My Test of Measuring pain

I am at a loss as to why in a modern society, there is no test that can adequately measure pain.

Well Here is my idea, I as I write this, have pains all over in different locations, and I have recently had an MRI scan, well I don't know what a scan looks like, but if a doctor (or nurse) gave me a piece of paper with a picture of a human body, I could draw on the paper the places on my body I have these pains, then the doctor looks at the scan and if there is a correlation , then there is visual evidence of a correlation , also a blood test can be taken when my pains are present, and when not.

Or say a cancer patient suffering pain must have in the blood some trace of something, when the pain is at it's peak

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This reminds me of something my friend did who had aches and pains. Rather than write, she put dots on a body outline, the bigger the dot the greater the pain. Places with internittent pain had a dot with a dashed line around. She did tjis for weeks and found a pattern, which she linked to a food allergy eventually.There seemed to be no reason for her pains and it wasn't until she kept a food diary as well that the 2 matched up.

[earthwitch]

I use a body map (a front and back outline of a body) whenever I see my doctor. I use two different colours to colour in pain areas - one colour for areas that hurt a lot or hurt all the time, and the other colour for areas that don't hurt as much or only intermittently. Its a really good visual way of showing pain. I also use a particular pain scale with descriptions. Its called the Mankowski pain scale and describes what the 1-10 grades in it are. I would grade my pain, but then take a copy of the scale to the doctor so they can see what I mean by a 6 or a 7 or whichever number I have said.

[mitziblue]

Sweetheart sounds like you may have fibromyalgia and if so a pain clinic might be very helpful. If there isn't anything on the MRI sounds like that maybe the source of your pain. Hope this helps!!! xxx Mitzi

[johnsmith]

There is no test to measure pain. I tell those medics who ask that I refuse to tell them how bad my pain is. For the simple reason concentrating on what score to give it makes it worse.

I have massive pain in my arm on occasion. Some pains make me feel sick. None of this will help the medic because it all originates from a very small tension in my neck and back which then causes pressure on the nerve roots.

A slight lean on my head will give me sciatica. This I have found by investigation. Neither a Rheumatologist or Orthopaedic consultant will find that because both have very little understanding of spinal reflexes which in turn effect muscle tension.

So hopefully you can see things are far more complex than simple body diagrams.

[teadrinker]

I'm not sure that body scans can show exactly where the pain is. I've had 3 MRI scans and not one has shown any "pain". Also, the parts of my body that trigger pain when touched are different to where the pain is actually felt. I also don't think there are any blood tests to show pain, unless you have a condition that is obviously causing the pain eg signs of an infection if you've got a dental infection and toothache.

This is the problem with chronic pain - it doesn't show up on tests.

But your body map idea is a good one, as are the other suggestions people have talked about.

One consultant asked me what I'd draw if i had to draw my pain, which I thought was a good question. I talked about drawing the large needle I felt like I'd got stuck in my face, or the electricity in my teeth, or the ton weight crushing my skull. She seemed to understand this, and those images made more sense to me than numbers.

[Poppy_Ann]

they can measure your pain with a brain wave activity recorder but you would end up with several electrodes attached to your head to do it so it is not that easy if you want to take it home with you to measure the pain over a few days or even 24 hours maybe it would be a good idea to try and make your own, i know that in USA there is a game that uses a brain wave activity gizmo you have to try and lower your brain activity to win the game but i cannot remember what it is called, I just took a quick look on the net and saw this:-kickstarter.com/projects/ta...

if you search for EEG headset there are a few available but i have no idea if any of them are worth the cost, I suppose if you could train your brain to ignore pain receptors then it would be worth the money but as no one has brought out a headset and phone app to go along with it that they are not worth the money, I think if someone managed to make one that worked that it would be worth a fortune.

regards Poppy Ann.