Your doctor may often ask about changes in your function along with changes in your pain scores throughout your treatment.

Often patients may report no improvement in pain scores, but when questioned further they will show a significant improvement in function, due to the treatments they received.

As a patient it is important to evaluate yourself for improvement in function and not just improvement in pain.

Increase in function can be a goal to focus on when deciding on treatment options to improve your overall quality of life.

Having goals relating to increase in function can create more structure to ones management, as well as justification for use of medications and treatments.

Goals that you set should be simple and reasonable, such as being able to complete a favorite hike, or being able to take one’s grandchildren fishing, etc.

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