b'Pain can be acute, chronic, or a mix of both.understand the kinds of tasks you must perform Acute pain, according to Cleveland Clinic, isat work, at home, and during recreational pain that lasts less than six months and isactivities. It will also be important to share duetoaspecicinjuryortissuedamage.stressors that may be making your pain worse. Chronic pain, is classied as pain that existsFor example, if you have recently started a for longer than six months, which can persistnew job that has higher demands than you even after your original injury has healed. Itare accustomed to, both the job tasks as well may be caused by structures in your bodyas the stress of higher expectations could be sending incorrect pain signals to the braincontributing to your pain. Your therapist will or by other sensations being erroneouslyalsowanttounderstandwhathealthand interpreted as pain. wellness goals you have related to managing The formal denition of pain, as providedyour pain.by the International Association for the Study ofNext, your therapist will perform a physical Pain, is an unpleasant sensory and emotionalexamination to assess your muscles, nerves, experienceassociated with,orresemblingskin, heart, and lungs, as well as observe how that associated with, actual or potential tissueyou perform various tasks. Once all assessments damage. This means your body can becomeare completed, your PT and you will create a overly sensitive to any sensations and interpretplan of care that best ts both of your goals. them as painful. This sensation is especiallyBreaking the pain cycleprevalent in individuals experiencing emotionalIf your pain is because of an acute tissue stress and/or depression. injury,suchasatraumatoaligamentor PTs key to pain management muscle, your plan of care will likely include a You do not have suffer through your paincombination of manual therapy and specic alone; anyone experiencing pain should seekexercises to address the injured and surrounding helpfromtheirhealthcareteam.Physicaltissues. Your therapist will teach you various therapists are key members of this team andmethods on how to move and perform daily can be very effective in helping you managetasks in a way that will help decrease your your pain by optimizing how you move andpain and prevent further tissue injury. function, preventing and rehabilitating injuries,If you are having pain specically because and teaching you techniques to improve howof nerve damage, your therapist will work you feel. How they help you to manage yourwith you to determine whether the damage pain will depend on the type of pain you areis due to an orthopedic issue, directly related having. This will be discerned through focusedto your MS, or is a result of some other discussion about your pain, lifestyle, and goals. neurologic issue. The treatment will depend Questions about your pain will investigateon a variety of factors including the source exactly where your pain is located, how longand type of pain as well as how long you have have you had your pain, which factors makebeenexperiencingthepain.Treatments your pain better or worse, and explore theinclude but are not limited to manual therapy, role your pain plays in your day-to-day life.therapeutic exercise to relax muscles that are You will also be asked to discuss what yourtight or in spasm, movement retraining, or daily life entails. It is important for the PT tovarious forms of electrical stimulation. 27 msfocusmagazine.org'