How to manage the pain during leukemia?

There are two symptoms of leukemia: one is the excessive bleeding due to a low number of platelets, and the other one is the pain. While the former one can be managed quickly according to the circumstances, it is the latter is the one that can make you downright miserable. Therefore, it is necessary to know how pain management is done in the case of this particular blood disease. 

Controlling leukemic pain

Before we move on to the matter of managing the leukemic pain, let us delve a bit deeper into what pain management actually is. 

Pain Management: The definition - This particular form is a branch of medicine whose main focus is to reduce the amount of pain and therefore improving the quality of life. When it comes to Leukemia or any other cancer patient, this form of management becomes important due to the symptoms associated with the disease. 

Reasons for pain:

Following are the reasons for pain the cancer patients: 

•  A tumor might be putting a lot of pressure on the bones, organs and even nerves. 
• Circulation, if poor can cause the blood vessels to be blocked. 
• Kidney and bladder blockage that an immense pain in the abdominal region. 
• After the surgery, there is some pain either due to residual pain or some other reasons. 
• After chemotherapy, it is common for the body to be weak and painful. 
• When cancer metastasizes, other organs of the body might also feel pain. 
• Pain pertaining to arthritis, backaches, and other reasons are also common because of the reasons that are not in any way associated with cancer. 

Importance of managing pain

Pain, while it being a sign that you are alive, is always a detriment that causes you to lose focus on what is important. Consequently, the quality of life is affected. Making sure that these qualities remain above at all times is what is important, and therefore, pain management is an important task for the therapy team to undertake. 

Therapies involved with maintaining pain

There are many therapies that are involved in managing the titular symptom of cancer. Following are some of them. 

• Prescription medications: Never underestimate the strength of the prescription and over the counter pain medications. They provide relief fast. However, they also have some of the most daunting side effects that can actually make you feel sleepy the entire day. Therefore, only partake in such medications under the guidance of the doctor. 

• Implanted Pain pumps: This is another form of medication that is provided to the body in the form of directly interacting with the spinal cord. The implanted pain pump does exactly that, delivering pain meds directly to the spinal cord. A reservoir is implanted in the spinal cord and you can imagine the rest. 

• Nerve Block Therapies: just as the name says, in the particular form of therapy, the nerves of the region marred by the pain are injected with nerve blockers. 

• Physical therapies: For the pains related to bones and others, there is an element of physical treatment that involves a lot of professionally aided body movement that would be immensely painful at first. However, the purpose of this therapy is to make sure that your body gets used to the movement because once it does, there is no pain left. 

The mentioned treatment methods are fit for before or during the treatment period. However, what about post-treatment? How to deal with those pains? Well, fortunately, there are there are some ways that those pains too can be managed: 

• Naturopathy: Naturopathy is a medicinal therapy where combating pain is important, but so is getting rid of the side effects. This form of therapy entails natural elements that allow the body to combat pain in addition to making sure that there aren’t any issues with like hormonal side effects.

• Oncology rehab:  Once the treatment is done with, the oncology team can provide with all that you need regards to pain management. These processes entail a lot of different types of therapies that include physical therapies, and other therapies whose purpose is to numb the trigger points to increase the mobility of the body. 

• Relaxation techniques: There is also a mind-body therapy that entails partaking in relaxation techniques to deal with the painful symptoms. Furthermore, this same technique is also used to deal with the fatigue and the weakness symptoms.

The above-mentioned techniques are the best when it comes to dealing with the pains. However, there are others which you only can get access to if you are willing enough to go to the best hospitals.

 blood cancer leukemia