Pain Management: Reasons Why Your Pain is Still Hurting You

We all feel pain from time to time. Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. However, if you are experiencing pain for weeks, months, or even years after an injury or due to a condition, this is called chronic pain. Chronic pain is any pain that lasts longer than 3 months. Chronic pain can affect your daily life and mental health. Nearly 25% of chronic pain patients develop a condition called chronic pain syndrome.

If you want to know the reason for your ongoing pain, you need to first know what makes you feel the pain and how the pain pathway works. To give you a better idea of your pain, here is information on the pathway of pain.

What Makes You Feel Chronic Pain?

Are you wondering why your pain is still hurting you? You need to first understand the mechanism behind the pain.

When you cut your finger, your injury turns on the pain sensors in the injured area. These sensors send a message to the brain in the form of electric signals. When this message reaches your brain, it processes the electric signals and sends out a message that you are hurt through the form of pain. When the cause of injury is resolved, the signal stops, and you do not feel pain any longer. However, with chronic pain, your nerve signals keep firing.

Reasons Why Your Pain is Still Hurting You

You are often aware of the cause of your pain. You can take an over-the-counter pain killer, and your pain will likely subside. However, sometimes, you feel ongoing or chronic pain without any apparent reason. Your chronic pain can be after an injury or due to an underlying health condition. Some of the leading causes of chronic pain include:

Nerve Damage or Irritation

Your nervous system is involved in regulating almost all functions of your body. Damage to any of your body tissues, such as muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints, can cause nociceptive pain. Nociceptors are the nerve receptors that are adjacent to your damaged tissue. Any direct damage or irritation to these nerves can cause chronic pain. If you had a spinal cord injury in the past, your chronic pain could be due it.

Musculoskeletal Injury or Condition

Musculoskeletal conditions are often associated with pain that does not go away easily. One of these musculoskeletal conditions is arthritis. Arthritis is a chronic condition in which your joints deteriorate. Arthritis can be genetic, and pain gets worse with time. Similarly, you can also experience chronic pain due to an autoimmune disease called rheumatoid arthritis.

Fibromyalgia

If your pain is still hurting you and not going away with over-the-counter pain relievers, you may have fibromyalgia. With fibromyalgia, you experience musculoskeletal pain accompanied by sleep problems, fatigue, memory loss, and mood swings. You can also experience pain due to past injuries or surgeries, migraines and other headaches, back problems, and infections.

Pain Management in St. Peters, O’Fallon, and Wentzville, MO

Whether you are experiencing acute pain with a known cause or chronic pain without any known cause, our board-certified doctors are here to help you. At Advanced Bone & Joint, our pain management doctors are devoted to relieving acute and chronic pain in patients of all ages. We can devise a treatment plan for you using our expert knowledge and state-of-the-art tools.

If you want to know more about our pain management services, contact us today at (636) 229-4222. You may also request an appointment through our online request form. We can help you live a pain-free life!