Terry Streetman (Host): Welcome back to Well Within Reach. I'm Terry Streetman, Riverside Marketing Communications Representative. We're here today with Dr. Charron D. Woods from Interventional Pain Medicine here at Riverside Orthopedic and Spine Center.

Today, we're going to be discussing interventional pain medicine and how Riverside can help you manage chronic pain to get back to the things that you love. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Woods.

Dr. Charonn Woods: Thanks for having me.

Host: Absolutely. So before we jump into our questions, we'll take a moment for a message about myChart.

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Host: So, you're a first time guest with us. So, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and then about your role here at Riverside?

Dr. Charonn Woods: Yeah. So, I'm originally from St. Louis, Missouri. Born and raised there. Ended up going to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. I had the opportunity while I was there to play basketball, which was a great opportunity and a very fun experience. Right now, they're number one in the conference. Go, Braves!

Host: Hey, all right. Go, Braves!

Dr. Charonn Woods: And then, from there, I went back home to St. Louis University for medical school. And then, at that time, I chose to go into what's called PM&R, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. And I ended up matching at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. And I did my residency there. And then, I later went on to do a pain medicine fellowship at Mayo Clinic for a year. And now, I'm here down at Riverside.

Host: All right. Well, we're glad to have you here. So, you talked a little bit about your experience and the programs you were in. Can you describe for us what interventional pain medicine is and tell us a little bit about your team?

Dr. Charonn Woods: Yeah. So, interventional pain medicine is a specialty that focuses on decreasing people's pain through various means of interventions, as the name implies. But those interventions can vary from things as simple as medications, which can be considered an intervention, or more profound ways such as injections or surgeries. And so, we use a lot of different imaging modalities like ultrasound and fluoroscopy, which is x-ray, to help us guide our procedures to get the needle and the medication in the right location safely.

Host: Okay. And how many folks do we have on that team here at Riverside?

Dr. Charonn Woods: So, I mean, our team consists of three providers, myself, Dr. Akhil Shori, and then Dr. Mohammad Issa, who are the physicians on the team, but we also have excellent MA staff and a nurse, as well as schedulers and off team as well. So, we all kind of work together to kind of make sure that patients are seen in a timely fashion and that there are procedures, which oftentimes need to be done fairly quickly to help people are done in a timely fashion.

Host: Yeah. I'm sure people appreciate that because I know chronic pain is something people deal with for a long time before they go, "Hey, maybe I should check this out. This isn't normal." So, that speed and that coordinated team is great. So, you talked about how you got into the specialty. What is it that motivated you to get into this and that motivates you in your role today?

Dr. Charonn Woods: Yeah. So originally, when I decided to go to Mayo Clinic, I mean with my background in basketball, I thought I wanted to do sports medicine. And during my time at Mayo, I was able to do some sideline coverage. I covered a couple of high school football seasons. That team made it to state, which was a great opportunity for me to experience. I also covered college basketball.

And so during that time, I realized that most of my weekends were occupied. And at that time, I didn't have any kids, but I kind of knew that that was a life goal for me. And I just wanted to find something that didn't take me away from family at the evening and the late weekend days. And so, I kind of changed that pathway and I did a rotation in residency, where I was actually with the pain medicine team there. And there was one specific patient I remember. She had cancer, and she had a lot of rib pain. And we actually did an injection on her in her hospital room using an ultrasound machine. And the next day, the pain was gone.

Host: Wow.

Dr. Charonn Woods: And so, with that, I was like, "Wow, I can effect change on somebody dramatically in such a short period of time." And that's what made me kind of change my trajectory to go towards pain medicine.

Host: Okay. I appreciate that motivation. So, what are some of the conditions, you've talked about a couple that might bring somebody into your clinic, to your team for treatment.

Dr. Charonn Woods: I would say the most common thing we see people for is back pain. When you look at the data, about 40-50% of people are going to have some type of pain over the next three months of their lives. The majority of those patients are going to be patients with back pain. And so, that's one of the most common things that I see.

Back pain can manifest in many different ways. And when I say back pain, I consider the neck as well to be the back. Many people, when you talk about back, they think about around their waistline. But we see patients who have neck pain, pain in the middle of their spine, which is called the thoracic spine. And so, we have a lot of different types of conditions that we can treat. So, seeing people with low back pain, pinched nerves also stem from back pain, back pain-mediated things. So, you hear about people talk about sciatica. That's a very, very common diagnosis that we treat with procedures.

Host: Okay. All right. Well, before our next question, we're going to take a moment to talk about the importance of primary care.

Consistency is being able to count on someone to be there when you need them. At Riverside HealthCare, your primary care provider is dedicated to being in your corner, helping you and your family stay healthy and thrive. Find the right primary care provider for you at riversidehealthcare.org/primarycare. From annual screenings to well checks and everything in between, having a primary care provider that you can trust makes all the difference.

