Giving care to a person in pain

As a caregiver for a person in pain, you have a lot of support. Doctors today have a better understanding of pain than ever before, and they have more ways to treat pain. Obtaining the right support can help make your job simpler. Focus on three things:

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Keep FENTORA out of the reach of children

Keep FENTORA in a safe and secure place away from children and anyone to whom it has not been prescribed. If a child accidentally takes FENTORA, call 911 or call emergency help right away

Keep tablets in their blister packages until you are ready to take FENTORA. Do not store FENTORA in pillboxes. Once a blister is opened, the tablet must be taken immediately

The pain management team

Teamwork is needed to treat cancer pain. A patient's healthcare team may include many individuals involved with pain management.

A family doctor may work with the patient through all stages of treatment
A nurse serves an important role, and can provide you with information and support
A pain specialist is specially trained to assess, understand, and create a treatment program for the pain
A physical therapist can provide information on appropriate exercises and massage techniques that can help the patient be more comfortable and move around more easily and safely
A social worker can tell you about resources in your community, such as support groups and pain clinics
A pharmacist can discuss how medicines are taken, how they work, and possible side effects
A psychologist/psychiatrist can provide support for depression and anxiety and help you and the patient understand and cope with pain

Many hospitals today have a special pain clinic. If your hospital does not, find out if there is one in your area by asking a hospital social worker.

Two-way communication

Caregivers should be present with the patient during meetings with the pain management team, and help ensure that information is successfully communicated by

Listening
Taking notes
Asking questions about anything you or the person in your care may not understand

Help out by keeping a pain journal

A pain journal can promote the success of a pain management program by recording what pain medicines are used and how well they are working.

Click here to download a Daily Pain Journal.

The pain management plan

A pain management plan typically has several parts:

Pain assessment (persistent pain and breakthrough pain)
Treatment of underlying cause of pain, if possible
Pain medicines
Treatments for side effects
Other forms of therapy

The pain management plan may also include ways of handling potential side effects of the medicines, and it may even include other forms of therapy such as exercise or massage.

Chronic pain (pain that lasts for more than 3 months) often has 2 parts, and doctors often treat each part with a different medicine. For pain that lasts all day long, called persistent or constant pain, a doctor can give around-the-clock opioid pain medicine. This is medicine that may work for 8 hours or more. However, even if the around-the-clock opioid pain medicine controls persistent pain most of the time, a patient can still have sudden flares of moderate-to-severe pain. This is called breakthrough pain — pain that "breaks through" the around-the-clock opioid medicine.

Breakthrough pain is commonly associated with sudden onset. In most cases, it is an intense flare or spike of pain on top of otherwise stable pain.

Learn about the pain medicines prescribed

Be sure you understand

The purpose of each medicine and how it works, how quickly it works, and how long it works
When each medicine should be taken
How each medicine should be taken
What side effects you should watch for
What the safety risks are for each medicine
How each medicine should be stored and disposed
Learn what medications should not be taken with FENTORA
FENTORA is used to treat breakthrough pain in adult patients with cancer (18 years of age and older) who are regularly using other opioid pain medicines around-the-clock for their constant cancer pain

Click here for more information about FENTORA.

Taking care of yourself

Caregiving can be very stressful. Remember that your well-being is important too, so get the help you need and deserve.

Take regular breaks to rest, restore, and renew yourself
Find positive ways to relieve stress. Exercise, meditate, or socialize — find what works best for you and do it
Build a support network. Let friends, family, and others know what's going on and how they can help. Make connections with support groups and other community resources