"Pain Diary" (worksheet).
You have now been equipped with knowledge about pain and pain mechanisms. Let us, therefore, move on to how you can get to know your own pain better.
Below you will find a worksheet with a pain diary that you can fill out over a period of one month (30 days). The purpose of filling out the diary is to get to know your pain better and find out if there is a particular pattern in your pain over time, and if there are certain situations or things in your everyday life that affect whether your pain increases or decreases.
You fill in the form by marking a cross above the day (e.g. day 1 - pain level 5). You place the cross above the day next to the number from 0 to 10 that best represents your pain level (0=no pain and 10=worst pain imaginable). After 30 days, it will then be possible to draw a graph of your pain level by drawing a line from cross to cross starting at day 1 and ending at day 30. You can start filling out the pain diary on any day of the month.
During the day, you can check off whether you have been at work, been physically active, slept well and enough, relaxed, etc. There is also room for you to add the things that YOU feel have an impact on your pain level. After a month, you can take a look at your pain diary to see if your pain is systematic. Sometimes - especially with cycle-related pain - it may be necessary to fill out the diary for several months before a pattern occurs.
