Pain Management
Pain management is an important part of any health care team. Managing a person's pain is critical in caring for their physical, mental, emotional, and social needs. Pain affects all aspects of a person's life. It impinges upon their ability to interact, to sleep, eat, relax, or enjoy life. Pain can be all encompassing to the one experiencing it. An educated and well-trained pain management team can be instrumental in providing pain relief.
A pain management service is necessary to provide on-going pain relief. A person's pain needs to be assessed and monitored as the levels of pain can change dramatically. A baseline pain recording is helpful in understanding what the person is experiencing and how they are reacting to the level of pain they are in. Many people become angry, quiet, withdrawn, or even violent depending upon how the pain affects them. Some people are verbal about their pain level. They can tell you exactly what they are feeling, where the pain is, whether it is sharp or dull, cutting or throbbing, constant or acute. Others, however, may have difficulty in explaining exactly what they are experiencing. They may not be able to define the level or severity of the discomfort. They may confuse the pain with other symptoms such as fatigue, or stress. The pain management service is able to help the person define and locate the pain. They can help the person realize how it is affecting them and what other symptoms are involved.
Because many pain relief measures involve potentially harmful medications such as narcotics and barbiturates, proper monitoring by a pain management team is crucial. Narcotics can build in up in a person's system leading to overdosing of the medication. In addition, certain drugs, which are used in combination with pain relieving medications, can enhance the efficacy of both the drug and the narcotic. This can lead to untoward side effects. It is also important to assure that the person needs the drug for actual pain relief versus one wanting it to obtain a euphoric state or to get high. Proper assessment of the pain and symptoms is necessary in distinguishing between the two and is a critical role for the pain management department.'
Understanding the type of pain a person is experiencing and the type of drug, which may be useful in relieving the pain, is an important part of pain management. Acute pain caused by a trauma or accident is completely different from pain caused by cancer. Similarly, pain after abdominal surgery is not comparable to widespread bone metastasis. Each of these entails a completely different treatment plan involving pain management. Acute pain can often be controlled with medications such as Percocet, Codeine, and Darvon. Medications such as Morphine, Fentanyl, and Dilaudid are commonly used for chronic pain relief. MR Homecare's pain management department can be helpful in choosing and monitoring the appropriate medications.
Often times it is difficult to control a person's pain and at the same time allow them to be interactive. Narcotics cause drowsiness and it is challenging to dose the person with a narcotic to control the pain and yet not give them too much so they can be awake and enjoy visits with their family. Unfortunately, in many circumstances, such as end of life, choices must be made and pain control must override social interaction. This is a time when our pain management department can be involved to explain the use of narcotics as well as the side effects. Pain management is also able to help with the medications to optimize quality of life.
Pain management is an important part of MR Homecare of Clevelamd agency. Helping people manage their pain and symptoms provides for overall treatment and care. The pain management team allows the person to focus on other important aspects of their life while the team focuses on pain relief.