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Don’t
Wait To Seek Relief
Pain can affect you in many ways. It can keep you from being
active, from sleeping well, from enjoying family and friends,
and from eating. Pain can also make you feel afraid or
depressed.
Many times cancer patients
don't take
pain medicine or other treatments until after they are experiencing
significant pain. In fact, a patient should not wait until the pain
becomes severe to take medicine or seek relief. Pain is easier to control
when it is mild than when it is severe.
Some
cancer patients worry about "taking too much medicine"
in fear that their pain relief medication will stop working as a result. While the medicine will
not stop working, your body may get used to it. This is called
tolerance. But tolerance is not usually a problem with cancer pain
treatment because the amount of medicine can be changed or other
medicines can be added or substituted.
With treatment, most cancer pain can be controlled. More
importantly, most pain can be prevented before it has an
impact on your quality of life.
Communicating
With Your Doctor
To make your pain medicine more effective, the American Pain
Foundation suggests asking yourself the following questions
regarding your cancer pain—and then relaying this information
to your physician:
-
Where is the pain? You may have pain in more than one place. Be
sure to list all of the painful areas.
-
What does the pain feel like? Does it ache? Throb? Burn? Tingle?
-
How bad is the pain? You can use a
number scale to rate your
pain from 0 (no pain) to 10 (the worst pain).
-
What makes the pain better or worse? You may have already found
ways to make your pain feel better. For example, using heat or
cold, or taking certain medicines. You may have also found that
sitting or lying in certain positions or doing some activities
affects the pain.
-
If you are being treated for pain now, how well is the treatment
working? You may want to describe how well it is working by
saying how much of the pain is relieved—all, almost all, none,
etc.
-
Has the pain changed? You may notice that your pain changes over
time. It may get better or worse or it can feel different. For
example, the pain may have been a dull ache at first and has
changed to a tingle. It is important to report changes in your
pain. Changes in pain do not always mean that the cancer has
come back or grown.
Then
ask your doctor:
-
What medicine(s) can you give
me to relieve my pain?
-
How and when should I take the
medicine(s), and for how long?
-
What side effects are common?
What should be done if they occur?
-
Should I try non-drug methods
to relieve my pain such as relaxation or massage?
Measuring
Pain
There
are several different ways in which cancer pain is measured:
-
Severity
– Patients are often asked to rate their pain on a scale
of 0 to 10, with 10 being extremely severe pain.
-
Temporality
– This assesses how often pain is felt, for how long,
and at what time of day it is usually better or worse.
-
Location
– This determines the exact place where the pain is
from, whether it is superficial versus deep, local versus
generalized.
-
Quality
of Pain – This is a descriptive measure such as
feeling a stabbing, burning or crushing sensation.
-
Modifying
Factors – This tells the doctor what makes the
pain better or worse. For example, heat or cold, taking mild
analgesics, or simply modifying a position may alleviate the
pain.
Rating
Pain
Regarding
the severity pain scale, the following general guidelines could
be used to “rate your pain”:
0
– Pain Free.
1-2
– Mild Pain. You are only aware of the pain when you are
focusing on it.
3-4
– Tolerable Pain. The pain can be ignored somewhat.
5-6
– Distressful Pain. You are in pain but able to continue
with some physical activity.
7-8
– Severe Pain. You can’t concentrate and can’t do
anything more than simple tasks.
9-10
– Disabling Pain. The pain is overwhelming and must be
taken care of immediately.
Develop
a Pain Plan
Taking medicine regularly and as your doctor tells you usually will help
to keep pain under control. But ask your doctor or nurse how and
when to take extra medicine. If some activities make your pain
worse (for example, work-related exertions), it may be
recommended that you take an extra dose of pain medicine beforehand.
What's important is that you discuss all these issues with your
physician.
If one medicine or treatment does not work, there is usually
another one that can be tried. Also, if a schedule or way that
you are taking the medicine does not work for you, changes
should be made. It may be helpful for you to keep a record of
how the medicine is working—and to share this information with
your doctor.
Sources:
This page was last
edited on 05/07/2002
Written by Richard
Zmuda, senior writer, cancerpage.com
Edited by Rachael Myers Lowe, cancerpage.com
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