"HOW DOES IT FEEL?"
and:
"WHAT DID WE MEASURE?"
are both useful questions.
They are not the same question.
A pain score and a physical measurement can move in different directions. That is not a fault in either — it is what makes using both valuable.
What a Pain Score Tells Us
The pain score is the person's reported experience.
It reflects what the person is feeling now.
It is a subjective report — and a genuinely useful one. It changes over time, and tracking it over time is one of the ways change can be examined.
What a Pain Score Cannot Tell Us
The pain score does not describe what the instrument records.
It is not a pressure measurement. It is not a Sensor Sling measurement. It is not a direct measurement of tissue damage. It does not explain the mechanism behind what a person feels.
This does not dismiss the pain score. It defines what kind of information it is.
What Physical Measurement Can Record
Where supported by the instrument setup, physical measurement can record aspects of the physical response during a defined movement task.
Pressure. Distribution. Angle. Timing. Sequence. Repeatability. Loading. Movement response.
Each is a description of what was recorded — not a diagnosis of why pain exists.
Pressure and Distribution
Pressure describes force distributed over an area of contact. Distribution describes how that pressure is organised — two similar totals can be distributed differently.
Where supported, the Sensor Sling records pressure through the Sling measurement location. Where used, the pressure mat records ground and contact loading — including left/right loading — as separate information.
They are not combined into an invented single score.
Timing, Sequence and Repeatability
When something happens. The order events occur in. Whether the response repeats consistently when the task is repeated.
These describe the shape of the response over time — information a single number does not carry.
When Pain Changes but the Measurement Does Not
Sometimes the person reports a change and the recorded response does not move.
That is not a failure of the test.
It is a finding: the reported experience changed while the recorded physical response stayed stable under the defined task.
When Measurement Changes but Pain Does Not
The reverse also happens.
The recorded response changes while the reported pain score does not.
Again — a finding, not a failure.
Why Neither Automatically Invalidates the Other
Pain is information. Measurement is different information.
A change in one does not automatically explain, dismiss or validate the other.
WHAT YOU REPORT MATTERS.
WHAT WE MEASURE MATTERS.
THEY ARE DIFFERENT INFORMATION.
Retest Both
Both sides are retested under the same defined task.
What changed in what you report. What changed in what we measured. Compared over time, the pair becomes far more useful than either alone.
The comparison is the subject of Why Retesting Matters in Pain: What Changed From Baseline?.
