On February 2, 2009, Susan Wheeler was in her car, leaving the hospital from a liver transplant, when another car broadsided her, causing her intense neck and lower back pain with sciatica.

“I sought the help of different pain management doctors, but without relief,” she remembers. “I swore I’d never see another one, but then about six months ago, my chiropractor recommended I schedule an appointment with Dr. Hashim.”

Mark N. Hashim, MD, who is board certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology, provides comprehensive treatment by employing a variety of interventions to alleviate his patients’ agony. Physicians often refer patients with pain to Naturecoast Pain Associates, although the pain clinic also takes self-referrals.

Susan remembers her first consultation with Dr. Hashim: “He was kind. He was sympathetic but, at the same time, he got right to the point. He explained everything, but didn’t push anything.

“My husband had accompanied me, and once we heard the treatment plan Dr. Hashim laid out, we both looked at each other and agreed: This is a different kind of doctor.”

A better idea

Susan confides that her prior physician had her wearing a fentanyl transdermal patch that delivered a significant dose of narcotic medication: “I asked to be taken off the drug, but after several months of treatment, he still wouldn’t listen to me.

“Then one day he finally said, You want to stop? Okay. Goodbye.”

 Dr. Hashim says he did not want Susan going through withdrawal symptoms: “So I put her back on the patches, then, as I started to treat her actual pain generators, I began reducing her dosage.”

The doctor explains that Susan presented with four herniated discs in her lower back and pain from the facet joints in her neck: “There are facet joints on either side of the spine, in between each of the vertebra. In the neck, they can generate enough pain to inhibit patients from looking up or turning their heads.

“By injecting local anesthetic, we can diagnose which nerves are transmitting the message of pain to the brain, and once those nerves are pinpointed, we can inject phenol (an alcohol) into the medial branch nerve, which will disintegrate the nerve for up to six months.”

For Susan, this procedure improved her range of motion dramatically and her pain levels dropped off significantly, says Dr. Hashim.

“I can look up at the sky,” marvels Susan, “which is something I hadn’t been able to do for three years.”

For Susan’s lower back, Dr. Hashim used an epidural.

“It’s a great relief,” admits Susan. “Dr. Hashim has brought me back to life.”  

FHCN – Kris Kline