Managing Pain VS Chasing Pain

[Guest guest]

Sandy,

You wrote, " I know if I were to take them at the first sign of pain,

pain meds work better. "

I forgot that point completely. Pain medications also work even better

if taken before any signs of pain.

At this time, if anyone is using short acting pain medication on a

daily basis, it might behoove you to discuss at least a mild long

acting pain medication with your health care provider. The principle

behind this is that a long acting pain medication will manage the pain

before it become symptomatic vs using short acting pain medication to

chase the pain when it arrives. Typically, short acting medications

are used during acute episodes of pain on a short term basis or for

chronic pain that breaks through the long acting pain medication that

is on board.

Sandy, you are probably right that changing from one short acting pain

medication to another would provide you with any substantial

improvement than you have now. You may want to discuss bringing on a

long acting one, though.

Karyn , RN

Executive Director, PAI