The physicians of Texas Medical Association recognize the importance of pain management and urge patients to always discuss their health concerns with their doctor. The uncomfortable feeling of pain is the body's way of alerting you that something is wrong by sending a message to your brain. There are both drug and non-drug treatments available that can be successful in preventing and controlling pain. Dr. Greg Guzley, a San Antonio oncologist, reminds patients that the risk of addiction when these medicines are used to control pain is so low that no patient should have to suffer pain because they are afraid to take the medicine. Patients should talk to their doctors about the pain they will experience following surgery or from illness or disease.
Pain control can provide comfort while healing, speed recovery and improve results of surgery.
Notify your doctor about your pain. In a matter of seconds, a child could drink a cup of household cleaner mistaking it for apple juice or eat a hand full of aspirin thinking it was candy. More than 1 million children were unintentionally poisoned in 1998, and 90 percent of those poisonings occurred in the home. Parents have a substantial impact on this problem. They can start with prevention.