If your elderly family member is suddenly dealing with a great deal of pain, it’s important to start putting together a plan for managing it. Pain is one of those things that gradually becomes worse until it’s all your elderly family member can think about, so figuring out how to make it less of a problem for her is crucial. That way she can get back to enjoying her life as much as possible.

Understand What Chronic Pain Does to Your Senior

Chronic pain is a lot more serious than many people realize. It can reduce your elderly family member’s mobility, affect her sleep, make her more prone to falling, and affect her emotionally. There are very few parts of your senior’s life that are left untouched if she is facing chronic pain. That’s why dealing with chronic pain is about more than just trying to relieve the pain.

Get to Know Your Senior’s Signs of Increased Pain

What does it look like when your aging family member’s pain is ramping up? Is she having more trouble with mobility? Or is she more irritable than usual? If your aging family member is avoiding moving or seems more lethargic than usual, pain could be behind those actions. Talk with your elderly family member about what she is experiencing and how it affects her daily life so that you have a deeper understanding of what is going on.

Talk with Her Medical Providers about Possible Relief

There might be pain relieving techniques that your senior hasn’t tried yet, especially if this pain is new for her. Talk with her doctors about what might work for her and what she could try. For some seniors, becoming more active can be helpful, but she might need more help doing that. 24-hour home care can assist your elderly family member in rebuilding her mobility safely.

Make Life Easier in General for Your Senior

It’s a good idea to do whatever you can to make life easier in general for your elderly family member. That might mean helping her to put easy menus together or even outsourcing meal preparation to 24-hour home care providers. Whatever is causing the most difficulty for your senior right now has a solution, you might just have to look at it from a different angle.

Ensure She Has Support Around the Clock

Chronic pain is something that your senior may find is starting to affect her at all hours of the day and night. It might be beneficial for her to have 24-hour home care available overnight when she’s having trouble sleeping and needs help. It’s equally helpful to have caregivers available during the day to help with transportation and other complications.

Managing pain involves coming up with a plan that is flexible enough to adapt to your senior’s situation and thorough enough to account for all of the variables she’s likely to encounter. That type of planning is a lot easier to do when you’ve got experienced help along the way.

Source
https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/treating-pain-elderly

If you or an aging loved one is considering 24-hour home care in St. Paul, MN, and the surrounding areas, please contact the friendly staff at CareBuilders at Home Minnesota. Call today 612-260-2273.