The true source of your pain

By Mitch Allen

If you’ve been experiencing chronic pain for months, years, or even decades, now may be the time to try a completely different approach to pain relief. No matter how many doctors you’ve seen, how many steroid injections you’ve undergone, how many narcotics or anti-inflammatories you’ve been prescribed, or how many times you’ve been told, “It’s all in your head”—there is still hope.

Dr. Patricia Delzell, M.D., founder of Advanced Musculoskeletal Medicine Consultants, specializes in integrative medicine to treat chronic pain. Her unique—and successful— approach treats the whole person rather than a disease process. She looks at body systems instead of body parts.

“The first thing we do is work to discover the true source of your pain,” Dr. Delzell says. “And one of the most important tools we have for doing that is ultrasound.”

Advanced Ultrasound Technology
With traditional MRIs, CT scans and X-rays, patients are asked to lie perfectly still, but as a nationally renowned expertise in musculoskeletal ultrasound, Dr. Delzell employs state-of-the-art ultrasound technology with higher spatial resolution to actually see tissue in motion. This enables her to capture how the multiple contributors to pain are intertwined to develop a more successful treatment plan.

“It’s frustrating when you have an MRI done and the doctor says nothing is wrong, but you are still in pain,” she says. “We see things that are happening in the fascia, the nerves, the muscles that cannot be seen on an MRI, but are very well defined on ultrasound. For example, ultrasound can be used to see muscles and structures as they are moving and interacting in real time. How are your muscles functioning? Are they contracting? If so, are they coordinated and effective?”

Dr. Delzell also uses ultrasound to evaluate pain from other sources, including scar tissue and entrapped nerves.

“Chronic pain can cause nerve pathways to be programmed for so long that it affects how the body interprets manipulation,” she adds. “And that can make you hypersensitive to touch. We can often help by altering pain sensation pathways.”

An Integrative Approach
Advanced MMC’s integrative approach includes conventional medicine along with alternative therapies like acupressure and infrared light. Dr. Delzell also focuses on important lifestyle issues that affect the pain sensation—from exercise and sleep to nutrition and stress.

“Our goal is to optimize your body for healing,” Dr. Delzell says. “Chronic pain is extremely stressful mentally, physically, and spiritually, so we may also recommend yoga, meditation, aromatherapy or breathing techniques. And proper nutrition is essential, so we often suggest botanicals, supplements, or whole foods-based nutrition.”

About Dr. Delzell
Dr. Delzell grew up in Cleveland Heights, attended Laurel School, earned her medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, and did her residency at the Cleveland Clinic, where she served as the director of musculoskeletal ultrasound from 2009 until 2019, when she started her new practice.

She has been so successful at treating patients with chronic pain that last year her practice moved into a new, modern location in Chagrin Falls, tripling her square footage. “We have much more room to treat patients now, including dedicated infrared laser and acupressure rooms,” she says. “Of course, our environment is still calm and peaceful. It doesn’t feel like a cold, traditional medical office.”

What’s Really Causing Your Pain?
With Dr. Delzell’s years of experience and expertise in ultrasound technology, she is adept at uncovering the true causes of many different types of chronic pain. Here are a few examples:

1. When you lie flat on your stomach, can you bend your knees to 90 degrees without pain in your upper thigh and buttocks? If not, you likely have an old hamstring injury causing discomfort.
2. Do you experience persistent radiating pain, numbness, tingling, or heaviness in your limbs? If so, you may have nerve injury or nerve entrapment.
3. Do you have perpetual knots in your muscles? There are layers of multiple muscles and other supporting soft tissues, especially in the hips, shoulder and back. An ultrasound can easily distinguish among these layers to identify scarring.
4. Do you have persistent pain after joint replacement? Soft tissue scarring in the muscles and fascia can be the cause of pain that mimics joint pain. Ultrasound, Dr. Delzell says, is the test of choice for evaluating these soft tissues.

Getting Started
Advanced Musculoskeletal Medicine Consultants exclusively treats pain related to the musculoskeletal system, including the shoulder, elbow, hand, wrist, chest wall, neck, back, hip, foot, knee, ankle, nerve pain, and more. The process begins when you schedule a chronic pain phone consultation to help Dr. Delzell understand your unique chronic pain story.

New Hope for Peripheral Neuropathy Twenty million Americans are estimated to have peripheral neuropathy (PN), which occurs in one-third to one-half of people with diabetes, although there are many other underlying causes. Potential symptoms of PN include:

• Persistent burning pain in the feet (especially at night)
• Feeling like you are “walking on hot coals”
• Losing your sense of balance
• Persistent numbness in a “stocking or glove” distribution.

Many patients who have been diagnosed with PN have been told there is nothing that can be done. The only options are drugs—opiates and steroids.

However, Advanced MMC is now employing light therapy in the form of a Class IV infrared (IR) laser to treat the symptoms of PN. “This therapy has been used around the country for more than 15 years with a high level of success for long-lasting treatment of not only the pain, but lost sensations and lost sense of balance,” Dr. Delzell explains. “These light treatments are effective because they work on the cellular level to awaken latent nerves and reset the electrical function of the nerve by repairing the sodium potassium pump.”

What Patients are Saying After IR Therapy:

“I felt like my feet were waking up.”

“I feel safer driving my car now because I can feel the pedals under my feet.”

“My feet feel warm for the first time in over 10 years, and I feel stable on my feet.”

If you’ve been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy and want to find out if you are a candidate for IR laser therapy, please call Advanced Musculoskeletal Medicine Consultants at 440-557-5011. The team will perform a thorough assessment to make sure you have the nutritional and vitamin support to keep your nerves healthy, as well as to ensure your symptoms are indeed from PN prior to starting therapy, giving you the best outcome possible. The practice is located at 8401 Chagrin Road in Chagrin Falls. To find out more, visit AdvancedMMC.com.

Advanced Musculoskeletal Medicine Consultants’ offices are at 8401 Chagrin Rd., Suite 20A, in Chagrin Falls. To schedule a chronic pain phone consultation, call 440-557-5011. Visit AdvancedMMC.com for more information, including blogs and videos.