Suggestions and Informations about Pain Management

Hi,
As always,this is for information purposes only,you must consult your doctors first.
Assessment
The most important about pain management is the patient or caregivers tell the healthcare professionals where and how the pain is.

1. by using the terms like “mild”,”moderate” or ” severe”;or using the “pain scale from 0-10” (0=no pain,1-3=mild,4-7=moderate,8-9=severe and 10 is worst or unbearable.)to describe the intensity of the pain.
2.by using the words like”sharp ,dull,aching,stabbing,burning,etc” to describe the characteristics of the pain.
3.by using the terms like “always,in the morning,at night etc” to describe the onset,duration,course and daily fluctuation of the pain.
4.Tell where it hurts-the location of the pain.
5.Avoid periodic flares of pain–“breakthrough pain”, that is precipitated by voluntary activity to optimize the pain management and decrease side effects.

Pharmacological Management
1. For mild to moderate chronic cancer Pain:use of non-opioid analgesics such as acetaminophen(not to exceed 3gm/day total); aspirin;NSAID like ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen(Aleve), nabumetone (Relafen),Celecoxib (Celebrex) , salsalate,and choline magnesium trisalicylate .NSAIDs are especially useful in patients with bone pain or pain from inflammatory lesions but GI side effects such as bleeding and cardiovascular disease and renal patients may preclude their use.
Suggestion to prevent GI toxicity include the concurrent use of a proton pump inhibitor(PPI) such as omeprazole (Prilosec) or pantoprazole(protonix) .
NSAIDs can be given once or twice daily and the analgesic effect may permit a reduction in the opioid dose and its side effects too.—from uptodate.com
2. see part 2 on this topic message)

For details info,there were sites suggested by Marion and Besty under the pain forum;there are still good. to learn about pain.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/supportivecare/pain/HealthProfessional
http://www.cancer-pain.org