My Miss Macy

“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” ― Lance Armstrong For most cancer patient, pain is the most common symptom that they have to deal with from time to time. About 90 percent of people who are diagnosed with an advanced disease frequently suffer from pain. In most cancer patients, pain is the most feared symptom since they tend to associate pain with the disease deterioration.  The truth of the matter is, most cancer patients experience varying types of pain and the most common of which is baseline or background pain which can be easily managed by long-acting prescription drugs for pain. However, despite of properly addressing baseline pain many cancer patients still experience a more pronounced pain of quick but intense onset on a shorter duration that can occur in an instant or predictably. This is what breakthrough cancer pain is all about. What is breakthrough cancer pain? Often referred as ‘flare-ups”, breakthrough cancer pai...