Interesting story on back pain and explaining it to your doctor

[Kadie]

Posted: 04.23.04 @ 11 a.m.
A New Way To Talk About Pain

SACOBSERVER.COM STAFF REPORT

For the more than 36 million Americans suffering back pain, it can often be difficult to describe exactly what they're feeling to a physician. Now, experts have come up with a new system for patients to communicate their pain.

snip...
The daily activities included in the communications tool include:

Reaching up for something on a shelf
Bathing or dressing
Performing housework
Getting up from a chair
Bending down to reach something on the ground
For patients with serious back pain, those seemingly routine activities can be overwhelming.

Sufferers of chronic back pain can track their level of functionality by completing a new tool known as a Personal Pain Profile. The questionnaire can be filled out online at BackInLife.com, a Web site designed to meet the needs of people with serious chronic back pain. The results of the test can then be printed and brought to a doctor for discussion.

more... http://www.sacobserver.com/health/042304/discussing_pain.shtml

link as in story... http://www.backinlife.com/

I have always found it difficult to explain my back pain to my doctor, this looks interesting.

[Steven_S]

1. It's a start..

I went prepared to discuss range of motion issues and neurological deficits. It did help a lot. Preparing, I mean.

I think most specialists would have their own way of controlling the diagnostic process, but I guess this form couldn't hurt. Pardon the pun.

[Snow]

2. Woo-hoo! This looks like an excellent survey tool for your friendly

DU epidemiologist. *lightbulbs going on over head, etc*. We could do a nice assessment of our HMO membership's back debilitation, tag it with demographics & geographics, see who's got problems, see if they're getting taken care of. I'm gonna run go talk to the ADL people in my dept immejutly. This looks like fun! (sorry, epidemiologist having a geek-out - sorta like a freakout)

[OneBlueSky]

3. frankly, the survey doesn't tell you a whole lot . . .

there's no analysis of any kind . . . it just records your answers . . . most of us with back pain have answered the same or similar questions repeatedly during the course of our treatment . . .