anticipating dad's pain, what to do when it gets worse

rechargeable

My father's pancreatic cancer recently came back and he is just beginning a new round of chemo, which they now assure us will not cure him. He has months or years depending on how things go.

As his condition eventually worsens (which I hope will happen later rather than sooner), I expect his pain to get worse and for the situation to become even more frightening and awful than it already is.

My question for this forum is, while dad is still at home, what is the right thing to do if his pain becomes uncontrollable? Say it's the middle of the night and no amount of oxycodone (his current pain medication) seems to be working. Do I call an ambulance?

If he's in excrutiating pain and needs some kind of upgrade to his pain medication, I just can't envision telling him to wait until morning or anything ridiculous like that... I'll want to get him what he needs ASAP.

Thanks for any information on this.

reenie

How frightening for both of you! Is there a pain management center in your area? My husband's oncologist referred us to one here and that is ALL they do. While our oncologist can certainly take care of Sam's pain, he was happy to try a pain manager- he thinks of himself as the "project manager". The pain center can finesse the relief- tweak it so that while comfortable, Sam isn't out of it either. At one point in our journey a surgeon said to us " I don't do pain" at the time I was offended and amused-you know, "how dare he?"/ "how typical!" but then I realized that we needed someone focused only on pain relief, so it was a blessing in disguise- now I admire the surgeon for recognizing his limitations and being upfront albeit gruff.

Sam has had good luck with the fentanyl patch. He says his "walk around pain" is at about a one. Now my idea of a one is a hang nail. so I am sure that he has just grown more tolerant of the pain. His "one" and my "one" are surely very different. He currently receives 50 micrograms per hour. ( which we are told is a low dose) he has morphine for break through pain which he doesn't even take every day. I almost lost it when the morphine was prescribed- it seemed too drastic, but having the pain meds here and available has been such a relief to both of us, especially when the others were not cutting it. When I first heard morphine I was afraid that we were using it too soon and there wouldn't be anything for when the pain got worse but as with everything else, there are degrees.

The middle of the night scenario you fear is very real. I urge you to talk pain relief with someone. My sister is a hospice nurse in Fl. and tells me that they can't take anyone still receiving treatment but if/ when that stops they spend all their time making their patients as comfortable as possible. I hope that is a long way off for your dad but I think it wise to get familiar with those resources.

We all fear pain, what a gift you are giving you father by being proactive.
Good thoughts, Reenie

roadrunner · New User Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 1 Location: California

I have brain cancer with headaches that go 24 hours a day.
The pain was really bad, I gaze at the mirror and I look terrible and pitiful with tears sometimes because of the intensity and can be unbearable. My doctor has given me codeine.
However, I can not use codeine all the time because it has its own side effects such as unable to think and interferes with sleep.

I have searched long looking for any way to fix the pain.
Recently I came on a site written by a cancer survivor who has expereince using many cancer alternatives.
Her article is at:
http://waroncancer.tripod.com/

First of all, I had to switch to a vegetarian diet - this is part of the treatment to slow down the cancer growth. The article above lists a number of alternatives and rates them so one can tell which are the best in the author's experience.

So I purchased Homeopathic medicine by Lux HealthRes.
This medicine is liquid and the dose is 3 drops 3 times a day. After a month on this treatment, I am really amazed with my improvement because I am able to sleep better and I used to wake several times a nighte. But the best part is the pain has gone down, the improvement is such that sometimesI can substitute aspirin or ibuprofen instead of codeine.

After 7 months on this treatment, the pain is much much less.
Presently, after 10 months using the above and I can say I rarely need
codeine. There's more, altho I purchased the homeopathic for pain, I must say it has improved my cancer far and I have gotten back my
zest and enthusiasm for life. My cancer today is a milder and less aggressive and my MRI shows a tumor half the original size of over 3 cm.
My doctor is surprised by the positive results because he has not given me any medicine against the cancer.

Concerning the homeopathic remedy, it is real medicine.
If your pain is not responding to present treatment, I highly recommend cancer sufferers to read the article above and try the author's recommendation.

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