On a scale from 1-10, how's your pain?

[hedgehog]

I never knew how to answer until I tripped over this chart:

[hollysmom]

1. I like that chart, I think I will print it out and give it to my doctor.

I had knee surgery when I was 30 after months of complaining about horrible pain. When the doctor looked inside, he said it was a mess and I should have had surgery a long time before but he didn't think it was that bad because I didn't complain enough. I guess I was supposed to be n tears all the time. I told him it hurt when I stood, sitting down, not so bad. He came in, I was sitting down, he left I was sitting down, he never saw me walking. He had been recommended to me, but he stunk as a doctor. I find a lot of doctors don't rate pain properly, but this is a great chart.
Thank you.

[postulater]

2. Great chart.

There are other ones for nearly every body part. Many have been validated and are good for clinical use.

Here's an example of one for the knee.

https://www.emoryhealthcare.org/physical-therapy/pdf/hip-lefs.pdf

If your doctor doesn't use something like this, print it out and take it to him / her. Or you can even track your progress yourself.

[hedgehog]

5. It's always better to have something like this based on function

rather than a vague, "how are you feeling today?" We live in a frog in the slowly boiling pot world; our normal would have some people screaming.

[Warpy]

3. I like this one better

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I've had it bad enough that I've started to get shocky and pass out. I live at 3-4 on medication, 6-7 without it. "Too serious for numbers" was when they left me unmedicated for 8 hours after an open appendectomy and then expected me to get up and walk. They had to pick me off the floor.

[hedgehog]

4. I love that chart, but couldn't figure out how

to copy it from Hyperbole.

[Peace Seeker]

6. It's better than the chart in my hospital room.

I like it.....anyone have any experience with cyclic vomiting syndrome?

[pnwmom]

7. I wish I'd had it for my son's recent surgery.

He was totally miserable post-surgery, and I found out he'd only told the doctor he was about a 3. He didn't have any way to put the pain into context and knew that some people could have much worse pain. I explained that the pain number would affect how much medicine he got and I told the nurse that he was at least a 7. On this chart, he'd have been an 8 right after surgery. Too bad he didn't know.

So thank you!

[NCarolinawoman]

8. at the hospital I usually tell them I'm an 11 o12.

My neurological pain is intractable--breaks through my sleep. I kind of like Warpy's chart.

[mrmpa]

9. today I am at a 10+.........

been crying much today & the vicodin isn't touching the pain at all.

[hedgehog]

10. SO sorry to hear that, I wish i could help!

[McCamy Taylor]

11. I have migraines and fibromyalgia, so a better question is "How's your mood?"

When I'm smiling, I do not even call it pain. It just is.

When I am stressed, the "is" becomes painful.

Same body, different state of mind.

However, surprisingly, when my mood gets so bad that I am crying, then the pain goes away. Meaning that (functional) pain may have a lot to do with repressed negative emotion.

[captain queeg]

12. I hate those charts or being asked that question

If I’m asking for pain medication it’s because I am in pain, I am not a weenie. A couple years ago I got into oa car wreck. Besides breaking my back I guess the air bag smashed my face. They pulled me out of the car on a board and took me to the ER first priority was getting the bleeding stopped because it had split everything open from the scalp to my nose. He stated stitching it up and got frustrated because I was bleeding so much and the stitches weren’t helping. He left and came back with a staple gun and got 15-20 staples into my face. Finally got the blood to stop. I asked him if I could have some pain medicine and his jaw just dropped and he gave me a look like WTF no one asked you about that?

But I’ve had 3 back surgeries and I did get hooked on pain pills back then, so it’s i my charts and they don’t want to give me anything when I am in real pain. Haven’t had that for a little while but at least the surgeon has given me a small script couple times 30-40 5 mg oxycodone. I know that not a very heavy dose at least for me. But I foresee it getting harder and harder to get pain meds when you really need them.