When you are in pain and go to the doctor it is likely that you have been shown the pain scale and asked to rank your pain from zero to ten. As a disabled person who has had many very painful surgeries, I am very familiar with the pain scale and have had to rank my pain several times, but I am not a fan of it and don’t think it’s the most accurate way to measure pain because everyone has different pain tolerances. I think that it is important to have some way for doctors to measure pain because your doctor doesn’t know your body better than you do and can’t help their patients if they have no idea how much they are suffering. The pain scale has its place and there are some instances where it is appropriate, but the standard pain scale does not work for a vast majority of people who live with pain because when you live with chronic pain a lot of time you are used to high pain levels and have higher tolerances. How do I feel about the pain scale? In this post, I am going to talk about why I am not a fan of using the pain scale to measure pain.
It’s not the best way to measure pain- When you go to the doctor and are asked to rank your pain a lot of the time, they want to know what your pain level is at the moment. I think that it is important for your doctor to know how much pain you are experiencing but only knowing what it is at that specific moment is not super helpful because pain levels can fluctuate throughout the day. I think doctors need to start asking patients what their baseline for pain is instead of only focusing on what it is at the moment because knowing how much someone’s pain affects their everyday life is super important. I may be having a good day at the time I went to the doctor but that doesn’t mean my pain is well-managed. It can be frustrating to go to the doctor on a good day because the pain scale only tells you what your pain is at that moment, but it doesn’t tell you what it is the rest of the time, and you need the full picture.
It’s great for children and non-verbal people– As a disabled person, I don’t think that the pain scale is a great way to measure my specific pain but I am not totally against it and do think there are some good uses for the pain scale. I think that the pain scale is great for children and non-verbal people because kids get pain too, but it can be difficult to diagnose pain in children who don’t talk and have a harder time expressing themselves. The pain scale is not always helpful for full grown adults but showing kids a bunch of smiley faces can help doctors know how kids are feeling so they can help them.
It doesn’t take chronic pain into account- When you live with chronic pain, you get used to high pain levels and will naturally have a higher pain tolerance than someone without chronic pain. The problem with the pain scale is that it’s only good for people who only experience pain when they have an injury or are sick. It doesn’t take people with chronic pain into account who are in pain all the time and are used to high pain levels. People who live with pain sometimes will experience a pain level of a nine or ten on a regular basis which is why the pain scale does not work for a vast majority of people with chronic pain. The pain scale is great for people who aren’t used to pain but often the numbers don’t go up high enough for those of us who are used to high pain levels. I always recommend people make their own pain scale because everyone has different tolerances and sometimes, we need to make tweaks to the pain scale to make it work for us.
Sometimes it affects your care– When I rank my pain at the doctor, the number I give should be taken like a grain of salt because I don’t think about my numbers that much and rank my pain higher when I need medication and super low when I don’t need it. The problem with the pain scale is that sometimes it affects your quality of care because if you rank your pain too low you aren’t given anything but if it’s too high and aren’t bawling your eyes you often are accused as drug seeking and not believed. Some doctors understand that not everyone with pain cries, but it can affect your quality of care if you don’t look like you are in pain. I hate the pain scale because it can be tricky to give your pain a number that your doctor will believe and get them to take you seriously.
When you are in pain, it is important for your doctor to have some idea of how much you are suffering but the pain scale alone is not going to do that because it only tells you what my pain level is at that specific moment, but it does not tell you what it was last week, last month or even an hour ago. I think it’s so important to get the bigger picture and figure out how someone’s pain is affecting their everyday life because when you know someone’s baseline for pain you will be able to better help them. I think there are times when the pain scale is appropriate but there are better ways to figure out someone’s level of pain without asking them to rank their pain. Talk to patients and ask them what their pain feels like and how it affects their everyday life because knowing that will be far more effective than any number they will give you. It can be difficult for me to rank my pain because I don’t know if the pain, I have right now is the worst I have ever experienced, and often question myself. How do you feel about the pain scale? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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