Pain can be fluid or come in waves, so it can be very difficult to explain what you’re going through to your family, friends or doctor. When it comes to explaining your pain to us, we don’t expect you to be able to perfectly describe it or be able to give us a clear idea of what’s going on. After all, if you knew what was causing the issue, you’d probably already have a strong treatment plan in place.
We want to do everything in our power to help you find a solution to your chronic pain issue, and that begins when you come in for your consultation and talk to us about your pain. Below, we share some tips for helping convey what you’re going through, and how to best open up about your experience.
Explaining Your Chronic Pain
Here are some tips for helping to convey to the pain specialist what you’re going through.
1. Document Your Pain When It Happens – Some people have a hard time describing their pain because they aren’t having a flareup when they are in the office. This is why it’s important to really focus on what’s going on when you’re dealing with a chronic pain flare up. Catalog in your head your symptoms and where pain is located when flare ups occur, or better yet, create a pain journal to write down your experiences. This will give you a clear and documented history of what you’re dealing with.
2. Don’t Hold Back – Another way in which patients inhibit their treatment is by holding back when it comes to explaining or bringing things up to the specialist. Whether it’s because you’re embarrassed or afraid, the only person you’re hurting by withholding information is yourself. We’re not here to judge you, we’re here to help you, so don’t hide anything pertaining to your condition from us.
3. Don’t Lie – Along a similar vein, don’t lie to your pain specialist. If you haven’t been the best about sticking with your physical therapy program or you’ve forgotten to take your medications at times, let your doctor know. You need to stick with your treatment plan in order to have the best chance of a full recovery, and if you’re not giving it your all, your doctor may move on to other treatments when a simpler solution was all that was needed. And this goes for things like your exercise and diet habits too, not just truths about your pain condition.
4. Specifics – Be as specific as possible when you’re describing your pain. Don’t just say that your back hurts, tell us that your back hurts when you’re standing for long periods or when you wake up in the morning. The more details we have, the easier it will be to pinpoint potential problems. Again, some people find it easier to be specific if they document their symptoms with a pain journal.
5. Ask Questions – Finally, both you and your pain specialist can benefit from asking and answering questions. Ask if certain symptoms are normal, or what types of treatment they’ve found to be most successful. Your conversation with your pain provider needs to be two-way in nature in order to have the most benefit.
Hopefully these tips can help you the next time you visit a pain specialist, and if you’d like to talk with Dr. Cohn about your pain, contact his office by clicking here.
Since I have been in practice, medicine has changed drastically over the years. Technology and improved practice standards have given way to great changes in the care of patients. When I first started in medicine, there were no electronic charts, most notes were handwritten, and computers were not a standard part of practice. CT scans were relatively new and the MRI scan was not yet invented. Medical students were trained to do a comprehensive history and then a physical exam. Part of the history had to include a detailed account of how the condition the patient has had developed over time. Another part was a detailed exam, including looking at the patient, often with minimal clothes obscuring the body. These are very simple things – listening to a story and looking at the patient.