A Chronic Pain Management Guide

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience. There are two basic types of pain, and they are very different.

Acute pain, for the most part, has a physical cause, such as disease, inflammation, or injury to tissues. This type of pain generally comes on quickly, for example, after trauma or surgery, and may be accompanied by anxiety or emotional distress. Acute pain resolves when its cause is treated, and healing occurs.

Chronic pain lasts longer than acute, generally over three months. It may start with an injury or other cause, but it persists even after healing has occurred. Chronic pain is widely believed to be a disease, with known changes in the nerves that get worse with time. Due to its persistence, it can cause major problems in every aspect of a person’s life and is frequently resistant to many medical treatments. A person may even have two or more coexisting chronic pain conditions. Among the most common pain challenges are headaches, low back pain, arthritis, pain, cancer pain, and nerve and muscle pain.

Here are a few Symptoms of Chronic pain:

• Chronic pain is the pain lasting more than 12 weeks. This pain has no certain duration of cure; it may last till months or even years and longer.
• Joint pain is also considered as one of the most important and alarming symptoms of chronic pain. A person who is continuously suffering from such pains must go for diagnosis.
• Sleep problems are a very common reason for chronic pain, as sleeping is the most essential function of the body. Hence if the sleeping balance gets disturbed, then it is a signal of some serious problems.
• Loss of stamina and flexibility is also one of the symptoms of chronic pain as the person starts losing flexibility and stamina due to decreased activities in day to day life.
• Few mood swings, which include depression, anxiety, and irritability, are also one of the knocking conditions for chronic pain which you can track easily.

Chronic pain is diagnosed based on some very frequently asked questions by the doctor which includes,

• When did the pain start and since how long is it disturbing you?
• How does it feel like while being in pain? (sharp or dull)
• Where is the exact epicenter of the pain?
• What are the things which make it worst or better?

Hence, these are very basic questions about what is the basis of the further diagnosis of any patient. In some of the cases, MRI scans are also considered as a part of diagnosis in order to cross verify all other functionality of the patient’s body. Until unless the doctor comes across the exact reason for the pain, they won’t make their patient anxious just by few symptoms. They will rather have a proper diagnosis and try to give the best remedy for the cure.

Treatment of Chronic Pain

• Drugs, up to some extent, can reduce the pain temporarily but inculcating a habit of it can create more complications sometimes. But don’t forget to take important pills at the right time. What if you forget? Pill reminder is helpful in managing the disease.
• Nerve block techniques are pretty common these days to attain some cure from the disease as the nerves which carry the pain signals are interrupted inside the body, which helps the patients.
• Physical Therapy can also be very helpful for the patients of chronic pain as it helps increase the flexibility and range of motion as well.
• Psychological or Behavioral Therapy which does not have much impact on the pain but yet is considered to be one of the best solutions for the cure as it has a positive impact on the mood of the patient.

How to Manage Chronic Pain?

• Forget about the pain and just enjoy what you have got in your life. Yes, letting things for go can also be one of the majorly important management of chronic pain. As it’s always said, it’s all there in your mind. Hence in order to manage the pain, try to deviate your mind as much as possible.
• Be engaged in some of the other works as the idle mind is devil’s workshop; it will create an adverse effect if you prefer to be alone of idle for a long time without any work. Just do what you like all the time rather than overthinking.
• Try to seek help in a psychological and physical way as much as possible. If the current treatment is not helping you out in an expected way then just come out and go for some other health organizations which are best for the cure of such health issues.
• Drug Therapy can be considered as one of the ways to manage the chronic pain, and it can be acetaminophen or NSAID’s (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like aspirin, ibuprofen is used as pain killers as they have the tendency to reduce the pain for a while. If the lighter dose is not affecting the patient in the desired way, then the doctor prescribes stronger drugs.
• Surgical implant techniques are also used these days for managing chronic pain; they can be either intrathecal drug delivery or spinal cord stimulation implant depending on the current condition of the patient.
• TENS or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation therapy makes use of electric stimulation in order to cure the pain. Low volt current is sent through the electrodes which are placed near the source of pain.
• Bioelectric therapy is also one of the mechanisms used in order to manage the chronic pain as this technique blocks the pain messages to the brain by producing chemical specifically endorphins which has the functionality to decrease the pain sensation.

Chronic pain is one of the most critical cases of medical science, which has now got some good solutions than earlier days comparatively. We even have a Pill reminder with us to remind us about our pills and to manage the disease in a better way. Just go and help yourself out with it.

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