Updated 3 October 2026
At a glance
- The IASP defines chronic postsurgical pain as pain that develops or increases after surgery and persists beyond healing, at least 3 months after the operation (Schug et al., 2019).
- A Lancet series reports that chronic postsurgical pain occurs in approximately 10% of patients who have surgery (Glare et al., 2019).
- A surgical-history log gives each operation one entry with its date, side, problems, and the pain before and after, and takes a few minutes per operation.
- Chronic Pain Journey is a chronic pain tracker that holds daily check-ins, flares, medicines, tests, and journal notes together by date, so your pain history can be read in one view.
Living with chronic pain often means a long list of operations, procedures, and scans. Some were meant to treat the pain, some were for other reasons, and the exact dates and the pain around them are easy to lose.
This guide explains which surgical history to keep when you have chronic pain: what research reports, why memory falls short, what to record for each operation, how to build a pain timeline, how to place today's pain on that history, how to list medicines and tests, how to handle missing records, how to prepare a visit summary, and which signs need help after a recent procedure.
What research reports about pain that follows surgery
The International Association for the Study of Pain defines chronic postsurgical or posttraumatic pain as chronic pain that develops or increases in intensity after a surgical procedure or tissue injury and persists beyond the healing process, that is, at least 3 months after the surgery or trauma (Schug et al., 2019). The same paper notes that it is underrecognized and, as a result, undertreated.
In a Lancet series, Glare and colleagues put chronic postsurgical pain at approximately 10% of patients who have surgery (Glare et al., 2019). In a prospective European study of 3,120 patients enrolled across 21 hospitals, the incidence of moderate to severe chronic postsurgical pain at 12 months was 11.8% and of severe pain 2.2%, among the 889 patients with complete data at that point, and the risk factors included orthopedic surgery and chronic pain before the operation (Fletcher et al., 2015).
These figures describe groups of patients. For one person, the useful questions are which operation, which date, and what the pain looked like before and after, and a log is how those answers survive the years.
The Learn section in Chronic Pain Journey (by Health Journey Labs) has short topics on pacing, sleep, flares, and visit prep, with prompts that can be read against your own logged weeks. Reading a topic before a specialist visit turns it into a question about your own history. The pattern in your logged weeks then shows which of the general points apply.
Why a surgical history is hard to rebuild from memory
Surgeries pile up over years and across clinics. By the time a new clinician asks, the year, the side, the exact name of the procedure, and the pain before and after have faded. Pain itself reshapes memory, and a rough period tends to be recalled as worse or better than it was.
Start with what you can date, even by season, and add detail as it surfaces. A rough entry now beats a perfect one never written.
Table of surgical history details, by Chronic Pain Journey
| Question from a clinician | Memory usually gives | A written history gives |
|---|---|---|
| What operations have you had? | "A knee thing, maybe 2015" | Procedure name, side, month and year |
| Did the pain change afterward? | "It was never the same" | Pain before, at 1 month, at 3 months, at 1 year |
| What did you take for it? | "Something strong" | Medicine names, dates, and how well they worked |
| Were there problems? | "It healed slowly" | The complication, the date, and who treated it |
In Chronic Pain Journey, the Daily Journal lets you type a line or speak one, so a memory of an old operation can be saved the moment it surfaces and dated afterward. Each note sits in the same history as your current pain scores. Over several weeks, the patterns show which old events keep coming up in your own account.
What to record for each operation
Give every operation one entry, kept short and consistent. The entry fields below are the ones clinicians ask about most often.
Surgical history table, by Chronic Pain Journey
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Procedure | Name as written in the report, and the reason it was done |
| Date | Month and year, or the best estimate |
| Body area and side | Left, right, or both, and the region |
| Where and who | Hospital or clinic, and the surgeon if known |
| Anesthesia | Type if known, and any reaction you remember |
| Problems | Infection, bleeding, nerve symptoms, or slow healing, with dates |
| Hardware or implants | What was placed, if you were told |
| Pain before and after | 0–10 at the time and over the following months |
From Chronic Pain Journey, we recommend marking each estimated date as "approx.", so a guess is never mistaken for a record.
My Assessments in Chronic Pain Journey keeps structured check-ins and your onboarding life context, a natural home for long-term background. With Custom symptoms you can name a sign after its operation, for example "scar-area burning". The pattern across weeks then shows whether that sign follows activity, sleep, or weather.
How to build a pain timeline around each operation
The IASP definition turns on time, so the timeline should too. For each operation, note the pain before it, in the first weeks, at about 3 months, and at about a year: where it was, how strong, what it felt like in your own words, and what it stopped you doing. Where the pain began or grew after surgery and lasted, say so plainly. Where it was already there beforehand, say that. For the same idea applied to a long diagnostic road, see our guide to tracking backward and forward.
