Here's what I got when I followed, in about 2000, the tips on personalizing the Randall Pain Scale to assist in communicating your experience with health-care people. Its interesting to look back and see what I came up with!
10 - EXCRUCIATING
Description: Must attend to pain. Cannot manage to do anything except lie in bed. Probably crying from the pain. I cannot relax my muscles.
8 - DIFFICULT TO TOLERATE
Description: Pain is bad, but I can still do some very simple tasks that don't require movement or concentration. Perhaps listen to the radio or a book on tape.
When the pain is this bad it's impossible to keep my muscles relaxed, I can relax them but the minute I take my attention away they tense up. In this state I'm using almost all my energy 'dealing' with the pain.
6 - DISTRESSING
Description: Pain is fairly bad but I am able to keep on doing most things that are otherwise things I can do (eg no standing for more than a minute or two, etc). Can't do things that need a lot of thinking, like maths.
In this state I'm using a fair bit of energy 'dealing' with the pain. I can be relaxed if I don't have to move, but moving will make my muscles tense up again.
4 - DISCOMFORTING
Description: Pain can be ignored if I have something distracting to do and can lie down in a relaxed position - eg good friend to talk to (lying in bed) or a TV show I really really enjoy (lying flat on sofa).
In this state I'm not using up a lot of energy 'dealing' with the pain, but am using some. I can stay relaxed as long as I pay attention to staying relaxed when I move.
2 - MILD
Description: Only aware of pain when attention is brought to it.
In this state I still hurt, but I'm not really using much energy to deal with it and staying relaxed is automatic.
When: This happens hardly ever. Maybe for an hour or two a month?
0 - NO PAIN
Description: No pain at all.
