Pain Control Support for People With Cancer by National Institute of Cancer. - HTML preview

CHAPTER 1

What You Should Know About Treating Cancer Pain

You don’t have to accept pain.

People who have cancer don’t always have pain. Everyone is different. But if you do have cancer pain, you should know that you don’t have to accept it. Cancer pain can almost always be relieved.

The key messages we want you to learn from this booklet are:

• Your pain can be managed.
• Controlling pain is part of your cancer treatment.
• Talking openly with your doctor and health care team will help them manage your pain.
• The best way to control pain is to stop it from starting or keep it from getting worse.
• There are many different medicines to control pain. Everyone’s pain control plan is different.
• Keeping a record of your pain will help create the best pain control plan for you.
• People who take cancer pain medicines as prescribed rarely become addicted to them.
• Your body does not become immune to pain medicine. Stronger medicines should not be saved for “later.”