Courtesy NYPM
By Rod Bacon
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 51.6 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. That is 21 percent of the U.S. population. Of that number, 17.1 percent experience what is termed “high impact” chronic pain, which is defined as pain that persists most days or every day for three months or more and significantly limits their daily activities.
Locally, Charles F. Gordon III, MD, has been addressing this problem for over 20 years at his health care clinic, New York Pain Management, which he founded in 2003 after three years as head of Glens Falls Hospital’s Pain Management Center.
He decided he wanted to practice full-time pain management without having duties as an anesthesiologist because he realized that patients suffering from chronic pain required one hundred percent of his energy and attention. After exploring options with the hospital it was determined that starting his own practice would result in a more immediate outcome and enable him to care for those in chronic pain more expeditiously.
His first clinic, which he ran for five years, was in Latham because he had a 50-mile non-compete agreement with the hospital. However, he had developed a strong following in the Glens Falls area so when he could he closed the Latham facility and opened one in Clifton Park so his patients could continue to see him. That facility, the Northway Surgery & Pain Center, is now their primary location and the site of the most complicated procedures. As demand for their services increased they opened a satellite clinic in Clifton Park and another in Glens Falls. Minor operations and some injections are performed at these sites, many by nurse practitioners.
As the business grew so did the staff, which now numbers 15 including Dr. Gordon. The team includes several nurse practitioners, an operating room nurse, a medical technician, a radiologic technologist, as well as front office and support staff. While his trained nurse practitioners perform many of the less complicated functions, Dr. Gordon is involved with every patient throughout the treatment plan. He estimates that he and his staff perform more than 4,000 procedures a year.
His patients run the gamut from young adults to senior citizens.
“As people age many develop painful conditions but they don’t want them to control their lives,” he said. “I have patients who have worked hard at their careers and now want to enjoy themselves without pain. I am treating one gentleman who is 101 years old.”
A graduate of Columbia Medical School, Dr. Gordon completed a residency in Anesthesiology at Harvard University School of Medicine and received training in pain management at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Dr. Gordon’s training as an anesthesiologist in Boston piqued his interest in pain management. Instead of general anesthesia for operations the hospital tended to use injections like epidurals or spinals to numb the extremities for some types of procedures.
“When I came to Glens Falls Hospital they needed someone to do epidural injections and offer different injection therapies for pain, and it just evolved into what I’m doing now. I had an affinity for it and the need was obviously there.”
Treatments offered at the clinics include regenerative medicine, treatment for sports and joint pain, treatment for neck and back pain, and pain management.
Regenerative medicine is a rapidly expanding discipline that helps repair parts of the body that no longer function as well as they should due to injury or natural aging. It is the process of helping living tissue to repair or replace tissue that no longer works due to disease, age, damage, or birth defects. It also helps regrow bone and connective tissue to repair bones and ligaments.
Common injuries that can benefit from regenerative therapies include runner’s knee, muscle tears and strains, tendonitis, golf and tennis elbows and degenerative joint conditions. Typical treatments include PRP injections and joint gel injections.
There are 8.6 million sports related injuries every year in the United States that affect 34 out of every 1,000 people. Injuries can include those to the knee/hip, shoulder, elbow, hand/wrist, and ankle/foot. Treatments can include steroid injections, gel injections, epidural injections, nerve blocks, discography, radiofrequency denervation, spinal cord stimulation, kyphoplasty for vertebral fractures, and regenerative medicine including platelet-rich plasma therapies (PRP).
According to Dr. Gordon, spine-related pain is common, with low back pain affecting up to 80 percent of the population. Neck and back pain can occur in the neck, the mid- and upper-back, the low back, and the sacroiliac and coccyx.
Treatments for these problems include epidural steroid injection, mild procedure for lumbar spinal stenosis, kyphoplasty for cancer-damaged vertebrae or some spinal fractures, facet blocks for joint pain, spinal cord stimulation, and sacroiliac (SI) joint injection/SI fusions for sacroiliac joint dysfunction. Other problems that can be treated at the clinic are disc herniations, sciatica, spinal stenosis, and lumbar decompression and discectomy. Dr. Gordon recommends contacting the clinic for complete information on these procedures.
Dr. Gordon’s practice encompasses a wide geographic area that stretches from its hub in Saratoga County east to Rutland, Vt., north to the Canadian border, south to Latham, and west to Amsterdam. He works with primary care physicians and chiropractors to give his patients the best possible care.
Originally from Philadelphia, Dr. Gordon is a diehard Eagles fan. “Eagles supporters will hunt you down if you quit on them,” he joked.
He and his wife moved to Upstate New York because they loved the outdoor activities the area offers. Avid skiers, the family started at Gore, transitioning to Killington because Gore doesn’t have a competitive mogul program. When their daughter, Abrianna, who is now 18, became interested in this kind of skiing they encouraged her to follow her dream. She has been accepted at Northwestern University in Boston but has deferred enrolling to ski competitively for the Park City, Utah, mogul team. Her goal is to get an invitation to the NorAm Circuit and see where that leads her.
Abrianna’s twin brother, Kyle, is a freshman at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia studying food marketing. He is also on the school’s rowing team.
Their oldest son, Caleb, is the manager of the marina at Lago by Druthers on Saratoga Lake. He has also worked at Harris Bay Marina on Lake George.
A third son, Carter, is working in sales for a startup company.
The family has a boat on Saratoga Lake, and several times each summer they trailer it north and camp on Lake George. His wife’s family is lives on Long Island and they occasionally take their boat there to explore the North Fork of Long Island.
Never one to sit around, Dr. Gordon is also an avid cyclist who rides whenever his schedule allows, weather permitting.
For more information about the therapies Dr. Gordon and his team can provide go to nypainfree.com.