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Signs of Chronic Pain and How to Help Your Senior Manage It

Senior Home Care Tamarac FL-Chronic pain can be incredibly draining for your elderly family member. It’s important for you as her family caregiver to understand what she’s up against and how you can help her the most.

Chronic pain can dramatically impact your senior’s life and how she enjoys this phase of her life. It’s important for you as her family caregiver to understand what she’s up against and how you can help her the most. You can also seek out assistance from senior home care providers to manage the situation.

What Makes Pain Chronic?

Senior Home Care Tamarac FL – Signs of Chronic Pain and How to Help Your Senior Manage It

There are two basic types of pain: acute and chronic. Chronic pain is pain that sticks around for a long time. This type of pain is usually because of an illness or injury and pain that lasts for a long period of time ends up becoming its own illness. Chronic pain reduces your elderly family member’s quality of life significantly and can be difficult to manage.

Believe it or not, your senior may not necessarily tell you that she’s dealing with chronic pain. So often people who are in pain all the time just don’t mention it because it isn’t going away. Your elderly family member may have trouble moving well, trouble sleeping, or may even have trouble eating due to nausea. She may slowly withdraw from activities and socializing because of pain. You may see your senior grimace when she experiences a wave of pain.

Work with Her Doctor to Find Some Initial Solutions

Once you know that your elderly family member is dealing with chronic pain, talk with her doctor about what’s going on. There may be some solutions or underlying medical causes that can be managed effectively. Until your senior finds out what the possibilities are, she may not realize that she doesn’t have to be in pain.

Help Your Senior to Have Positive Distractions and Include a Plan for Movement

Hobbies and distractions can be surprisingly effective in helping your senior to manage chronic pain. She may even be open to having senior home care services, particularly for companionship. Other positive distractions might include things like reading favorite books, watching movies or television shows, and playing games. Caregivers can help with all of those activities, keeping your senior engaged and social.

If your senior’s doctor supports the idea, moving more can help with chronic pain. Your elderly family member may be able to strengthen her muscles and keep her joints and muscles moving. Having a plan to gradually increase movement over time can help your aging family member to feel less overwhelmed by the idea of starting an exercise plan.

Help Her to Have the Support That She Needs from Senior Home Care Aides

Senior home care providers can help your senior with daily tasks that might be more difficult now than ever before. Having support from home care assistance can keep your senior living the quality of life that she wants to have, even if she’s not able to perform those tasks herself. Keeping her home clean, her meals ready to go, and ensuring that she’s safe is really important for her overall well-being.

Ultimately, your elderly family member’s plan for dealing with her chronic pain is going to be an individualized one. Different solutions are going to work for her than for anyone else, so it’s important to keep experimenting to find the right answers for her.

If you or a family member need to hire Senior Home Care Services in Tamarac FL, call the caring professionals at Star Multi Care today at (954) 870-4770. We provide service in Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Coconut Creek, Deerfield Beach, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Lauderhill, Margate, Pompano Beach, and Tamarac.

Stephen Sternbach

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