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My Personal Health Manager is designed to help you achieve optimal health by  building on an understanding of what it takes to create Optimal Health (Salutogenesis)  and utilized the latest in digital technology and resources to support you in your health journey.

 

Partnership drug free kids

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Family Checkup: Positive Parenting Prevents Drug Abuse

 

The following five questions, developed by the Child and Family Center at the University of Oregon, highlight parenting skills that are important in preventing the initiation and progression of drug use among youth.

 

• Are you able to communicate calmly and clearly with your teenager regarding relationship problems?

• Do you encourage positive behaviors in your teenager on a daily basis?

• Are you able to negotiate emotional conflicts with your teenager and work toward a solution?

• Are you able to calmly set limits when your teenager is defiant or disrespectful? Are you able to set limits on more serious problem behavior such as drug use, if or when it occurs?

• Do you monitor your teenager to assure that he or she does not spend too much unsupervised time with peers?

 

Why See a Pain Medicine Specialist?

 

Pain treatment is complex and can cause more harm than good if it is not provided by a pain medicine specialist. Physician anesthesiologists complete four years of medical school, four years of training in anesthesiology and pain medicine, and an additional year of training to become experts in treating chronic pain. This expertise is essential since the spine and nerves that register pain are delicate and everyone’s anatomy and pain tolerance is different. In addition, pain medications are strong and can be harmful if not administered by a physician with appropriate training.

 

Surgery and Pain 

 

The society issued the following five tips on managing pain with opioids.

 

• Talk with your physician: If your physician prescribes an opioid (common ones include fentanyl, oxycodone and hydrocodone), be sure to have a detailed conversation about how to minimize the risks. Your doctor will ask if you have taken opioids before (and if so, how they affected you) or have a history of addiction as well as assess whether any conditions you have could increase the risk of side effects. Possible side effects range from mild (such as sleepiness or constipation) to more serious and life-threatening effects, such as shallow breathing, slowed heart rate and loss of consciousness, which can be signs of overdose. Ask your physician what signs to look for and how to minimize potential problems. The ASA has information about the signs of opioid overdose and what to do about it – learn more atasahq.org/OpioidODFacts.

• Take as directed: Because opioids are easy to misuse, be sure to carefully follow directions for taking them. Ask your physician about interactions with other medications you are taking or with alcohol.

• Plan ahead for surgery:

  Before surgery – If you are already taking opioids for chronic pain and are having surgery, be sure to talk to your surgeon, physician anesthesiologist and other physicians to determine how to manage pain before, during and after surgery. It’s important to understand that chronic opioid use increases the risk of complications from surgery and may add to the length of your hospital stay.

  After surgery – Even if you do not usually take opioids, you may be prescribed an opioid to cope with pain after surgery. If so, take the medication only as long as necessary for pain control – two weeks at most. If you find you are still in pain a few weeks after surgery, tell your pain medicine specialist so you can explore other options for pain control.

• Ask about combination therapy: Only about half the people taking opioids say they feel they have control of their pain. A newer method of pain control, multi-modal therapy, uses a combination of medications or other methods. This may not only help improve your pain management, but decrease the opioid dose you need to control your pain.

• Consider non-drug therapies: Biofeedback (in which patients learn to control involuntary functions, such as heart rate), meditation, massage, acupuncture, surgical procedures and interventional therapies (such as nerve blocks) can help with chronic pain. Talk to a pain medicine specialist to learn what options might work best for you.