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The Pain Scale: Yay or Nay?
I know I’ve been discussing pain a lot this week, but I had to ask:
Should the Pain Scale be erased from medicine?
Personally, I have an incredibly hard time contextualizing pain and communicating it to others. I never want to use a 9 or a 10 (even when I’ve likely experienced my own version), so I aim low numerically, or “explain away” instead. I am not a number person, so narrowing it down to something so simple when it feels so complex is like a multiple choice test I can’t pass.
“I’m a 7 if I’m standing, but a 6 if I’m sitting, and maybe a 5 if I’m laying down completely and taking meds. But I was an 8 when I had my daughter without an epidural, but maybe that was more like a 9 at times? I’ll never be a 10… that’s reserved. And sometimes I think it’s a 4 because I’ve had 7’s and they are worse than this.”
I have too many words and thoughts and self doubts to just say: “This is a solid 8”; to answer resolutely.
Where do you fall on the pain scale? Do you feel comfortable with it, or wish we had another system? Do you feel you land on a number easily, or aim lower or higher than you should?
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