California Medicine Man wonders about the pain scale:
Note that at level two, Mr Smiley Face still has an insipid grin. I have a fairly high pain tolerance but is it just me or shouldn’t zero out of ten be the only level of pain worth smiling over?
Related posts:
- "Her vocabulary was laced with too much plaintiffese"
- Chronic pain and drug pushing
- 10 out of 10 pain
- The bill for appendicitis
- Value of primary care
- The pain scale is useless
- Cursing can kill pain, I swear
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{ 10 comments }
I never answer a pain scale question without asking what the interpreter thinks zero means… I think the pain scale is stupid.
I’m perfectly capable of characterizing my pain with words, so I hate the stupid pain scale, espcially since most people grossly inflat thier number. It’s useless.
I work in a pain clinic and agree the pain scale is almost useless. I explain that zero means no pain and 10 mean “call 911″. So many people will rate their pain as a nine or ten. In my experience it is easier for me to determine their pain (usually in the 3-7 range) and explain to them how I’ve estimated it based on observed behavior over days in the program (the program is 6 hours daily for 33 days). I find it better helps them understand the damn pain scale.
That looks more like a description of the degrees of constipation than it does the degrees of pain.
These patients deserve pain…I advise all you fellow docs to be stingy when it comes to pain meds…they want to send the dea after us, not pay us, sue us…**** them!
I have the ultimate power, I can leave patients in pain or relieve it for people close to me…I want to see some trial lawyer match that!
Yeah, right on. Because most pain patients are really thrilled with the war on pain control.
anon 7:58 and 7:59,
You are abusing your position as a medical doctor. Why don’t you get help?
He’s not abusing his power as a medical doctor, he’s crying out on an anonymous weblog against lawyers in a profession plagued with lawsuits.
IMHO, he’s probably abusing something else. He’s a nutbag troll with one too many in him.
Refer to my comments concerning this issue by accessing BLOGGER.COM and clicking into WILLIAMMANGINOMD or PAINSPECIALIST.Hopefully those commentaries will give you a little different perspective on the issues surrounding the treatment of intractable pain.Especially if you are a health care provider. You may also want to log in to doctordeluca.com for an even wider range of reading on the subject.
Best wishes,
William Mangino II,M.D.
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