We introduce the latest location of Arizona Pain.

By Kevin Whipps

Arizona Pain has locations across the Valley, but those in the Desert Ridge area just got a more convenient option, with the addition of our new clinic located right off the Loop 101 and Tatum Boulevard in Phoenix. And better yet, it comes with a few familiar faces.

Like other Arizona Pain locations, the Desert Ridge Medical Campus features world-class care performed by the best in the industry. The attending physician on-site is Dr. Jack Anderson, who may look familiar to frequent readers of Arizona Pain Monthly. That’s because Anderson was spotlighted in our Q&A feature back in April.

As a double board certified interventional pain physician and anesthesiologist, Anderson is very qualified to handle any pain issue that comes his way. “Dr. Anderson has been recognized professionally as a thought leader, mentor and compassionate colleague,” says Dr. Tory McJunkin, co-founder of Arizona Pain. “We are confident in his skills of leading our Phoenix pain team and are proud to have him on board.”
Anderson shares the same approach as other Arizona Pain physicians, in that he utilizes a conservative and minimally invasive approach to comprehensive care. He also has a background in emergency medicine and diagnostic radiology, which brings additional depth to his work. Just don’t make any Matrix jokes when you see him — we’re sure he’s heard them all.

The new location is 3,586 square feet and includes seven clinic rooms, plus a large waiting room where patients can either watch TV or thumb through the latest issue of Arizona Pain Monthly. This is a one-stop shop for pain treatment.
“We know chronic pain affects over a million people in Phoenix alone,” says Arizona Pain CEO Joe Carlon. “Our commitment to the patients in this community is to provide the world-class pain care they would want for their own moms and dads, and our newest location in the Desert Ridge area of Phoenix allows us to better deliver that kind of care to patients in their time of need.”
The Desert Ridge Medical Campus is located at 20940 N. Tatum Blvd., Suite B-210, in Phoenix, and is open Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. To make an appointment at any Arizona Pain location, please call 480-563-6400, or visit us on the web at Arizonapain.com.

Positive Energy

By Kevin Whipps

It’s 5 a.m. on a weekday, and a woman is lacing up her shoes to head out for a run. It’s not a jog for her health, it’s not about trying to reach some personal goal. It’s to forget. To try to work out the pain she felt from her recent divorce and sort out her own feelings. She wakes up her daughter and son, they lace up their shoes, and the family goes out running.

The son doesn’t last long. He’s tired, and he doesn’t want to run this one-mile loop for the umpteenth time. But the daughter feels the urge to keep up with her mother, so the two match pace and run the loop again and again. For the little girl, she feels natural. Strong. Good.
This is how an athlete is born.

A Watery Road

Tere Derbez-Zacher is a study in contrasts.
As a child, she learned to love running. As a teenager, she learned how to swim and soon took the world by storm. As the grandchild of two French immigrants in Mexico, Derbez-Zacher grew up speaking Spanish at school and French at home. She is also a Mexican and French citizen.
Now 40, Derbez-Zacher remembers her parents divorcing when she was 5, leaving her and her brother to be raised by their mother and grandparents. The family worked a lot to support the kids, and that meant there was no one to watch Derbez-Zacher and her brother at home. To fill the void, their mother would drop the two off at a private athletic club every day from 4 to 8 p.m., which is where Derbez-Zacher learned to love swimming as well. She showed some proficiency right off the bat, and soon was invited to go to nationals. But as the competition and practice requirements ramped up, the commitments became too much for her mother. “I guess she thought that I was just going to miss school forever,” Derbez-Zacher says. As a result, she stopped swimming and returned her focus to school.

After high school came college and then working toward her graduate degree. As she continued her education, Derbez-Zacher turned back to swimming. “I guess part of it was that I never really completed that cycle,” Derbez-Zacher says. “I like to finish what I start. If I want to get into something, I either do it all the way, or I’d rather not. I’m black and white.”

