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Don't you hate rating your pain 1-10?

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Posted 10/5/2011 3:05 AM (GMT 0)
I was asked this question today for the billionth time.  If I am not in great CD pain then it is so bloody hard to answer.  On a normal day, within five minutes I can experience from zero to a quick shot of 6.9.   Or I can have a steady 2-3 all dang day, or more!  Once in awhile I am pain free for a couple of hours but never a whole day

I know when you have an acute flare a 10 may seem quite insufficient and it is easy to express your suffering.  I just don't know quite what to say though when "it" isn't quite hitting the fan only the symptoms are enough to keep me from fishing or vacation or the jolts are enough to keep me from having much fun in bed if you know what I mean. 

OK. Got that off my chest.

Posted 10/5/2011 3:43 AM (GMT 0)
yes the number scale sucks...i thought my kidney stones were a 10 until some pain i had with a flare that had me puking on the can...so is that an 11 or 12 or was the pain from the stones only a 7 or 8...or maybe a 9? i have no clue.maybe they should score it by how many pain killers it takes to get rid of the pain---1,2,3,4,5...hahahahahaha
Posted 10/5/2011 3:46 AM (GMT 0)
I agree! I was just at Johns Hopkins for a checkup with my surgeon and they have that stupid pain scale, complete with smiley/frowny pictures. Give me a break!

Not only does my pain roller coaster, it depends on if I have recently taken my pain med, PLUS I have the abdominal ache, the acute pain near the pelvis, the gas pain, the cramp, and oh yeah - the minor wound pain near my incision. Which pain do they want me to rate????

I normally just say 3 and let it go. I am not there for pain management. Unless it is really bad and related to my current visit, I don't get specific.

Hate those smiley faces on the scale of 1-10 :)) (haha)

Sudsmom
Posted 10/5/2011 4:55 AM (GMT 0)
I describe how the pain is affecting me; how it's affecting my day, how easy/hard it is to ignore, what I am doing to treat it, then ask them to tell me what number they think it is. Some of them get really annoyed and pressure me for a number. Others listen and help me come up with a number.

I try not to stay with a doc that only wants a number.

They always pressure you for a number in the ER, then they tell you that you should be treated for pain over a 3 or 4, then they don't bother to do anything about it anyway.
Posted 10/5/2011 11:34 AM (GMT 0)
Kick them in the shins and before they can say Owww...ask what number is the pain (I picked shins because I was trying to be polite!)
I stayed home for 2 days after my guts ruptured in 1990.....OK so nothing is the same level as that pain so I never feel I can say 9 or 10. Such an arbitrary scale when people all feel pain differently and have different points of reference. My answers to the number questions are usually....not as bad as when I ruptured but bad enough to knock me to my knees OR I could not sleep through the pain.
Thankfully none of my docs are number guys now....they actually talk to me...even try to draw things out when I jsut say everything is good.
Posted 10/5/2011 12:40 PM (GMT 0)
I just tell them the pain is about equal to the national dept .
Posted 10/5/2011 12:48 PM (GMT 0)
Hey,

Could'nt even begin to count the amount of times this dumb question is asked and then the follow up treatment is based off that number, uh what?

Did you hear me say that could change at any second, nope.

You gave a number, thats your number. You might as well stay with that nubmer forever the way they treat this ludicrous style of treating pain based off inane questions like these.

Nex time I'm going to present my own number system, with prhases instead, like:


"hungover drunk, preying to God sick"
"internal organ being crushed by invisable hands"
"Isnt the fact I cant talk and continue screaming answer your question?" (yeah, no actual voice here)
"My body is dying, who cares from what, find it!"
"Hey Doc, on a number of 1-10, how stupid do you think that question is?"

OK, not gonna happen, you guys can think of more things we wish we could or would say, or maybe some of you have :)

Jon
Posted 10/5/2011 1:40 PM (GMT 0)
habs that's so funny. that's what i was going to type! hahaha...
my pain doc says he's happy if the paiun meds can get me down to a 4 when i'm feeling really crappy. so i guess 4 means in pain but not painfully in pain? but 5- look out need more pain meds...6,7 or 8 is really bad- that's when my wife tries to talk to me about something i don't want to hear- i guess i can curl up in a ball and say ooowwwwwwww- i can't i'm a 7...come back later- hehe...9 or 10 must have been when i ran out of gas on the way to the hospital at 3 am with a kidney stone- that was fun...doubled over pumping gas with tears in my eyes...
Posted 10/5/2011 1:55 PM (GMT 0)
I always liked this comic of the pain scale:

http://www.xkcd.com/883/

That's how I usually feel.  Sure it hurts... but compared to the worst possible pain I can imagine...?

Posted 10/5/2011 4:20 PM (GMT 0)
Lol this is cracking me up.

My level of pain is dependant on how soon I need pain medicine. If I'm in the ER and I need something NOW my pain is at a 9 or 10. If I can still tolerate the pain for a while, but I'm growing weary of the pain, it's a 6 or 7.

mtgman I agree with the "how many pain pills do you need?" method. That would be perfect. Or what type of painkiller pain is it. Mild pain would be tylenol pain, moderate pain would be lortab pain, the worst pain would be dilaudid pain. That would say far more about our pain than a stupid number or smiley face.
Posted 10/5/2011 6:21 PM (GMT 0)
Monkiray...funny thing...I call my daulidid pills...the "end of need" pills...you know from LOTR, and like the ring of power..."to be used in only the utmost end of need"...
Posted 10/6/2011 1:33 AM (GMT 0)
OMGosh! I hate that so much!It bothered me the most When I had abscesses when they would ask that because at one point it hurt like hell and 10 minutes later the pain would subside and then come back. So yes I hate that question and then sometimes they have the numbers with different faces so I maybe I can look at it and see which one my face looks like.
Posted 10/6/2011 4:07 AM (GMT 0)
"Kick them in the shins and before they can say Owww...ask what number is the pain"

Habs that was the funniest thing I have read in ages. Lets see; on a 1-10 scale how funny was it?

Sniper, the day my pain equals the national debt I am sure my heart will explode. Once again the forum has helped me in that I was afraid I was the only one who felt this way about the pain scale. The other thing is being a guy I don't like to admit how much it hurts in a face to face with a nurse or doctor. And as someone above said I compare the current pain with the OMG I hate living pain I had last year........ thanks everyone
Posted 10/6/2011 8:05 AM (GMT 0)
I'm just visiting from the UC forum but I had to show the Hyperbole and a Half's version of the pain scale - hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/02/boyfriend-doesnt-have-ebola-probably.html

I always think of pain in those terms now. "Okay, my pain is super legit now."

(Also <3 to XKCD)
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