• jws_shadotak
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    5 hours ago

    It’s for (subjective) improvement. If the patient is getting better (pain scale going down), then great! If not, we can try alternative therapies.

    Simple example is someone with back pain. We give them ibuprofen. Pain still the same. We give them a toradol shot. Pain goes down. Now we have an idea of the severity.

    If the pain still persists with toradol or even tramadol or something, now we should definitely look into complex imaging (e.g. MRI) to see objective facts about their anatomy - is there visibile compression on a nerve? Is there a slipped disk?

    It’s just to get an idea of a subjective pain scale and to mark progress.