Pain and alternative therapies

PAIN AND ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES What a postoperative nurse should know about mastectomy Mastectomy paints require extensive care. For this reason, nurse should be aware of the role of axillary lymph node dissection (Weaver, 2009). The nurse’s evaluation might assist in recommending help like sentinel lymph node biopsy. In addition, the nurse should determine a patient’s awareness of the risk factors and postoperative care recommendations. In regards to this, the nurse should be able to advise the patient on appropriate fitness plan to minimize the formation of scar tissue, care for bandage over the incision and the surgical drain. Most important, the nurse should acknowledge psychological status consequences of the procedure on patients. Hence, the nurse should identify information seeking behavior to understand the emotional health, fears and concede that fear and feeling overwhelmed is normal.
Category of pain and associated descriptive terms
The nurse might prompt the patient to describe pain accurately by probing into the feelings. For example, asking about breakthrough pain, or if the patient experiences mild or severe pain based on a scale of 0-10 and characterized with impulsive onset or a neuropathic pain. In addition, asking the location of the body that is more painful, quality of the pain whether sharp or dull and duration of the pain is helpful. He nurse might inquire about time of the day in which the patient feels the pain most, interactions that relieve the pain, worsens it, or triggers pain guides the patient to describe experiences (Kantrowitz, 2009). A nurse can also ask about the medications and their effect on the patient to gauge the severity.
Methods of pain control
Mastectomy patients can use mild pain drugs like acetaminophen or ibuprofen for fewer severe pains. Other management plans include infiltration of botulinum toxin to prolong muscle spam or admission under a palliative care program (Layeeque, 2004). Besides, acupuncture, physical therapy, and massage therapy are methods to manage pain (Komen, 2014).
References
Komen, S. (2014, April 4). Pain Management – Treatment of Breast Cancer | Susan G. Komen®. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://ww5. komen. org/BreastCancer/ManagingPainRelatedtoTreatment. html
Kantrowitz, M. (2009, January 1). CancerPoints | Cancer Pain Management. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://www. kantrowitz. com/cancerpoints/cancerpainmanagement. html
Layeeque, R., Hochberg, J., Siegel, E., Kunkel, K., Kepple, J., Henry-Tillman, R., … Klimberg, V. (2004, October 24). Botulinum Toxin Infiltration for Pain Control After Mastectomy and Expander Reconstruction. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC1356462/
Weaver, C. (2009, May 5). Caring for a patient after mastectomy. Retrieved February 9, 2015, from Lippincott Nursing Center. com: http://www. nursingcenter. com/lnc/static? pageid= 869347