I don’t always track my progress in terms of improvement (or otherwise) of my pain but sometimes it can be useful.  For example, when I first started to learn pain management and I was working hard on improving my pain situation, I tracked my progress using apps on my phone.  Since then I have tried tracking my progress using vector and other diagrams. 

As well as providing a level of positive reinforcement and encouragement I have found that tracking my progress with my pain meant that I could, at times, overall reduce my pain.

Because my pain is quite variable during the day I can find it quite difficult to work out what is affecting my pain, either positively or negatively.   I can also find it difficult to remember exactly what the overall pain levels were say last week, or even last month.  When I am tracking my pain levels then I can try different things, for example different medication, improvements with my sleep or exercise, and then more objectively work out what impact these changes have had on me. 

I don’t recommend tracking pain for long periods of time, apart from anything else when you are constantly thinking about your pain levels then it can have an adverse affect on you. I think it can be useful to do at certain periods of your pain journey, for example trialing new pain management methods or new medications.