7 Reasons Keeping a Pain Journal Can Help Your Case

Imagine that you’re browsing through several aisles at your favorite store. You want to buy a gift for a friend, but as you turn to look at something, you slip and fall. The injuries aren’t too severe—just a twisted ankle and a light headache from your head briefly hitting the floor. That said, it’s important not to downplay your injuries. In fact, even seemingly minor injuries can disrupt your daily routine, worsen over time, and create challenges you never anticipated. This is where keeping a detailed pain journal from the very beginning can help.

Many people don’t think about keeping a pain journal after an injury, even when said injury is because of someone else’s negligence and may warrant a personal injury claim. But it is an excellent idea for tracking your recovery, communicating more effectively with medical providers, and providing valuable documentation.

What Is a Pain Journal?

A pain journal is a detailed record of any pain and suffering you experience after an accident. Some people may use a notebook; others may keep a digital journal on their phone, laptop, or iPad. Regardless, the goal is to create an accurate, consistent record of what happened, how it happened, what your initial injuries were, the severity of those injuries on a scale of 1-10, medical care provided on the scene and after the fact, and how your pain progressed or improved on an hourly, daily, and weekly basis.

Consistent tracking of pain with a pain journal following an accident can help a doctor diagnose the cause and recommend the best treatment. These journals can also be helpful for legal recourse.

A pain journal should be started as soon as possible after the accident.

Let’s talk about some specific reasons why a pain journal is useful and some details to include.

Benefits of a Pain Journal

1. Creating a timeline 

   Even though you were the victim of the accident, it’s easy for memories of precisely what happened to fade over time. A pain journal ensures this doesn’t happen because you’re creating a clear, day-by-day timeline of literally everything. This can include everything you remember about what happened and how the at-fault party reacted to medical care provided immediately afterward, as well as the next steps taken by any medical care team. Specificity is important for what injuries were caused, how they were different from your condition before the accident, and how they developed over time.

   A pain journal should include the following, and these items should be consistently noted in each entry.

• Pain Level: Usually on a scale of 1-10. This is often asked in a doctor’s office to facilitate treatment.
• Limitations: Activities that you cannot do that you were able to do before the accident. An example would be to include that you were able to lift 25 pounds before, and now you cannot lift 10. Many jobs require lifting, which can affect your ability to work. Lifting reams of office paper is necessary in most office jobs, and if this is now difficult, that could be a problem if it impedes you from performing the simplest tasks.
• Time of day/activity when the pain starts: If you wake up with neck pain and it lasts all day or only a couple of hours, note it. This will help map treatment and disability.
• Where is the pain located? Be as specific as possible about where the pain is and whether a certain movement triggers it. If you have shoulder pain that worsens when you try to get dressed, lift your arms over your head, etc., record it in the pain
• Effect on activities: If the pain is compromising sleep, regular activities, and/or work, that should also be written in your pain journal. If the pain makes you unable to work or to perform tasks you would otherwise have to hire someone else to do, those are all monetary issues.
• How you feel: Pain can also cause emotional issues such as anxiety, sadness, or hopelessness. Mental health will have to be evaluated as well, as it may also disrupt your ability to perform tasks or work that you were able to do before the accident.
• Medications: If one or more medications have been prescribed, it is also a good idea to record what type and dose of each medication, effectiveness, and any side effects they may give you. Be as detailed as possible.

All these factors should be recorded in a pain journal you can easily keep up with regularly. Making a chart or spreadsheet that is easy to fill out may be a good option for maintaining this important documentation. Make sure you are honest and accurate with your entries. This is not the time to be “tough” and underreport symptoms. This is also not the time to exaggerate symptoms. Take a deep breath and be honest with yourself about how you are really feeling and record that data. In the long run, it will facilitate medical care and, if needed, legal care.

2. Continuity between medical appointments
   

   A pain journal can chart progress or regression between medical appointments. You may also have more than one doctor who is involved in managing your symptoms, and a journal can help you communicate the full picture to each medical professional. You can also include entries for each appointment to help you remember what happened each time. These can include any prescribed treatments, such as physical or occupational therapy, medications, or changes in medications or doses, as well as changes in symptoms.

3. Memory Help
   

   Accidents can be traumatic, and adding medical appointments and treatment to everyday life can be a strain. Taking a few minutes a day to document how you are feeling and how pain affects your everyday life can help you quantify when you are not feeling your best. Reviewing the journal at regular intervals can help you or your doctor identify patterns and inform treatment.

If you are seeing symptoms occur during certain activities, that may help you understand what is going on and help the doctor implement protocols for healing.

4. Improve medical communication
   

   Keeping a pain journal can help make your appointments more efficient. Regular doctor’s appointments can be intimidating, and chronic pain can often cause hopelessness and even depression. If you can go into your appointments with documented information, it could lead to more effective treatment, helping with the mental health aspect as well. The pain journal is written proof that you are making progress for both you and your doctor. It can also give the doctor information if you are not improving.

5. Corroboration with medical professionals/experts
   

   This journal or timeline that you have created chronicling the effects of an accident not only justifies how you are feeling to you and your doctor, but if this turns into a legal case, it can act as evidence. Keeping this pain journal can challenge the defense because all of your information is in writing. It can also be used to compare to medical records, ensuring that your case is accurately portrayed. If used as evidence in a lawsuit, it can support injury claims.

6. Control/Options in Lawsuits
   

   Keeping a journal tells insurance companies or juries that you take this injury seriously. Documentation over time, in a consistent manner, especially when corroborated by medical professionals, can be strong evidence. Daily, strong documentation makes a good case for injury and your pain and suffering.

7. Confidentiality
   

   Keep your pain journal confidential. Doctor/patient confidentiality is the law. So, sharing the journal with medical professionals is protected. But the journal is not something you should share with many other people. If the journal becomes evidence in a lawsuit, it is better that it has not been shared. It may become part of the evidence of the case, and it is better to be kept between you, your doctors, and legal counsel if needed.

Keeping a pain journal has many benefits for those who suffer personal injury accidents caused by a car or truck accident, slip and fall, burns, or any other incident that results in pain for the injured. Strong documentation of the pain and injury suffered not only facilitates ongoing medical care but can also help solidify a case for restitution and compensation to restore a “new normal” to life. Regularly recording ongoing pain or chronic pain and treatment helps medical professionals deliver care efficiently and supports legal counsel in fighting for you. Convincing insurance companies and courts of how this injury has affected daily life is best clarified through a journal that chronicles day-to-day life. A few minutes a day recording pain level, medications, side effects, limitations, and how you are generally feeling can make a world of difference in ongoing medical and legal care.

Call Keys Law Offices Today!

An accident where pain is a result can disrupt your life in an instant, leaving you with stress, injuries, and unanswered questions about what comes next. At Keys Law Offices, we are determined to support individuals and families struggling with such issues and offer them advice and representation in personal injury accident cases and other personal injury claims. With deep knowledge of how these cases are handled, our firm will strive to get to the bottom of the case, develop a strong claim, and seek the financial compensation our clients deserve.

Assistance is available, and help is only a phone call away.