How to relieve pain in late stage cervical cancer

1. Causes of pain in cervical cancer

The causes of cervical cancer pain can be roughly divided into pain caused by the tumor itself or metastasis, side effects of treatment, and psychological factors. In addition to following the doctor's advice for treatment, dietary therapy can also relieve pain to a certain extent. Mechanism of cervical cancer pain: Cancer cells infiltrate or invade blood vessels, nerves, lymphatic vessels, soft tissues, internal organs or bone tissues, compress or stimulate them, and cause pain. Some chemical pain substances produced during the growth of tumor cells cause pain.

According to many years of clinical investigation, the causes of cervical cancer pain are:

(1) Pain caused by the tumor itself: The rapid growth of the tumor is caused by increased capsule tension and uterine rupture and bleeding.

(2) Cervical cancer metastasis causes pain in tissues or organs such as lymph nodes and peritoneum.

(3) Pain caused by anticancer treatment: surgery, radiotherapy, interventional therapy, etc.

(4) Pain caused by psychological or other factors.

(II) Treatment of pain in late stage cervical cancer

1. Psychological suggestion therapy: This method is mainly to enhance the patient's confidence in overcoming the disease. It can be combined with various cancer treatment methods to suggest to the patient how to adjust themselves, tell them how to cooperate with the treatment to overcome the disease, let them strengthen their courage to live, earnestly complete three meals a day and necessary rehabilitation training, and fully mobilize their ability to eliminate cancer cells, so as to achieve the purpose of pain relief.

2. Relaxation and pain relief methods: Whole body relaxation can be relaxing and pleasant, and muscle relaxation can block pain reactions. Patients can close their eyes, sigh, breathe, and then bend their hips and knees to lie flat, relax their abdominal muscles and back muscles, and breathe slowly from the abdomen. Or patients can close their eyes, take deep and slow inhalations and exhalations in a quiet environment to allow fresh air to enter the lungs to achieve the purpose of pain relief. Physical pain relief methods: Pain relief can be achieved by stimulating the skin around the pain or the corresponding healthy side. The stimulation method can be massage, cooling painkillers, various temperatures or 65℃, placing a hot water bottle on a wet towel for local hot compresses, 20 minutes each time, which can achieve a certain pain relief effect.

3. Transfer pain relief method: let the patient sit in a comfortable chair, close their eyes, recall the fun childhood, or think about anything they want, for 15 minutes each time, generally 2 hours after eating, and then close their eyes and sit for 2 minutes; you can also choose some fast music according to the patient's hobbies, let the patient enjoy the rhythm, clap; you can also let the patient read some jokes, humorous novels, and crosstalk music. These can achieve the purpose of transferring pain.

(3) Cervical cancer pain relief program

1. Grade I analgesia: Suitable for general pain, use non-narcotic analgesics as adjuvants (non-steroidal). That is: aspirin 300-600 mg after meals (enteric-coated or antacid) every 4 hours.

2. Grade II analgesia: Applicable to persistent or aggravated pain, using weak anesthetics and non-anesthetic adjuvants, i.e. codeine 30mg and aspirin 600mg (approximately equal to codeine 300mg), once every 4 hours.

3. Grade III analgesia: Suitable for severe and persistent pain, with strong anesthetic and non-anesthetic adjuvants. That is: morphine 0.01g aspirin, once every 4 hours. Administration: oral, sublingual or rectal suppository.

Implementation principles for pain management in advanced cervical cancer: The analgesic standard requires pain-free sleep at night and pain-free activities during the day.

(1) Emphasize dosing by the clock, that is, according to the doctor's advice, give the drug once every 4 hours, and do not wait for the patient to ask for the drug. Practice has shown that reasonable dosage and accurate dosing time can eliminate 80-90% of the pain of cancer patients.

(2) Start with 0.01g and gradually increase until the pain is relieved. After the pain is relieved, the amount of medication can be gradually reduced. Therefore, re-evaluation is needed as a reference for the doctor to decide the dosage.

(3) When the primary medication fails to achieve the analgesic effect, other analgesics of the same level cannot be replaced, and an advanced analgesic plan should be adopted.

(4) Increase the drug dosage by 50-100% before going to bed at night to ensure pain-free sleep.

(5) Establishing the concept of cancer pain control needs to be implemented in primary care toilets and home care.

Nursing measures for pain in late stage of cervical cancer

(1) Listen patiently to the patient's complaint and check the location, duration and intensity of the pain.

(2) Have good medical ethics. Patients have the right to receive adequate pain relief. They need to be compassionate and relieve the patient's pain in a timely manner, thereby gaining the patient's trust and eliminating anxiety.

(3) In any case, the administration time is changed, the dosage is reduced, or the addiction is emphasized, the drug is refused, or a placebo is injected.

(4) Excessive mental stress will aggravate pain. Pay attention to improving the patient's emotional state and use non-drug analgesic methods such as massage, relaxation therapy, qigong, or watching TV, listening to music, and planting flowers and plants to play a diversionary role.

(5) Pay attention to the patient's comfort, support the painful area, and keep the environment quiet.

(6) If the tumor is combined with ulcers or infections, it is necessary to strengthen flushing, maintain unobstructed drainage, and use antibiotics appropriately to control infection, which is also an important measure to relieve pain.

(4) Cervical cancer pain medication is commonly used in clinical practice.