Cancer Pain Management For Houston

What Causes Cancer Pain?

There are numerous reasons for cancer pain. First, cancer itself often causes pain. Other reasons can include the testing and treatment you receive or a tumor pressing on nerves, bones, and organs. Your pain depends on different factors, including the type of cancer, its stage (extent), other health problems, and your pain tolerance. People with advanced cancer are more likely to experience discomfit. 
Spinal cord compression: When a tumor spreads to the spine, it can press on the spinal cord’s nerves. This is called spinal cord compression. The first symptom of spinal cord compression is usually back and neck pain; sometimes severe pain, numbness, or weakness may also happen in an arm or leg. Coughing, sneezing, or other movements can make your symptoms worse. If you have this kind of pain, it is considered an emergency, and you should get help immediately to prevent losing control of your bladder or bowel or being paralyzed. You can usually avoid severe outcomes if you’re treated for compression soon after the pain begins. Treatment for spinal cord compression usually involves radiation therapy to the area where the tumor is pressing on the spine and steroids to shrink the tumor. Or you may be able to have surgery to remove a tumor that’s pressing on the spine, which may then be followed by radiation.

Bone pain: This type of pain can happen when cancer starts in or spreads to the bones. Treatment may be aimed at controlling the cancer, or it can focus on protecting the affected bones. External radiation may be used to treat the weakened bone. Sometimes a radioactive medicine is given that settles in the affected areas of bone to help make them stronger. Bisphosphonates are drugs that can help make weakened bones more robust and help keep the bones from breaking. These are examples of treatments that are aimed at stopping the cause of bone pain. You may still need pain medicines, but sometimes pain management can significantly alleviate your pain.

Phantom pain: Phantom pain is a longer-lasting effect of surgery. If you’ve had an arm, leg, or breast removed, you may still feel pain steaming from the Amputation. Doctors are unsure why this happens, but phantom pain is real. Some of the treatments we offer at TIPI Pain Management in Houston include physical therapy, transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS), NSAIDs, nerve blocks, and injection therapy,

 

Side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments: Some treatments have side effects that cause debilitating pain. Pain can even make some people stop treatment if it’s not managed. Chemotherapy can damage cells in the mucous membrane, so they become inflamed (a condition called mucositis. Over the past few decades, many scientific advances have been made in understanding and treating pain. Researchers have identified pain receptors and clarified how pain signals are transmitted to the brain. These findings have resulted in more-effective therapies for treating pain in cancer patients.
Peripheral neuropathy (PN). They are sometimes called chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. This is due to nerve damage caused by certain types of chemotherapy, vitamin deficiencies, a tumor pressing on a nerve, or other health problems. Symptoms may include burning, tingling, numbness, weakness, clumsiness, trouble walking, or unusual sensations in the hands, arms, legs, and feet.

Procedures and testing: Some tests are used to diagnose cancer and see how well treatment works can be painful. When scheduling a procedure or test, speak with our pain management team in Houston if you are experiencing cancer pain.