The Pain Scale

I TOTALLY agree that all medical professionals should take a "migraine 10" seriously. I just do not believe they do take it AS seriously as a "9" Just my thoughts. BTW LOVE that 1-5 pain scale - it makes GREAT sense to me.

Hi All,

I rarely tell anyone it is a 10, even if it feels like it might be. However, I tend to do it more out of fear than anything else. Strangely, I am always afraid that if I qualify the pain at a 10, it might get worse and then what do i do. I can't imagine how it could be worse, but I am always afraid it will happen. Here is a summary of my pain scale.

1. Negligable pain, which requires lothing.
2. A tiny bit opf pain.
3. Some pain, but not enough to consider doing anything about it.
. 4.The pain is noticable, but can be controled with otc meds.
5At this point, it hard to function, but not impossible and it can usually be controlled with medication.. Pain interferes more with life. It is harder to do things and I usually have to lie down for a while
6. It is much harder to function and I will have to cancel something or rest more.
7. Pain goes from hard to horrendous. It is difficult to function and impossible to function without medicaiton
8. It is impossible to function and I am usually down for the count in a dark room.
9. unable to do anythin g, am usually curled up in a dark room and hope the medication works- that can last for days,
10. screaming pain, can't stand it and window looks good. However, i have rarely felt this.

It has been several years since I have even felt anything below 5. For the past few years, it feels like i have been living somewhere between 5-10. It is not a good feeling. I wish there were more to do about the pain.

Pain free daysm,
sailingm

when i have been asked to describe my migraine pain, the gp has said, if 10 is the worst pain you have experienced what level is your migraines, i will say 7-8 with an occasional 10, as frequency has often been my bigger problem, like many folk on here i have learnt to still function with a level 7-8 whilst waiting for triptan to kick in.(just about) i have had some 10's and they stick out in my memory of being so horrendous that it makes me shudder to even recall them,

when you are patient in hospital they use different guidelines to get patients to describe their level of pain, and depending on what injury/problem/procedure you have had the staff will also have a tick list of things to look for in a person, (i am the uk),

it would be impossible to rate what your 10 maybe compared to mine, but as pen has said mostly we dont go to ER for migraines, you generally take all you can, and lie in bed waiting for gp surgery to open in morning and then crawl into surgery, if we turned up in ER especially at night, when it is full of drunks and stabbings, domestic volience etc , with migraine it would not go down well, unless you were a child or had alot of other health issues as well, or were suffering from severe dehydration. and your internal organs were on the point of collaspe (Lol),

It is not a criticism of anyone who does go to ER, just highlighting the difference in health systems

I guess I am lucky I can get in right away. I think the "check in people" must be qualified to detect an emergency. I know when I have come to the ER I wouldn't be there if I at least didn't consider it a 10 in the scheme of a migraine anyway. Like I said in an earlier post, we can only compare it to other migraines. We may not have had any other pain to compare it with. I know I portray pain. I think they can see that.

I find the whole dismissal thing funny. My family has always told me that if I ever say ten they would know to take at lease one off and make it nine.

I'm such a nerd. The nurses love me for it to, just kidding. They go pain scale, I go 8.6 or 5.3 (or whatever it might be). And I am not kidding. This one nurse gave me glares like, ok 'dear' whole numbers! And I cannot choose. haha. This nurse from the ER knows me. Sad to say. I have only been in the ER about 3 times (in the past few months) and all 3 times I have gotten him as a nurse, so he knows what to expect, I am all 8.7 or 7.5 (I do not remember if those were the numbers..). He writes it down and the other nurses are like, what are you doing those are not good numbers.

Such nerd,
Lillian

I like that Lillian, I think I am going to adapt to your decimal system. I usually go 5/6 or 7/8 because I can never choose either!! LOL

Decimals seem way more appropriate than what I was doing

Yep, decimals have change me so much. In a totally good way.
The weird thing is I almost never do halves; it is always .6 or .4, something weird. One time I used .78, oh how the nurse loved me. LOL

Hi,

Intersting. I often use decimals or at least "halfs" to quantify pain that is in between numbers. However, my roommate will usually round up, telling me "well, then it is a nine." if I say-8.5 or even 9.5. I will never use ten, the highest is 9.5 to me. Stoill, glad to hear that others use it to.

Pain free days,
sailingm