Pain Scale

While we're on the topic of pain, I always try and rate my pain level accurately. There are a lot of pain scale charts and images out there. One I really don't like is the one with the faces:

I do like pain scales that give me more objective and descriptive terminology for each level of pain like these two:

And for those days that I laugh in the face of pain, here's one of my favorites.

Pain Admission

Fortunately I've been pretty pain free the last year despite the mets. Most of my pain has been from nerve damage and inflammation. Generally it's been bearable and I have a high threshold for pain. However, I've found that I'm not admitting to my somewhat increased pain in fear that it's an acknowledgement of disease progression. I finally vocalized that in support group yesterday and the general consensus was what I already knew. Get something to take care of the pain.

So today I emailed my oncologist and said I needed something a little stronger than ibuprofen for the periods of acute pain. The chronic pain is still bearable, but there are times it's not. So within an hour or two I had a prescription for Oxycodone (5mg tablets). My oncologist is a palliative care specialist - board-certified and fellowship trained in hospice and palliative medicine. My oncologist is an amazing person. I'm one lucky patient.