“Are you treating me for acute pain or chronic pain?”
“Acute pain and chronic pain are managed very differently and there are certain strategies that might work for one but won’t work for the other,” says Dr. Crothers. Acute pain comes out of nowhere and it’s beginning to ease once you start the healing process. Chronic pain means you’ve been living with it for a while.
“Have you looked at all my other medications and considered all of my other health conditions?”
Look at all your medications, because some combos don’t play right in your body. Some medicine combos can damage your liver or kidney. “Opioid pain medications in particular can cause trouble if they are mixed with another medication that is processed by the same part of the liver,” warns Dr. Allen.
“The two substances will end up receiving uneven amounts of critical enzymes that the body uses to process them, which could lead to inconsistent performance of both drugs, or a buildup of those substances in the body.”
