Photography by: Lucas Purvis

Mike Flippen knows what it is like to live with constant, severe pain. He was working with the Texas Youth Commission in Giddings in December 2009 when he was injured trying to restrain an extremely combative youth.

During the incident, Flippen was kicked repeatedly, including directly in the face. Afterwards, he didn’t seek medical help, thinking a dislocated finger was the extent of his injuries. However, two months later, he passed out while driving. An MRI revealed that the kick to his face had caused slow internal bleeding behind his eye, which resulted in nerve damage in his neck, shoulder and arm.

As the immediate pain from the assault began to fade, chronic pain caused by the nerve damage remained. “The only way I can think to describe it is like having barbed wire dragged around my head, neck, across my shoulder and down my arm,” Flippen said. “The pain can be so intense sometimes that it makes me throw up.”

Doctors referred Flippen to Advanced Pain Care, an Austin-based pain management clinic that specializes in diagnosing and treating chronic pain. During his visits to Advanced Pain Care, Flippen was given two spinal injections to treat the nerve damage and medication to help with any residual pain.

“Advanced Pain Care was the only thing that kept me out of the hospital,” Flippen said.

Chronic pain similar to that suffered by Flippen is not uncommon. According to the American Medical Association, millions of patients suffer needlessly with acute pain, cancer pain and chronic pain. Approximately one in three Americans suffers from some kind of recurring pain in his or her lifetime.

“We see it all the time,” said Dr. Mark Malone, founder of Advanced Pain Care. “Patients come to us with desperate pain that has taken over their lives.”

Chronic pain can be defined as a persistent pain that lasts longer than 12 weeks. Pain signals continuously fire in the nervous system, causing common complaints such as back, neck and head pain. People of all ages can

experience chronic pain, but the majority of people who suffer are adults ages 40 and older.

Some chronic pain is caused from an initial mishap like a car accident, sports injury or sprained back. Other times, such pain can be a side effect of another ailment such as cancer, a consequence of surgery or the result of an unknown cause.

Until recently, victims of chronic pain would simply have to try to live with the pain with little hope of getting better. In the last decade, Advanced Pain Care has been at the forefront of emphasizing the need for medical professionals to take pain management more seriously.

Malone started Advanced Pain Care in 2002 in order to offer the latest pain management technology to Austin-area patients. Malone and his team of board-certified pain specialists, including Drs. Daniel Frederick, Hans Bengtson and Omair Toor, have more than 25 years of combined experience in pain management. All of the physicians are board certified in pain management by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Advanced Pain Care first started as a part-time office in the St. David’s Medical Professional Building. Today, Advanced Pain Care offices can be found in South Austin, Central Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park and Waco. Advanced Pain Care has a total of 10 pain-management providers who see patients daily and offer a variety of strategies to treat and manage pain.

“More people are becoming aware of the benefits of pain management,” Malone explained. “We see thousands of patients who are unaware that their future doesn’t have to be defined by pain. It affirms us to know that there is a need for pain management, and it is growing exponentially.”

In addition to the current five locations, the team at Advanced Pain Care plans to expand services to surrounding markets where there is a growing need. Malone and his team realize the market is changing. In the past, patients were willing to drive to Austin for health care services. But with today’s increasingly hectic schedules, they want to be taken care of in their own communities.

Malone, a Texas native, began his collegiate career as a music major at Baylor University with the hope of becoming a rock star. “I wanted to be a drummer, but I finally had to face the brutal truth that I was no John Bonham,” Malone said wryly.

After reality set in, Malone transferred to the University of Texas at Austin to pursue a science degree. He played drums in a few garage bands along the way, but set his sights on medicine. After graduating with honors from UT, Malone completed his medical degree at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. He then completed an internship and his anesthesiology training at Baylor College of Medicine.

Prior to practicing pain management, Malone was an anesthesiologist for 12 years, where he worked with patients who experienced acute and chronic pain. In 1998, while visiting colleagues in Houston, he realized that pain management was an underserved market, especially in Austin. With the goal of specializing in pain management, he completed a pain management fellowship at Texas Orthopedic Hospital in 1998.

Advanced Pain Care treats chronic pain such as back pain, neck pain, headaches, post-surgery pain, degenerative disc disease and degenerative joint disease. Spinal degeneration, nerve damage and joint damage are the most common problems treated, but every patient has his or her own story.

“We see patients ranging from all ages and ethnicities and treat a wide variety of pain-causing diseases,” said Frederick, who joined Advanced Pain Care in 2007.

Advanced Pain Care prides itself on being at the forefront of pain management technology. One common treatment option is called radiofrequency ablation. This procedure uses radiofrequency waves to generate heat, which disrupts nerve membranes and prevents these nerves from sending pain signals to the brain. This procedure is a very effective means of providing long-termpain relief.

Thousands of patients have been treated at Advanced Pain Care, giving people like Lynda Turner the opportunity to live without pain. “I had given up on living a life without pain,” said Turner, a loyal patient of Advanced

Pain Care.

Turner had previously had surgery to correct her incessant pain, but the surgery was not successful. After three painful attempts to correct the problem, Turner was left with pain “100 times worse than it was prior to the surgery.” The pain was so severe she could not walk.

Turner called Advanced Pain Care, where Malone diagnosed her pain and prescribed a pain patch for the severe nerve damage and scar tissue in her back. Under his care and treatment, she was able to walk and eventually return to work.

The future looks bright for those who suffer from chronic pain, especially as more attention and resources are being devoted to pain management. Breakthroughs in treatment and care are continually being made, giving renewed hope to patients.

“People with chronic pain used to expect to live with pain,” Malone said. “Today, people realize there can be freedom from pain. We believe that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.”

For more information, call 512-244-4272 or visit www.austinpaindoctor.com. You can also visit the clinic at 2000 S. Mays St., Ste. 201, Round Rock, Texas 78664.