THE IMPROVE TRIAL: Improving Pain Management and Outcomes With Various Strategies of Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA)

The following things will be done for the study: 1. Each day you are in the hospital someone from the study team who does not know your treatment assignment will come in 3 times during the day to ask you questions about your pain and how you are feeling. The doctors and nurses taking care of you will also do this as part of the routine care for your pain crisis. You will have your vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature) and oxygen level checked regularly as part of your routine care. The doctors and nurses may need to give you other medicines or do procedures that are not part of the study to take care of your pain crisis. They will talk with you about this. The doctors and nurses taking care of you while you are in the hospital will take care of you and treat your pain crisis just as they would do if you were not in this study. Being in this study will not interfere with the usual care and treatment you would receive. 2. Each day you are in the hospital a member of the study team will have you answer questions about your pain, any side effects you are having, and how well you are able to move around. 3. While you are in the hospital, you will wear an Actigraph Micro-Mini-Motion logger, a wristwatch type device that will keep track of how much you move around and how well you are sleeping. This will help us determine how well the treatment plan is relieving your pain level. You will wear the actigraph through Day 5 (Day 3 for children) of your hospital stay, or until you leave the hospital if you go home sooner. 4. Each day you are in the hospital you will have blood drawn to check how well your kidneys and liver are working. These blood tests will be done at the same time as your regular blood tests whenever possible. We will collect about 2 teaspoons of blood from you for the study each day you are in the hospital. 5. We will call you 3 days and 14 days after you leave the hospital. During these phone calls we will ask you questions about how you are feeling, the medications you are taking including those for pain, and any problems you have had since your discharge.