Pain management
Pain management
Pain management
People with advanced cancer may experience pain. It can impact you both physically and emotionally, affecting healing and contributing to fatigue, loss of appetite, and difficulty sleeping. Depending on your cancer and the type of treatments you receive, you may experience pain that is acute (short‑term), chronic (long‑term), or breakthrough (pain that occurs despite a regular dose of pain medicine).
Measures to relieve pain
The most important thing to know about cancer pain is that you can take steps to relieve it. Your healthcare team can help you manage pain in different ways, and there are measures you can take to assist them.
Speak up
You are not expected to accept pain, and no one will think you are weak for admitting that you are in pain. When pain persists for a long time, it becomes harder to treat. The more your healthcare team knows about your pain, the better they will be able to help you manage it.
Monitor your pain
Note when the pain occurs, what triggered it, its location, its intensity (try using a simple scale from 1 to 10), and the measures you have taken to relieve it. This kind of information is very helpful for assisting your healthcare team in controlling your pain.
Follow management measures
It may take hours or days to get your pain under control. In the meantime, many strong pain medications can have side effects such as confusion, lethargy, and drowsiness. Don’t let these side effects prevent you from maintaining your pain treatment regimen! By discussing with your healthcare team, they can adjust your medication regimen.
Work with your healthcare team
You can collaborate with your healthcare team to develop a pain management plan. This plan may include:
- Over-the-counter medications
- Prescription medications
- Treatments that eliminate the source of pain, such as radiotherapy
Additional Information - Side effects
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Understand the purpose of your tests (PSA, MRI, PSMA PET scan, biopsy, bone scan) to better navigate them.
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Advanced prostate cancer-What should I know? The term advanced prostate cancer does not describe just one type of disease, but several. It can be locally advanced, recurrent, metastatic, or resistant to castration. These terms are probably unfamiliar to you and can raise many questions. Here are 5 things you should know Your cancer has returned? […]
When hormone therapy significantly increases overall survival…
The arrival of next-generation hormone therapy to treat non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer provides a significant opportunity for men and their families. Non-metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer treatment NUBEQA® (darolutamide) significantly improves overall survival with a favourable safety profile in men with non-metastatic prostate cancer. Source: Bayer Canada Press Release MISSISSAUGA, ON, June 16, 2020 – Data […]
Sources and references
Last medical and editorial review: April 2024. See our web page validation committee and our collaborators by clicking here.