I have always had an active lifestyle. At age 42, I developed pain in the lumbar & sacrum regions…read more The pain worsened over the next year to where my lifestyle changed. I could no longer exercise or perform household tasks. I went to an ortho surgeon, who prescribed 18 PT sessions to strengthen my back/abdomen. The PT released me from therapy because I did not have a lack of strength in my back/abdomen and that my pain must come from elsewhere.
So, I went to see a chiropractor and after adjustments, he told me a story. His wife had suffered from chronic back pain. As a doctor himself, he had done research and came across a pain management doctor in the area. He sent his wife to that doctor and after several treatments, she was pain free and had remained pain free to that date.
That is how I came to meet Dr. Munir. I made an appointment at Southwest Ohio Pain Institute (SWOPI) and by this time, I was waking up around 3:00 AM in such pain that I could not fall back asleep. I had sleep deprivation and passed out during my first appointment. His staff was excellent and I felt like I was in the right place. This doctor was going to help me.
Dr. Munir completed a physical exam and asked questions to understand what triggers the onset of my pain. After a series of evaluations, he informed me that he did not believe it was an issue with my spine, but rather an issue with muscle spasms pulling at my spine, resulting in both muscle & structural pain. Dr. Munir outlined a program, which included steroid shots, a low dose muscle relaxer and a series of stretches to be performed multiple times a day that would target underlying muscles not often reached through traditional stretching. After a few days of following his program, I experienced my first good night of sleep in close to a year.
After about a month, I was experiencing about 50% relief, but I wanted to shoot for the stars and get back to my active lifestyle. Dr. Munir suggested adding red light therapy to my program. His studies had shown that when used in conjunction with steroid injections, the red light therapy (performed twice a week for 8 weeks) would add additional pain relief. And he was right, it did. Not 100%, but by that point my pain relief was about 85%. It was well worth the time and the investment.
Again, not one to give up or settle for anything less than 100%, I tasked him with finding that additional 15% of pain relief that would allow me to sleep each and every night, perform household tasks and get back to exercising. Dr. Munir suggested radio frequency ablation (RFA) and thus we started on the evaluation process to determine where most of the pain stemmed from. We decided to treat my left side first - it was a rather simple 20 minute procedure, local anesthesia, performed in the office. I walked out and soon realized that my pain was gone. It was 100% gone on my left side with about a 95% improvement on my right side as well! I could immediately tell the difference in muscle tightness from my left side to my right side.
I came back in a month to see Dr. Munir for treatment on my right side. By then my life had changed dramatically. I had been going to the gym, I had started running again and lifting weights. I was sleeping through the night - every night - and feeling rested in the morning. My physical state had improved and so had my emotional state. I was ecstatic with the results! I couldn't believe that I'd spent a year seeing different doctors (by the way, I also saw a neurologist, a rheumatologist and got a second opinion with another orthopedic surgeon) and Dr. Munir was only 5-minutes from my house.
It has been several months now and I am 100% pain free. I am also free to pursue the things in life that bring me joy. Thank you, Dr. Munir, for taking the time to ask me thorough questions and for spending the time to properly evaluate my physical issues and for developing a treatment program that was unique to me. Thank you for sticking with me and for not brushing me off because there wasn't a glaringly obvious reason for the pain.