Pain management

Hi Towny67,

We hope you are finding the support on our online forum helpful.

My name is Keith and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialist’s

With any diagnosis everyone can be affected in so many ways. Symptoms can also fall into this category. In some situations, completely eradicating troublesome symptoms can be difficult but usually improvement can be found.

The first thing that needs to happen here is a pain/symptom assessment. This is where the actual cause of the symptoms is investigated.

Dependant on the cause would then lead to the potential management.

The drugs used by your GP are what I would expect to be used. In pain control a methodology called the analgesic step ladder is frequently used by many healthcare professionals. The paracetamol/Ibuprofen being the first steps of this ladder and can be a good foundation for pain management but does usually need the use of other medication (adjuvant pain/symptom management). These adjuvant medications would usually be married up to the symptoms.  

If the GP is struggling to manage your current symptoms it may be worthwhile discussing a possible referral to a community-based Macmillan/ pain control nurse or a palliative care consultant to review your symptoms and possible advice what other symptom/pain control methods may be worthwhile trying. Sometimes it’s a trial-and-error scenario. In some situations, being referred on like this may be the answer where some more specialised symptom management may be more readily available.

 Completing a pain diary may assist in achieving a better control of your current symptoms.

In some areas local hospices have the facility to offer admissions for symptom management or operate a day care centre where you can access the expertise of health care professionals who may have had previous experience of managing your current symptoms and may also have access to other methods of symptom management that are more specialised, that the GP may not have access to or the experience it its uses.  

Hospices can also open the door to other health care professionals that use complementary therapies to help with symptom management .looking at this information will explain this in a little more detail

You have also mentioned the use of opiates which is yet another higher step of the analgesic ladder which can usually be helpful in managing worsening symptoms. However, this seems not to be the case in your situation.

Flu like symptoms can also be caused by side effects of treatment that can sometimes be late in presentation after treatments for example, or  you may  just generally be run down.

Hence the reason for investigation to find potential causes and triggers to find the best management.  

On this platform it can be difficult to have a two-way conversation and to fully understand what you are going through.

If you’d like further explanation or have any other questions, please feel free to recontact us. Or if you it may help to discuss things with someone outside the loop please feel free to give us a call or contact us via our web chat platform.

 take care

Keith, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.

Ref KM/HC