Mike Thomas: It's time for us to ask the expert. Joining me on the phone like is Dr. Brian Meek. Dr. Meek is a pain management physician who works for
Advanced Bone and Joint located in St. Peters. He's also on staff at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters and Progress West Hospital. We're going to talk pain management issues with him this morning. Dr. Meek, good morning.
Dr. Brian Meek: Good morning.
Mike Thomas: Let's talk about the whole pain management issue because this is something that's kind off... you hear more and more about it in the medical field. What type of pain does a pain management physician work with and treat?
Dr. Brian Meek: Typically, pain management is quite a broad array of different treatments. Mostly, focusing a lot of spinal pain... so things like sciatica, lower back pain or neck pain, which are fairly common. Just really trying to use a balanced approach to help people get more functional and have less discomfort throughout the day.
Mike Thomas: At what point do I say I need to come see you? In other words, when do I go to a physician for pain management?
Dr. Brian Meek: Well, I would have a good discussion with your primary care physician about when to start that but essentially, what I tell people is that if you really can't function throughout the day... if you feel like you can't do the activities you would like to do without significant discomfort... if even over-the-counter medicines aren't helping you with your pain... start talking to your primary care physician. Sometimes doing simple things just like physical therapy or an exercise program can get things better but then if you don't respond to that then sometimes going to see a specialist is really important.
Mike Thomas: So now, you're primarily talking about chronic pain. What are the things that cause chronic pain?
Dr. Brian Meek: Most commonly, I see mostly things like neck and lower back pain discomfort. But other things, like neuropathy or even things such as cancer-related pain, which can be fairly common. We see quite a bit of... and that's kind of the focus of kind of what we do.
Mike Thomas: So, in many cases now with chronic pain is it something that can start at a very early age or does it come on all of a sudden or does that vary too?
Dr. Brian Meek: It really hits the entire spectrum. I have patients all the way into their young teens all the way up into the 90s and even some patients closer to 100. Obviously, there are different situations that affect different ages but there is really quite an array. But, you know, people always ask me how did this happen... how did these things occur? A lot of times there's not really anything in particular that caused the particular issue but really just the accumulation of events and some people are predisposed to some pain.
Mike Thomas: Right. What type of treatment do you guys offer?
Dr. Brian Meek: Well, again we can talk about a balanced approach. There is medications that sometimes can be helpful. Physical therapy is always the important foundation of what we try to do or exercise program... just trying to stay as active and strong as possible. And then sometimes you will hear people talk about some types of injections…cortisone shots is kind of how people refer to them. A lot of times that actually gives what I tell people is a "platform" to kind of start functioning better…have less discomfort and actually begin to start functioning well again.
Mike Thomas: When it comes down to preventing future pain and dealing with these types of issues I'm sure there are a lot of tips that we could share but if there is one thing that you could share to say hey, "this is going to help you prevent future pain," what would that be?
Dr. Brian Meek: You know, really, I find that in general just taking good care of your body and being well is the best thing to do. So, that's typically getting a fair amount of exercise. There's a lot of good evidence that actually just doing 30 minutes of exercise a day or at least 3-5 times a week actually reduces chronic pain quite a bit. Eating well, sleeping well, and overall just general wellness tends to take care of a lot of chronic pain. Sometimes those the most difficult things to take care of but actually some of the easiest things that we can do to help.
Mike Thomas: Right. As I mentioned, you of course operate out of the offices of Advanced Bone and Joint in St. Peters and also, you work with Barnes-Jewish St. Peters and Progress West Hospitals here our area. If folks want to contact you, they need more information, they want to investigate further pain management.. how would they do that?
Dr. Brian Meek: So, usually they can call our office. Our phone number is 636.441.3444. Or they can also visit us online at
www.avjdocs.com. We'll be able to get in the information that they need and any referrals they may need from their primary care physician and really help coordinate that care. We know people are in pain and they need to get taken care of and we try to get them in very quickly because we know it's affecting how they're living.
Mike Thomas: Yeah, certainly quality of life comes into play there. Dr. Meek, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.
Dr. Brian Meek: I really appreciate your time.
Mike Thomas: Alright, take care. Dr. Brian Meek again.. he's a pain management physician he's on staff at Advanced Bone and Joint at St. Peters and he's also on staff at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters and Progress West Hospital as we ask the expert this morning on KFAV.