I totally agree with MRSD. I have to distract myself from pain. Activity and music help. I always use music when I have a chore I want to do! Music has been found to affect our emotions. I can do so much more when my Ipod is going!

So this is what a doctor hears when I describe my pain in numbers? I wish they gave better guidance. If I was unconcious I would not be able to say 10. I guess the same with 9. I've had some 9 pain where I couldn't speak but called it a 10. So when I said I was at an 8 with the doctor I should have said between 6 & 7. I think I'll print this out and show it to the doc next week so that we are on the same page when we talk about my pain.

Oh, I forgot, I DO have burning....in my mouth, and eyes...and T spine, like a bee buzzing or and mild stinging.

This is the first I've heard of the Mankoski scale, and I've been researching pain scales on & off for a few years now. It's an ongoing discussion with several of my doctors. Do you have any citations for "most commonly used"? (You know how they love citations!) For a long while, I was promoting the Hochman Pain Scale: (I guess I still do at times.)
http://www.algosresearch.org/Practic...nPainScale.pdf
(only link I could find on short notice)

My doctors hated it. They prefer no benchmarks (as Hochman, Mankoski, and others use) so that patients respond relative to their own histories. They're looking for consistencies/differences within a particular patient's history rather than trying to objectively quantify pain, which I agree is futile for the reasons you state.

I went through self-hypnosis, meditation, and biofeedback for pain. Didn't help because the concentration required was nearly as stressful as the pain, and with severe chronic pain, it's very difficult to keep up for more than short periods.

> There is a neuronal pathway in the brain that processes pain.

In this paragraph, are you talking about the gating theory? I sort of have a handle on it, but still struggling with parts of it.

> So it is very important NOT to dwell on discomforts, to shift attention and focus elsewhere....

I agree wholeheartedly. This is the crux of my presentation on coping with chronic pain. I wrote much of it up and posted to Usenet a few years back, and I'm still getting feedback from folks who are finding it for whom it's been helpful.
http://tinyurl.com/2c642oa

Doc

The pain loop in the brain is quite large, and involves serotonin receptors.

I have seen 2 presentations of it, at seminars, and even then I can't recall many of the details. (none of the doctors there were doing much better either).

It actually involves many tracts and loops down to the spinal cord in the occipital area of the brain, and back up.

This is very complex, and here are some links:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/pain/mi...science2.html#

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/568704_9
(if you don't have a membership to Medscape you can join for free to view this).

It is from studying this pain loop and the receptors present, that leads to using certain SSRI antidepressants to treat chronic pain.

The ideas proposed at the seminars I attend (and the next one will be May 2011) is to intercept the signals so they do not become "learned" and "fixed". Much of it involves attention and focusing on pain, as enhancers of the signals as well. The brain is rather plastic and learns acts over time. We learn language, music, skills this way. Well, the current thought is that pain also can be learned too.

I do my autohypnosis at night in bed, and also during naps-- if I take a nap that is. I feel most of my pain in my feet at night anyway. Dissociating pain, is very difficult when you do a complex motor task like driving. I have not mastered that one.
And it can be dangerous.

The scales are very vague and open to individual variances... since a doctor cannot feel what you feel, some way to describe it has to be used. Maybe some day a tool will be invented by some brilliant biomedical engineer, that will measure pain and that will be a significant improvement in treatment.

a number of years back i posted an article on someone who was advocating for businesses a test he had developed to objectively evaluate pain. It was basically being marketed to fight worker comp cases. I havent seen anything about it since and a search i just did came up with nothing. I guess that never panned out or was a scam.

I am a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic going on 40 years with it now. I have PN in my feet, toes, hands, fingers. I also have autonamic neuropathy causing severe gastro problems, Focal neuropathy that generates in my thigh and throbs constantly. Now my skin from my stomach to my mid thigh and my sides is EXTREMELY sensitive. Like a bad steam burn. It plain hurts to have anything, even soft, touch it. I cringe when my eight year old hugs me around my lower waist. Nothing reduces this feeling. My doctor says it is the PN and he can increase my Cymbalta. (I am on 60mg)

My feet used to feel like I was walking on rocks and now my left foot feels like I am walking on a huge wad of bubblegum. It is a very disturbing numbness.
I want to know if anyone has had the skin pain and if they found anything to help it. This symptom is new to me and I really am bothered by it.
I had a surgery in my hand to cover the nerve with a sheath and I can now use my left hand but the doctor doesn't have answers for me for this extreme sensitivity on my skin.

Any ideas?

Could it be RSD/CRPS? To read about it on our forum -
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD and CRPS)
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (Complex Regional Pain Syndromes Type I) and Causalgia (Complex Regional Pain Syndromes Type II)(RSD and CRPS)
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum21.html

The movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" shows in easy to understand terms how neuropathways form and can make the pain worse or even still there when the cause is removed (such as fantom limb pain). I highly suggest this movie to anyone who wants to know about the newest science in an easy to understand presentation.

I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance in June with chest pain. Due to family history and my cholerestrol level they ended up doing a cardaic cath. Good news is it wasn't my heart. I also have shortness of breath and dizziness and lose of balance but it is still mild at this point, .i.e. I can still work. The pain is a burning and stabbing pain with cramps in the feet or legs and begining with the arms and hands now. Pain is worse in the evening. Also burning on my back and sometimes my face. Cymbalta keeps the pain in the 5 - 7 range during the day. I talke Lyrica at night to sleep but I have to keep the dosage low or I become non-functional due to side effect. I see the doc next week to explore other meds that might work better as the pain and autonomic symptoms are getting worse. Also trying to get in to see a PN specialist at Johns Hopkins for futher evaluation.

I've always had the philosophy that Pain Hurts