Skip to main content

Pain Management for Cargegivers


How To Care for a Partner with Chronic Pain

Chronic Pain Caregiver Tips


Caring for a Partner with Chronic Pain

Are you the caregiver of a partner who is challenged with chronic pain? It can be trying to meet the needs of another person living in your home who is suffering and also stay on top of your own self-care. Here are a few tips to help keep you in balance.
  1. Be Present: Stay in tune with the needs of your partner. It is likely these needs will change from day to day. There will be good days and bad days. Each day will likely bring its own challenge. Be ready to listen to words spoken, but also make note of your partner's body language. Is he moving more slowly? Is she grimacing as she attempts to get out of her chair? Are you noticing the good moods as well as the bad moods? Are you ready to return a smile during those rare respites when hurting subsides?
  2. Be Adaptable: Plans can quickly go awry when the chronic sufferer hits a low point. Become more flexible when planning your outings. Learn to go with the flow as much as possible.
  3. Be Ready: A person who suffers on a regular basis soon grows weary of continually asking for help. They don't want to be burdensome and may choose to suffer in silence. Be ready to offer a helping hand without being asked. Make it a habit to routinely ask your partner what her needs are.
  4. Be Good to Yourself: It is easy to neglect your self-care when your focus is on caring for an ailing loved one. Never-the-less, it is very important that you tend to your own well-being in order to have the energy reserves that will be required to continue care-giving to a sick partner. Eat right. Exercise. Meditate. Ask for assistance from others. Basically, live in balance.
Ian Shaw / Getty Images
This About.com page has been optimized for print. To view this page in its original form, please visit: http://healing.about.com/od/caregivers/a/chronic-pain-caregiver-tips.htm
©2013 About.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

Chronic Pain Caregiver Tips


Are you the caregiver of a partner who is challenged with chronic pain? It can be trying to meet the needs of another person living in your home who is suffering and also stay on top of your own self-care. Here are a few tips to help keep you in balance.
  1. Be Present: Stay in tune with the needs of your partner. It is likely these needs will change from day to day. There will be good days and bad days. Each day will likely bting its own challenge. Be ready to listen to words spoken, but also make note of your partner's body language. Is he moving more slowly? Is she grimacing as she attempts to get out of her chair? Are you noticing the good moods as well as the bad moods? Are you ready to return a smile during those rare respites when hurting subsides?
  2. Be Adaptable: Plans can quickly go awry when the chronic sufferer hits a low point. Become more flexible when planning your outings. Learn to go with the flow as much as possible.
  3. Be Ready: A person who suffers on a regular basis soon grows weary of continually asking for help. They don't want to be burdensome and may choose to suffer in silence. Be ready to offer a helping hand without being asked. Make it a habit to routinely ask your partner what her needs are.
  4. Be Good to Yourself: It is easy to neglect your self-care when your focus is on caring for an ailing loved one. Never-the-less, it is very important that you tend to your own well-being in order to have the energy reserves that will be required to continue care-giving to a sick partner. Eat right. Exercise. Meditate. Ask for assistance from others. Basically, live in balance.
Ian Shaw / Getty Images
This About.com page has been optimized for print. To view this page in its original form, please visit: http://healing.about.com/od/caregivers/a/chronic-pain-caregiver-tips.htm
©2013 About.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

Post by Marietta LeDonne.




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living with Chronic pain hits the big screen!

Been to the movies lately?  Jennifer Aniston is on the big screen in a recent release titled "Cake." Her character, Claire is a victim of chronic pain...she belongs to a support group, where all of the members are coming to terms with the suicide of one of their members.  Of course, she also takes pain medication and addiction is another of her problems...and of course there's more! I guess I am writing this post just to bring readers' attention to the fact that Hollywood has become aware of the crisis that is chronic pain.  This movie is a testament to that. People that don't have to live with this kind of pain don't fully understand the whole story.  Maybe this movie will shed some light on the issues. Here is the official trailer for the movie: Sources: prweb;NorthJersey.com;YouTube
Post a Comment
Read more

Effectiveness Of Ozone Injections Is No Longer Up In The Air

Most of us know someone who has osteoarthritis, if we don't have it ourselves.  Joint replacement surgery is a pretty common remedy when the joint becomes severely damaged and the patient is in a lot of pain.  With risk of complications from such a surgery, perhaps an alternative treatment should be tried first. One such remedy is the injection of a synthetic version of collagen(e.g. Synvisc®) into the affected joint.  This procedure restores the cushioning to a joint that has degenerated over the years. It can diminish the pain substantially and help put off joint replacement surgery for months to years.  The biggest drawback is that these products are expensive.   GoodRX , a web site that can be used to estimate the cost of medications, estimates the cost of these products to be over $1,000 each. Here's another example--and I am not sure how widely accepted this protocol has become since study authors introduced it in November 2015.  Are you r...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fibromyalgia Week: Day 2

Tender points...click caption for WebMD animation Tender points are a unique feature of fibromaylgia.  There are 18 such points on the human body (9 pairs as shown).  Using special technique by hand or a dolorimeter, a fibromyalgia patient will experience pain in at least 11 points, and there will be at least one painful tender point in each quadrant of the body! One study found that up to 96% of fibromyalgia patients suffer from sleep disorders. It is believed that this is responsible for a deprivation of delta sleep, during which human growth hormone is produced. This hormone is essential to tissue repair. Other common problems in fibromyalgia are fatigue, concentration/memory ("fibro fog"), and depression.  There is no doubt in my mind that just enabling the patient to sleep well on a regular basis would be of great benefit! It is not uncommon for fibromyalgia patients to have coexisting conditions--some of these are lupus, disease, irritable bowel syndrom...
Post a Comment
Read more