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Balanced Pain Management Blog View all posts

The Pain Pathway and Your Brain
The formal definition of pain as coined by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) is “A noxious sensory and emotional experience.” This means that something not only hurts because your body feels it, but also hurts because...
Apr 22nd, 2020

Managing Chronic Pain Admidst the Opioid Crisis
The fact that the country is currently in the midst of an opioid abuse crisis doesn’t negate the reality that people are still living with chronic pain that deserves to be treated. When used appropriately and conservatively in the correct population...
Apr 22nd, 2020

Telehealth: The Advantages of Telemedicine
Struggles to get to the clinic? Trying to reduce your exposure to COVID-19, as well as other contagious illnesses, and still need to see your doctor? Telehealth is safe and easy — receive quality care from anywhere.
Feb 20th, 2024

GOT VEIN PAIN? Try ClosureFast!
Dr. DeLaney is now treating venous insufficiency pain with a non-invasive, non-surgical technique that can be done in the office.  Vein disease is often misconceived as merely a cosmetic condition. Varicose veins, spider veins, lower leg skin...
Oct 31st, 2020

Make America Great!
My hope for a great America can truly be realized during our current presidency. America is now in many ways a much better nation of individuals acting as a whole than it was in 1776. When the Declaration of Independence was signed,...
Apr 23rd, 2020

Challenge Yourself
Challenges in general keep us alive. Without them, there is little to look forward to. This, I believe, is the same for everyone, regardless of age. When we are younger, we eagerly anticipate challenges and accept them as part of life...
Apr 23rd, 2020

Who will the Future Doctors Be?
I worry about the future of medicine, of doctors in particular, as the healthcare laws, mandates and reforms continue to change and evolve. It seems to me that outside of clinical and bench research and resultant treatment advances,...
Apr 23rd, 2020

Be Positive and Never Give up Hope: Go Warriors!
One of the most common sentiments that my patients share with me is “don’t get old.” They tell me that “it’s no fun,” “it’s not for the faint of heart” and such. I completely understand this lament although I don’t know it firsthand.
Apr 23rd, 2020

Aging & Osteoporosis
The risk of bone fractures from even small types of trauma increases dramatically as we age. A major contributing factor is osteoporosis or thinning of the bones. The most common bones that are broken are the hip and spine.
Apr 23rd, 2020

Your Health is the Best Investment
My sister in Pittsburgh, PA cut her left hand two weeks ago. She severed three tendons and the median nerve. She underwent a surgical repair without complications and after one week was prescribed physical therapy.
Apr 23rd, 2020

Pain Relief: Steroid Injections & Nerve Blocks
Anesthesiologists have been performing nerve blocks for surgical anesthesia for centuries to allow a patient to undergo an operative procedure more comfortably with less general anesthetic and therefore fewer side effects.
Apr 23rd, 2020

Hope and Health
I read a quote once that spoke to me profoundly. I don’t know who said it, but it was that “People hope for a better life until the day they die.” For me, the quote was both enlightening and saddening.
Apr 22nd, 2020

Friends for Good Health and Happiness
Ask any healthy octogenarian, and they will tell you that the secret to living a long, healthy, happy life is having “good friends.” They don’t have 100 best friends or 500+ Facebook friends, but they do have a few people who truly care about them.
Apr 22nd, 2020

Don’t Let a Fall Get You Down
The aging process causes bone density to decrease due to reduced bone formation and collagen production, hormonal changes, and lack of weight-bearing activities. The loss of bone density or hardness is called osteopenia or osteoporosis depending on...
Apr 22nd, 2020

Team USA
I definitely believe that it’s time to go back to basics at this point. There is so much national unrest and social angst that many of us just don’t know what to do or how to feel anymore. To use an Oprah catch phrase...
Apr 22nd, 2020

Nothing in Life Worth Having Comes Easy
Recently, a patient and friend of mine shared with me the dilemma of his hearing loss and the effect it is having on his quality of life. He confided that feeling left out of conversations due to his inability to hear every word caused...
Apr 22nd, 2020

Take Care of Yourself
The best advice is usually information that has been touted for centuries. It seems as if every month new medical recommendations are broadcasted regarding what supplements to take, which antioxidant foods to eat, and which vaccinations to have...
Apr 22nd, 2020

