Original title: "Five step description method" to let doctors understand your pain

People will experience pain more or less in their life, and many diseases are also found because of pain. A correct description of pain will help doctors find the reason behind it more accurately. However, many patients spent a lot of time and could not tell what pain method they had. Don't worry, here is a "five step description", which can help doctors quickly understand your pain.

Step 1: Tell the doctor where the pain is

Is it neck, rib fork, hip shaft, or corrugated cap, ankle? If you can't explain clearly, you can open your clothes to the doctor on the spot.

If the patient is coming back online, you can draw a sketch or find a body photo to mark the pain part to help the doctor understand.

Step 2: Think about the duration and frequency of pain

"Duration" refers to the time when the pain first appeared, such as 1 week ago, 2 months ago, half a year ago, 3 years ago, 5 years ago, etc.

"Attack frequency" refers to whether the pain is constant (continuous) or intermittent (paroxysmal)? If paroxysmal, how long will each attack last? How long is the interval between each attack?

Many patients need to understand that sometimes after treatment, pain relief may not be obvious, but the reduction of pain attack frequency and attack time is also a sign of disease improvement.

Step 3: Try to describe the nature of pain

This is what doctors often ask "how to hurt".

Patients with strong expressive ability usually give various image descriptions, which are representative and professional, as follows: pain, distention, burning pain, needle pricking pain, string pain, ant crawling, colic, pain at touch, knife cutting pain

Step 4: Step up to describe the "degree of pain"

This is commonly known as "how painful it is".

To describe the pain to the doctor, just remember the following "ruler" - visual analog scale. Divide the pain level into 10 levels, 10 points for beating hard at most, 0 points for not beating hard at all. Look at the continuous numbers in the middle, and then look at the expression of the villain. How can you score your pain level?

If it is still difficult to judge or describe, it is also OK to tell the doctor whether sleep is affected at night and whether work and life are affected during the day.

Step 5: Recall incentives and factors that aggravate or relieve pain

"Incentives" refer to the possible causes when symptoms appear for the first time, such as fatigue, strenuous exercise, trauma... "aggravating or relieving factors" refer to when the pain will be milder, and when it will be heavier? For example, it will be better after rest, bending, defecation and medication, and it will be worse after pressing, exercise and insufficient sleep.

Learn the "5-step description" above, and you will have a good grasp of your pain. If you can keep a notebook and record the changes of pain dynamically, it will be more conducive for doctors to fully understand your pain. (Cui Xulei and Chen Si)