Pain treatment approach | Illustrative responses |
---|---|
Moving/changing position | "Well I will get up and move around and if it is gone within a few minutes" (P 2). |
 | "I would have to lift both his legs at one time raised them up to put him in prop him up with the pillows it was a bad time you are rubbing things on it hoping that rubbing this medication will help it and he was only on anti-inflammatory than he wasn’t on painkillers" (FCG 10). |
 | "What I do find, sometimes, if I have been sitting for a while … when I first get up .. it is like a cramp. Then after I walk around for a few minutes then it goes off" (P 13). |
 | "Soon as I change of position, very often, it goes. I just have to lie down, stretch out then it goes. Just to change position helps me a lot" (P 17). |
Not moving/resting | "It can get very sore but I can go and sit down and in five minutes it is fine" (P 5). |
 | "There are medications but before they take effect.. I try to sit as still as I can, or go lay down.. just resting helps" (P 12). |
Distraction | "I try to go to seek a distraction. Now I have something to read" (P 3). |
 | "While we are talking… I forget everything. Even if I have pain. I forget" (P 6). |
 | "I try to keep my mind busy.. sometimes I read .. or I watch TV (P 18). |
 | "Listening to music… working on the computer. I’m quite good at it. And.. categorizing the thousands and thousands of slides and pictures I have taken over the years…That is the way I cope with my pain" (P 15). |
 | Recently what helped me a lot me. I began again to knit. I am a big, big knitter, I made absolutely extraordinary things… and then, so that occupies me" (P 9). |
Talking/being with others | "When I have somebody with me, let’s say that the pain is shared. Everything is shared for me and I am not sick. I see myself well when I am with someone" (P 3). |
 | "I think that, that I am a painkiller for her. Because sometime she panics and then to see me there, not in panic, it helps her" (FCG 17). |
Heat/cold/massage | "When she has pain in her leg, her right leg I think, we can apply ice for the pains she has" (FCG 3). |
 | "I get relief if I put hot water on it and when I am showering" (P 6). |
 | "Rubbing things on it sometimes helps" (P 18). |
 | "I will rub it a bit, but as soon as I move, it goes away" (P 12). |
Equipment | "We got a hospital bed. That has been his Godsend.. That mattress helped his pain level .. it has a nice thick foam" (FCG 2). |
 | "That chair has been great for her because it is automatic she can lift her legs up, get the circulation up and it helps with the pain" (FCG 4). |
Humour/outlook | "Well I try to think positive.. that sometimes helps" (P 12). |
 | "My sense of humour always … laughing or watching other people laugh. Seems to reduce the pain for some reason" (P 15). |
Faith | "What helps me? My faith" (P 16). |
 | "If I can’t fall asleep, I have the time to do some prayers and finally the medication is going to take effect" (P 9). |