Inpatient Pain Program – helping kids live a life without pain

Our Inpatient Pain Program treats children without traumatic injuries or without a formal diagnosis who are experiencing chronic, excruciating pain.

At first I was confused. I just couldn’t understand how a child could experience such debilitating pain without having some sort of injury or disability.

Our Pain Management Program is a specialized inpatient program for children and adolescents, 9-21 years of age, afflicted by Reflex Neurovascular Dystrophy (RND). RND is a very painful condition. It usually affects the limb (a foot or leg more commonly than a hand or arm), but can cause pain anywhere on the body.

Some children have pain all over while a few have intermittent attacks of pain. The pain these children experience, however, is much more intense than one would normally expect because the pain signal is amplified.

RND is also known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), amplified musculoskeletal pain syndrome (AMPS), childhood fibromyalgia, and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Diagnosing RND can be difficult because while many children do not have any underlying illness to explain the pain, many of the symptoms are physical in nature.

Over the last two years I have seen kids who can barely walk, have trouble getting into or get out of bed enter our hospital. After their stay with us and intense therapy they are fully functioning, but more importantly they are confident that they can tackle their pain.

As with so many of our programs, it is the combination of teamwork that brings the greatest success. While the physical therapists are leading much of the efforts in the Inpatient Pain Program, the combination of the multi-disciplinary team is critical in the success of these children. In addition, we thank Dr. Katherine Bentley for her leadership, the AMAZING team of therapists who give so much to these children, and the Inpatient Admissions Team for identifying children in need of this service.

What’s even more exciting is these kids are coming from all over the country to be part of this program because they are looking for relief and hope and their families are confident that we can provide for them better than any other children’s hospital. 

Last month, when one of our inpatients was discharged, her Mom told me that she never could have imagined that her daughter would experience joy and freedom from the burden of the pain she was experiencing. That is truly life altering.

We will continue to reach outside of “typical” rehabilitation to meet the needs of the children who need us and it will continue to be an honor to do so.