RespiteMatch.com Health Blog

FEARS FACTS FEARS:
Cancer causes severe pain that cannot be relieved.
Patients who take pain medicine will become
addicted.
When you use pain medicine your body becomes
used to its effects and pretty soon it won’t work
anymore.
If you talk about pain, people will think you’re a
complainer.
Talking about pain will distract your doctor from
working to cure your cancer.
It’s easier to put up with pain than the side effects
that come with pain medicines.
Pain medicine will make you feel “out of it.”
If your pain is relieved, you won’t know what’s going
on with your cancer.
FACTS:
Cancer can cause pain. For some, the pain can be
severe. What’s important is that almost all cancer
pain CAN be relieved.
Addiction is a common concern, but in fact it rarely
occurs in persons with cancer who take medicines
for pain control.
Pain medicines like morphine do not stop working
even if they are taken for weeks, months, or longer.
If pain increases, the dose of medicine can be
increased as much as needed, or other medicines
can be used.
Asking for pain relief is not “complaining.”Suffering
in silence can wear patients down and make them
less able to take part in treatments and daily life.
Talking about pain will help the doctor provide the
best care for the cancer. Pain can get in the way of
sleep, rest, and meaningful activities, which are all
important to quality of life and to the body’s ability
to fight disease.
Pain medicines like morphine do cause side effects
in some patients. Constipation is very common,
and patients should ask their health care providers
for advice on how to treat it. Nausea can be treated
and will likely go away on its own in a few days.
Patients may feel drowsy or “out of it” for a few
days after starting pain medicines like morphine.
With continued, regular use of the medicine, this
feeling will usually go away after a few days.
Pain is only one of the clues that tells what is going
on with the cancer. Many other tests can be done.