The competitive spirit was still very much alive in Derbez-Zacher at age 24, but her coach at the time told her she was too old and he wasn’t going to waste his time training her. Initially, she was devastated by his hurtful words, but soon changed her mind. “No one can tell me what I can or cannot do. I am the only one that determines how far I can go,” she explains. At the time she thought, “Maybe I will never be the next big swimmer, but I at least have to try.”

She found a new coach, a man who was around her age and believed, as she did, that she could be a professional swimmer. Her goal was to become a champion someday,
and the two focused intensely on her process. “Within eight months I was a national champion, and then two years after that I was a world champion,” Derbez-Zacher says. As she stood there, holding her medal in Morocco in 1998, she knew that it was just the beginning.
Soon the sponsorships started coming in, and she joined the Mexican national team for a spell. She even qualified for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. But she was going through a rough patch in her life, and decided she needed a fresh start. She walked away from swimming, moved to Mexico City and became a news anchor for a national network.

That’s right, Derbez-Zacher was now on TV, interviewing famous celebrities and reading the day’s events. “It was fun, but I was not happy,” she says. “I like to know that I am making a difference in the world.” Being a talking head on the tube wasn’t cutting it for her, so she had to make a shift. Keep on moving forward.
She moved to America and took a job at the Mexican consulate. But she ended up leaving for political reasons, much to her dismay. “I think that when a door closes, it’s that something better is coming up for you. You’ve just got to be open to receive it — to get it,” she says.
While in the States and going to school, she decided to use her teaching background to volunteer at a local swimming school. There she met Kevin, a swimming instructor, and it wasn’t long before the two were married and had a beautiful daughter together. Things happen for a reason.

Running in Circles

One day Derbez-Zacher received a phone call from a friend. He was training for a marathon and wanted her to come out and practice with him. How long a run? 16 miles. No sweat.
At that point, Derbez-Zacher wasn’t running professionally, and didn’t really think about it much. But 16 miles — no biggie, right? “I say, ‘OK,’ because I think in kilometers. I’m like, ‘Sure, I’ll run with you. Why not?’” she says and laughs. But her competitive spirit kept pushing her forward; she would never show defeat. After a few more runs, her friend tried to prod her into running marathons, but Derbez-Zacher turned him down. Then he asked, “What about a triathlon?” Suddenly, she perked up. Swimming and running together? Perfect. What could go wrong?

“I started training [for the Olympic games], and I didn’t like it,” she says. “I hated swimming, because the swimming was long-distance and I was a sprinter. Biking was OK, but the swimming was open-water. When it came time to run, that was the only part that I really enjoyed.” The plan to do triathlons was scrapped, and Derbez-Zacher decided she was going to just run and train for the Olympics as a marathon runner. Soon she was running all the time, competing in marathons across the country. “The thing with training is that it’s better to undertrain a little than overtrain a little,” she explains. The problem was, in her joy of rediscovering her love of running, Derbez- Zacher was overtraining. And soon that nagging pain in her leg became something she just couldn’t ignore. It was time to get help.
Derbez-Zacher went through several different doctors. Some of them thought she might have a stress fracture in her leg, but nothing they tried could produce results. Ultimately,
she ended up at Arizona Pain in Scottsdale. At first, she was skeptical: Could this pain doctor really help her solve her problem?
After her visit, Derbez-Zacher found out she had a bulging disc, putting her L4 and L5 vertebrae out of alignment. In turn, that was placing pressure on the nerve that ran into her leg. But after a few shots and a visit with the chiropractor, Dr. Moore, she was sorted out and good to go. Three weeks after that initial visit, she was on the road again.

