pete aloha
first...it's 40 + years for me...in reprospect i don't think 'feeling right' was ever there, almost didn't get
out of kindergarden cause i couldn't do a headstand or a sommmersault, carried a cane in 3rd grade.
but, if i may...
creating a credible pain diary is a very depressing project...i think we all have a suppression technique on board...
something to erase the memory of pain. if your 'pain diary' is purported to support a potential disability claim
at some time in the future, then don't worry about it...THEY will want stuff that is contemporaneous ith your
filing, not something years old....social security cares not a wit about 'how you got there' , 'what you've
gone thru', or history; they are concerned withthe omnipresent NOW...why can't you work now?
now, if i may, possi's daytimer note is excellent; LIMIT the time frame- make it a 24hour picture of a two week
period...not a lifetime. doesn''t matter if 1-5 or 1-10 is a number scale...just doesn't matter...there are no
failing grades, no wrong answer...
and I PERSONALLY BELIEVE tis 1-10 game doctors play should be curtailed by screaming at the top of your
lungs at the appropriate time FOURTEEN, and see if they do anything different.
i kept a calander, wrote waking times, what woke me, and notes with times and what/where...and you only have
credibility to say 10 if you prove you know what three is...and stuff changes as the day goes on...so if
right thigh is cramped up and stiff at 2pm and gets worse by 7pm...say so.
also. you don't need an inventory...don't do their job for 'em and tell 'em what is ok, all you list is complaints.
i also found 'intense, profound, incapacitating, horrible, stabbing, dull ache, perpetually sore, stiff' etc
better than the number game...think outside the box...create your own terminology, you're a civilian.
best
aB
