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1:21am August 11, 2014
expeditionhappiness asked: Your posts about pain scales reminded me about times it's ok to lie. I try to keep accurate scales for my own tracking, but when it comes to physical therapy evals I inflate numbers to try and match what I hear other patients of and so I can actually be approved for treatment. No one in that setting expects 4s to be as debilitating as they are on my true scale

That actually makes a lot of sense.  And it’s not so much lying as it is translating:  You’re translating your language (a 4) into their language (maybe a 6-8) so that they can understand what you’re saying, and so that you can get appropriate treatment.  There’s nothing wrong with that at all.  Especially because pain scales are so subjective, and you’re really having to use the words that will make them understand what you’re going through at the time.

So you can have one pain scale for home, and another pain scale for physical therapy.  And that’s not even lying, that’s just translating your own numbers into numbers they will understand.

Notes:
  1. withasmoothroundstone posted this