By completing a self-evaluation of your pain, you will be able to talk to your doctor with greater clarity and confidence. Self-evaluation will also help you understand you pain, how it affects your life, and what you want most out of your treatment. In turn, you’re more likely to zero in on those therapies that will help you the most.
When you’re done, set the story aside and come back to it after a day or two. Is there anything you’d add or delete? Are there any relationships between pain and other parts of your life that weren’t obvious to you before?
Your story will assist you communicating with your doctor. You can highlight the portions of your story that are the most important and use them as a guide for talking to your physician.
The pain diary is the most effective tool for discovering which kinds of foods, stresses, activities, and other factors make you feel better and which make you feel worse. This knowledge can point you in the right direction for treatment.
Click here for sample diary sheet along with blank diary page and instructions in Excel format.
Determine three times during the day when you’ll make entries in your diary, and then stick to that schedule. It’s important that you keep making entries even when you’re not in pain, or when you feel so bad that you’d rather just go to bed. Regularity is the key to the diary’s success. You should keep it for at least a week before you see your doctor.
This page was first published on May, 15th, 2008 and was last updated on May, 15th, 2008