By Dr. Dipan Patel
September is Pain Awareness Month. That is not a greeting-card holiday. It is a reminder that chronic pain is common, poorly understood, and still treated in too many rooms like a character flaw.
I see it every week in Clifton, Jersey City, West Orange, Edison, Morris County, and Hazlet. An adult who has been “managing” for months. They have rearranged work, skipped the thing they used to do on Saturdays, and started explaining themselves to people who think if you can walk into the office, you cannot be in that much pain.
You can. Pain that lasts is not proof you are weak. It is proof something in the system (a disc, a joint, a nerve, a failed surgery) is still generating a signal. The month exists so we stop pretending otherwise.
The Injury Nobody Talks About: The Delay
The most damaging part of chronic pain is often not the first flare. It is the six months of waiting for it to become “bad enough.”
People ice, they stretch, they buy a new mattress, they hope summer would fix it. By the time they come in, the original problem is still there, and the rest of the body has started to compensate. The hip protects a bad back. The other knee protects a bad knee. Sleep is worse. Work is worse. Mood is worse.
That delay is optional. The pain is not “in your head.” The isolation can start there if nobody takes it seriously.
The Three Places I See This Most in Adults
1. The Spine: When “My Back Is Tight” Is a Nerve
Axial back pain is one thing. Pain that travels into the buttock or down the leg is another. Sitting, driving the Turnpike, or standing in a kitchen can light up a disc or a stenotic canal that imaging would have explained months earlier.
- The risk: a herniated disc or stenosis that gets labeled “sciatica” and ignored until weakness or night pain shows up.
- The fix: get the cause named. Not every radiating pain needs surgery. A lot of it needs a precise diagnosis, PT that matches the finding, and, when indicated, an epidural or a facet procedure so you can actually do the PT.
2. The Joint: The Knee, Hip, or Shoulder You Have Been “Living With”
Arthritis and tendon pain do not always announce themselves with a fall. They announce themselves with a first step in the morning, a car that is harder to get out of, or a night of turning over.
- The risk: you stop moving, the joint gets stiffer, and a treatable problem becomes a smaller life.
- The fix: movement first, then targeted treatment. A steroid injection has a role. So do hyaluronic acid, PRP, and other regenerative options when the goal is to keep the joint working, not to countdown to a replacement you may not need yet.
3. The Nerve: When Pain Has a Life of Its Own
After surgery, after shingles, after a disc that “got better” on the MRI but not in your leg, the nerve can keep firing. That is neuropathic pain. It does not care that you are tough.
- The risk: you get handed another pill, or told to wait it out, while sleep and function slide.
- The fix: treat the nerve as the problem. Medications can help. So can nerve blocks, radiofrequency, and, for the right patient, spinal cord stimulation. The point is a plan, not a shrug.
What Actually Protects You
Take a timeline. If it has been more than a few weeks and you are modifying your life around it, you are past the home-remedy window.
Get one clear diagnosis. “Back pain” is a location, not an answer. So is “arthritis.” You want the structure and the generator.
Do not make surgery the first conversation or the only one. I am a non-surgical spine and joint specialist. A lot of adults who were told they need an operation have not had a real interventional workup yet. Some will still need a surgeon. Many will not.
Tell the truth about function. Can you work a full day? Sleep? Walk a mile? Those answers matter more than a pain number you invent in the waiting room.
The Signs That It Is More Than a Bad Month
Soreness after a hard week is not why Pain Awareness Month exists. These are:
- Pain that has lasted more than 6 to 8 weeks and is not clearly improving
- Pain that wakes you at night, or comes with fever, unexplained weight loss, or a history of cancer
- Weakness, numbness, or loss of bowel or bladder control (that last one is same-day care, not next week)
- Pain after surgery that never settled, or came back worse
- A joint that is swollen, locking, or giving out
- Pain that has you canceling work, driving, or the thing you used to do without thinking
If someone in your life has been “fine” and quietly disappearing from plans, this is the month to take that seriously.
We Are Local, and You Do Not Have to Wait for It to Get Worse
Pain Awareness Month is a national campaign. The work is local. Adults in Clifton, Jersey City, West Orange, Edison, Morris County, and Hazlet do not need another slogan. They need an exam, imaging when it is indicated, and a plan that is not “come back if it gets worse.”
I treat spine, joint, and nerve pain without defaulting to open surgery. Injections, regenerative procedures, spinal cord stimulation, endoscopic options when they fit. The goal is the same one I write about after a US Open or a long run: get you back to the life you actually want.
If you have been carrying this since spring, September is a reasonable time to put it down and get it looked at.
Dipan Patel, MD
Double Board-Certified Spine & Joint Specialist
