Instead of hijacking a thread, thought I'd post something vaguely informational. Pain is useful information, but making the best use of that information can be challenging. So people came up with some standardized ways of evaluating it. (see fun links below - not endorsing!). When you are evaluating someone's pain you are obviously supposed to attempt to try to figure out how severe it is, hence the scale thingie. But you also have to find out: - where it is, does it move around - does anything make it better or worse - when does it happen, is it constant, does it come and go - what's it like, is it sharp, dull, aching, stabbing, throbbing, focused, diffuse, etc. - what might be causing it (which is where the "it hurts when I do that" comes in) - how is it affecting you, i.e., what can't you do (breathe, speak, move, etc.) All of this helps to figure out what is causing the pain, and therefore, what needs to be done to treat it. If you can, you treat what'...
