrative process. We also request that you obtain your medical records from other health care providers. These two steps will assure we have the appropriate information to provide you with the best medical opinion during your initial consultation.
*Due to patient confidentiality, we cannot accept the form electronically.
Education
Since chronic pain is both a physically and mentally debilitating condition, we treat not only the pain itself, but also the emotional stress that results from the pain. We have a team of psychologists to help patients cope with any accompanying complications and the pressures that can adversely affect family and work relationships.
Our team educates the patient to better understand the nature of his or her condition as well as optimal treatment options.
For further information regarding chronic pain, we recommend the following websites:
Acute Post-Operative Pain
Our center not only provides outpatient services, but we also administer inpatient consults upon request from the patient's physician. The Pain Consultation Services (PCS) at Emory University Hospital and Emory Crawford Long Hospital work with the Department of Anesthesiology to alleviate acute post-operative pain. On occasion, the PCS acts as the primary physician for hospitalized patients, with the admission and care directed by the patient's attending physician from the Center for Pain Management. Patient rounds are made on all patients at least once each day. We generally assess patients for efficacy of the pain-relieving technique, any possible side-effects, the need for adjunctive medications, the level of sedation, and patient satisfaction. With this service, you receive 24 hour coverage with an Anesthesiology resident or Pain Management fellow and an attending faculty member who is available for consultations, questions, or problems.
Effective pain relief is an important part of your treatment while you are in the hospital. There are ways to treat or control pain that can help to make you more comfortable while you are healing from your operation. Although it may not be possible to relieve all of your pain, you should be comfortable enough so that you can rest, cough, exercise and sleep. Controlling your pain may help you get well quicker and avoid impending complications.
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