Patient Interview Paper

The patient interviewed is a 72 year old Caucasian male. He was in the grocery business for 40 plus years and served in the Vietnam War in 1967-1968.The patient has suffered from back pain for many years, part due to war related injuries and part due to many years of heavy lifting in the grocery business. The patient is considered 100% disabled by the VA health care system. This pain has also increased pain in other regions of the body such as the neck and knees. When asked to rate pain using the Verbal Analog Scale (VAS), the patient rated his pain 7/10 without medication and a 6/10 with medication. The patient takes Gabapentin, used to treat nerve pain, and Aleve/Tylenol for generalized pain and inflammation, daily. He also takes Hydrocodone in emergencies when his pain reaches a 10/10 on the VAS. He has also had a left total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in 2011, and an anterior cervical discetomy and fusion (ACDF) on the 5th and 6th cervical vertebrae. Most of the patient’s pain is due to nerve damage, inflammation, arthritis, and degeneration of cartilage in the joints. Because of the patient’s history and injuries, he has difficulty with nearly every daily physical activity. One special consideration
A TENS unit would only help the patient for a short period of time because the pain would return shortly after the device was turned off. We would want to find the best relief for the patient that we can. Thermal modalities would help with the relaxation of the muscles and increasing joint movement. We want this patient to have movement and increase general range of motion, but only if pain is limited. Electrical and sound energy would be looked at to see how it helps with modulating the patient’s pain. Traction would also be looked at as a treatment to help with the separation of the vertebrae and relieving pressure that is being