How to track pain episodes

By using this app to record each BTcP episode, you can provide precise and continuous information to your doctors allowing them to understand the evolution of your pain and keep it correctly managed.

However, this app is not a complete solution, it was designed to require minimal effort on your part and therefore collects only essential information for each BTcP episode. We prioritised the simplicity of recording a new episode to reduce the burden of recording all your episodes. In five short steps, this app helps you record: pain type, pain location, when the episode occurred, episode duration, pain intensity, medication effect time and lastly your emotions/mood.

This information is very useful for your doctors but you should also try to be aware of the following aspects of your pain. We recommend that you take notes (write things down as they occur, it’s so easy to forget otherwise) and share them with your doctors to provide them with a complete picture.

Incident pain: occurs as a direct and immediate consequence of a movement or activity. When you experience a BTcP episode try to identify a cause and whether it was:
• voluntary, caused by a voluntary act (for example, movement),
• involuntary, caused by an involuntary act (for example, coughing),
• procedural, related to a diagnostic or therapeutic intervention.

Spontaneous pain: also known as idiopathic pain occurs without any identifiable reason.

Gradual or sudden onset: how does the pain start, is it always the same or does it change?

Pain fluctuation: is the episode pain constant or does it increase or decrease?

Relief: apart from medication do you notice anything that relieves or worsens the pain (for example, standing, lying down, sitting; distracting yourself by reading, watching TV or listening to music; staying warm, etc)?

Avoidance: is there anything that you might have noticed makes an episode worse?

Functions: what repercussions do these episodes have on your daily life? Are there things you can’t do? Do episodes affect your sleep?