Pain Management

Get help to address your acute and chronic pain symptom concerns. When your pain is well controlled, you may feel better sooner, get stronger faster, and possibly leave the hospital earlier.

At Barton Memorial Hospital, we’re committed to helping you feel better as quickly as possible and dedicated to finding ways to help you be comfortable. Both drug and non-drug treatments can help to control pain. You, your doctor, and your care team will decide which ones are right for you. Non-drug pain management may include: ice, heat, elevation, distraction, positioning, and relaxation.

Pain Management During A Hospital Stay

Many people experience pain while they are in the hospital, which can be both frightening and disabling. Most of your pain can be controlled by the use of medications and other non-drug treatments, but sometimes it is not possible to completely eliminate pain.

Controlling your pain will allow you to do what doctors, nurses and therapists may ask you to do each day. These tasks may be as simple as taking deep breaths, rolling over in bed or walking down the hallway.

Your Role in Pain Management

Tell someone about your pain: help your doctors and nurses measure your pain. You will be asked to rate your pain on a scale 0 – 10, where 0 is no pain and 10 is the worst pain imaginable. We will also ask you to set your own comfort goal.

Don’t wait: take your pain medicine (or ask your nurse for pain medicine) when the pain starts, not later. If you wait until the pain is severe, you will need more medicine to relieve it and it will take longer to have any effect.

Scheduling: take pain medicine when it is due and as prescribed. During the day and night set an alarm to keep on schedule.

Think ahead: if you know your pain will worsen when you start an activity (walking, doing breathing exercises, or turning in bed), take the pain medicine first to prevent severe pain. It’s easier to prevent pain than to treat it once it has taken hold.

Slow rhythmic breathing for relaxation: try this exercise after periods of activity or during medical procedures to help reduce anxiety & pain.

1. Breathe in slowly & deeply.
2. As you breathe out slowly, feel yourself beginning to relax; feel the tension leaving your body.
3. Now breathe in & out slowly & regularly, at whatever rate is comfortable to you.
4. To help you focus on your breathing & to breathe slowly & rhythmically: (a) breathe in as you say silently to ourself “in, two, three;” (b) breathe out as you say silently to yourself, “out, two, three.” Each time you breathe out, you could also say silently to yourself a word such as “peace” or “relax.”
5. Do steps 1-4 only once OR repeat steps 3-4 for up to 20 minutes.

What about addiction?

Sometimes people are worried that taking pain medicine will make them addicted. Pain medications are made to treat pain just as antibiotics are made to treat infections. If a person has pain and needs medication to control it, he or she is not an addict. Addiction to pain medication occurs when a person takes the medication for reasons other than pain such as to “get high.” Addiction rarely occurs in people who take pain medication as prescribed for pain control.

After Your Hospital Stay

As experts in their field, Barton's Home Health and Hospice teams can continue to help patients manage their pain after they are discharged from the hospital.