Sleep and Pain: Part 2

Sleep is a necessity. We all need sleep. Some need more than others. For folks taking medications for pain, sleep can become a challenge.

Some drugs can cause sedation. Sedation and sleep are not the same. When a person takes medication to fall asleep, they do not get the same benefits a person gets from naturally falling asleep. Quite often people who take sleeping medications, wake up feeling tired.

It can be hard feeling rested when your sleep is medically induced. If you have been taking sleeping pills on a regular basis, perhaps you need to consider a different approach to restful sleep.

Let's look into creating a tool box for sleep. If you were to create a tool box for sleepless nights, what would you put in it? What things can you do to help you fall asleep naturally/without drugs? Post your ideas as a comment to this entry.

Let's create a tool box full of ideas and options that can help folks relax and fall asleep. I look forward to hearing some of your secrets.

Related Topics: When Aches & Pains Keep You Awake: Medication Chart, Integrative Medicine

Technorati Tags: insomnia, pain, chronic pain, sleep

Sleep and Pain: Part 1

How many times have you heard someone say, "I am so tired. I could use a nap right now." Or "I feel like I haven't slept a wink." How many times have you slept all night yet felt exhausted in the morning?

People who suffer chronic pain or suffer from a chronic disease need sleep. It takes a lot of energy to cope with chronic pain and disease. When a person sleeps, their body uses their energy for rejuvenation. Rest allows the body time to refuel and prepare to meet the demands of another day.

Quite often pain and stiffness cause people to sleep poorly. They may fall asleep only to wake each time they try to change their position.

Folks who are depressed sleep poorly. Others wake frequently to use a bathroom and then find they can't get back to sleep.

Do you dream? Have you ever awakened from an eventful dream only to feel like you actually lived it? Well believe it or not, there are times when your body responds to dreams as if they were actually living them. This can lead to an exhausted feeling in the morning as well.

So what can you do to help you sleep? Here are a few suggestions. Perhaps you can add to the list!

• Take time to relax before going to bed. Give your body a chance to start unwinding before heading into bed for the night.
• Take a nice warm bath or shower to help you unwind.
• Burn some aromatherapy candles to promote relaxation.
• Avoid eating or drinking too late into the evening. When you eat late, your body spends all night digesting food rather than resting.
• Be careful what you do eat when you eat and/or drink in the evening. Avoid caffeine drinks and foods. Consider snacking on peanut butter toast, or drink herbal teas to help you relax.
• Play soothing music
• Read or watch a little TV if this helps you relax.
• If you have a lot of things on your mind, try writing them down rather than tossing the ideas around and around in your head.

These are just a few ideas to add to your pain management tool box.. Now let's see if you can add any more!

Related Topics: WebMD Video: Understanding Aromatherapy, Fix Your Sleep; Improve Your Health

Technorati Tags: pain, insomnia, sleep

Coping during an MRI

For folks with pain syndromes, MRIs are quite common. I recently had one of the lumbar spine and for someone who never had problems before, I found this trip through the tube to be a wee bit of a challenge.

It wasn't the pain I was enduring in my thigh--the reason I underwent testing. It wasn't even the banging and tapping of the machine as it created pictures of my back on film. It was the tightness of the tube around me and the feeling of being closed in.

I realized I had very little space between my face and the top of the tube. I had problems finding room for my arms and suddenly during the 45-minute test I became afraid of getting stuck in the tube. I know this may be a silly thought but it occurred nonetheless and I found the need to take immediate steps to calm my mind and my body down before it became unbearable in that tube.

First of all, I took deliberate steps to focus on breathing since I developed a fear of suffocation. I took slow deliberate breaths and focused on the cool air that was blowing on my hands and arms. I created an image of the cool air moving up and into my nose and I allowed my chest to rise and fall smoothly with each breath. I took time to say some prayers and talk to God -- letting him know I was a wee bit uncomfortable and appreciated His presence with me.

