Pain management

pain mgmt
Janet:

I have also had the fentanyl patch, along with any number of other medications designed to relieve me of pain. As a tough guy and someone who never even took so much as an aspirin if I could avoid it, I also thought to either refuse or to remove myself from pain meds as quickly as possible.

My reasons were two-fold. I was concerned about their immediate effect on me, as your husband seems to be, but, further, I was concerned about the possibility of addiction.

I got some great advice from some wonderful folks, which boils down to just a couple of facts:

1. In general, doctors who prescribe pain meds do so with little worry about patients becoming addicted. In general, those who become addicted are those who do not need the pain meds to begin with.

2. Pain management is pivotal to survival. In my own experience, the only time over the course of my surgeries and treatments that I ever thought that buying the farm was superior to what I was going through was when I was in the most excruciating pain.

If we are not in great pain, we are most apt to keep fighting, Janet, and this is the very best reason to take the medications as prescribed. They are not prescribed on a whim, but a very good reason, after all, and they are, especially the heavy duty fellows like fentanyl, monitored to the nth degree.

If hub prefers pain to sleep, that is a personal choice, I would advise. As a survivor myself, I would advise that you allow him to dictate when he is willing or urging to take pain meds. It's his party, after all, and he can cry if he wants to.

My best wishes to you, Janet. You have a very difficult job and I salute you for taking on this difficult task.

Best wishes to hub, as well. I hope that if he is refusing pain meds, his reasons do not ignore the points expressed above.

Take care,

Joe

pattynonews said:

My husband is also on the
My husband is also on the same patch and the same medication this was after tries of everything else, and we are finding that you have to stay on top of the pain to be functional, yea there are times I think he might take to much, but we don't know what pain he is feeling, So if he gets sleepy I just let him sleep his body is fighting to survive so I think he might need the rest, since we did switch him to the patch and hydromorphone we got his pain level down to a 4, which it was a 7 and 8, We just learn to work around his energy times I call them , when his body has lots of energy, and another issue we have is keeping weight on him, since he is peg fed, so it is a challenge, But it is so true if your body is some what free of pain, you want to fight, and keep going, and I tell Jack I know you are in pain some days but you still need to get up and move around, it makes your body feel better, Im Jack primary caretaker, I have learn there is so much more to cancer than just the cancer , it is the pain, the nutrients, the emotional all a balled in to one big mess, but we learn to fight this together and be strong,

Hi!
Welcome aboard, pattynonews! If you have not discovered so already, this is a crummy club to be in, due to the stringent membership requirements , but the members are among the most caring, giving, people I have ever had the good fortune to meet.

Best wishes to Jack and to you.

Take care,

Joe