urocyon: Grey fox crossing a stream (Default)
urocyon ([personal profile] urocyon) wrote2010-04-13 04:46 pm
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Hyperbole and a Half's pain scale

The best graphic pain chart EVER.

I'm glad nobody has ever shown me the one photographed in the ER. If I am in enough pain to actually go and try to get someone to do something about it, and they try to get me to point at that disaster, I might bite them. Seriously.

The numeric scales have always given me problems, unclear as it is what the numbers are supposed to refer to: 10 as the worst pain you've ever experienced, the kind of pain you'd imagine from getting limbs caught in farm machinery or a bus on top of you, or what? Some clarification would be good. Not to mention all the differences in individual perceptions.

One drawback to even the rather hilarious new scale: unless I'm actively throwing up and/or screaming (directly after orthopedic surgery or the like), outwardly it's not going to look higher than a 3 or 4. Yeah, this has worked to my disadvantage, a lot (**); then there's the lack of pissing and moaning.

I guess the ratings should correspond to how you're feeling on the inside. If there's enough perceived disconnect there, that can still prove interesting!

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