Chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts for more than three months. It often doesn’t have an end date. It’s often connected to a chronic health condition that doesn’t have a cure or that medical treatments can only go so far in providing relief. For many seniors, chronic pain is a daily fact of life. Home care providers can help your loved one continue to live independently despite having to live with chronic pain.
Chronic Pain Symptoms
Chronic pain can occur just about anywhere in the body and is often the symptom of another health condition or injury. And while chronic pain’s main defining point is that it’s chronic, it doesn’t always have to be at the same level. It can ebb and flow in pain levels and even disappear for short time frames.
Some common symptoms of chronic pain can be comprised of:
- Throbbing pain
- Burning sensations
- Aches in specific parts of the body
- Shooting pains that spike at times
- A sensation of being squeezed or uncomfortably tight
- Stinging
- Stiffness, making movement painful
Four Common Causes of Chronic Pain
Pain Sustained from an Injury
A bad fall that breaks a bone, or a serious car accident, can permanently damage a part of the body that then resulting in life-long chronic pain.
Nerve Pain
If your loved one’s nervous system fails or is damaged, she can develop nerve pain. Common causes of nerve pain can be a pinched nerve or peripheral neuropathy.
Musculoskeletal pain
Musculoskeletal pain refers to pain that stems from a person’s bones, joints, or ligaments. Tendonitis and arthritis are the most common types of health conditions that cause chronic pain in the elderly.
Inflammatory Pain
Chronic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and fibromyalgia can lead to inflammatory pain due to inflammation from damaged tissues in the body.
Finding Relief When Chronic Pain Flares
For those who have chronic pain, they understand that sometimes their pain levels can make it impossible to perform certain tasks. From headaches that make it impossible to complete basic tasks like making a meal or driving to joint pain that interferes with the ability to dress or write a letter, chronic pain has a way of interrupting life like nothing else.
While many caregivers will step in and assist when needed, sometimes a family member or caregiver cannot be there when the person needs help with their chronic pain. Perhaps they live too far away, or they can’t consistently be there to help in the areas that have become obstacles for the elderly individual with chronic pain.
A home care agency that works with your loved one can help by providing home care visitors who will step in and assist in those areas that your loved one’s chronic pain prevents him from doing. His home care provider may help him make meals that he can easily heat up each day when his pain is the worst. Or a home care provider may step in and assist with home chores that aggravate his pain levels by requiring him to use parts of the body that are already in pain. A home care provider might help fold laundry or take out the garbage if those tasks prove to be too much for your loved one during flare-ups.
If you or an aging loved one is considering Home Care Services in Shelby, OH, please contact the caring staff at Central Star Home Health today. Call 419-756-9449
Central Star Home Health is a Trusted Home Care Agency in Ohio, including Ashland, Bellville, Bucyrus, Crestline, Galion, Lexington, Mansfield, Marion, Mt. Vernon, Ontario, Shelby, and Willard.
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