Printable Pain Management Diaries for Cancer Patients

Intensity of Pain: Try to rate how you’re feeling on a scale of zero to 10, with zero representing no pain and 10 being the worst pain imaginable. This will help you understand how you feel at your best, your absolute worst and most of the time.

Type of Pain: Identify — to the best of your ability — the nature of your pain using common pain categories, including:

• Aching: Dull and steady pain such as a sore throat or tooth ache.

• Burning: Nerve-related pain that may feel like abad sunburn.

• Pins and Needles: Tingling or prickling pain, often felt in the hands and feet.

• Shooting: Intense pain that moves through the body, often in the legs.

• Squeezing: Pain that may feel like pressure or squeezing of a muscle.

• Stabbing: Sharp pain that is usually location-specific.

Time of Pain: Did you experience pain in the morning, in the evening or all day? After a few days, see if you can notice any patterns in when you begin to feel pain.

Site of Pain: Record if you notice pain in a specific area such as in your lower abdomen or left shoulder. Make a note if your pain isn’t location-specific.

Activity at Time of Pain: Were you doing anything in particular that could have triggered the pain? Record what you were doing just before the pain began.

Other Notes: Is there anything else you think would be important to record? Use this section to record any miscellaneous notes, such as side effects of medications, sleep problems, or anything else unusual.

Pain Tracker: If you experience chronic pain, use this sheet to track its frequency and intensity. Using the color-coded key, color in the day of the month based on the severity of your pain: None, mild, moderate, severe or unbearable. Fill this sheet out regularly to track any patterns in when and how you experience pain.

Healthy Habits Tracker: People who incorporated five healthy habits into their life increased their life expectancy and decreased their risk of chronic illness, according to a January 2020 study published in the journal BMJ. Logging healthy habits is an effective way to ensure they stick. Record sleep, exercise, healthy eating, sufficient water intake and medications and supplements taken each day.

Mindfulness tracker: Pain is a physical and an emotional sensation. Research shows that mindfulness and meditation doesn’t necessarily reduce the intensity of pain, but it does reduce the unpleasantness. Use this mindfulness activity to conduct a body scan. Start at the top of your head and scan down to your toes, noticing any unpleasant sensations and marking them on the diagram.