What is Perioperative Pain Management?
A caring team of doctors, nurse practitioners, and nurses will work together to help manage pain after surgery. For less painful procedures, the anesthesia and surgical teams will take care of pain control, but for more painful surgeries, the perioperative pain management team steps in with their special expertise.
Before surgery, we talk with children and their families to create a pain management plan and make sure they’re comfortable during recovery. We work closely with other teams, like those in integrative care, surgery, nursing, and physical/occupational therapy, to make sure everyone has the support they need after surgery.
It’s also important to know that getting ready for surgery starts well before the procedure itself. Healthy habits like getting enough sleep, eating nutritious foods, staying active, and practicing relaxation techniques like deep breathing can help with pain management and make it easier to get back to normal activities after surgery.
A Culture of Managed Pain
Pain is unpleasant. But worse, it can interfere with recovery from surgery or illness, prevent normal activity and affect a child’s quality of life. One of the hardest things about pain is that even the best treatments do not guarantee that pain will be eliminated.
Patients and medical staff may wish for no pain after surgery, but it's important to understand that trying to completely eliminate all pain can sometimes lead to problems. Treating pain too much can be just as tricky as not treating it enough. Our goal is to keep pain at the lowest level possible while making sure it’s safe, even if that means there might still be a little discomfort.
We focus on each child’s unique needs when it comes to managing pain. We take into account the condition, how it’s affecting the child’s life, and the doctor’s plans for treatment. Together with the doctors, your child, and your family, we create the best plan to manage pain and help everyone feel as comfortable as possible.
