Depression

Learning to treat pain effectively takes doctors years, if at all.  Doctors who specialize in PM&R (pain management and relief), are formally called physiatrists or sometimes informally as pain doctors.

One of the first things any doctor should learn is when to worry about pain, and I want you to know when to worry about it as well.   Since the medical community is taught to treat so many different kinds of pain, they need to know when to sound an alarm about a patient’s condition and how to act to treat them most effectively, giving them the most relief from their pain possible. If you’ve been experiencing pain, it’s important that you learn to think like a pain doctor. While these “rules” about when to worry certainly do not cover every person and every situation, (every person and situation is different, and YOU and only YOU know what is normal for your body),  they are important to know to get to the source of your problem.

How to Think Like the Medical Community and your Doctor:
1. Two-Week Rule
Any pain that lasts for more than two weeks should be checked out, period, end of sentence. A lot of people think that new pain without an acute injury, or fall, means that they have cancer. In fact, most, but of course not all,  new pain is due to bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, nerves and other musculoskeletal structures.  Many doctors use the two-week rule because a lot of musculoskeletal pain will resolve within a two-week period. Additionally,  a two-week delay in a true medical  diagnosis is very unlikely to change someone’s prognosis if the pain is in fact due to cancer. Though the two-week rule applies to most pain, there are times when doctors ignore this rule and become immediately concerned, as you will see below.

2. Acute-Trauma Rule
Doctors should immediately check all pain associated with acute trauma, such as a car accident or fall off a ladder, most other falls or injuries occured by being struck by something, or a traumatic fall of any kind.   Usually, people aren’t overly worried that cancer is causing this pain if they have trauma that results in immediate or even slightly delayed pain.  However, all severe pain associated with trauma should get an evaluation; this includes a physical examination by a doctor and potentially xrays or MRI’s to rule out a fracture.

3. Worst Pain of My Life Rule
Doctors should be alarmed at all  new and severe pain that a patient reports that is not related to any acute injury or fall.  It’s not unusual for you to actually say, “This is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced!”  Often, the “worst pain of my life” is not cancer, but may be the result of something else equally serious, such as a heart attack, dislocated joint,  appendicitis or ruptured blood vessel (aneurysm). If the pain is severe but chronic and you have sought your doctors help in acurately diagnosing it, , then the “alarm bells” are not as “alarming”.

4. I Can’t Sleep Rule

Doctors should be concerned about any pain that awakens a you out of a sound sleep at night. Sometimes, night pain is more serious than pain that occurs during the day with normal activities, where you are using the part of your body that is currently or recently been injured. This is because, typically, when you rest, pain gets better. Pain that doesn’t improve with rest is sometimes a reason to seek a diagnosis.  However, resting too much with chronic pain will most usually lead to weakness and more pain .  Continuous bedrest is rarely ordered by your doctor.   We do it to ourselves because initially, that’s the only time we don’t hurt.  If you do in fact have chronic pain, try to alternate rest with activity to stay strong and keep your overall pain levels down. Cancer pain is one type of pain that often usually improve with rest and typically will awaken you at night. However, it’s important to know that a lot if not most of musculoskeletal pain problems will bother patients at night. Hip bursitis or shoulder tendinitis can often keep a you awake if you  lie on the affected side and put pressure on the injured part of the body. It’s important not to make assumptions about what is causing night or bedtime sleep pain, and to find out the cause by seeking a medical diagnosis so that you can treat it correctly.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that pain is misunderstood, undertreated and that doctors and patients need to work together better to find solutions. I personally turned to Young Living Essential Oils because my pain was not being mahaged at an acceptable level or in an acceptable way.  When someone tells you, “I’ve tried everything,” I often ask if they have seen a  doctort. If the answer is yes, and they are reasonably certain you have a correct diagnosis, exploring the use of Young Living Essential Oils to assist you in managing these daily issues may be the correct solution.  There are no addictive side effects, no systemic side effects, it’s safe to use them and drive a car and operate heavy machinery, and will most likely help you sleep better in the process!

Aside from working on the physical aspect of your aches and pains, the oils will also assist you in emotional balancing and relieving depression so often caused by the chronic pain those of us have.

For more info on inflammation read Part 1 of A Nurses Perspective: Understanding and Treating Inflammation ~ Treatment with Organic Essential Oils

Learn more about a blend of essential oils that I created to help me with my inflammation at HeadandHoof.com