When you start caring for your loved one, you may want to know how you can help your senior manage pain. The truth is you and even hired in-home care can’t touch medication. Luckily, that is just one way to manage chronic pain. Many other helpful tips can help your senior manage a chronic condition that causes pain. Here are some tips that you and in-home care can help your loved one with.
Learn About The Pain
There are different kinds of pain and different levels of pain. If your loved one has some minor aches, they may be able to take an over-the-counter drug to manage it. On the other hand, if it is ongoing, they may need to see a doctor to get diagnosed. They may suffer from chronic inflammation, or it might be a side effect of something they’re taking or doing. The first step in helping your loved one is to understand what kind of pain you’re dealing with and openly talk to a doctor to ensure that any other problems are diagnosed.
Always Monitor Any Medications
Here is the thing, you should never handle the medication your loved one takes. If they need help with that, they may need a nurse to help them. However, you can keep track of when a senior takes medication. Some in-home care providers like to make charts that help them track when a senior takes medication. This can also help everyone notice any bad side effects. For example, if a senior takes one type of medication for a disease or to manage a problem and after two hours they start feeling immense physical pain, this is important to note and talk to the doctor about it. They may need to change medications. The other thing is you can tell if a senior is taking too much over-the-counter or too many prescribed medications.
Keep Working Out
When a senior stops moving, it can increase inflammation in their bodies which may make the pain feel worse. The worst thing a senior can do is stop moving. One of the best ways to manage pain and inflammation is by moving around. This means they can take a walk in the park, do yoga, or take swim classes. Anything to help keep the blood moving around and opening circulation while also being gentle on the joints to not put a senior in more pain.
Keep Them Busy
Here is the thing about pain, when you’re focused on it, it can feel a lot worse than it is. On the other hand, a busy senior may not notice the pain as much. A senior needs to have hobbies they love, but you can help by keeping them busy. You or in-home care can help ensure your senior stays on top of any activities they want to do. In-home care can help drive a senior from place to place and help them stick with a busy routine that will help distract them from any pain they may feel.
If you or an aging loved one is considering in-home care in Allen, TX, please contact the caring staff at Clear Path Home Care today. Call 817-928-5788
Clear Path Home Care provides compassionate, high quality home care in Denton County, Montague County, Cooke County, Grayson County, Fannin County, Lamar County, Wise County, Collin County, Hunt County, Delta County, and Hopkins County in Texas.
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