I did a class recently on how to talk to your doctor about pain and it was extremely helpful, so I thought I would share some of what I learned here.
What the doctor running the class told us is that doctors are given a list or flowchart basically to assess the pain, and it is best to prepare answers to each point on that list so that they are concise, accurate, and you don't find yourself circling back on things and confusing the info (she encouraged us to write a paragraph using the list to bring with us to doctors offices).
The list is as follows:
Onset - When did it start, when did it get worse, was there an injury or not, how has it changed overtime?
Provoking/Palliating - What makes it worse? What makes it better?
Quality - Where is the pain and what does it feel like (sharp, dull, aching, cramping, etc etc)
Radiation - Does it originate somewhere and spread or is it over an area all at once?
Severity - Pain scale (she clarified here that the pain scale should be calibrated to YOU and can be difficult for chronic pain patients, but sometimes you have to speak the doctors' language for them to understand), how bad is it at the baseline and where does it spike to? If the pain scale is really impossible for you, tell them that and use other descriptors like "really bad" and "debilitating."
Timing - When is it worse? What time of day, what day of the week, following what activities?
And she also added two of her own that are useful which are:
Tasks - What does it restrict you from doing?
Treatment - What has already been done? Did it help?
As I said above, she told us it's a good idea to have it all written down before you arrive. The statement should be as short as you can make it and then have info prepared if further questions are asked.
The issue with patients not knowing this, she said, is that doctors are trained to go through the flow chart and if the info is off or some is missing, the doctor may narrow down the possibilities to the wrong options and your real problem might get discarded early on! Doctors are people too and they can get confused by descriptions that are too all over the place, so write yourself a script and keep it on you, it can make communication so much easier.