The Finish Line

Today, Derbez-Zacher is training to run in the 2016 Olympic games. She’s already pre- qualified for the Mexican team, but is also training for the U.S. Olympic Trials. She’s working as a teacher again off and on, and having fun with her daughter and husband. She’s also very, very busy.
But every day she wakes up, laces her shoes and goes for a run. She’s not running to forget, or to improve her health, but to meet a personal goal. She wants to become a world champion again — this time in a completely different sport, competing against people close to half her age. It’s an uphill battle, but with every step forward on the pavement, she gets that much closer to her goal. She feels natural. Strong. Good. This is how an athlete lives.

We take medicine because it’s designed to fix a problem. Something is wrong with us — allergies, blood pressure, pain — and we use the medication to solve the issue. If there’s no other way to treat the problem, and medication is able to fix it, then that’s the path we take.

But sometimes those medicines cause more problems than they solve, resulting in us either taking additional medications to battle the additional problems, or having to suffer through those issues as well. How many times a day do you see an ad for a new drug that has a disclaimer along the lines of, “May cause nausea, upset stomach, diarrhea, blurred vision …” and then some? When you need medicine for your medicine, it’s time to rethink things.

Kristen Wesley was living that life. Between surgeries, medications and everything else, she was in constant pain that was just unbearable. It led to a life where she was hooked on narcotics and opioids, unable to be comfortable for any stretch of time and just miserable. This is her story.

On the Field

Being a softball pitcher is hard work. Not only are you swinging your arm to release a ball at speeds faster than most normal humans can produce, but you’re putting your body under constant strain. As if that wasn’t enough, put that same person in the batting box to face pitches from the opponent, and the risk of injury grows even higher. Make no mistake, being a softball player is hard work, no matter what the male jocks on the baseball team say.

But with all of the risks inherent with any sport come the rewards, and Kristen had those in spades. Her career on the mound took her around the world and gave her an identity and education. The problems came when it all started to crash down around her with an injury, which started a downward spiral that took her out of the game and almost her life.

Her athletic career took roots early, with the encouragement of her father, Scott Wesley. “I felt that the art of pitching was a way to get her into the game, and move her along pretty quickly,” he says, and it seems that he was correct. Scott, a softball coach by profession, soon found his daughter taking swings in batting cages at speeds that professionals might balk at. “She literally would hit ropes,” he beams, describing the straight and hard hits she could produce.

As time went on, Kristen got better and better. Her aptitude for the game grew, and soon she found herself in high school where she could really shine. “As a freshman I was a varsity pitcher, and I just took a lot of pride in being an athlete,” Kristen says. Her abilities soon took her to Europe where she competed in the World Cup Softball Games, and she also was a part of the North American Spirit softball team. “She was pretty good,” her father says, with a small smirk.

The strain on her young body was pretty intense. “I spent at least four days a week training, a couple of hours every single day, as a young girl in my garage throwing balls — hundreds of balls with my dad as a pitcher

[and] going to the batting cages three days a week. Spending hours and hours training with my dad.” But she had the benefit of youth, and she could handle the extra pressure. Plus, it was fun — it was what she wanted to do, so there were no complaints on her end. “I remember her saying to me, ‘I can’t thank you enough, dad.’” Scott says.

Her status as an all-star pitcher came with her to college, where she kept up her fierce competitive spirit. “We ranked fourth in the nation; we went to the World Series my freshman year which was super exciting,” she recalls. “I was set to be the first string pitcher the following year, and that’s when I had a freak accident.”

That freak accident was a back injury where she herniated her L4-L5 discs. At first, the urgency of the situation didn’t register with Kristen. “I just thought that I strained my back really bad and pulled a muscle,” she says. As a result, she continued to play with the injury, and that made it get worse and worse. By the end of the season, she was in pretty intense pain, and they visited a doctor to determine what the best course of action was. After attempting more conservative treatments, things still weren’t getting any better. By the time August came around, the doctor said that surgery was her only option, so Kristen had a procedure done.

The surgeries didn’t go as well as planned, and she was still in pain, but those weren’t the only issues that Kristen had to deal with. “It was a really big heartache for me because I lost my identity in a lot of ways. I lost my identity as an athlete, which I trained for my entire life. As a student, [because] I wasn’t able to sit through my classes.”

