A good, detailed description of your symptoms is very important in diagnosing your specific type of pain. That, in turn, helps in figuring out how best to treat your pain.

Here's a list of things to think about and be prepared to tell your doctor about your pain:

• Location. Where exactly does it hurt? Can you identify the location with just one finger? Is the pain truly in a joint (arthralgia), or is it around a joint (more likely to be muscular or some other type of pain)?
  
• Radiation. Does your pain radiate out from the source or shoot to other areas? Be as precise as possible.
  
• Quality. How would you make me understand what you feel if I've never heard the word pain? Think about the descriptions used in my recent entry on types of pain.
  
• Severity. Health professionals will often ask you to rate your pain on a scale of 0-10, but the meaning of "10" can vary. My definition of "10" is pain so severe that you would rather die than continue living with it. Think not only about the severity of what you are feeling right now, but also about the severity when it began, when it's at its worst, and when it's at its least.
  
• Timing and duration. Is it different in the morning, evening, or overnight? How long does it last?
  
• Onset. Can you remember a specific time when the pain suddenly began, or was it a gradual thing? How long has it been going on? Did you suffer an injury or perform any unusual physical activity around the time the pain started? Any insect bites?
  
• Diet, medications, and supplements. Is the pain worse or better when you do or don't eat any particular foods? Is there a difference between solids and liquids? Especially if you have abdominal pain, think about fatty foods, sugary or sweet foods or beverages, dairy products, and seeds or nuts, but don't ignore any of the other things you may ingest. What about medicines, vitamins, supplements, and herbal remedies?
  
• Exacerbating and relieving factors. Physical activity often makes pain worse, but it's helpful to know what specific activities or positions are painful and especially to know what activities don't make it worse. Does it hurt any time a joint is moved (whether you move it or someone else does), or does it only hurt when you use your muscles to move it? Does touching or pressing on the spot or area make the pain worse? Or does rubbing make it feel better? What treatments have you tried? How well do they work, and how long does any benefit last? Does anything else make it better or worse? 
  
• Associated symptoms. Do you, or did you recently, have fever? Chills or sweats? Fatigue? Weakness? Rash? Diarrhea or constipation? Blood in your stool? Pain, blood, or other symptoms with urination? Trouble breathing? Palpitations? Dizziness? Any other problems? Do these symptoms happen at the exact same time as the pain, or at other times? Be especially careful when describing any weakness - sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between true weakness (reduced strength) and not wanting to use full strength because it hurts too much.

It's hard to predict which details will turn out to be valuable and which ones will be too vague, unrelated, or coincidental to help. You should definitely tell your doctor what you think the most important issues are, but I suggest that you pay attention to all of the symptoms I've listed here, and be prepared for even the simplest one to move to the top of the list.