Alcohol: Joie de Vivre, Vice, or Villian
The current opioid epidemic ensued because opioids have been widely prescribed by physicians who were told that “pain” was the 5th vital sign, in addition to temperature, pulse, blood pressure and respiratory rate, and was being undertreated.
Apr 22nd, 2020

Unresolved Emotions can Cause Pain
One of my vivid childhood memories involves a time when I “rescued” a baby bird. I was about six years old and I was always curious about animals and nature. I lived in a small rural town so there was no shortage of outdoor exploration opportunities.
Apr 22nd, 2020

Make a “Today Resolution” to Exercise
h the holidays a matter of days away, most of us wait until January to make our resolutions for the coming year. But the truth is, every day–today–is a perfect time and opportunity for a fresh start at just about anything to improve our lives.
Apr 22nd, 2020

We’re Better When We’re Not Alone
As we live our lives we are apt to experience a multitude of “coming of age” moments. One of those moments is when we realize that an elder in our family circle, who was previously known as the “care giver,” now needs us to care for them in a way that...
Apr 22nd, 2020

Cheat Others and You Cheat Yourself
I had an interesting discussion with a friend recently about the responsibility of doing good work. He made the comment that some people are more culpable for the quality of work they do.
Apr 22nd, 2020

Anesthesiologists Do More Than You Might Think
I’ve been reading news articles lately about increased occurrences of patients who have to pay for costly anesthesiology services that are considered “out of network” with their insurance plans.
Apr 22nd, 2020

The Beginning of the Opioid Epidemic
“What Happened?” This was what my new IT consultant asked me regarding the prescription narcotic addiction epidemic that this country is currently being plagued by. He said he wanted to get the information directly from an expert.
Jan 7th, 2020

“Caregiver” Sometimes Means just Being There
As we live our lives we are apt to experience a multitude of “coming of age” moments. One of those moments is when we realize that an elder in our family circle, who was previously known as the “care giver”, now needs us to care for them in a way that...
Jan 7th, 2020

Yes, You Should Like Your Doctor
I’m a firm believer that patients get the best care when they and their doctors have a mutually respectful relationship with genuine affinity for each other. When you like someone you naturally want the best for them regardless of the social...
Feb 9th, 2019

The Practice and The Art of Medicine
I’ve spoken to many people who have either never heard of these terms as they pertain to the medical field or they scoff at them. I’ve heard the joke too many times, “How much more practice do you need?”
Feb 8th, 2019

Quit Smoking For Your Cat, For Goodness Sake!
There is now an anti-smoking ad that is trying to appeal to smokers’ love for their cats. Cats that live in the homes of smokers are more likely to die of cancer and other diseases. If it’s not a powerful enough reason to quit for your own health or for...
May 19th, 2016

February ALIVE article: The Power of Positivity and Life Challenges
Be positive and never give up hope: Go Warriors! One of the most common sentiments that my patients share with me is “don’t get old”. They tell me that “it’s no fun”, “it’s not for the faint of heart” and such. I completely understand this lament...
Feb 8th, 2016

Chronic Pain, Addiction and Zohydro– the Next Street Drug
he importance of the appropriate management of chronic pain is finally getting some attention. Unfortunately, it’s also seems to be the next “new” illness for money mongers and pharmaceutical companies to make billions more in revenue.
Apr 25th, 2014

A Cautionary Tale of Prescription Pain Medicine.
My first experience taking a pain medication was when I was 26. I asked a friend if he had any Tylenol for my headache. I was working in my first year of the residency program in Anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and enjoying a night off watching...
Apr 14th, 2014

The Benefits of Exercise at Any Age– excerpt from NYTimes.com
Offering hope and encouragement to the many adults who have somehow neglected to exercise for the past few decades, a new study suggests that becoming physically active in middle age, even if someone has been sedentary for years, substantially reduces...
Mar 25th, 2014

Cyberhugs Help Chronic Pain Sufferers
Online chat rooms provide a welcome venue for chronic pain sufferers to talk about their pain and receive encouragement from others who understand what they’re going through, according to a new study published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior,...
Mar 22nd, 2013

Chronic Pain: It’s Real
“When I meet with physicians and families about someone with chronic pain, the question I often hear is, ‘Does he or she really have pain?’ The answer I always give is ‘yes—all pain is real.'”
Jan 4th, 2013

Smoking May Cause Back Pain
Two new studies show a possible connection between smoking and the advancement of psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis (SpA).
Aug 29th, 2012