The American Cancer Society reports that nearly 800,000 Americans die from cancer yearly. Hence, cancer is the second leading cause of death after diseases that affect the heart and blood vessels. If you have cancer, one of the common symptoms you are likely to experience is pain, and you will require help from Interventional Pain and Regenerative Medicine Specialists. A specialist in cancer pain can help manage your condition so that it does not significantly disrupt your normal activities.
You may have trouble sleeping, be less productive at the workplace, and easily irritate the people you love. Cancer pain may often make you feel sad, frustrated, and angry.
Your debilitating cancer pain may be due to the cancerous tumors pressing adjacent bones, nerves, or other body structures.
Still, cancer treatment can also cause pain. Cancer treatments like chemotherapy medications may cause your hands and feet to be numb, or a cancer injection can trigger a burning sensation in the injected site.
Subsequently, below are the interventions your cancer pain specialist may utilize to provide you with pain relief and make it comfortable to take part in everyday activities.
Prescribed opioids
Your cancer care doctor may prescribe opioids to help relieve the pain that causes you a lot of suffering, including lack of sleep.
Only use prescribed opioids because some pain relief medications may interfere with the working of other drugs.
Your health provider may also need to know if you are using other medications and taking alcohol. Even using a small dose of opioids while you drink alcohol can trigger an overdose and symptoms like difficulty breathing, anxiety, and excessive dizziness.
Antidepressants and antiepileptic medications
Clinical studies show that anti-depression or antiepileptic medications may help relieve cancer nerve pain and its tingling and burning sensations.
Other clinical studies report that you may receive significant relief from cancer pain when you combine prescribed opioids with antidepressants or antiepileptic drugs.
Steroid injections
Steroid injections are usually excellent in relieving inflammation, stiffness, and pain in the body. Thus, you may receive steroid injections to reduce or manage cancerous inflammations.
Steroid injections boost your immune system to help your body fight cancerous cells to reduce cancer pain.
Therapeutic massage
Massage therapy can help relieve the physical pain and psychological stress associated with cancer.
Oncology massage utilizes a light, gentle touch to apply therapeutic pressure on different parts of your body to enhance blood flow, reduce the soreness of muscles, and lower stress hormones in the blood to relieve pain and fatigue.
Oncology massage therapy may also reduce nausea and vomiting triggered by chemotherapy.
So that oncology massage works effectively, you should combine it with other cancer treatments, including medications, injections, or chemotherapy.
Other integrative therapies like relaxation exercises may also help ease pain and improve the quality of your life during cancer treatment.
Because there are different types of interventions at the disposal of a cancer pain specialist, your treatment plan will primarily depend on the location of the cancer pain and its severity. The goal of every treatment plan is managing cancer pain to make you feel better.