There are three types of pain medication you should have at your disposal:

- Long term pain relief such as MS Contin or Fentanyl patches which lasts up to 12 hours.

- Breakthrough pain medication such as Oxycodone, Tylenol etc. which you take every 4-6 hours accordingly

- Short lasting pain medication such as Lignocaine, Cocaine mouthwash etc. which provides short term pain relief which is used when you need to eat etc.

Making sure you keep on top of the above medication is absolutely critical as more pain you have equates to more of the body using nutrition & energy to fight the toxins released into the bloodstream caused by the pain which ultimately means that healing will be slower and more difficult.

On the flip side, you want to make sure you are only taking what is required without going overboard as you must remember a lot of the pain medication is opiate based meaning that you will have to cope with the addiction & withdrawal symptoms once you start to get better.

What I used to do with Jen was ask her every 4 hours what her pain level was between 1-10 and tried to keep it between a 3-4 through the medication.

Hope that helps.