Evaluating Your Pain Symptoms: When You're In Pain, Where Do You Turn?

By Author: Jai Prakash Srivastava
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if you're like most people, you're probably confused about the whole subject of pain and your body. You may wonder, Did the pain just start? (And how long have I been in pain, anyway?) Or do I have a serious medical issue? Could something be broken? Could it be a sprain? What about a disease? Or worse? Is it a sprain in my lower back, or a pinched nerve in my neck, or am I just stressed out, or...what is it?

Maybe you're frustrated too, because the pain you have isn't under control. Over-the-counter Ibuprofen or Acetaminophen can sometimes offer temporary relief, but you can never be sure when the next bout of pain will strike or whether the quick fix will work anymore. You may also have nagging pain during your everyday life that never seems to let up: working on a computer, vacuuming the house, standing in a line at the grocery store...
How to Evaluate Your Symptoms

Getting Help from Friends and Family
Many people turn to friends and family for help in the hope of getting some kind of explanation or cure for the pain. But, the pain you feel isn't just confusing and frustrating to you. Odds are, your ...
... family, your friends, and even your doctor are at a loss to understand what you are going through. If your doctor has been prescribing medication for the pain, but you're still struggling with it every time you bend down to pick something up, you're likely feeling frustrated with each other. No wonder. You and your doctor are dealing with pain the wrong way. When you are diagnosed and treated incorrectly, and when you don't get any better, it's frustrating. The right way is know that things you do everyday, suddenly (or on and off for a long time), are no longer pain free. The right way is the knowledge that nearly all these everyday things arise from one thing - pain.

How to Measure Pain
Pain is built into us by nature and is generated when a specific thing happens. The pain mechanism, which produces the symptoms of stiffness, dull aches, sharp or piercing burning sensations, and many more, can be controlled. But, before you get there, you may go through fully activated pain, where the mechanism of pain generates full-blown episodes of severe spasms in your back, or neck, or arms, or legs. Far more frequently than this, you experience mild-to-moderate pain, non-specific discomfort that allows you to go on with your day-to-day activities, but just the partial activation of the pain is enough to want to stop you in your tracks.
Routinely, pain is misdiagnosed as a pulled muscle, a mild strain, or something other than the underlying problem. Misdiagnoses often lead to mistreatment, which lead to failure, confusion and frustration. Sound familiar?

Keep in mind there are two definitions of pain: acute and chronic.

Acute pain is usually brought on suddenly by a specific event. Maybe you were bending down to pick up something heavy and when you did, you experienced sharp pain in your lower back. This type of pain will generally resolve itself in one to two weeks. Unless you have seriously damaged something in your back (in this example), acute pain goes away 80-90 percent of the time.

Chronic pain, however, is another matter altogether. Chronic pain, by definition, is with you all the time, no matter what you are doing during your day. Unlike acute pain that will go away, chronic pain is such that the goal is to reduce the pain frequency, severity, and duration to a level where you're reasonably satisfied: a situation you can live with. For any of you suffering from chronic daily pain, proper control and management can help you enjoy many more pain-free days.

Evaluating Pain in Your Everyday Activities
Whether your pain is acute or chronic, keep a diary of what happened, where it happened, and what pain you experienced after if happened. In your pain diary, also document how severe the pain was at the very moment you felt it.

To make it easier to figure out how to evaluate yourself both before and after seeking medical attention, create a list of the five activities that are most important you.

Here's an example of a helpful table where can rank activities that you must perform (usually work related) and those that you enjoy.

Rank Activity Avg Pain Level
(scale of 1-10, 10 as severe pain) Pain Description Level of Disability
1 Typing 9 Sharp pain in neck & shoulder blades, numbness in fingers on right hand and right arm Limited mobility when trying to turn head/neck. Unable to tilt head back.
2
3
4

Below is a list of activities you should evaluate if they are affecting your regular day-to-day life. Think about where you fit in to each of these activities (and/or those you have added to the list) and within each of them, also consider the following:

A. Where is the pain after you: type, make the bed, cook, etc.
B. What it is that triggers your pain when engaging in the activity?
C. Where on your body are you affected (neck, shoulders, etc.)?
D. What other function in your life is affected as a result of the pain from an activity?
E. How is your life affected on an ongoing basis after engaging in the activity?
F. Is the pain I am experiencing acute or chronic?

As a guide to help you evaluate yourself, the first activity below answers the questions above:
1. Computer Use/Typing:

A. Where is the pain
The pain is in my neck and shoulders..

B. What is the trigger for your pain when you type and use the computer:
The motion of typing and keeping my arms and hands in one position for a long period of time.

C. Impact of pain in neck and shoulders in the rest of your body
Sometime I have sharp pain that radiates down between my shoulder blades to the middle of my back. I have numbness in my fingertips (could be left and/or right hand), and I can't raise my arm (left and/or right) any higher than my shoulder without experiencing pain.

D. Other functions impacted
I have pain in my neck and upper back when washing my hair, picking up my child, turning my head while driving...

E. How life is impacted
I am depressed due to ongoing pain and inability to perform day-to-day functions. I call in sick to work on an ongoing basis, etc.

F. Is the pain acute or chronic
The pain is chronic - I have it all the time.

Answer the same questions above, for the activities below.

