Communicating & Assessing Your Pain

Talking About Your Pain.

The first step in getting your pain symptoms under control is talking honestly about it. Try to talk with your health care team and your loved ones about what you are feeling. This means telling them:

• Where you have pain
• What it feels like (sharp, dull, throbbing, constant, burning, or shooting)
• How strong your pain is
• How long it lasts
• What lessens your pain or makes it worse
• When it happens (what time of day, what you're doing, and what's going on)
• If it gets in the way of daily activities

Describe and rate your pain.

You will be asked to describe and rate your pain. This provides a way to assess your pain threshold and measure how well your pain control plan is working.

Your doctor may ask you to describe your pain in a number of ways. A pain scale is the most common way. The scale uses the numbers 0 to 10, where 0 is no pain, and 10 is the worst. You can also use words to describe pain, like pinching, stinging, or aching. Some doctors show their patients a series of faces and ask them to point to the face that best describes how they feel.

No matter how you or your doctor keep track of your pain, make sure that you do it the same way each time.

It may help to keep a record of your pain. Some people use a pain diary or journal. Others create a list or a computer spreadsheet. Choose the way that works best for you. If you are a techie and/or prefer a secure, online pain management service, then Reliefinsite.com is a choice you may want to consider.

Your record could list:

• When you take pain medicine
• Name and dose of the medicine you're taking
• Any side effects you have
• How long the pain medicine works
• Other pain relief methods you use to control your pain
• Any activity that is affected by pain, or makes it better or worse
• Things that you can't do at all because of the pain

Share your record with your health care team. It can help them figure out how helpful your pain medicines are, or if they need to change your pain control plan.

There are different ways and pain scales your health care team may show you to describe or rate your pain:

These include:
• A scale numbered from 0 to 10 with 0 being no pain, 5 being moderate pain, and 10 being worst possible pain.
• A scale listing pain as follows: none, mild, moderate, severe, very severe, and worst possible.
• A line that begins with 'no pain' and ends with 'pain as bad as it could possibly be.
• A series of 6 faces with the happiest face being 'no hurt' and the saddest face being 'hurts worst.' The 4 faces in between range in severity of pain.