Skip to main content

Cancer Pain



¨  Pain is one of the most feared, and one of the commonest symptoms
associated with cancer.
¨  But it is important to know that pain can be well controlled in most cases,
often with simple combinations of medicines.
¨  What can cause pain in cancer and various
ways of dealing with pain. Also the fears that many patients
have about taking strong painkillers, like morphine.
WHAT CAN CAUSE PAIN IN CANCER?
¨  The cancer can cause pain itself because of damage to tissues, such as
bone, muscle or nerves.
¨  Sometimes pain may be related to the treatment you have received for your
cancer, such as surgery or chemotherapy, or to other things, such as
constipation or pressure sores.
¨  The kind of treatment you will be offered depends very much on what your
doctor thinks is causing the pain.
¨  It is very important that you do not suffer in silence. The doctors and nurses
may not be aware of your pain and what it feels like, so please do not be
afraid to tell them.
¨  You may be asked to describe more about your pains. You may be
examined and tests may be done in order to find out exactly what is causing
the pain.
¨  If pain still persists even with large doses of morphine-like drugs, a
dedicated pain team may be asked to assist the palliative care specialists in
controlling pain.
¨  Morphine-like drugs may not help nerve pain, due to pressure or nerve
damage, as a result of the disease or its treatment. Antidepressant drugs
such as amitriptyline, and anti-epileptic drugs such as gabapentin, can
sometimes help nerve pain.
¨  Nerve destruction procedures may be necessary to alleviate pain. A pain
specialist must carry these out.
¨  Sometimes painkilling drugs are given as a continuous infusion next to the
spinal cord (epidural infusion) which can be continued at home.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Hard nipples" - areola or nipple skin

Someone once wrote"... when i get really cold, or get goosebumbs all over my body, the whole things really scrunch up, like, my entire areola scrunches itself up into a wrinkled little mound. it looks really weird and ugly, and i haven't ever seen other people's breasts do it. what is wrong with my areola/nipples??" The answer: Well nothing is wrong. This is what my areola does too. It's a normal reaction to the coldness or to irritation / stimulation. The little muscles in the areola do a similar goosebump thing as your other skin can do. People often call this phenomenon "hard nipples". Also note that skin on areola has less feeling or sensation to it than other areas of your body. If the areola was very sensitive, then breastfeeding would probably be quite uncomfortable because the baby pulls and tugs it! The nipples are sensitive but the sensitivity changes with hormonal changes, such as occur at mestrual cycle or pregnancy. Also this v...
8 comments
Read more

Monumental cleavage alert! Did Natalie Portman get a boob job?

Black Swan Oscar winner Natalie Portman has sparked feverish debate about whether or not she's had a boob job, after she appeared on camera at an American football game looking bustier than before. The 31-year-old, who gave birth to son Aleph in June 2011, was watching the game in Austin, Texas during a break from shooting the as-yet-untitled new Terrence Malick film. With co-star Michael Fassbender by her side, a newly blonde Natalie was spotted by the cameras during the ABC broadcast. While it could very well be a push-up bra, or a consequence of breast-feeding her bub, Twitter fans immediately speculated about the star's potentially enhanced assets. "Natalie Portman @ the Texas-Baylor game ... boob job? Looks like it!" one user wrote. "Wait a second, did Natalie Portman get a boob job? Is she pregnant? On the sidelines of Texas game and #wow," another tweeted. Comments on the YouTube clip ran along the same lines, albeit many of them ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Loosing a parent!

When a Parent Dies: Dealing with the Loss of Your Mother or Father By David Kessler This is spot on. I guess until you go through this you will never know.  #parents #love #grief #davidkessler #survivor #iamstillawoman  When a parent of an adult dies, there is almost an unspoken expectation that it will not hit you head on. An adult is expected to accept death as a part of life, to handle all sudden losses in an appropriate adult manner. But really, what does that mean? That you should not be sad? That you should be so grateful they didn’t die when you were a child that you don’t need to mourn your parent? The above considerations demonstrate an under-estimation of grief. Grief is the reflection of the connection that has been lost. That loss does not diminish because you are an adult or because your mother or father lived a long life. Our society places enormous pressure on us to get over loss, to get through the grief. But how long do you grieve for the man who...
Post a Comment
Read more