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Pain Medicine Center

The Pain Management Center at HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital helps find treatments and therapies for various conditions that cause pain. Our mission is to stop or ease your pain as quickly as possible.

Female nurse stands beside a patient with a medication bottle in hand

The Pain Medicine Center approaches pain management using multidisciplinary techniques, leading-edge technology and proven treatments.

Visit us at HSHS St. Mary's Hospital, 2nd Floor, 1800 E. Lake Shore Drive, Decatur, Illinois 62521.

Please call 217-464-PAIN (7246) for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Frequently Asked Questions

A physician referral is necessary. You will need a primary care physician before being accepted as a patient at the pain clinic.
 
Your first visit to The Pain Medicine Center will include a comprehensive evaluation and targeted physical examination to determine the cause(s) of your pain. Once your specialist has completed this diagnostic process, together you will develop an individualized treatment, which may include multiple sessions for injections, medications and/or various forms of therapy.

Please arrive 15 minutes early with questionnaire filled out. Arrive 30 minutes early if questionnaire not filled out. If questionnaire is not filled out and you do not arrive 30 minutes early your appointment will be rescheduled to a different day.
Yes. The Pain Center will mail you information including a questionnaire prior to your first appointment. Please complete it and bring it to your appointment, along with all prescription medication you are currently taking, in the original prescription bottles.
For the most effective evaluation and treatment of your pain, you may be referred to other specialists, such as neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. These evaluations will be at the discretion of the pain medicine physician treating you. If you are referred to another specialist, your continued treatment in the Pain Medicine Center requires your compliance with these referrals.

Commonly treated conditions

There are as many levels and thresholds of pain as there are people. It can be just a nuisance or it can take control of your life.

No matter what level of pain you are experiencing, we provide a multi-disciplinary program that offers a full range of comprehensive pain management treatments. The Pain Medicine Center at St. Mary’s frequently provides treatment for pain from the below conditions:

  • Back, neck or spine pain
  • Cancer pain
  • Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)
  • Causalgia, phantom pain
  • Joint and bursitis pain
  • Shingles (Herpes zoster)
  • Post-operative pain
  • Nerve entrapment
  • Carpal tunnel
  • Rib fractures

Techniques and procedures

  • Medical Management of Pain 
  • Oral medicines 
  • Trans-dermal medicines 
  • Infusion treatments (lidocaine, Ketamine, e.g.) 
  • Intrathecal/spinal trials & medications 
  • Implantable medical management systems 
  • Interventional Pain Management 
  • Peripheral nerve injections 
  • Spinal and epidural injections 
  • Diagnostic injections 
  • Joint injections—all joints 
  • Bursa injections 
  • Sympathetic nerve injections (management of LRPS I & II or RSD) 
  • Implantable devices for pain management (spinal cord stimulators, intrathecal pumps) 
  • Spinal fracture evaluation, repair, management (Kyphoplasty, Vertebroplasty) 
  • Physical Medicine Management 
  • Physical therapy 
  • Occupational therapy 
  • Bio-feedback 
  • Muscle and nerve stimulation therapy 
  • Work hardening 
  • Behavioral Therapies 
  • Psychiatric evaluation and treatment 
  • Behavioral cognitive therapy 
  • Counseling therapies 
  • Bio-feedback treatments