Cancer Pain Treatments | Pegasus Spine & Joint Institute

Cancer Pain

Cancer pain is known to consume those living through it. It affects their sleep, mood, social relations, and daily activities. Pain can be managed, although most people who live with cancer do not get adequate pain care. There are a multitude of different psychotherapy and medication options to help control cancer pain. Often the best person to ask is a cancer doctor, but doing your own research is always beneficial.

Where Does Cancer Pain Stem From?

Long-term cancer pain stems from the illness and short-term pain usually stems from the treatments. Often cancer pain is attributed to treatments or diagnostic procedures, but it can also stem from an immune response, hormone imbalance, skin and nerve changes. Cancer pain highly differs depending on the position, placement, and stage of the illness in the body. In order to really know where the pain is stemming from you need to research your specific pain symptoms or cancer illness details.

Often tumors are a cause of cancer pain. The tumors cause pain by crushing organs or infiltrating tissue. This can cause inflammation or infection. Tumors can press against blood vessels creating the swell up of blood which can be incredibly painful. When tumors invade or grow in the brain it can cause the build of up fluid resulting in the compression of pain sensitive tissue. Cancer pain stems from many different things and often there is not just one particular trigger. Typically, there are many different things causing cancer pain.

How Can You Manage Cancer Pain?

Although some amount of pain is inevitable, the pain can be managed. In some cases cancer pain can be eliminated. Treatments include psychological strategies and medications. Some psychological strategies used for cancer pain management include, coping strategies and psychosocial interventions. Medications to manage cancer pain can range from over the counter pain pills such as tylenol to more drastic drugs such as opioids, analgesics, or steroids. There are also more drastic methods of procedural pain control that can be discussed with a doctor. Interventional techniques to limit pain include cutting or destroying nervous tissue, deep brain stimulation, or spinal cord stimulation.

What are the Risks of Cancer Pain?

The World Health Organization has published guidelines on the use of cancer pain. You can find the WHO’s information about cancer pain here : http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/painladder/en/

There are different risks with every different option for cancer pain. It is important to be aware of the risks before you proceed with anything. Make sure to research the risks of whatever method of pain control you may be interested in.

Pain Treatment Center in Dallas-Fort Worth

If you are still having a lot of pain due to your cancer, Pegasus Pain Management can help. Pegasus Pain Management is a pain management clinic that can help with chronic or acute pain stemming from cancer pain. If you have pain from cancer, contact Pegasus Pain Management to see what kind of cancer pain management they can provide for you. To contact call (214)702-5855.