Thoughts from the Intro to Pain Control in Palliative Medicine Diploma

Day 3 Pain Management Introduction was taught/facilitated by Dr Rene Kraus.   I will in the future post my version of the “Pain Masterclass” when we do an entire section of the Diploma on pain management.. 

• When thinking about how we can stop pain in its tracks: we have to think in terms of ascending & descending pathways..
• Different drugs work on different parts of the pathways, BUT pain is experienced by people & families not nerve pathways!
• Pain is experienced TOTALLY, and we need to modulate it TOTALLY.
• NB: The amount of pathology does not equal to the amount of pain. 
• Pearl of wisdom from Rene: some patients with chronic pain/illness claim to be coping well independently.. have a look at their toenails.. can often give clues on how well the pain is ACTUALLY affecting their functioning!

I would highly recommend my classmates & people interested in dealing with chronic pain in the Emergency Centre / Primary Healthcare / Palliative Medicine watching the below 2 talks by badEM’s friends Iain Beardsell & Rowan Duys. 

Here are some fantastic resources from Rowan:

https://www.tamethebeast.org/ Great analogy & videos useful for both clinicians/patients/community.

https://www.retrainpain.org/ Fantastic resource for patients, also translated into Afrikaans! Any volunteers in South Africa able to assist translating into more South African languages?