Your surgeon or your anaesthetist will give you a prescription for pain-relieving medication. This is normally in the form of tablets or capsules, and may include some anti-inflammatory drugs. (The combination of pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory drugs has been found to be helpful postoperatively.) You should continue to take these until you can resume your normal everyday activity. Failure to use pain-relieving medication when you have pain may restrict your activity and so prolong your recovery period. You should not hesitate to contact your anaesthetist, surgeon or family doctor if you have any problems.

Coping with cancer pain

Some patients are in constant, severe pain from cancer or another debilitating and chronic disease. These patients can receive considerable relief if their pain is adequately assessed and then managed. Techniques for pain management include:

• non-drug therapies, such as heat, distraction, relaxation
• prescription of adequate doses of appropriate drugs, including painkillers, sedatives and tranquilisers
• prescription of drugs and other therapies to deal with the side effects of the painkillers - for example, laxatives for the treatment of constipation from opiates or narcotics
• changing how painkillers are given (subcutaneous infusions, implantation of epidural catheters and pumps)
• nerve blocks, which can be either temporary or permanent.

All these techniques can be used at home. However, good follow-up from an anaesthetist or chronic pain doctor is needed.