Table of pain around each operation, by Chronic Pain Journey
| Window | What to record |
|---|---|
| Before | Pain level, location, what you could do |
| First weeks | Pain level, wound area, sleep, what helped |
| About 3 months | Whether pain persists, and where |
| About 1 year | Pain level, function, and any new symptoms |
Use the same 0–10 scale across all windows. Add words for the quality, such as burning, aching, or shooting, because clinicians read those words.
Chronic Pain Journey uses the Daily check-in to ask about pain intensity, fog, activity or pacing, and how the day went, so today's baseline can be read against the old timeline. Repeating the questions each evening keeps this month comparable with last year's notes. The pattern then shows whether today's pain looks like the post-surgical pattern or something different.
How to tell scar-area pain from pain elsewhere today
A history is most useful when today's pain can be placed on it. Log the location every day, and mark whether the pain is in the area of an old operation or elsewhere. Add what you were doing, how you slept, and the weather if it seems to matter to you.
Scar-area pain versus pain elsewhere table, by Chronic Pain Journey
| Factor | What to record | What to compare |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Scar area or elsewhere | Days in each area |
| Quality | Burning, aching, shooting, or tight | Words used near each operation |
| Activity | What you did and for how long | Pain the same evening and the next day |
| Sleep | Hours and wake-ups | Pain the following day |
| Medicine use | As-needed doses actually taken | Relief and side effects |
If a sign near a scar changes, report it to your care team rather than waiting. The log supplies the dates and the details.
The Flare Tracker in Chronic Pain Journey highlights a day plainly worse than a normal rough week and carries an onset and a short note, such as "scar tight and hot after lifting". Each flag keeps its date. Over several weeks, the patterns show whether flagged days gather around one area or one activity.
How to record past pain medicines, treatments, and tests
Treatments tried around each surgery
Chronic Pain Journey uses this treatment list to tie each medicine or therapy to the operation and pain period it belonged to.
For each operation and each pain period, list what you tried:
- medicine names
- the dates
- how well each worked
- why it stopped
The MedlinePlus guidance on personal health records suggests keeping major illnesses and surgeries with dates, plus a list of medicines and supplements and the dosages (MedlinePlus). Doses stay as your prescriber set them, and the log copies what was written. If a treatment was stopped, record the reason in your own words, such as a side effect, a lack of relief, or a change of plan, because the reason often matters more to a new clinician than the name.
Add imaging and blood work with their dates and the result as printed on the report, and the operation each one relates to. For the day-to-day side of medicine tracking, see our guide to tracking chronic pain meds with pain and fog weeks.
Medicine changes stay with the prescriber who manages them.
My Meds in Chronic Pain Journey lists each medicine with its timing and the as-needed doses you actually take, read with pain, sleep, and fog across the same weeks. My Labs holds dates for imaging, blood work, and other tests alongside function and pain. The patterns show whether a result or a medicine change lines up with a calmer or rougher stretch.
How to handle missing records or an operation from many years ago
Missing record checklist, by Chronic Pain Journey
Gaps are normal. Start from what you know and note the source of each fact: your memory, a letter, a scar, a family member's account, or a clinic summary. A clinician can ask for the formal records, and your list tells them what to ask for.
Write down:
- ☐ the clinic or hospital
- ☐ the approximate years
- ☐ the name of the procedure as best you know it
Mark each entry "confirmed" or "approx." and update it when a record arrives. If you can request your own records from a clinic or hospital, keep the date of the request and the date they arrived, so you know which entries have been checked.
Keep one line for anything you are unsure about, such as "possible second procedure, same year". A flagged question is more useful to your care team than a guess presented as fact.
The AI companions inside Chronic Pain Journey include Clara, who can help you phrase a records request or a list of questions using the history you already logged. Clara can also listen after a day that stirred up old memories. Because your weeks are already in view, you begin from the pattern instead of a blank page.
How to prepare a one-page surgical history for a pain visit
A pain visit is short, and a long history needs a short summary. A one-page version lets the clinician read it first. For the appointment-day steps, see our guide to getting the most from a short pain visit. Bring the following:
Surgical history steps, by Chronic Pain Journey
- A list of operations, newest first: name, month and year, side, and reason
- Pain before and after each one, in your own words and on the same 0–10 scale
- Problems or slow healing, with dates
- Medicines and treatments tried, with dates and response
- Imaging and test dates tied to each operation
- Two or three questions, such as whether any past surgery could be relevant to today's pain
Say which entries are confirmed and which are approximate, and leave any entry you are unsure about on the list with a question mark. A clinician can then ask about it directly during the visit.
The Doctor Report in Chronic Pain Journey condenses your entries into one page that covers dates, flares, sleep, fog, medicines, and day-to-day function. My Care Team lists your clinicians and keeps visit notes for what to ask and bring, jotting during the visit, and review afterward. Once you have a plan, later weeks show whether the pattern moved.
