Undergoing certain medical procedures is just a part of life if we want to maintain good health. Advanced technology allows earlier detection of cancerous growths through tests such as mammograms and colonoscopies. Biopsies give doctors a look at cells that may be forming an unwelcome growth. And simple blood draws offer a glimpse of our heart health by revealing the amount of fat coursing through our blood vessels.
While these screenings can be life-saving and usually are brief, they also are uncomfortable if not downright painful. Consider these ways of easing yourself through some of the more common health exams many of us have to endure.
1. Take a pain reliever
Some screenings can be more painful for certain people because of their body type. For example, mammograms can be particularly uncomfortable for women with smaller breasts. According to Dr. Jennifer Shu of CNN Health, 60 percent of women complain of severe pain during mammograms, and compression of the breasts can leave some women sore for days. She recommends taking over-the-counter pain medicine afterward, as well as applying a cold pack to the sore area. Some physicians advise taking acetaminophen or ibuprofen an hour before the mammogram, she says. According to one report, applying over-the-counter 4 percent lidocaine gel to the skin may be more effective than taking oral pain relievers, she noted.
2. Face anxiety
Research has found that men avoid having digital rectal exams because they see it as a threat to their sexuality, reports WebMD.com. What’s more, the anticipation of pain from a particular test is often much worse than it actually is, other research has shown. Confronting feelings like these and looking at them in a more rational way can be helpful in overcoming them, the website advises.
A digital rectal exam, when a doctor uses a finger to examine the rectal area, helps detect prostate cancer in men, problems with women’s reproductive organs, as well as abnormal growths. Before having a DRE, it’s important to let your doctor know if you have hemorrhoids so he or she can avoid bothering them.
3. Get a preview
Medical experts say that patients tend to be more relaxed if they know what is going to happen, how they are going to feel during a procedure, and how long the sensation will last. This could be particularly helpful during a screening like a colonoscopy, which is a bit more involved and takes a couple of days to complete.
During a colonoscopy a thin, flexible scope is inserted in the rectum and through the colon to look for cancerous polyps. While the colonoscopy itself last 30 to 60 minutes, patients must prep their bodies with laxatives the day before, and after the exam is over, they cannot drive themselves home because they’ve been sedated. Despite the sedation you still may feel mild cramping during the colonoscopy. To relieve it, WebMD.com recommends taking slow deep breaths.
4. Help yourself
Knowing yourself and conveying your needs to health professionals can make for a more comfortable experience. For example, if you have a low threshold for pain and need to have blood drawn, ask for a numbing cream to deaden the skin where the needle will be inserted, suggests LabTestsOnline.org. You also can ask whether a finger-stick test is available. Most larger medical centers offer this, according to the website.
Some people know they have veins that are difficult to access and ask for a thinner needle, or for a technician with whom they have the best results.
5. Think positively
As it does with other things in life, the power of positive thinking also may help you cope with any medical procedure you might have to face. A 2005 study by Wake Forest University researchers using brain-imaging techniques found the level of pain participants experienced in the study and their activated brain regions reflected their expectations of what the pain was going to be, not what it actually was. Lowered expectations of pain reduced reports of it by more than 28 percent.
“Expectations about pain can affect its intensity at a level of pain reduction that is comparable to that of a normal dose of the painkiller morphine,” said Dr. Robert Coghill, Ph.D., neuroscientist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in a statement from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which funded the study.
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