Your doctor may want to give you injections. This is not necessary unless you are vomiting, can’t swallow or are too drowsy to take your painkillers by mouth. You can get just as good an effect with tablets or syrup as injections, but not with the same dose. You need two to four times as much by mouth as by injection in order to finish up with the same amount in the bloodstream. Make sure your doctor allows for this if you are changing from injections to tablets or syrup.

You must take responsibility for telling your doctor just how well or how poorly your pain is being relieved. So many people say ‘Not too bad’ in response to a question about pain relief from their doctors and then both parties leave it at that. You’re the only one who knows how it feels and you must tell your doctor about it if you want relief. You have every right to tell your doctor things like these and to expect some positive action on them: ‘You have prescribed my painkiller every six hours, but it only lasts about four hours for me’, or ‘The pain keeps me awake at night’ or ‘I’m comfortable only if I lie completely still and I expect better pain relief than that’.

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