Caregiver Support

Managing Pain and Symptoms

• Relief is Possible
• Hospice: Experts in Pain Control
• How You Can Help
• What Causes Pain
• Anticipating Changes
• Medications for Treating Pain
• Could I Become Addicted?
• After-Hours Care

Relief is Possible

Remember, hospice care is about life. When you have a life-limiting illness, CompassionCare Hospice offers compassionate, expert care that helps you to live each day to the fullest. Once the decision has been made to stop treatment toward cure, the focus shifts to attainable comfort.

A basic principle of hospice care is that people have a right to pain control and relief. Our staff doctors and nurses are specially trained experts in pain control and symptom management. We cannot always prevent pain, but we will work closely with you to reduce your pain to a manageable level.

Hospice: Experts in Pain Control

Life-limiting illnesses are characterized by pain and symptoms. Generally, pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory experience and serves as a warning that something in the body needs attention.

You may think (or have been told) that nothing can be done to treat your pain. Hospital patients with life-limiting illness are rarely asked, “Are you comfortable?” Or maybe you’ve been told, “Nothing more can be done.”

While that may be true in regards to a cure for your illness, there certainly is a great deal that can be done to provide comfort. Excellent, modern methods of pain treatment are available to manage virtually all types of pain.

Once you enroll in the CompassionCare Hospice program, this expertise is at your service.

We are experts in providing palliative care—pain control and symptom management. We will teach your caregiver how to help us manage your pain and symptoms. Just as important, we will help them to anticipate changes that may occur during the course of your illness.

How You Can Help

Your CompassionCare Hospice nurse cannot determine all that you are experiencing simply by observing you. This is why she will frequently ask about the presence and character of your pain.

It is very important that you share information about the nature of your pain as openly and honestly as possible. The more accurately you can describe your pain, the more accurately the hospice team can determine the likely cause. They can then start or adjust your treatment.

What Causes Pain

Pain may be caused by some or any of the following:

• pressure from tumors
• enlargement of body organs or injury
• secretions of tumors or body organs
• medications used for treatment
• fever or treatments that may cause an increase in body temperature
• the illness for which you were admitted to CompassionCare Hospice care
• pain acquired in the course of daily living, such as a simple headache, muscle pull or stomach upset
• a long-standing chronic illness such as arthritis

Anticipating Changes

Providing care at home is much less anxiety-provoking when you have been coached on how to deal with new developments.

The CompassionCare Hospice team prepares you to deal with possible scenarios. They ensure that you have all the medications you might need, and that the doctor’s orders to use them have been signed. And if you have questions outside of normal business hours, you can always call a CompassionCare Hospice nurse (see After Hours Care).

Medications for Treating Pain

We want you to fully understand all of your medications. Please ask questions until you have all the answers you need. This is your right, and we take it very seriously.

Your pain treatment will include a variety of approaches, including medicine and other therapies. The approach used in your case is based to a large extent on how you have described your pain.

Medications will often be prescribed on an around-the-clock, 24-hour schedule—either to control your pain or prevent it from recurring.

It’s very important to follow instructions on taking medications—even if you don’t feel the pain anymore! When medications are taken only at the time of actual pain, the pain control will be less effective.

If you can’t take your medications as prescribed, please discuss your concerns with your CompassionCare Hospice nurse. Do not make any changes on your own.

Could I Become Addicted?

No. Addiction does not occur in the presence of real pain. Hospice patients taking medication for pain don’t experience the addict’s psychological “high.” Instead, the experience is one of relaxing relief.

Additionally, your own body attempts to cover the pain by manufacturing natural painkillers, or endorphines. In the presence of illness, however, the body can’t manufacture sufficient amounts to provide relief. The medications provided by your nurse supplement your body’s natural efforts at pain control.

Addiction is not a concern.

After-Hours Care

Your nurse will teach you how to manage pain and symptoms. But occasionally something will come up after hours, and you will want to talk with an expert.

You can always reach a CompassionCare Hospice nurse who will be happy to talk with you. This person:

• is a specially-trained member of the team whose job is to handle your call. No matter what time it is, you are never disturbing this person.
• can be reached after 5pm on weekdays, and around the clock on weekends and holidays.
• can quickly access your hospice medical record including the entire list of medications by computer, so you don’t have to review your entire medical history.
• can dispatch a nurse and/or a doctor to make a home visit if necessary.