For pain management, Collinsville is among the closest Illinois communities to our offices. Our main location at 4477 Woodson Rd, St. Louis, MO 63134 is about twenty-two miles away. That is a shorter trip than many St. Louis County patients make.
We are licensed in Illinois, and Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP is on staff at Anderson Hospital in Maryville.
The usual route is I-55/70 west to I-270 west, then on toward Lambert Airport. The other route is I-64 west across the Poplar Street Bridge, then north on I-170. It is often faster outside rush hour. Either way, allow about half an hour.
Collinsville sits on a busy freight and trucking corridor. Many of the patients we see from here were hurt at work. We see low back injuries from lifting. We see shoulder and neck problems from repeated overhead work. And we see neck pain that began after a vehicle crash on the job.
These cases have one feature that changes how to handle them. The diagnosis has to be written down and proven, not just reached. That changes the order of care in ways patients are rarely told.
In a normal case, a doctor can treat the likely source of pain and adjust if it fails. In a work injury or liability claim, an unproven diagnosis creates two separate problems.
The first is medical. Long rounds of therapy aimed at a part that was never confirmed burn months. Those are months when the tissue could still heal well.
The second is paperwork. “Chronic low back pain” is not a finding. “Pain reproduced on examination, relieved by a fluoroscopically guided block of the right L4 and L5 medial branch nerves, with the response recorded” is a finding. The second holds up, can be repeated, and names the part involved. It is also the same fact you need to pick the right treatment. That is no accident.
Here, careful diagnosis serves the patient and the paperwork at the same time. See facet joint injection and car accident injuries.
A pain score is a blunt tool. In a work injury, what matters is what you can do. Can you lift? Can you reach overhead? Can you sit through a shift, or turn your head far enough to drive safely?
When pain has truly limited activity for months, being out of shape becomes its own problem. Muscle wastes. The body handles less load. The nervous system learns to treat normal movement as a threat. Treat only the injured part and ignore that, and the patient is pain-free on the table but still cannot work. That is why rehab and step-by-step loading run alongside the procedures, not after them.
You get a talk and a physical exam. We review any scans you bring. Then you get a plan that says what we think is causing the pain and what would prove it. You will not be asked to commit to a long course of anything on day one.
Bring scans and a list of your medicines. If there is a claim, bring any papers about how and when you were hurt. How it happened matters for the diagnosis, not just the paperwork. A compression injury, a twisting injury and a direct blow damage different parts.
We accept most major plans and Medicare. Illinois network plans vary on out-of-state coverage. Illinois workers’ compensation follows Illinois rules on choosing a doctor, and those differ from Missouri’s. Our staff checks benefits before scheduling. Tell them up front if a work claim is involved, so it is handled right from the start.
Tell our staff when you call so it can be checked and set up right. Illinois claim rules on choosing a doctor differ from Missouri’s.
Often, with some changes to your duties. Most of our procedures are same-day, with no general anesthetic and little or no downtime.
You can usually get a second opinion. The details depend on the claim. Ask instead of assuming you can’t.
New patients are usually seen within a few days. Same-day visits exist for sudden, severe pain.
For how quickly new and urgent patients are seen, read Same-Day & Emergency Visits.
A first visit here is a talk and a physical exam. We review any scans you bring. You leave with a plan that says what we think is causing the pain and what would prove it. Once the source is confirmed, treatment is aimed at that part. Rehab and step-by-step loading run alongside the procedures. The goal is getting back to lifting, reaching and working, not just a lower pain score.
Bring your scans and a current list of your medicines. If there is a work or injury claim, bring any papers about how and when you were hurt. Tell our staff up front if a claim is involved. That way benefits are checked and it is handled right from the start. Illinois workers’ compensation follows Illinois rules on choosing a doctor, and those differ from Missouri’s.
How you were hurt matters for the diagnosis, not just the paperwork. A compression injury, a twisting injury and a direct blow damage different parts. So how it happened points to which part to test first. In a work injury the diagnosis also has to be written down. A finding confirmed by a guided block, with the response recorded, names the exact part involved.
Call us or request a time. See our Illinois pain management page to see how we work with patients across the river.
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Same-day and emergency appointments are available.