The Free Dictionary defines baseline pain as “the average intensity of pain experienced for 12 or more hours in a 24-hour period.” My personal healthcare and pain management providers have used the term baseline to refer to the pain, fatigue, or other symptom severity level at which I can perform minimal activities of daily living or engage in pleasurable social activities. When referring to symptom "baseline", what I mean is the level of symptom severity at which I can function or perform the simplest of activities of daily living. What I mean is the level of symptom severity at which I can drive my car, get dressed, walk a few feet like needed to go grocery shopping, or write this blog.
This baseline is usually referred to by a number on the Wong-Baker Faces of Pain Rating Scale. For me, my personal baseline of pain or fatigue is a 5. I think the Brosh Pain Scale is more applicable for people with Fibromyalgia and I would rate my baseline on Brosh as a 4.
See the scales to the right, the top is Wong-Baker which was developed for children, the middle is how most healthcare providers and members of the general public view people with Fibro no matter what we say about our pain, and, the bottom scale is Brosh, a more accurate depiction of how we physically experience our pain, fatigue, and other FM symptoms. Determine which scale you relate to, which better expresses how you feel. Then determine at which severity level can you function, even if it is just getting out of bed, pouring cereal into a bowl, and getting dressed. That is your baseline. Baseline is different for each person so don’t compare yourself to anyone else with Fibro. You must know your baseline of pain, fatigue, and other symptoms in order to move through your action steps as you work towards achieving your pain management goals. If you push yourself over your baseline, you run the risk of going into a Fibro Flare. We, people with Fibro are very susceptible to this. We may go weeks or months at 10 or above and can’t do anything. Then we may dip way down below our baseline and feel so good that we want to make up for lost time. This can result in a vicious cycle of Flare and remission. The secret is to learn how to balance our "FM checkbooks", how to operate within our "Envelope" or how to retain at least "50%" of our "Spoons" so that we have more yellow days than red ones at the end of each day.
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