Tramadol

Pain management

You will achieve a better quality of life if you manage pain effectively. But recognise that pain is an unpleasant sensation to warn you of potential or actual damage to your body. It usually requires some action from you. If you make the pain "go away", do not ignore the cause. More often, the pain does not go and dominates your life. This can be very depressing. The only way to manage pain is to take control of yourself and act positively to restore as much of your quality of life as is possible which may include taking Tramadol.

How to manage pain with drugs

If you have suffered an accidental injury such as a wound or broken bone, the first step is to stitch the wound or set the bone. Similarly, if you have an illness or disease, a specific course of treatment will be indicated to relieve the problem or reduce its effects. When you treat the cause, reduce the pain to make yourself as comfortable as possible. The cure for the underlying cause also removes the pain. If there is no cure, pain management makes the best of a bad job.

Pain is biological, psychological and social so the best approach is holistic. As a human being, you have a right to reasonable control over your treatment. If you think that a drug is not working or producing adverse side-effects, you should be able to discuss it with your doctor and adjust the dosage or change to a different drug.

Remember that the longer you use any drug or the larger the dosages, the greater the risk of side-effects. The management exercise sometimes requires balancing whether the original pain is more or less bearable than the side-effects of the drugs.

How else to manage pain

Without pain relief, you may not feel inclined to participate in any other form of treatment. This slows the rehabilitation process and may prolong the incapacity. You should consider the following options:

• rest — pain tells you when to stop moving around, but joints can stiffen and your muscles weaken, so you must strike a balance between rest and activity;
• exercise can help to maintain or improve mobility both in a joint and to move around the house;
• physiotherapy can restore suppleness and muscle function;
• chiropractic manipulation and massage;
• hydrotherapy — exercise in a warm pool or a hot tub is easier with less weight on painful joints;
• occupational therapy teaches you how to feel less pain, i.e. if you understand the mechanics of your body, you can learn how to move in ways that do not increase the pain, protect your joints from excessive stress, and improve strength and stamina; it can also shift your mood from negative to positive; and
• adapt your daily activities, modify the home and workplace to make movement easier.

Finally, you should get support from fellow sufferers. If you stay locked away on your own, it is too easy to become negative and depressed. Meeting and talking with others who face the same problems shares the knowledge of how pain can be managed. It also lightens the psychological load, allowing each member of what can grow into a support network to offer encouragement and inspiration to the others. Even if you are housebound, with the internet, there is no barrier to joining very active social networks.