Jun 27 2008
Keeping a Pain Diary
Sufferers of chronic pain can benefit from keeping a pain diary. Slightly different from journaling, a pain diary will contain specifics that are useful for your doctor to examine and use in his treatment of your condition. Things that you should keep in mind when you go to make a pain diary are:
- Write it while you are having the pain, going back to do it after it has subsided will not render the true feelings of the pain
- Describe the pain, its locations, its frequency, and its duration. Make sure you tell if it moved at all as well.
- Tell what makes the pain worse, and what makes the pain any better
- Keep track if it’s better at any particular time of day or day of the month or even season.
To help get you started making your own pain diary, here are some helpful links. Pain World has a great downloadable and printable PAIN DIARY that you can use. There is also the McGill Pain Scale that will help you put your pain into words. Both of these are highly useful.
They seem to have a diary for everything. I’ve seen food diaries, sleep diaries, and now pain diary. I think this is really great, especially with this pain diary a person can get really involved with their treatment instead of just going to the doctor uninformed.
You know, that’s wise for chronic pain sufferers to do…or anyone for that matter when there is a health issue. It totally allows the person to take more control of their ailment and give their doctor useful information so that proper diagnosis/treatment can be given. It also forces people to really listen to their bodies. Great post.