Dr. Vince Leone says realistic pain relief means cutting your pain roughly in half, not eliminating it. If you rate pain at 8/10, aim for 4/10. He asks patients to define success themselves rather than chase feeling like they did 20 years ago.
I'd always tell patients, hey, no offense, but I just want to let you know, you're not going to feel 20 years old again. Okay? You are going to feel better. We're expecting, you know, this— like, if you're at an 8 out of 10, I expect to get down to around a 4 out of 10. Does that look like success to you? Because if it doesn't, it probably doesn't make sense to move forward. If you're thinking you're going to get to zero, that doesn't— it's possible, but it's not Yeah. It's not realistic. It's not most likely. I think what is most likely is we get about 50% reduction in pain, probably a little bit more. But what, from your perspective, does a successful outcome look like?
