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The 1 to 10 pain scale doesn't have much use in a single incidence, IMO. But when my sister was in the hospital for surgery last year, one of her nurses explained that they were looking for how the patient rated the pain relative to the previous times they were asked. So, if the pain is an 8, they give you medication for the pain, but fifteen minutes after the injection, the pain has only dropped to a 7, they know that you need a higher dose or a different medication.
Over time, it can give a very clear picture of pain patterns. Everyone has a different pain threshold, and everyone will thus rate their pain according to their own perceptions. Chronic pain sufferers tend to tolerate a certain constant level of pain, and probably consequently have a higher pain threshold. All IMO, of course.
mine is about a 4.
on the lighter side an old married couple in bed
she says dont touch me
he says what?
she says im dead
honey you are not dead
her
i must be dead i dont feel any pain.
Okay, I can't stop thinking about the Brian Regan stand up bit regarding rating your pain and the emergency room.... has anyone seen this? One of his funniest bits ever.....
The worst was when I had really bad back pain so I went to a pain management clinic for a back injection. The guy was in such a hurry cause he was running behind and he must have hit a nerve or the spinal cord. I screamed out in pain, threw up and then almost passed out. My BP dropped to 90 and I wanted to kill the guy. That was a 15 on the charts.
On what basis do you answer when asked to indicate your pain level from one to ten? What would you classify as Level One?
I always get completely baffled when asked that. In almost all cases, I say "Zero -- it is only discomfort."
For example, if you have something stuck between your teeth after dinner and want floss, is that Pain Level One? What about a scratchy label in your collar? A booger in your nose? Where is the line between pain and discomfort?
At what level, from one to ten, would you take a pain-killer?
Personally, I have maybe four levels. I've had kidney stones, so I am told that I know what the top level is like. I'll call that Three.
Anything below that for which I'd take pain medication, I'd call Two.
If it actually qualifies as pain but I wouldn't bother to take an ibuprofin, like if I stub my toe or have acid reflux, or burn myself in the kitchen, that's One.
It it's just discomfort, that's a Zero. Four levels is about all I can differentiate.
It is so they can compare if your own personal pain level is being managed. They will ask you over and over as they assess you.
It is VERY relative. That is why they do not define what each "number" actually means on this scale. What one person may consider an "8", another may consider a "4". It is a way of trying to figure out, for a given individual, how bad they the level of pain is that they are experiencing to them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flamingo13
I don't like that "scale" either
Given that different people have different levels of tolerance for pain, what would you suggest instead? Something like, "it really freakin' hurts" is not going to be very helpful in either establishing a baseline or in assessment of efficacy of potential treatments.
It is VERY relative. That is why they do not define what each "number" actually means on this scale. What one person may consider an "8", another may consider a "4". It is a way of trying to figure out, for a given individual, how bad they the level of pain is that they are experiencing to them.
Right. Because pain isn't just relative between person to person, but even relative in terms of type, intensity, and how it is affected by other aspects of the individual's condition.
For example, I've never had surgery of any kind and I've never broken a bone. I don't know what that pain feels like, but if I were to experience it I might well rate it a ten. But that's not relevant because the pain scale isn't about finding a rating for every possible pain that exists. It's about rating MY pain as it stands at THIS moment compared to a baseline of no pain at all and a top level of worst pain I can imagine. There are lots of pains I can't imagine (like childhood), but there's no 'wrong' answer here.
Last year I went to the ER for stomach pain. It was a really strange kind of pain...it hurt, but it wasn't agonizing. However, it was a panicky kind of pain unlike anything I'd ever felt. It felt like something was badly wrong and my body knew it and was firing off massive alarm signals. When they asked my pain level, I said ten even though I wasn't a sobbing ball of agony. It was the worst KIND of pain I had felt to date (And indeed something WAS very wrong...I was going into shock from a severe case of ischemic colitis. Basically my guts lost all blood supply.) I ended up in the hospital for 3 days on a morphine drip. In the hospital I got a migraine which I rated a seven even though it was in some ways worse than the stomach pain. It was pounding and certainly less ambiguous, but there wasn't any panicked sense of impending death.
I had a shoulder injury that I see a pain doctor for. The pain scale helps them see how well the treatment is working. Right now that's very well indeed! But let's say my shoulder pain is at a 3 for a few days. Then I get the flu. My tolerance for that shoulder pain is likely to go way down. The pain itself might not have changed much, but if you're miserable in other areas everything gets more intense.
Pain is personal. It can't be compared between two people, but then doing so wouldn't be helpful anyway
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