Pickens County
Pain management for Big Canoe, Georgia
Big Canoe residents are treated at Apollo Spine and Pain Center's Jasper office, 14 Sammy McGhee Blvd, Suite 204, about 20 minutes from the north gate by way of Steve Tate Highway and GA-515. Dr. Ramya Rangaraj performs epidural injections, radiofrequency ablation and joint procedures on site, with no facility fees.
Medically reviewed by Ramya Rangaraj, MD — ABPMR, ABPM
- Drive time
- about 20 minutes to our Jasper office
- Route
- Steve Tate Highway to GA-53, then GA-515 to Sammy McGhee Boulevard
- Landmark
- Measured from the Big Canoe north gate on Steve Tate Highway
- County
- Pickens County
Pickens County
Big Canoe, GA
A gated mountain community of roughly 4,000 residents in Pickens and Dawson counties, twenty minutes from our Jasper office.
Getting to the Jasper office from Big Canoe
From the north gate on Steve Tate Highway, take Steve Tate down to GA-53, then west to GA-515 and south to Sammy McGhee Boulevard. It runs about 20 minutes without traffic and stays on well-maintained road the whole way — no gravel, no steep switchbacks.
The office is Suite 204, on the second floor, with elevator access and parking close to the entrance. For patients coming down the mountain in winter weather, morning appointments are usually the easier choice and our staff will happily schedule you that way.
Why Big Canoe patients come to us
The alternative for most of this community is driving to Canton, Marietta or into metro Atlanta — an hour or more each way, often to a large chain practice where you see a different provider each visit. In Jasper you see Dr. Rangaraj every time, and procedures are done in our own suite, so there is no hospital facility fee added to the bill.
That matters here. A great many Big Canoe residents are on Medicare, and facility fees on a hospital-owned pain practice can more than double the out-of-pocket cost of a routine injection.
What we treat most often in this community
- Knee osteoarthritis — including genicular nerve blocks for patients who are not surgical candidates
- Lumbar spinal stenosis, which makes hills and long walks difficult
- Facet arthritis of the neck and low back, treated with medial branch blocks then radiofrequency ablation
- Sciatica from a herniated disc
- Shoulder pain from rotator cuff wear — common in golfers and tennis players
- Ongoing pain after knee or hip replacement
Staying active on the mountain
Most patients here are not asking to be pain free on the couch. They want to finish eighteen holes, walk the lake trails, get down to the wellness center, and keep up with grandchildren visiting for the weekend.
That is the goal we plan around. Treatment is measured by what you can do afterward, not by a number on a pain scale — and by whether we can keep you off long-term narcotics while doing it.