Whenever I go the the doctor/ER, they always say they use a 0-10 scale to rate pain, which I think is silly for a number of reasons:
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Pain is relative and often highly subjective. To someone with a low pain tolerance and/or someone who's been lucky by not having many painful things happen to them will probably give higher ratings for the same problems as someone else. For example, one person might rate a wasp sting as a 6/10 while someone else who has been bitten by bullet ants before might give it a 2/10 because it's nothing in comparison.
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The scale is ambiguous. What does a 5/10 mean? Does it mean something that is halfway between no pain and extreme pain? Does it mean average pain? What does 10/10 mean? Does it mean the worst pain imaginable, or does it mean the worst thing you've experience in your life, but you can imagine worse? Or maybe some people will never give a 10 rating because they'll automatically assume that whatever they're experiencing can't possibly be the worst thing that a human can experience, even if it is the worst they can imagine.
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A lot of people honestly just aren't good at thinking about things in terms of numbers. It would be must better to measure pain qualitatively. For example, instead you should ask things like "Is the pain so bad that you can't focus on normal day to day activities?". Or "Would you describe the pain as a mere annoyance, or something that is borderline intolerable?".
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Everyone's pain tolerance is a little different based on experience. My 10/10 changed drastically when I was 20 and got shingles wrapped around the upper left side of my chest, right around my heart. My previous 10/10, which involved hyper-extending my knee, would only rank a 7/10 in comparison.
Giving some context to your level of pain will help medical professionals get you the help you need n a timely manner.
Paper cut vs. heart attack vs. childbirth. That sort of thing. I vaguely remember finding one on the internet but can't find it again.
Today's a bad day - going back and forth between an awl and the ice pick.
The pain scale isn't necessarily used only to tell us how bad your pain is, it's supposed to be used to tell us whether your pain is getting better or worse. If a patient says their pain is a 7 in triage, and later says it's pushing a 9, that X-Ray or CT scan might get expedited. But if your constantly barking 10 or 1,000 your comments aren't going to be taken seriously. A (good) nurse knows a 10 when they see it, and if you walked in, you are not in 10/10 pain. That guy from Saving Private Ryan with his legs blown off on Normandy beach screaming for his momma, that dude is in 10/10 pain. Also, Kidney Stones.
Hello guys. Lately I've been having some trouble explaining how much pain I'm in, so it gets a little difficult to keep track of it in my migraine journal. Saying my pain is a 4 or a 7 doesn't seem to have much meaning since the worst pain I've felt (10) was incredible debilitating, while a 1, 2 or 3 wouldn't even be acknowledged by me considering what I go through most of the time. I'm trying to follow the scale bellow (link), which I find useful for its descriptions. How do you guys usually rate your own pain?
https://cdn.paindoctor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/pain-scales.png