Okay. So, we're back here. Let's say somebody is dealing with this chronic pain. I know I've had times dealing with that, and I let it go on too long. I'm like, "This is just life as I get older." But at what point when someone is having that kind of pain should they consider seeking treatment?

Dr. Charonn Woods: Yeah. That's a great question. About 20 percent of the population, 18 or older, has some form of chronic pain. Chronic pain is defined as any pain that's lasting greater than months months. Within that 20%, you see about 6-10% of patients fall into what's called high-impact chronic pain. And then, those are individuals who have their life roles affected, whether it affects their ability to take care of a loved one, ability to kind of go out and earn an income, or ability just to take care of themselves, those individuals kind of fall out of productivity and actually affect the income of the country. And so, it's a billion dollar loss, you know, multiple billions of dollars lost every year for people who can't function because they're affected by pain.

So, what is a reason for people to come to see me is when they have those types of, I would say, lifestyle encroachments, like they can't do what they want to do. A lot of times it's as simple as, "I can't stand up and vacuum my house." Sometimes it's a little bit more like I can't help my elderly parent or I can't help my grandparent or my children. A lot of times, you have patients who come to me and say, "I have grandkids and I just want to pick them up, but my back is killing me. I need some help." And so, those things, they seem simple, but they're very important for those folks. And so, that's when people start to see me because they have years of pain and I'm like, "What has changed? You've had this for five, 10 years" and like, "It's just becoming more annoying and I can't do what I want to do."

Host: Okay. Yeah. So, it's that quality of life.

Dr. Charonn Woods: It's that quality of life, yes.

Host: Yeah. Well, I can understand how people see that happen and they go, "All right, it's time for something to change." So, you talked about the different modalities that you use within interventional pain, including surgery. But if there are folks who are maybe concerned, like, "Oh, I don't want to have to have surgery. Are there things that you all do that can help people avoid surgery?

Dr. Charonn Woods: Yeah. So, a lot of times we get referrals from like our orthopedic surgeon colleagues or our neurosurgery colleagues. And those specialties are heavily surgical specialties, meaning that they do have some other types of techniques. I don't want to say they don't, but they don't do the injections that we provide. So when I said earlier that we do provide surgeries, those are probably more rare than the injections that we do. I would say on a given week amongst us providers within the pain specialty at Riverside, we're probably doing, you know, almost 60 injections a week. And those injections can vary.

So, a lot of times when I come and I talk to a patient, I try to meet them where they are. I try to explain to them that, you know, you don't have to do these injections. These are just suggestions. in fact, I had a patient yesterday. She came in with family, her daughter, her granddaughter. And I kind of discussed with her the options. I always like to advocate for patients and have them have some autonomy in their decision-making. And so with that said, I kind of gave her the options. We could do some therapy, you can try medications. But many times, by the time the patient has seen me, they've exhausted those options. And so, now, I'm kind of entering the room, assuming that that's what they want to do. And so, I just educate them on the risks, I educate them on the approach, what the recovery looks like, what we're doing in the OR, how long it should take. And then, from there, they just kind of make the decision. Sometimes patients just say, I'll give you a call back.

My favorite thing to tell patients, "And I'm not trying to sell you a car, all right? This is not going to self destruct by the time I, you know, exit the room. You can leave, make a decision, call the office back. We can even set up another followup. I'll go over it with you again."

Host: Well, that reduction of uncertainty, I think-- I mean, between the pain and the uncertainty, that can be unbearable.

Dr. Charonn Woods: Yeah.

Host: So, before we wrap up, what's the biggest thing that you would like listeners to take away from this information that you've provided?

Dr. Charonn Woods: I think the biggest thing I would like for folks to take away is that, there are options for chronic pain. Like I said, chronic back pain is the most common thing. There's actually a quote that low back pain is the most common reason for years lost, meaning like you lose your productivity over time because you're less likely to do things. And so, it's not like it's killing people, but like the quality of life is so deteriorated. And so, low back pain is something that we can treat pretty effectively. And it might not be a complete reduction to zero, but it can be to the point to where you're able to function a little bit more and enjoy life a little bit better.

Host: Awesome. Well, that's really helpful information, I think. Helpful for people to know. You don't have to just live with this pain. Well, it feels like you covered the bases pretty well. Thanks again for joining us today. And for our audience, if you'd like to learn more about Riverside Interventional Pain Medicine, you can call 815-802-7090 or visit riversidehealthcare.org.

Thanks for tuning in to Well Within Reach, presented by Riverside Healthcare. Please take a moment to rate and leave a review for Well Within Reach on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about Riverside, visit riversidehealthcare.org.