An easy to access reference for rating those bad pain days.
(This is a personal scale, but anyone is welcome to use it or adapt it for their own personal use!)
1 - bruise, scrape, etc. (generally not used when rating pain)
2 - background - negligible (have to stop and think to identify it)
3 - background - quiet (a quick internal check identifies it)
4 - present - quiet (often a constant hum)
5 - present - uncomfortable (harder to do things, takes more energy/effort)
6 - foreground - interfering (avoiding some exertions entirely)
7 - foreground - distracting (it's harder to think and communicate)
8 - foreground - distressing (pain is foremost, get panicky)
9 - foreground - incoherent (there is nothing BUT pain)
10 - unconscious
What I find helpful about this scale is that from 5 on, my husband can note my pain level himself. This is helpful, because sometimes I don't realize how much I'm hurting. It also helps give me some validation that my pain is real and is as bad as it seems to me, especially if he thinks it's higher than I am willing to admit.