For folks who have had previous spinal injuries or surgeries, the use of a special dye or contrast medium is often used. It is usually injected through an IV. This helps to differentiate new developments from old ones on film. I had a contrast in my IV called Gadolinium dtpa which is a metallic medium that reacts to the magnetism in the test resulting in the enhancement of images on film.

I found myself afraid of having a reaction to it. But I immediately repeated to myself that I had the same contrast before and never had a problem with it so there is no reason why I should begin to have a problem now. I acknowledged to myself the thoughts were a part of my heightened emotion and imagination and that I would be ok.

Finally, the technician announced I had about ten minutes left to the test so I created an image of a clock in my mind and I began ticking off the minutes until the test would be finished and I could come out of the tube. Keeping focused was the key to managing the test.

Hopefully I won't need to have another MRI but if I do, I am thankful to have these relaxation skills I can call upon and use if I have to.

Related Topics: Diagnostic Imaging: Beam Me Up, Dr. McCoy, Take Charge of Your Stress

Technorati Tags: MRI, anxiety, relaxation breathing

Joint Fluid Therapy

One of the questions I often see on my Pain Management Board here on WebMD relates to the number of injections a person can have in a given joint. And the answer is: "It depends."

A couple of factors affecting the number of injections are the substance being injected and the reason for the injection. There are a number of different injection therapies - each consisting of certain drugs and each containing its own set of expected outcomes (nerve blocks, anti-inflammation, joint fluid replacement, etc.)

I was just reading a short article by Edward H Miller, MD titled: Osteoarthritis of the Knee. PRACTICAL PAIN MANAGEMENT. May/June 2006.

The article was short but packed with some great information related to the disease and its progression. It also discusses various treatment modalities. These included analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs, weight loss and exercise, knee replacement and joint fluid therapy.

The article says steroid injections can only be administered 3-4 times a year for a specific joint. The modality that caught my eye however, was the joint fluid therapy. This consists of the injection of a viscous fluid into the joint to help lubricate and cushion the bony surfaces. It is performed after the old fluid is aspirated out of the joint.

The course of JFT consists of a series of 3-5 weekly injections. The patient must refrain from impact activities for 48 hours after injection and avoid standing for long periods of time. JFT has been found to be a positive alternative therapy for osteoarthritis of the knees.

Related Topics: Alternative Healing and the Knee, Exercise Good for Early Knee Osteoarthritis

Technorati Tags: arthritis, joint fluid therapy, JFT

Tincture of Time

I was talking with some folks today who had recently started on some new medications for pain. They had both suffered from chronic pain syndromes and had tried a wide variety of meds with poor results. Needless to say they were frustrated and tired of hurting. While talking I began to ask some typical questions such as:

• What have you tried for medications?
• How long had you been on them?
• Did you find them effective even a little?
• What else have you tried besides medications to manage your symptoms?
• Did you find any relief from these?

The common thread I found was that both people were quick to decide the meds were not effective. They seemed to understand the need to build up therapeutic blood levels and they remember their doctor saying it would take some time before the full effect of the drug would be realized. Yet both of these people stopped taking their medication within a week of starting the regimen.

I tried to explain to these folks that I really didn't think they gave the drugs a fair chance. They were too quick to discount their effectiveness. It is understandable to be impatient with medication therapy--especially after trying so many different drugs and combinations. However, it is possible that these folks did indeed have a drug that could help them but they passed it by--giving up on it before it had a chance to help them.

Patients need to have patience! Expect to try a medication for at least 3 solid weeks before making any type of decision on the effectiveness of the drug. If you feel relief before three weeks--that is wonderful. If you do not, don't be surprised and don't be ready to write it off just then. For most folks, these syndromes didn't come on overnight. It is not realistic for many to go away suddenly and completely.

Tincture of time can be the hardest to take and the most important to comply with. But doing so can make all the difference.

Related Topics: Treatment Options for Neck and Back Pain, Migraine, Depression Drugs Risky Mix

Technorati Tags: chronic pain, arthritis, pain management