Sweet
Relief
Playing an active role in your pain management
can improve your hospital stay and
have you feeling better, faster.
when you’re in the hospital, it’s normal to feel like you’re not in the driver’s seat; after all,
everything from your medications to your meals is coordinated by a stream of healthcare profes-
sionals. But the truth is, you have a lot more control over your experience than you might real-
ize—and becoming an active player in your care won’t just make you feel more in control, it can
actually help ease your pain, too. Even better, the skills that will increase your satisfaction and
improve your odds of effective pain relief are surprisingly easy to implement. Here are five tech-
niques you can start using today to ease the ache.
do fiNe-tuNe your CommuNiCatioN skills. The better you’re able to explain your
pain, the more effectively your healthcare providers will be able to treat you, says Mehul J. Desai,
M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor and director of pain medicine services at the George Washington
University Hospital, in Washington, DC. “Many patients instinctively know to describe how much
pain they’re in—for example, ‘moderate,’ or, ‘a five on a scale of one to 10.’ But the newest research
tells us that it’s just as critical to explain exactly where the pain is and what it’s preventing you from
doing,” continues Desai. For example, you might say something like, “I have severe pain when I
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put pressure on the inside of my left foot and therefore I can’t walk.” Sharing how your discomfort
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hurts your ability to function helps your doctor pinpoint the best treatment.
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Another communication roadblock is trying to convey too much information at once, Desai
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adds. To be as clear as possible and to make sure you’re not leaving out anything truly important,
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he recommends starting a conversation with your doc with the three most crucial pieces of infor-
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mation: any new symptoms you’re experiencing; your pain level; and any medication side effects,
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concerns or questions. “It’s normal to feel that you have to tell your doctor as much as possible in
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the short time you have with him, but then key messages get lost in the shuffle,” cautions Desai.
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Put another way, don’t use the limited time you have with your doctor to complain about your bed
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or the hospital food—make that face time count. Didn’t have a chance to fit everything in? Ask a
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nurse or your advocate to write it down and pass it on to your physician.
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story by Camille Noe PagáN ©
26 the patient magazine 2010
PT026__0FVP0_SP10FEATpain.indd 26 2/5/10 7:25 AM
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