New or worsening pain after a recent procedure: when to call
The American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology lists signs to call your healthcare team about right away after surgery, including severe belly pain, increased pain or tenderness near the incision, pain that does not get better with medicine or rest, fever above 100.4°F (38°C), pus or wound edges pulling apart, and new numbness or tingling (AANA Anesthesia Answers). It lists sudden shortness of breath, chest pain, sudden confusion, slurred speech, and vomiting that does not stop among the signs that need emergency care.
For emergency signs, call your local emergency number. For the others, contact the team that did the procedure, and log it afterward. Between visits, tell your pain clinician about any new pain that does not match your usual pattern.
Once care is under way, Chronic Pain Journey can hold the date and the pain scores in a Daily check-in, and the Daily Journal can hold what happened in words. The record then supports the next conversation. The pattern on review shows the days leading up to it.
How Chronic Pain Journey can help
A notebook can hold a surgical history. Over the years, the pages scatter: operations in one place, pain scores in another, medicines in a third. A tracker that dates everything in one place makes the history easier to read. If you are choosing one, compare the options in Best Chronic Pain Apps 2026.
Chronic Pain Journey is a personal chronic pain tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. It lets you record daily check-ins, flagged flare days, spoken notes, and medicine and test dates alongside the history of your operations. Over several months the history shows where pain concentrates, how it moved after each procedure, and what to bring to a pain clinician. Below is what you can use and how each part helps.
- Daily check-in — A guided evening pass over pain intensity, fog, activity or pacing, and how the day went, in the same order every time.
- Flare Tracker — Marks any day plainly worse than a normal rough week, with onset and a short note, so one-off spikes separate from repeating patterns.
- Daily Journal — Typed or spoken notes, such as plans you dropped or a visit debrief, added to the scores as context.
- Weekly Goals — One small aim for the week, tied to real check-ins, with a note on whether it held.
- My Meds — Names, times, and directed doses of your medicines, including as-needed doses you actually take, read with pain, sleep, and fog.
- AI companions — Clara for general chat and specialist companions for knowledge, fitness, nutrition, and relationships, all working from your logged history.
- Doctor Report — A single page of dates, flares, sleep, fog, medicines, and function, assembled from your existing history.
- My Labs — Dates for imaging, blood work, and other tests, read with function and pain in the same weeks.
- Learn — Brief topics on pacing, sleep, flares, visit prep, and fog, with prompts to read against your own weeks.
- My Assessments — Structured check-ins beyond daily scores, plus the life and social context you gave at onboarding.
- My Care Team — Your clinicians plus short visit notes, for preparing what to ask and bring, notes during the visit, and review afterward.
- Food Tracker — Meal and drink lines, read with louder pain, energy, and sleep.
- Weight Tracker — Scale or body notes, read with energy, sleep, and pain weeks.
- Period Tracker — Start and stop dates, flow, and how heavy or light bleeding felt, read with pain, energy, and everything else logged.
Everything you log builds one history, and insights get stronger as it grows. Custom symptoms let you add your own labels.
We make Chronic Pain Journey at Health Journey Labs. This guide is educational and does not replace medical advice. Diagnosis, medication decisions, and urgent care decisions belong with your treating clinicians.
Sources
- Schug SA, et al. The IASP classification of chronic pain for ICD-11: chronic postsurgical or posttraumatic pain. Pain. 2019
- Glare P, Aubrey KR, Myles PS. Transition from acute to chronic pain after surgery. Lancet. 2019
- Fletcher D, et al. Chronic postsurgical pain in Europe: an observational study. Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2015
- MedlinePlus — Personal Health Records
- American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology — When to Contact Your Healthcare Team (Anesthesia Answers)
FAQ
The answers below draw on the sources cited in this guide, and the app they mention is Chronic Pain Journey (by Health Journey Labs).
How do I keep a history of past surgeries when I have chronic pain?
Give each operation one entry with the procedure name, month and year, side, reason, place, and any problems, then add the pain before and after on one 0–10 scale. Mark each detail as confirmed or approximate.
With Chronic Pain Journey, a memory can go straight into the Daily Journal as a spoken or typed note, and My Assessments keeps the background context. All of it is dated alongside your current pain, so old and new records can be read together.
Which past surgeries should I include?
Include every operation you can recall, whether or not it was meant to treat pain, because a clinician may find a link you would not expect. List the ones that touched the painful area first, then the rest.
In Chronic Pain Journey, a sign can be named after its operation through Custom symptoms, and the Daily check-in holds daily pain on the same scale. Later, the history shows which signs cluster near which procedure.
What should I leave out of a surgical history log?
