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.

*****

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

 Wikipedia -Categories:

• Pain
• Acute pain
• Nociception
• Sensory systems
• Suffering
• Symptoms and signs

 ****************

Beyond Wiki-Type References, you can find a plethora of  Pain Management Books, Resources, Practitioners of various kinds, Remedies, and the like by Searching for Pain Management on the Internet and/or checking with your local library.  For more complicated pain, you can check with Medical Libraries, too.  Here you can use the Information Prescription, as described above.

****************

For your perusal, here are some writings and invention I have made, too.  You can type pain or any other word into the Search Box in the Upper Left Corner of each of my blogs below.  By doing so you can see my attempts at providing information on what's been done before and to offer up ideas on what else might be done.  Hope this helps you too.

• Ideas for Products or Inventions
• Do It Yourself Health Care
• Health Information Your Doctor Might Not Even Know About....(Or Might Not Want You to Know About!)
• Interfacing with the Doctor Within
• Mind-Body Healing Machines
• Exploring Life As We Don't Know It

In addition, here is a book I wrote on how I think Healthcare could be improved >>  

Paging Dr. Within: How to Become, Be, and/or Make a “Patient Listener” and/or a “Super Symptom Checker” - describes the Concepts of a "Patient Listener" and a "Super Symptom Checker" – Human, Technology, and/or Technology-Assisted Human – Considering the "Big Picture" around Health and/or Symptoms. - https://books2read.com/u/mBgJnA

Books2read Author Page - https://books2read.com/ap/xdPgzv/Tom-Garz

Amazon Author Page -  https://www.amazon.com/author/tomgarz 

***********

Disclaimer - Article is for information only and is not advice of any kind, especially medical advice.  Seek Health Professional Services, as need or wanted. 

 
 

Did you know that your body has diagnostic capabilities in itself?

Mind-meld with Your Doctor and Finally Get Better

Technology Will Soon Link Your Doctor with Your Own Internal Diagnostic System

Did you know that your body has diagnostic capabilities in itself? This system works very well to maintain your entire life. You might think of this system as "Your Doctor Within". 

Did you also know that "Your Doctor Within" sends out diagnostic signals, ready for reading? Some of these signals can be received by the patient themselves, e.g. pain. Healthcare professionals can read other signals, but alas, few do. This is probably because these signals are emotional and currently not considered by most physicians. 

Some advanced doctors are considering "Emotional Stress" and/or "Pain" as additional Vital Signs. Typically, the only Vital Signs considered are Body Temperature, Pulse Rate (or Heart Rate), Blood Pressure, and Respiratory Rate (and/or Oxygen Saturation). 

Currently Medical Monitors do not measure Emotional Stress and/or Pain. Please look for this in the future. 

With a device of this type, the doctor could "see" what is going on inside the patient, whether they can communicate or not. Everyone knows that Emotional Stress aggravates any medical condition. Some say that Negative Stress causes health maladies. 

With a little extra work by the doctor, the emotion of the patient could also be determined. 

Yet, many patients will not talk about their emotions. Both doctors and patients typically do not like to talk about "feelings". Emotions are important, however, since they do affect a person's health, either negatively or positively. 

This patient-doctor miscommunication results in misdiagnosis. Some hypothetical examples of a misdiagnosis are:

• Patient comes in with symptoms of fatigue and lack of interest in life. Typically, doctors will diagnose this as depression and treat it with drugs. Yet, what the doctor did not know was that a close family member had just died. The patient was going through normal grieving. Yes, this is a situation to watch by the patient and doctor, but drugs might not be necessary at this time.
• Patient has high blood pressure and is overweight. Doctors will typically prescribe medication, and this is good, since hypertension is potentially lethal. In some cases, the doctor might also recommend weight loss to improve blood pressure. The patient agrees with the doctor to lose weight. What the doctor does not know is that the patient is angry inside, does not intend to lose weight, and just wants to eat for comfort. The patient just wants to be given drugs to treat the symptoms of being overweight.

The examples above show that doctors only see and hear, but not know the emotional state of the patient. Knowing the emotional situation of the patient can help the doctor diagnose and treat the patient. With the right kind of Medical Monitor, misdiagnosis could be prevented. 

Doctors and researchers have a wealth of information on what vital signs change with each emotion. These observations could be compiled into an algorithm within the Medical Monitor to differentiate between emotions. For example, if the patient was angry the heart rate, skin conductance, and temperature would rise. Fear shows up as increased heart rate, skin conductance, but a decrease in temperature. Each emotion has its own physiological diagnostic signal or signature. Further research could refine the algorithm to pinpoint the exact emotion better. 

With this additional information, the doctor could better determine what is causing your physical symptoms and treat you accordingly. 

Takeaways:

• Each person has a built-in diagnostic system.
• Healthcare professionals will soon be able to access a patient's internal diagnostic system. This will result in a more accurate medical diagnosis and treatment plan.
• Technology is catching up to receive the patient's own diagnostic signals. Look in the future for a Medical Monitor that indicates the patient's Emotional State and/or Pain Level.

For more information:

• Autonomic Nervous System Differences Among Emotions by Levenson, Robert W., Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell); Jan92, Vol. 3 Issue 1, p23-27, 5p
• Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology by Daniel Kahneman, et al. al., Russell Sage Foundation, 2003 - Pages 483-484
• Handbook of Emotions by Michael D. Lewis, et al., Guilford Press, 2010 - Page 184
• The Psychophysiology of Emotion Prepared by Exmovere Holdings Inc., September, 2009
• Cardiovascular Differentiation of Emotions by R. SINHA, et al.
• Autonomic Differentiation of Emotions: A Cluster Analysis Approach by Chad Louis Stephens
• Cardiovascular differentiation of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear following imagery and exercise by Schwartz GE, et al., Psychosom Med. 1981 Aug;43(4):343-64
• The Physiological Differentiation between Fear and Anger in Humans by Albert F. AX, M.D.
• Anger vs. Fear by Harry Mills, Ph.D.
• Medical Monitor with an Emotional Stress And/or Pain Indicator - an Idea Ahead of Its Time
• Are You "Sick and Tired" of Being "Sick and Tired"?

Disclaimer - Article is for information only and is not medical advice.