2. Cooking ¬
When you stand and stir for too long (whether cooking or baking), you have pain that runs from your neck to the lower part of your back.

3. Making Your Bed
When you make the bed, your can't straighten up without experiencing sharp pain at the top of your tail bone.

4. Sleeping
When you turn over in your sleep, you have to do it in slow motion to avoid the sharp pain radiating from your mid to lower back.

5. Taking a Shower
When you take a shower you can't wash your hair for more than a few seconds because raising your arms over your head makes you're arms feel weak and lifeless.

6. Lifting
When you lift your child you feel as though someone has stabbed you in the middle of your back.

When is it Time to Act
Now that you have identified what it is that leaves you in pain, what do you do next? You know that when fully activated, your pain can be debilitating. You may have already been to the doctor where you were given a quick-fix approach of painkillers. In other words, instead of taking full control of your pain, you're on the run from it so you can resume your life; you're a victim, acting defensively.

What can often happen, however, is the drugs become less and less effective and/or leave you drowsy, moody and unable to function at your full, alert capacity. As a result, you might call into work sick more often. In these cases, the quick-fix approach backfires: You either find yourself in a state of never-ending pain because you go off the drugs so you can work and play as you once did, or you rely on painkillers, masking the pain temporarily, while the actual problem causing the pain worsens.

Is that it? Are you doomed to live your life in pain? Are pain-killers your only hope?
Fortunately, the answer is no. Being proactive, you have already written out a chart of your symptoms and pain. You have identified how many activities (or perhaps just one) causes you different levels of pain. What are you waiting for?

New Concept Pain Management Support System:
Since you are unsatisfied with the conventional approach to your doctor's diagnosis and treatment, what do you do next? Let's consider the situation from your perspective. You have complained during several doctor's visits that your pain persists. You have complained to your doctor that the medication is no longer effective and that you can no longer put your life on hold to manage your pain. You feel as though your doctor has labeled you a whiner, griper, complainer, or drug-seeker. Your family, friends and co-workers conspire unwittingly by questioning the validity of your chronic pain complaints: How can anyone be in pain everyday?

What if there was a place that would take you at your word? A place that would evaluate your specific issue and then fully support you for as long as you needed so you could effectively manage your pain? There are new solutions already out there and they are just at your fingertips. They are considered a life-changing way of approaching your health and rehabcoach.com is one of them.

Rehabcoach is not like anything else you will find in the conventional medical community or in the online world. It is not just for those who have struggled with the extremes of pain for years, but they can even help you if you only suffer from pain occasionally. The goal of rehabcoach.com is to teach you a clear understanding of your body and give you exactly what you need to completely manage your pain every single day. Once you have an assessment done on rehabcoach.com, you will be prepared to take the right steps to manage your pain and its activation - and thereby control (and even prevent) the symptoms that result from your daily activities.

Remember: quick-fixes for your pain aren't your friends; if anything, they're your enemy. They cause you to miss work, prevent you from doing the things you love, and alter your day-to-day life in general. You won't get your life back until you achieve independence from the pain. Rehabcoach can do all of this for you and more.

Listening to your inner-voice
If you're still having doubts that there is anyone that can help you manage your pain outside of your doctor, perhaps it's time you started thinking differently about how you approach your health.

There was a time when the conventional wisdom of your doctor was all you had to rely on. After all, the Internet may not yet have existed, so you were forced to take the word of just one. Not to mention, we have been 'programmed' to take what our doctors tell us as gospel. Why should you question a diagnosis, or a treatment when your doctor says it is so? Have you forgotten that it's your body that's being diagnosed and treated, not the doctor's? Don't you think you have a right and a say as to what happens to it and you? Simply being told what to do - without adequately explaining why, without offering other options to management and treatment - won't work.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you don't need a doctor - we all do at some point in our lives. They are valuable! But sometimes you can recognize what is right for you on your own, without needing a doctor to certify it, because when you listen to your inner voice and what your body is telling you every time you type a letter on the keyboard, the truth becomes obvious. Decide for yourself whether or not any of this rings true - you do know your body.

If you're still unsure about what your inner voice is saying or whether you or not you should listen to it, just follow these simple steps:

1. You know that old expression listen to your head and not your heart? When it comes to following your inner voice, listen to your heart, too. When you confine your thinking to just your head, you end up with a very limited view of the world. By allowing your heart a place in the decision making process, you then let in your second brain and emotional center.

2. Listen to what your body is telling you. When your boss yells at you, do your shoulders slump forward? When you step into a crowded room of strangers, does your stomach end up in knots? Your body is a powerful source of information - don't ignore it.

3. Listen to what your gut or your intuition is telling you. Your intuition is simply knowing something without knowing exactly how you know it. Remember the time you were going to go out on that date but you told yourself it was a bad idea for all the right reasons. You went anyway and it was a disaster. That's intuition.

With faith in yourself and a clear plan - rehabcoach.com- you can manage your pain. That plan will be your key to getting a handle on your pain. It means you must accept responsibility for your body and exert your control of it - at least as much as possible when it comes to pain. Rehabcoach works and is gratifying for the pain sufferer. Learning the right approach to how you can get your pain under control can be a life changing decision that will affect every day of your life.

Find more information relating to Symptoms, and Chronic Pain here.