'Quality of Life' Health Series on Pain

The Oak Park Arms presents a “Quality of Life” helath seminar featuring Mary Maryland, PhD, RN, who will present a talk titled, “Is the Pain Serious?” Open to the public, it takes place at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 20, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park.

For 32 years, Dr. Maryland has been a board certified registered nurse practitioner. For the last three years she has devoted her work to healthy aging for seniors. She is the president of the Illinois Division of the American Cancer Society and a founding member of Congressman Danny Davis’s 7th Congressional District Healthcare Task Force.

Recently, Dr. Maryland was requested to provide testimony on the urgent need for healthcare reform before a committee of the United States House of Representatives. Her international work has included presentations in China, South Africa, Thailand, Korea, Spain, New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines and the Bahamas.

According to the National Pain Foundation, pain among older adults is too frequently left undiagnosed and untreated. Statistics show that 25% to 65% of older adults living on their own or with family, and up to 80% of seniors in long-term care facilities, have pain. Conditions such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease further complicate an older adult’s ability to seek and receive adequate care for his or her pain.

While persistent pain certainly becomes more common as people age, it is not normal to hurt. The presence of pain means that there is something causing it. Sometimes the cause may be relatively simple such as muscular strain, but sometimes it is more complicated, and an entire team of specialists such as pain doctors, physical therapists, and psychologists may need to treat it. But the important point is that pain should never be accepted as normal.

One of the most challenging aspects of pain is knowing when pain is truly serious and requires immediate attention. One would think the severity of the pain would dictate what to do next, but there can be milder types of pain that require attention.

Dr. Maryland will provide descriptions of pain and advise when to call for help. Many effective treatments are available for most kinds of pain that occur in older patients. Medications are only one small part of pain treatment. The main goal of pain treatment is to maximize the patient's ability to be active and engaged in life.

Ten common reasons why seniors have pain:

1. Falls/trauma – falling from lack of balance or weakness can end up into a nightmare of pain. Safety proofing the environment is a way to help prevent these accidents.
2. Arthritis – osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis affecting seniors; the next most common is rheumatoid arthritis.
3. Pain after surgery – while most people seem to bounce back after surgery once the worst of the pain is over, many times seniors don’t have that ability. This can result in long-lasting chronic pain.
4. Osteoporosis – thinning of the bones causes fractures. The fractures may not be obvious like hip or arm breaks; they can be in the spine, causing chronic and severe back and neck pain.
5. Shingles – the shingles virus attacks as a result of the chicken pox virus, which most older people had when they were younger. After the shingles disappears, it can leave yet another problem called postherpetic neuralgia – very severe nerve pain along where the shingles rash was.
6. Face pain – whether due to ill-flitting dentures, teeth that need to be pulled, or other problems with the jaw, face pain can be severe and seem never-ending.
7. Back and neck pain – pain in the back and neck can result from diseases such as osteoarthritis or osteoporosis, but it can also be the result of bad mattresses, poor posture, previous back injuries and so on.
8. Abdominal pain – although there are many problems that can cause abdominal pain, one big reason among seniors is constipation. They may be taking medications that cause constipation, they may not be eating well, or getting enough exercises. This pain can become very severe.
9. Circulatory problems – if a senior has problems with the blood circulation, the resulting swelling – most often in the legs and feet – can result in a lot of pain.
10. Cancer – as people live longer, they are developing more cancers. Even if the cancer is not fatal, it can cause a considerable amount of chronic pain – or the pain can be caused by the treatments, as well.

This talk is free and open to the public. For more information, call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040.