Things continued to spiral downwards from there. Softball was suddenly gone from her life, and with that went her college scholarship as well. Because the sciatica pain in her legs was so bad, she couldn’t sit in class, so eventually she was forced to withdraw from school. She left her west coast college and came back to live with her parents to try to figure out what to do with her life.

At this point, the only thing that Kristen thought she could do to get through the pain was to take prescription pain killers, both narcotics and opioids. “I didn’t realize there was such a thing as a Pain Management doctor that could help me, so i continued to take a miserable cocktail of drugs for a few years, which created a vicious cycle of terrible side effects, struggle with addiction and terrible withdrawl symptoms.” These drugs brought their own problems. Migraine headaches, a lack of focus, depression — these all manifested themselves in various ways for the time she was on the medication, even putting her in the hospital on more than one occasion. Things were bad. Really bad.

Recovery and Reevaluation

Kristen didn’t want to take this situation lying down, so she started researching her options. After looking and visiting various hospitals and clinics, she found a pain specialist in her area that had a different approach to handling her issues. They didn’t want to focus on medication; for them, it was about finding alternative approaches to the problem first and slowly taking her off of her existing medications. This was the break she had been looking for.

What did they do to manage pain? “Before seeing the Arizona Pain, I wasn’t able to manage my own regiment with alternative therapies, or get relief for myself other than with the use of medications.” Her answer, came in the form of some other options. “A TENS unit, spinal decompression, topical ointments and patches, chiropractic techniques — those all really helped me get back to feeling better.”

Prior to seeing the Arizona Pain, Kristen’s life was pretty limited. She couldn’t travel, because sitting for too long would put her in intense pain. Certain car seats were so uncomfortable that it became unbearable, and work became a problem as well. She couldn’t live a normal life without taking medication. She wasn’t able to even do simple tasks like take her dogs for a walk around the block. Now, all that has changed. “Through trying these alternative therapies — other solutions besides medications — I’m able to slowly increase my activity level. Actually work out again, strengthen my muscles, strengthen my back without pain flare-ups that, in turn, allows me to increase my overall activity.”

Although she’s been through a lot of pain these past few years, today she’s confident and looks out on a bright future. She also has a few words of health advice to other people in similar situations to her own. “As a former and current patient who’s always trying to manage my pain levels and has also seen the worst and best of the progress, I would say to anyone else in chronic pain, don’t give up. Keep trying lots of different things, don’t just necessarily think that one thing is the answer. Sometimes it takes a combination of different therapies to help you get off opioids and get you back to living a normal life.”

For more information about opioids, please visit: Paindoctor.com/opioid-resources.

Arizona Pain’ Sister Clinic Works Miracles in Malawi

By Kevin Whipps

While we spend our mornings waiting in line for a coffee, or complaining about the latest thing that happened on the news, a world away lives a country where almost 10-million people live on less than $1 a day. While we drive through our suburban neighborhoods, 85% of their population lives in rural villages. And out of the 13 million people in their country, at least 1 million are infected with HIV. In 2007, 2.1 million died from the disease. It’s named Malawi, but it’s also known as “The warm heart of Africa,” and it’s a country that doesn’t get a ton of press around these parts, but it should. The average life expectancy of a male born today is just 51 years old, and 15.5% of all children under the age of five are underweight. The fact is, times are tough over there, and without the help of people in more fortunate situations, the country will continue to devolve.

In 2001, Dr. Perry Jansen and a small group began Partners in Hope (PIH). Their mission was to provide desperately needed medical care to the people of Malawi, and donate their services to help stop the spread of HIV in Africa. To start, the team went to Malawi and provided home based care as well as taught HIV prevention in local schools. In addition, they started providing antiretroviral medications (ARVs) to those in need, and the results were astounding. People who were expected to die got up out of bed and regained living their normal lives. It was amazing.

