Okienurse's Fibromyalgia Blog: January 29, 2011: Pain scale

Today has been a busy day and I am so tired now I can't sleep. I have been having quite a bit of pain today and resorted to taking a pain pill at about 7:30 this evening cause I just got tired of it. My neck, back, chest wall, hips and the backs of my thighs all hurt most of the day. I decided I was going to start a pain scale rating and what portion of the day I had the pain in a journal on my iPhone so I can show it to the doctor when I go in for appointments. I am going to say my pain was a constant achiness all day starting from the moment I became aware of it when I woke up, before I got out of the bed. I will call this a 5/75% of the day. I still have pain but I think if I hadn't taken a pain pill I would have ended up having problems.

Pain rating scale:
1... will be just a nagging ache that is relieved by sitting down if I am standing, or standing if I am sitting etc. A change in position.
2... will be a nagging ache in multiple areas of my body.
3... will be a achiness that persists in multiple areas of my body regardless of change in position or activity. I have to take a Tylenol or Ibuprofen to help relieve it.
5... is when I have to repeat the OTC medication and end up having to go to bed or resort to taking a narcotic pain pill.
6... Add the atypical/focal migraine in and I am debilitated more than normal to the above symptoms.
7, 8, 9....just more of the same with repeats in drugs with decreasing efficiency.
10... will be when everything I do at home doesn't help and I have to call the doctor or go to the ER.

Luckily my pain hasn't gotten to that level and I hope it never does.
I will put the percentage of the day down that I was bothered by it and notate if it was consistent throughout the day or when it got better/worse.

I got up about 10:00 this morning and ran to a class at the local scrapbook store. I was tired when I got there and achy all over. I decided to just stay and work until supper to try and get a scrapbook layout completed for a class so Leslie could have it to show people what the class was going to be about. About 4 pm I really started aching more and more till finally I started feeling nauseated. I realized my head was hurting in my right eye and temple so I took some ibuprofen 800mg and drank a cup of coffee and it seemed to help. At 6pm I went to dinner with the family and the restaurant was busy and noisy and my headache became worse and I couldn't seem to get comfortable at the table. By 7pm I resorted to the Lortab 10mg to try and make it more tolerable which it did. I went back to the scrapbook store to gather my stuff up and went home. I tried to go to bed but I couldn't sleep. It is now almost 6 am and I am going to try again.

I am going to say it was a 5/75% of the day. I need to get some rest cause I have promised to help my daughter with a card making event today. The weather was beautiful today in the 70's and sunny.