When you go to your doctor's office with a complaint of pain, there are common questions he will ask you about your pain. In order for your health care provider to treat your pain properly, you need to be accurate in how you describe your pain. Your health care provider needs to completely understand your pain before he can even attempt to diagnose and treat your pain. This article will help you describe your pain so that your health care professional can understand and thus provide treatment for your pain.
The most common questions your health care provider will ask you are:
Where is the pain located?
Using a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being "not much" and 10 being "the worse it could be", how bad is your pain.
Describe your pain: (see The most common words used to describe pain, below)
How often do you have this pain?
Does anything make your pain better? (ice, heat, relaxing)
Does anything make your pain worse? (walking, bending, lifting)
Is the pain affecting your life? (sleep, work, mood, appetite, activities, sex)
When talking to your doctor about your pain, there are specific things he will ask you related to your pain. You will need to know how to better describe your pain so that your health care provider can properly diagnose and treat you.
Here are the most common words used to describe pain:
Gnawing Pins & Needles Sharp Dull Shooting Throbbing Pricking
Tight Thumping Boring On & Off Cutting Stabbing
Aching Burning Knife-like Crampy Hot Deep
The next time you make an appointment with your health care provider, write down everything about your pain that you can before your visit. You can use the questions and the words to describe pain in this article to help you answer the questions your health care provider will have for you. It is always better to be prepared for your appointment. Being prepared will not only help you, but will help your health care professional in his evaluation and treatment of your pain.
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