In treating patients in pain over the past 20 years, one of the things I’ve come to realize is that a lot of people don’t really understand the visual analog scale. That’s the scale that goes from zero to 10, where you are able to tell your doctor what your pain is. Sometimes people would tell me, well, my pains are 20. Well, the scale only goes from zero to 10. So today we are gonna get a good understanding of this pain scale.
So when you talk to your doctor, you can tell them in their terms, zero to 10 what your pain is so that you can enhance your communication. Obviously, zero means no pain. Two is an annoying or mild pain. Four is an uncomfortable pain or moderate pain.
Six is severe pain, eight is horrible, or very severe pain, and 10 is the worst pain you could imagine when your pain is a 10, it’s bad enough that you say, I need to go to the emergency room right now. So sometimes people will tell me, well, my pain is a 20. The scale only goes from zero to 10. So it’s best that you use what we are used to having so that we can enhance that communication. So look at here. Again, zero, no pain.
Ten is unbearable, the worst pain possible. Eight is horrible pain, six is severe pain, four is uncomfortable, and two is mild pain.
Be sure to think about your pain before you go to your doctor so that you have an idea of what it is. So when they ask you what is your pain, you want to know what makes your pain better and what makes it worse. By telling us those things, it gives us a better idea of what we need to do when we are thinking about your treatment.
