Should I push through the pain?
Should I push through the pain?
With cancer, pain is a feature that carries worry and concern. Sudden pain tells our bodies that something is wrong and is an important way our bodies protect us from actual or perceived harm.
When pain becomes long-standing (or ‘chronic’), it no longer serves its purpose of keeping us safe. Instead, it can start to impact our function and prevent us from completing day-to-day tasks, enjoying our favourite activities, or even spending time with our loved ones. This can create a negative cycle, which can lead to pain feeling worse.
Engaging in daily life
To break the pain cycle, it is important to find ways to keep moving and engaging in our daily life. Keeping track of our pain (tracking symptoms function of the app) can support us and identify patterns or times when our pain is best controlled, which can help us to plan our day. For example, if pain is most controlled in the morning, we may choose this time to complete our biggest tasks. Alternatively, if pain fluctuates and improves after taking pain relief, we can break tasks up into small chunks throughout the day.
Increasing your activity
Once we feel confident to manage the day-to-day, we can start to think about increasing our activity. To do this, we start to build up activity slowly, guided by our own tolerance and boundaries. While you’re likely to have heard the saying “pain is gain”, this is not always the best approach. However, this also does not necessarily mean we can expect to be entirely pain-free at all times.
The idea is to create a series of positive experiences, to help our bodies feel safer. If an experience feels positive and unthreatening, our nervous systems fire less pain signals. The next time we do the same activity, our brain is more likely to recognise this as something safe.
In simple terms, this is our brain saying to our body “I recognise there is still something abnormal in the body, but this is not something we need to address while we are doing housework”.
Keeping track of your pain
You may find keeping track of pain (using the track symptoms function of the app) can help find where to draw the line. Once pain reaches 5 out of 10, stop and re-assess. This prevents our body getting to a point where the pain is severe, and the experience feels negative. This is particularly important with conditions such as cancer, where the body will be going through regular changes during treatment.
Helpful Tips
- Track pain symptoms and monitor the charts of patterns and changes
- Use the ‘window’ after prescribed pain relief, for important tasks or activity
- Slowly build activity, in a safe and comfortable way
- Use the track symptoms function to monitor pain and establish our boundaries
- Consider non-medication pain relief, such as heat packs or TENS machines (ask your nurse or physiotherapist for support and advice if needed)
- All new, unexplained or worsening pain should be investigated
If you are concerned about your pain, speak to your medical team who can review causes or make changes to medication if needed.
September 2022
Ms Hannah Furness has no disclosures to report.