A few years later in 2005, PIH opened a new facility named the Partners in Hope Medical Center. Today, they see over 250 patients daily, and actively care for 6,000 HIV patients on the premises. What makes the space so amazing? Treatments and tools that we have access to as Americans are rare and hard to find in Malawi, but PIH brought in a state-of- the-art laboratory to diagnose both Tuberculosis and HIV patients. They have x-ray machines and ultrasound tools, rarely seen in Malawi. Today, PIH has 3,500 HIV patients in care, 2,600 patients on ARVs and 3,600 patients are seen each month.

This is an uphill struggle for sure, but PIH has definitely made strides in the right direction. Today, over 100 peer educators have been trained, they’ve opened Tikambe Youth Center to offer “youth friendly” HIV testing and over 1,000 people are tested for HIV every month. They’ve even been expanding the clinic, with the “Thandizo” ward opening in 2010, and the “Moyo” clinic just completing expansion.

Partners in Hope is the sister clinic to Arizona Pain. We support the amazing work that Dr. Jansen and his crew perform, and we hope you do too. If you would like to donate to Partners in Hope, you can do so at their website: Partnersinmalawi.org/donations.php.

The road to the NFl is a tough one, fraught with injuries, contract negotiations and hard work.

Oh, and pain. lots and lots of pain.

But let’s start at the beginning of Aaron’s story, back when he was just a kid growing up in Arizona. Back in the mid-90s, Robin Pflugrad, Aaron’s dad, was working at Arizona State university as the wide receiver coach. he’d take his son with him to some of the practices and games, an experience that really stuck with the younger Pflugrad. “I was a little guy, and every practice I thought I was a bigger part of the team than I really was,” Aaron recalls.  “Those memories really made me very strong of Arizona State. I always loved Arizona State, and I just felt blessed to be able to come back and play for them.”

These were the glory days of ASu, back when Jake Plummer was the quarterback and Pat Tillman was playing on the line. The Sun Devils appeared in the Rose Bowl in 1997, and although they didn’t win, it was still a heck of a run, and young Aaron was on the sidelines watching it all.

Of course he was going to play football, and so his school career path went the same way. When his father took a gig at Oregon, he was signed to the football team as well, making it possible for his dad to watch him at every game. Nothing wrong with that. “It was awesome to have him there on the sidelines being able to watch me for my first two years,” Aaron says.

But what was it like for him that first time out on the field in front of thousands of screaming fans? “That’s pretty crazy. I think the main thing is to just know who you’re playing for — an audience of one — and in reality it’s just blocking all the fans out and knowing that you have the skills and talent to accomplish the things you want to do on the field.”

When his father was let go however, Aaron felt he needed to make a change. “After [my dad] got released as wide receiver coach, I went through spring ball but just felt like in my heart that it wasn’t right for me to stay there,” says Aaron. “I got my release and I didn’t know where I was going to go. But then Coach Erickson called me up and said, ‘We’d love to have you down here.’ I was just ecstatic.” It’s funny how fate works sometimes.

One thing that Aaron has experienced a lot throughout his time playing football is the doubters. “A lot of times people will look at you and automatically assume something and put limits on you. That’s the thing that I’ve really found rewarding over my career — being able to break those limits and do things that I knew I could do. I’ve proved a lot of people wrong.”

And that’s exactly what he did. Once college was done, it was time for him to move on to the big show. he knew he wanted to play in the NFl, but also knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy task. he needed to train. Prepare. Get better as an athlete, and that meant taking care of some nagging problems that had been plaguing him throughout his career.

See, despite being a football player, Aaron isn’t particularly large. It’s an asset of sorts for him as a wide receiver — being nimble and fast — but when he gets laid out by a guy who’s 6’5 250lbs, he’s going to feel it. That takes its toll on the body, and even at his young age he wanted to solve the issues before they became more serious. After all, this is his career, not just some hobby. “I had some issues as far as tightness in my calves. I’ve always had a little bit of ‘issues,’” he says.

