Everyone experiences pain, but it can be hard to describe. Here are some tools to help you recognize the type of pain you're experiencing and explain it well so you get the right care and support at the right time.
At some point, everyone has been asked this important question: How would you describe your pain? Or: How would you rate your pain? They're simple questions that feel really loaded. While your answer will not decide the entire course of your care, it's certainly a helpful tool that doctors use to understand what's going on and figure out how they can help. That's why we want to help make this conversation easier. Understanding pain and being able to describe it in detail will help you both.
Pain is one of the most common reasons people see a doctor. Acute pain is your body’s alarm system sending a message that something is wrong.
Acute pain can be mild and last just a moment, or it might be severe and last for days or weeks. Acute pain can be caused by an injury, infection or disease. This pain can be sharp, shooting, stabbing, throbbing or stinging. It usually goes away when the cause of the pain is fixed. Acute pain that doesn’t get better can become chronic pain.
It is important not to ignore acute pain since this is your body telling you to slow down and take care of what is causing the pain. Ignoring the pain may lead to a person doing too much, too soon and before their body is healed.
Remember: Pain is considered a normal part of the healing process.
Pain is an unpleasant feeling. It can be an emotional experience. Pain can be due to some kind of medical condition like an illness or injury. How you feel and react to pain depends on what is causing the pain and several other personal factors, such as:
Chronic pain can occur daily and continue for months or even years. It's usually described as pain lasting three months or more. Chronic pain can be mild to severe and may be constant or come and go. This pain could be dull, throbbing, burning or aching.
People experience pain differently. An injury or illness that may be extremely painful for one person may be only slightly painful for another.
Understanding your pain and your individual experience is important. Work with your doctor to develop a pain management plan that will meet your needs.
Have you had an injury or are you preparing for surgery? Recovery will be different for everyone, but some pain can be expected. Find out about your pain management options by talking to your doctor.
Your pain should be controlled enough so you can walk to the bathroom, sit in a chair and cough. You shouldn’t be so medicated that you can’t remember things. Here are some tips to help you talk to your doctor about how you are feeling.
Be specific. Let the doctor know it’s not just your “back” when it’s your “lower back and sometimes down your legs.” If your pain moves around, tell your doctor all areas that can be painful and the areas that hurt most often.
Most of the time, people experience one or two pain “feelings.” Sometimes a range of sensations are experienced. The most common pain types are:
Give the doctor more detail than saying you're “always” in pain, or “sometimes” in pain. Try something like:
"I always feel some aching pain in this spot, but it’s worse in the early mornings and it lasts about an hour."
Think about your pain and answer these questions:
Everyone feels pain differently so it’s important to explain to your doctor how the pain feels to you. Sometimes a pain scale, like the one below, can help you explain the intensity of your pain.
Hopefully these prompts will help you think about your pain before talking to a doctor, and ultimately make it easier to describe your pain and get help. Your doctor will talk to you about your options for treating pain.
This information was created as a public health collaborative between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Health Partners, UCARE, Hennepin Health, Medica and South Country Health Alliance. Originally published in December 2019 at stratishealth.org.