Following a Treatment Plan

The best way to control your pain is to follow your treatment plan and give it time to work.

Some treatments may take a few days or weeks to improve your pain. You and your doctor can talk about how long you should stay on a medicine or other treatment.

It's very important to take your medicines exactly as your doctor prescribes. Following your doctor's advice will help you get the right amount of medicine with as few side effects as possible. It also will help you and your doctor know if a medicine is working for you.

Make sure to tell your doctor about any medicines or herbal supplements you take. Your other medicines and supplements could mix in a bad way with your pain medicines. This could keep the pain medicine from working as well as it could.

Don't wait for pain to get bad

Make the most of your pain medicines by following these rules:

• Take them on time (by the clock).
• Do not skip a dose or wait until you think you need it.
• Be prepared for breakthrough pain. You may find that taking your medicine works most of the time but that your pain flares up during extra activity or even for no clear reason. These flare-ups are called breakthrough pain. Your doctor can give you a prescription for fast-acting medicines that you can take for breakthrough pain.
• If you have more than one doctor, pick one doctor to be in charge of all your medicines. If more than one doctor prescribes pain medicine, make sure they talk to each other about it.

Learn more about:

• Taking medicines as prescribed.
• Working with more than one doctor.