So what was one of his solutions? “I had never tried acupuncture before, and I really wanted to give it a try,” Aaron says. “It was amazing. It felt like it made me get better, and it’s something I’m going to continue to do throughout my career.”

In addition, he also tried out different massage techniques and had some chiropractic work done as well. “I’m a smaller guy, so a lot of times when I get hit my back will be a little bit out of alignment, or my hips will be a little bit out of alignment. I think that’s real important for me as a wide receiver — to just have my back inline so I can move the way I need to move and not be hindered by it.”

Although this isn’t the typical treatment that the average wide receiver might get, for Aaron, it’s exactly what he needed. “It’s so much better when you can just go to one area and get everything you need to get done to heal fast.”

Unfortunately, Aaron wasn’t picked up in the NFl Draft, and a recent stint in Rookie Camp for the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t pan out. That doesn’t mean that he’s giving up, however. “I’m still really hoping that I’ll get another opportunity to play in the NFl; to go through the pre-season and learn and grow as a player.” To do that, he’s training hard every day and doing everything he can to get picked up.

Should that not work out, he still has a plan. he’s going to get into the family business — coaching. he’s already spoken to a college about learning the ropes on the other end of the sidelines, and that will be the next step. “They’re not really sure what it will be yet, but just a spot where I’d be able to help out with the team and travel with the team, and kind of get my foot in the door.”

Whatever happens with Aaron, we know that he’ll succeed because he’s got a positive attitude. “A lot of it is just not listening to people trying to put limits on you,” Aaron says. “I think you can say this for anything in life. A lot of times people will put a glass ceiling above your head and you’ve got to work hard and believe in yourself and you’ll accomplish it.”

Read Aaron’s first story here

Arizona State Sun Devil football fans are all too familiar with Aaron Pflugrad. The 5’10” wide receiver played stellarly for the team for three years, before graduating in 2011 with a degree in marketing. Pflugrad, a native of Missoula, Montana came to the Sun Devils after playing for the Oregon Ducks. His father, football coach Robin Pflugrad, left Oregon at the same time to become head coach at Montana.
Pflugrad made 96 receptions for 1,241 yards – including 8 touchdowns during his college career. Arizona Pain Monthly checks in on the local star athlete – including how he manages pain, and if the NFL is in his future:

Q: When did you begin playing football?

A: I started playing tackle football in the third grade. I was a huge ASU fan and knew back then that I wanted to play for the Sun Devils.

Q: What is it about athletics that makes you passionate?

A: I am very passionate about athletics because it can teach you so many lessons about life. I love being one of the smallest guys out there but still gaining the respect of my coaches and teammates by the way I play. Football is a game of “what have you done for me lately.”
I love to compete every single day and give it everything I have. I love having to prove it every day. I also played basketball and ran track in high school. I love competing, so any sport is good with me.

Q: you graduated in May with a degree in marketing. What’s next?

A: I am finishing my graduate degree in liberal studies at ASU. I am also training for the NFL and will be in a training camp in May.

Q: Have you dealt with injuries or pain playing football? What has helped you regain your athletic ability?

A: I have been extremely blessed to have no major injuries during my career. I believe if you take care of your body, eat healthy, and stay in shape you can avoid most injuries. When you are injured it is important to do everything you can to get back as fast as possible.

Q: What would you recommend to others who may be interested in chasing their dreams – may they be athletic, professional, artistic, etc?

A: God gave us certain desires and passions that cannot be denied. Many people told me that I should look to play Division 2 college football because I did not have the size to play in the Pac-12 conference. I never listened, and I never will. Life is about mastering yourself and not letting things out of your control get to you. If you do the right things, to accomplish your dreams, for long enough and hard enough you will be successful.