Thursday, July 7, 2022

Pain Management

We all have pain at various times of our life.  Some pain is physical and some is emotional and most is a combination of physical and psychological/emotional.  

Below is a collection of information that I hope will help you and/or others. 

Of course, be sure to check with your doctor to see if this information is right for you.  If not, maybe your doctor has a solution for you that springboards off the information below.  

I think a big part of pain management is being aware of the pain yourself and describing it to your doctor.  Some people use a Pain Journal/Log Book, which you can find online or in stores.  In logging pain, it is useful to note what makes the pain better and what makes the pain worse.  From those insights, one can develop an Action Plan to minimize those actions/events that cause and/or aggravate pain.

Another big component to pain management, at least I think so, is to be an active participant in your own healthcare.  Probably the best way to do this is to maintain a healthy lifestyle - eat right, sleep right, be at a healthy weight, exercise, be with people you like or have an interest in, minimize negative stress, and so forth.

Speaking of Stress, one can use Stress Management as often as needed or wanted.  It is well known that Negative Stress, especially severe and prolonged, can cause and/or aggravate symptoms of various kinds, including stress.  I personally think it is better to Manage one's Stressors in life for long term Stress Management, and use Relaxation, Meditation, etc. for life's short term unexpected stressful events.  Related to the Pain Journal/Log Book above, one can make use of a Stress Journal/Log Book to determine "what bugs us" and learn how to do less of those things.  This might involve minimizing exposure to certain "stress trigger" events and/or people for the short-term and learning skills on how to manage these events and/or people for the long term.

Pain can be physical, emotional, or even spiritual and many times have a component of each.  Repeating, it is well known that Negative Stress causes/aggravates Symptoms, including pain.

Your pain management program might include medication, physical/emotional therapy, and/or other means.  They always say "whatever works".  Some people find relief in some things, whereas others don't.  Use your doctor to the full capacity, but your doctor might be limited in the options offered or known about.  One can also investigate Alternative/Complementary Medicine/Devices that your doctor might not even know about.  Logic might say differently, but just try to take away a copper arthritis glove from someone who has found pain relief in this.

A good doctor/clinic will look at the "big picture" around pain/symptoms.  "Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity"."  This approach should also look at the whole person not just the isolated symptomatic area, e.g. Comorbidity - overweight, depression, age, poor lifestyle, etc.  One other thing a good doctor can do is to give you an Information Prescription, listing all those diagnoses that are contributing to your lack of health, as well as common language synonyms.  With this Information Prescription you can then find more information about how you can indeed "get better and stay better".

Please don't forget about having goals of what you want to do when you get better.  It will give you motivation to keep on going day after day.  When you achieve those goals make new ones, if you want.  Motivation is important - otherwise why do all the hard work to get better and stay better!  Progress Journals are good for you to note that you're going in the right direction - the way you want to in life!

That's about all for now.  I hope this brief overview helps you and/or someone else with Pain, especially Chronic Pain.

BTW - Here are some Symptom Journals/Logbooks that can help you log any kind of symptom, since there are many symptoms/signs in addition to pain.  From your symptom logging, you can help yourself note what makes symptoms better and worse and plan accordingly - also this information can help your doctor diagnose and treat you better.  Good Luck!

At the end of this post, I list some of my writings/inventions related to Pain.  If interested, let me know and I'll explain further.

PAIN INFORMATION

First, I'd like to provide information for the "Other 90% of the World" who has little or no formal healthcare.  I've found Hesperian Health Information useful for many conditions.  Just click on the link and use the search box in the upper right corner - typing in pain or anything else you want.

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Feel free to comment and share this information.

Pain management - Wikipedia

Category:Pain management - Wikipedia

Pain - Wikipedia

Psychological pain - WikipediaInterventional pain management - Wikipedia

Undertreatment of pain - Wikipedia

Pain ladder - Wikipedia

Acute pain management - WikEM

Mental distress - Wikipedia

Analgesic - Wikipedia

Pain disorder - Wikipedia

Psychological trauma - Wikipedia

Pain (philosophy) - Wikipedia

Suffering - Wikipedia

Pain psychology - Wikipedia

Psychogenic pain - Wikipedia

Chronic pain - Wikipedia

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