The Sunday News
Lee-Anne
THE word pain carries a lot of weight in that each and every person has their own definition of the pain. What some would think is a lot of pain some would regard as minimal pain or no pain at all. Hence it’s subjective depending on how a person would interpret it. There are different types of pain and besides medication, research shows there are many pain management strategies. Health professionals always ask you to describe the kind of pain, where it is situated and what makes it worse or better.
In laymen’s terms pain is the body’s way of telling you that it is in danger, then it reacts by letting you feel pain in the allocated areas in the body. Pain is put into categories according to how long (time) one has been suffering from it for. We get:
n Acute pain — typically a sudden onset with a short duration and lasts less than 3 to 6 months
n Sub-acute — this refers to the pain that is not yet chronic but has passed the acute stage. It’s a condition that persists between one to three months.
n Chronic pain — this refers to any condition, disorder or disease that is ongoing. It refers to a time-frame of three months or more.
When one initially seeks help from a health practitioner the aim is to avoid the pain from progressing to chronic pain. The ongoing nature of chronic pain means that it is often physically limiting and may be demoralising and can lead to low mood and a reduction in the social and personal contacts. Furthermore, persistent pain over a prolonged period is stressful. Chronic stress may result in poor sleep, low mood and neuroendocrine dysfunction.
Pain Management
(Visit health professionals with the following strategies)
n It is important to understand the differences between acute and chronic pain to help you accept the long-term implications of your chronic pain — including that it may be unmanageable and beyond your control.
n Always enquire from a health professional about your condition, and how the body works. The intention is to allay fears about doing damage when pain is provoked.
n Become a problem solver to help you cope with your pain through the development of effective ways of responding to pain, emotion and the environment.
n Seek help to be able recognise and monitor your thoughts, emotions and behaviours, and develop more adaptive coping strategies in order to reduce anxiety and depression, as well as improve self-confidence.
n I would encourage you to set and pursue realistic goals at work, self-care, chores and pleasurable activities.
n As health professionals we require chronic pain patients to improve their general fitness. By this I mean flexibility, strength and muscle and cardiovascular endurance.
n Chronic pain patients are usually on many medications. I would aim to wean them off anti-depressants, analgesics, sleeping tablets if possible and reduce use of the healthcare system for their chronic pain, replacing these with relaxation and coping strategies.
Take Home Message:
n Pain is an experience
n Be a detective
n Listen to the pain
n Question health professionals as well as people that have gone through the same type of pain
n Ask and explain
As I mentioned before pain is elecited by different conditions hence it will present differently. So learn to understand the pain you have, that way managing it will be simpler.
Take care of your busy body, you owe that to your family.
For more information about TB please email me on [email protected]
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Lee-Anne Hall
BSc Physiotherapy
