Interviewer: Sadly, getting cancer at some point in your life is all too common in this country, but the pain from cancer doesn’t have to be. Dr. Rudy Gari is here from Florida Pain Relief Group to talk about this, as well as pain that can persist even after cancer is gone. Dr. Gari, great to have you back.
Dr. Gari: My pleasure, Thank you.
Interviewer: Let’s talk about this. How many patients who have gone through cancer, have been treated, still have pain afterward?
Dr. Gari: Well, unfortunately…fortunately, if they’ve been treated and cured, that’s a great thing, but a lot of times that cancer can spread to different nerves and can cause damage to some of those nerves, so it can leave a long-lasting painful injury even after you’ve been very blessed by having the cancer cure.
Interviewer: Okay, so what are some kinds of different cancer pain that people experience?
Dr. Gari: So, basically, cancer pain is associated with any type of cancer that ends up affecting the organs, your nerves, anything like that. In fact, my first patient that I had after I finished my training out of medical school in residency was a patient that was dying of cancer, and I remember her vividly because she came to me and she said, “Doctor,” say says, “I’m going to die, but my mother died of the same thing. She had breast cancer. All that I want to do is, I don’t want to die in pain.” So I said, “You are not going to.” She was referred to me by an oncologist. Most oncologists, if not all of them, they do a great job of taking care of that pain, but there are some patients that, after medications, you’re still going to, you might have some pain, and she said, “I just want to be able to spend my last days without pain.” We ended up putting in something called a morphine pump implant that allowed medications with a very small amount of morphine to go into the spinal cord that actually gave her pain relief.
Interviewer: So, apart from this morphine implant pump, and which helped her immensely, what else do you have out there to treat this pain?
Dr. Gari: Well, we have everything. So, we have every possible tool that’s available in the field today, including allografts, stem cells, nerve blocks, medications, physical therapy, things called radio-frequency. We can do what’s called cryotherapy. We can burn the little nerves out that are causing pain. We can put in something called smogra stimulators, morphine pumps. There is an incredible amount of tools available to physicians like myself that specialize in pain management to be able to treat cancer pain other than just giving medications.
Interviewer: Why are they experiencing this pain?
Dr. Gari: Well they experience this pain because of the fact that, just think about it, if you hit your nerves, it’s painful. So that cancer can spread, and it can spread and it can cause a distension of different organs. It can cause…it can impinge on the nerves. It can cause significant pain.
Interviewer: Okay, so for anybody out there’s who’s watching right now, who’s going through this, there’s definitely relief.
Dr. Gari: We can help you, yes, absolutely.
Interviewer: Okay, Dr. Gari, thank you very much. The Florida Pain Relief Group even offers same-day appointments. You can visit their website, or give them a call, 844-KICK-PAIN. Dr. Rudy Gari, great to have you back.
Dr. Gari: Thank you.
Interviewer: We’ll be right back.
