Pain Diary For Chronic Pain

The Burning Nights CRPS Support Pain Diary for CRPS or chronic pain is available for you to download, print or use on your computer.

Template Pain Diary for CRPS – Burning Nights CRPS Support

We have created it as a PDF document, which you can easily download, print or forward it to others. You can download the Pain Diary by clicking on the green 'Download' button which you can find at the bottom of this article.

Pain Diary for CRPS – Burning Nights CRPS Support

Keeping a pain diary for CRPS or chronic pain can serve a number of purposes, one of the most important of which is to help you accept your condition. Acceptance is a huge part of your learning to cope with having a chronic condition like Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. It can take weeks, months or even years to actually learn to accept you have chronic pain and it is a part of you (Cho, S. et al. 2012).

When you are taking a lot of pain medication and you are in constant pain, it can become hard for your to think clearly or see any pattern that is emerging. The Burning Nights CRPS Support Chronic Pain Diary template can help you to keep track of your pain by documenting certain areas of your chronic persistent pain, such as:

• Where in your body was the pain, where did the pain start, or where was the worst pain
• Intensity of the pain
• Description of the pain – was it sharp, pricking, burning, tingling
• What were you doing at the time
• How do you actually feel – are you upset, tired, depressed, stressed
• How long did the pain last before medication kicked into your system or before the pain started to ease
• Medication you took
• Other strategies you used to help calm the pain down, and how well they worked – breathing, mindfulness, mirror therapy, distraction techniques

Included in the Burning Nights CRPS Support Chronic Pain Diary template are 3 small images of the body, which you can use to draw a circle or line to point out where the pain problem is, as well as any additional notes to create a full picture of your symptoms. There is also an open table so that you can add any extra notes that you might have. The template can be used to give you an diea of your own pain diary, if you wanted to start your own style of chronic pain journal.

Using a pain diary can be a very useful tool, not only for you but also for your doctor and other healthcare professionals, and help to identify any recurring pattern that may exist. When going to see the doctor or pain specialist, take your filled in and used chronic pain diary with you and show them. The doctor then will be able to make an informed decision about medication changes, extra advice or support that you may need either physically, emotionally or psychologically, and evaluate any new problems that may be emerging.

There are numerous pain apps available and each has different things to offer. Some are free downloads and others you have to pay for. We recommend having a look around to see what suits your needs before committing to download one particular app. In the meantime, take a look at our printable chronic pain diary template (above).

Read Our Other CRPS & Chronic Illness Articles

Burning Nights CRPS Support has written a number of articles on living with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and chronic illness. Here are some you may be interested in:

• 10 Tips You Need to Know About Travelling with CRPS
• 10 Tips For Coping with CRPS or Chronic Pain
• 12 Tips on How to Cope through Christmas Living With CRPS or Chronic Pain
• 15 Wheelchair Sports for Active Wheelchair Users
• 18 Tips Preparing You For Your Pain Appointment

TO THE TOP

Last Updated: 09/05/2023