Leave out long stories, guesses presented as facts, and details no clinician has asked about. A name, a date, a side, a reason, problems, and the pain before and after carry most of the value.
If you want the longer story, the Daily Journal in Chronic Pain Journey is the place for it, and the history entries can stay short. Short entries get updated, and updated entries make the timeline clearer.
How do I show whether pain changed after an operation?
Rate the pain before, in the first weeks, at about 3 months, and at about a year on one scale, and add words for the quality and the location. The IASP definition for chronic postsurgical pain uses the 3-month point, so that entry matters.
Chronic Pain Journey puts the same questions to you in the Daily check-in every evening, so this month can be compared with notes from earlier years. Across weeks, you can see whether today's pain resembles the post-surgical pattern.
How do I log pain near a scar or an old surgical site?
Record the location each day, the quality in your own words, what you were doing, and how long it lasted. Note whether the area changed in appearance, and report any change near a scar to your care team.
With Chronic Pain Journey, the Flare Tracker marks a rough day and holds a short note about the area, while the Daily check-in keeps the scores. Over weeks, flagged days either gather around one site or they do not, and the history shows which.
How do I record medicines and treatments from past surgeries?
List each medicine or treatment with its name, the dates, how well it worked, and why it stopped, copying doses as your prescriber wrote them. MedlinePlus suggests keeping a list of medicines and supplements with the dosages in a personal health record.
My Meds in Chronic Pain Journey lists each medicine with its timing and the as-needed doses you actually take, with pain and sleep on the same dates. Later, you can see how a start or stop date lined up with a calmer or rougher stretch.
Where do scans and test results belong?
Add each scan or blood test with its date, the result as printed on the report, and the operation it relates to. Your clinician interprets the result, and the log supplies the dates around it.
With Chronic Pain Journey, My Labs keeps dates for imaging and blood work alongside function and pain. The history lets you and your clinicians read a result against how the weeks around it felt.
What if I cannot remember the details or the records are missing?
Write what you know and mark it approximate, with the source of each fact. A clinician can request the formal records, and your list tells them which clinic, which years, and which procedure to ask for.
Clara, one of the AI companions inside Chronic Pain Journey, can help you phrase a records request using the history you already logged. Since your own entries are in view, you start from a draft.
What should I bring to a pain visit about my surgical history?
Bring a list of operations with dates, sides, reasons, and problems, the pain before and after each, treatments tried with their response, test dates, and two or three written questions.
In Chronic Pain Journey, the Doctor Report builds a single page out of your entries, and My Care Team keeps notes for each appointment. Rereading them before the next visit recalls what each clinician suggested.
Should I keep records from different clinics in one place?
Yes. Each clinic holds only part of the story, so a single list under your control helps whichever clinician you see next. Note the clinic name beside each entry and the year of each visit.
Chronic Pain Journey dates everything on one timeline whichever clinic is involved, and My Care Team lists each clinician with visit notes. One record saves retelling the history at every new appointment.
What if I miss days of logging?
Come back to the log whenever you are ready, even after a long pause. An honest gap tells your clinicians more than a reconstruction, and the other weeks still show their pattern.
Chronic Pain Journey works with whatever entries exist. A single brief Daily check-in when you come back resumes the record, and Weekly Goals can hold a modest aim, such as updating one operation entry each week.
What if going over past surgeries brings up difficult memories?
Take it in small pieces, one operation at a time, and stop when you need to. Tell your care team if the memories weigh on you, since that is part of your health picture too.
In Chronic Pain Journey, a few lines in the Daily Journal can capture the feeling of the day while the Daily check-in stays short. A light routine still builds a record that reveals patterns across weeks.
Which signs after a recent procedure call for urgent help?
The AANA lists fever above 100.4°F (38°C), increased pain or tenderness near the incision, pus, wound edges pulling apart, severe belly pain, and new numbness or tingling as reasons to call the team right away. For chest pain or sudden shortness of breath, call your local emergency number.
Logging comes second. Once care is under way, Chronic Pain Journey can capture the date and the pain scores in a Daily check-in, and the Daily Journal can hold what happened, so your clinicians see it later.
Can an AI companion help me organize my surgical history?
An AI companion can help you sort dates into a timeline and draft questions, and your clinicians remain the ones who interpret your history and decide on care. Check anything it lists against your own records before you rely on it.
With Chronic Pain Journey, you can ask Clara, one of the AI companions, to list the operations you have recorded and the pain around each. The reply is built from your own entries, which saves retyping.
How do I keep privacy in check with my health log?
Pain scores, medicine doses and days you missed work are details that an employer, insurer or relative could misread. Protect the log with a screen lock, keep it off shared tablets, and decide line by line what goes into a disability or work form.
Entries you add to Chronic Pain Journey are your own health notes. Check the app's privacy policy for how data is stored and handled. Nothing in this article is medical advice.