What is my pain condition?

Searching for a diagnosis on your pain condition? Want to know the details surrounding your debilitating pain problems, what damage has been done on a physiological level and what’s ahead in terms of finding relief? If you’ve answered yes to these questions, you are not alone. Increasingly, patients want to know for themselves more about their own health status and the modern diagnostic technology – used by the physicians at our pain management center – is allowing this to happen. Listed below are a few questions that will aid in pain assessment, the diagnostic process, and the formulation of an individualized treatment plan:

• When did your pain start?
• How did your pain start (auto accident, after surgery, and fall are common causes)?
• What does your pain feel like (mild, burning, tingling, sharp, shooting, dull, or aching)?
• At what level is your pain on a scale from 0-10 (during present, usual, least severe, worst periods)?
• How often does your pain occur (constant, intermittent, less than 8 hours a day, 8-16 hours a day)?
• What increases your pain (work, walking, lying down, sitting, coughing, exercise, standing, sneezing)?
• What decreases your pain (not working, stretching, resting, medication, cold)?
• Do you have any numbness or weakness?
• Does your pain wake you up at night or keep you from falling asleep?
• Do you have any changes in your bowel/bladder?

It can be difficult to establish an accurate pain diagnosis as everyone feels pain differently and often the location of one’s pain is not indicative of where it derives. However, the correct treatment for any pain condition is utterly dependent on getting the right diagnosis first. That said, it is essential for you to be open and honest with our pain management physicians on the aforementioned items so that our pain management center is able to help you find relief from acute, severe, or chronic long-term pain. See pain and debilitating conditions for more information, specifically on the differences that exist among patients and between acute and chronic pain. The aim of our pain management center is to provide you with treatment options to place you in better control of the conditions causing your pain so that you are able to enjoy life.