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Using a Visual Analog Pain Scale

By Chris Adams, About.com

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What to do Now?

You now have all the information you need to track your pain over time and duration, as well as the tools needed to determine which tasks are the real culprits.

If you break up your day into discrete tasks, that is tasks that have a definitive start and finish, and track your pain over those tasks you will be able to identify which ones help, hurt, or do nothing.

If your pain decreases over the task it is probably helping your injury. Do it more often.

If it increases it is a candidate for a cause of your injury, especially if the pain increases dramatically. If it is only a slight increase it might just be the normal fatigue incurred as the day goes on. Try varying the time of day you perform this task to see if it really causes more pain.

Tracking the start and end time allows you to see what duration is causing harm. If you do the same task a number of times throughout the day, try varying the duration. You might be able to perform the task comfortably for 15 minutes, but a half hour might be overboard. Knowing this will help you plan your day to properly treat your injury while still getting your work done.

If you are getting treatment from a health care professional show them your file. This will give them a more thorough history of your problem. Many doctors or chiropractors will actually use a visual analog pain scale during your office visit to get a better understanding of your current pain. If they don't you can now educate them on its benefits.

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