Resources

Have difficulty rating your pain levels when the physician, nurse, or therapist asks? Here are a couple of functional pain scales that define the 0-10 pain scale. Michigan Pain Measurement Scales.

0. Pain free
1. Very minor annoyance-occasional minor twinges
2. Minor annoyance-occasional
3. Annoying enough to be distracting
4. Can be ignored if you are really involved in your work, but still distracting,
5. Can’t be ignored for more than 30 minutes.
6. Can’t be ignored for any length of time, but you can still go to work and participate in social activities.
7. Make it difficult to concentrate, interferes with sleep, you can still function with effort
8. Physical activity severely limited. You can read and converse with effort. Nausea and dizziness may occur.
9. Unable to speak, crying out or moaning uncontrollable- pain makes you pass out
10. Unconscious. Pain makes you pass out.