Understanding cancer pain Dr (Maj) Pankaj N Surange Introduction

When you or a loved one receives a diagnosis of cancer, it isn’t long before you begin to think of the pain many people associate with cancer. It can be a frightening time. What will the pain be like? What will it do to our lives? Many people with cancer eventually experience pain due to their condition. Approximately twenty percent of patients with newly diagnosed malignancies complain of pain. Thirty percent of patients undergoing cancer treatment complain of pain, and up to ninety percent of those with advanced cancer experience pain (Grossman 1994).
Pain associated with cancer can take many forms and is experienced differently by each patient. Pain can be sharp and severe, or it can be a dull constant ache. Regardless of the type of pain, a diagnosis of cancer does not mean you have to suffer with debilitating pain.
Today, most concerns about cancer-related pain can be relieved by understanding the facts about cancer pain, and learning about the help that is available for pain relief.

How pain happens?

Pain is transmitted through the body by the nervous system when our nerve endings detect damage to a part of the body. The nerves transmit the warning through defined nerve pathways to the brain, where the signals are interpreted as pain. Sometimes pain results when the nerve pathways themselves are injured. You feel pain when your brain receives the signal from your nerves that damage is occurring. All types of pain are transmitted this way, including cancer pain.
Pain can be acute or chronic: Acute pain usually starts suddenly, may be sharp, and often triggers visible bodily reactions such as sweating, an elevated blood pressure, and more. Acute pain is generally a signal of rapid-onset injury to the body, and it resolves when pain relief is given and/or the injury is treated.
Chronic pain lasts, and pain is considered chronic when it lasts beyond the normal time expected for an injury to heal or an illness to resolve. Chronic pain, sometimes called persistent pain, can be very stressful for both the body and the soul, and requires careful, ongoing attention to be appropriately treated.
Along with chronic cancer pain, sometimes people have acute flares of pain when not all pain is controlled by the medication or therapy. This pain, usually called breakthrough pain, can also be controlled by medications.
Cancer pain can be caused by many different sources. Pain can be experienced when a tumor presses on nerves or
expands inside a hollow organ. Pain also commonly originates from bone destructive lytic lesions. Bone marrow infiltration commonly cause bone pain that can be severe. Unfortunately, the radiation and chemotherapeutic treatments that are frequently used to treat cancer can also cause pain.
Assessment of your pain
The first step in getting your pain under control is talking honestly about it.
This means telling them:
• Where you have pain
• What it feels like (sharp, dull, throbbing, constant, burning, or shooting)
• How strong your pain is
• How long it lasts
• What lessens your pain or makes it worse
• When it happens (what time of day, what you’re doing, and what’s going on)
• If it gets in the way of daily activities
Your pain physician may ask you to describe your pain in a number of ways. A pain scale is the most common way. The scale uses the numbers 0 to 10, where 0 is no pain, and 10 is the worst. You can also use words to describe pain, like pinching, stinging, or aching. Some doctors show their patients a series of faces and ask them to point to the face that best describes how they feel.

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One of the most common ailments that people get as they age is back pain. As you age, your muscles begin to deteriorate which can often lead to more stress on the lower back. Chronic pain in your lower back is very painful and frustrating to millions of people who suffer from it daily. Many people are on medication to help reduce the pain the face. Back pain management is the best way to get your pain under control.The treatments for back pain include manipulation, muscle relaxants, traction, relief with medication and even surgery in some cases as a last resort. Back or Neck clinics offer relief without the usage of any invasive technique, which may be surgery that involves spinal fusion or intradiscal Electrothermoplasty. The nerves are destroyed with the heated wire in intra-discal Electrothermoplasty giving relief to the pain.

People who are suffering from back pain for long they can get affected by some other types of pain too. The hectic schedule, work pressure, stress and many other problems make the people stay in one posture for quite long and hence they develop neck pain. Various neck pain Atlanta based organizations are trying to raise an awareness bar among the general people so that they can maintain a balanced lifestyle.The delay in getting treatment not only caused my knee pain to become excruciating, but my shoulders became injured (from using my arms to lift myself up from a seated position and I developed depression. I learned that chronic pain often sets off depression. Depression is caused by a chemical reaction that I can’t explain in medical terms, but it was real. I was angry, short-tempered, sleepy and medication alone wasn’t relieving the pain.Try a natural pain management remedy. There are some great ones out there that attack pain the same way prescription anti inflammatories do, only they do it naturally, with no harmful side effects, and without risk of addiction.

If you are a couch potato, this can cause you to suffer back problems. Regular exercises will benefit you greatly. As part of your back pain management regime you need to have flexibility and strength exercises. These should include abdominal, legs and back exercises, which will all help to support your lower back. There needs to be an aerobic component to your back pain management program, as obesity is a common cause of back pain.The important thing as a patient is to understand what is causing the back pain and what he or she is going to do about it. Not only this but also you should be aware of what kind of treatment and medication you are going to avail for your treating your back pain.In the conventional type the nerves are regenerated in future & average pain-free period varies for type of nerve. In a properly performed lesion pain free period is 3-4 years. In the pulsed RF the average pain free period is 4-24 months.Some pains can be effectively managed by use of exercises. This is especially used in back pain, where special exercises to stretch the muscles can strengthen the back effectively and reduce pain.

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