What Is Spoon Theory?
The spoon theory explains the impact of living with chronic illness, chronic pain, and disability on a daily basis. It highlights the differences between living with illness compared to living without illness.
Your back aches, and you’ve tried everything to make the pain go away. When rest, medication, physical therapy, and even cutting-edge regenerative medicine don’t make a difference, it’s easy to start wondering if you’re out of options.
The good news? Other approaches are available. Dr. Eric Fanaee specializes in managing chronic pain, and he’s dedicated to helping you find the cause — and the solution — for your chronic back pain.
Dr. Fanaee is a leader in minimally invasive spine surgery, and he offers the Intracept® Procedure for certain types of chronic back pain. If you’re curious about the procedure, it’s time to find out if you could be a candidate.
Intracept is a minimally invasive surgery that targets pain in the basivertebral nerve of your lower back. It quiets nerve pain with radiofrequency energy, and it’s a unique treatment that has the power to restore the quality of life you’ve lost to chronic back pain.
It’s a specialized treatment, and only your doctor can determine if you’re a good candidate. Dr. Fanaee uses specific criteria to evaluate your needs. At your consultation, he considers:
Intracept is a revolutionary solution for chronic back pain. While many people experience back pain now and then, the best candidates are people who have persistent chronic pain that’s lasted at least six months.
If you’ve had back pain for less than six months, Dr. Fanaee may not recommend Intracept — but that doesn’t mean he can’t treat your pain. He completes his exam and then recommends an approach that may include rest, pain medication, or physical therapy.
The best Intracept candidates are people who haven’t found relief from their pain with traditional treatments. You could be a good candidate for Intracept if you still have pain after trying treatments like activity modification, pain medication, regenerative therapies, or physical therapy.
Because Dr. Fanaee takes a conservative approach to care, he usually recommends nonsurgical treatment before suggesting surgery. That means that if you haven’t tried all of the conservative treatment options available to you yet, he may not approve you for the Intracept Procedure.
One of the most important considerations for the Intracept Procedure is the result of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Dr. Fanaee orders an MRI so he can examine the structures of specific vertebrae in your lower back and determine the cause of your pain.
The best Intracept candidates have evidence of vertebral endplate damage, which causes a distinct type of pain called vertebrogenic pain. If your MRI results reveal this type of spinal damage, you could be a good candidate for the Intracept Procedure.
While the Intracept procedure is a life-changing option for some people with chronic vertebrogenic pain, it isn’t right for everyone. Dr. Fanee may recommend against the Intracept Procedure if you have a heart or lung condition that limits pulmonary function, if you have a pacemaker or another implanted electronic device, or if you’re pregnant.
If Dr. Fanaee recommends the procedure, he goes over the details to help you make your decision. If you choose to undergo the Intracept Procedure, we schedule your surgery and give you instructions to prepare.
We perform the Intracept Procedure on an outpatient basis, which means you don’t have to spend the night in the hospital afterward. Surgery takes about 80 minutes. Pain relief starts developing in about two weeks and can last five years or longer.
When traditional treatment fails to relieve your lower back pain, it’s time to consider the Intracept Procedure. Call us at 631-265-2020 or request a consultation online to get started.
