The only thing I know anecdotally about men vs. women and pain is that my waxer says that men are exponentially bigger babies on the table. But eh--I think it really varies more person to person that across genders as a whole.

It's quiet but busy here. About half the staff made it in. I was talking to the security guard, who was stuck here on Christmas, and he said quite a few people came in then. I'm pretty bad about working late and coming in on weekends or holidays, but I draw the line on Christmas.

I know that I'm highly sensitive to pain, but I can endure a hell of a lot and will only go to the doctor if it is truly debilitating

I think that in general women feel pain more quickly, but also endure it better. I also think that women tend not to be as stoic, unless for some reason it's important for them to be (i.e. so as not to scare children), so they tend to be honest when something hurts. Men, in my experience, have been at either one end of the spectrum or the other: either total wusses, or so stoic that they'd hardly peep if you cut a finger off. I tend to like the wusses, because I hate pain and can relate.

Nine times out of ten, I'm fine with pain. I have put my fist through a window, stepped on glass twice, and hit myself in the nose with my knee- just in recent memory- and registered very little reaction. When I get cramps though, I'm a squalling baby until the meds/heating pad/whack on the head kick in.

Why can't it be 7:30 yet?

That's true, different types of pain do spark different reactions. After tearing my knee open I picked myself up, drove 12 miles to an ER, and walked several blocks from the parking structure without complaint. (Though it was fun to see the duty nurses drop everything when they saw how much blood was soaking my pants leg.) But if a migraine gets a good foothold I turn into a very sleepy baby, and the actual amount of pain is considerably less.

I was walking after I broke my ankle in two places. It was weird - half the time walking produced no extra pain and half the time it produces a lot. That's when I figured I might have broken something, so I stopped walking on it until I could get x-rayed....

Dull pain, even quite a lot of it, can be borne longer and more stoically than a bright, sharp pain, or at least it works this way for me. I had endured quite a lot of abdominal pain with fibroids over several years because it built up slowly, notch by notch. And you tell yourself you stood it perfectly fine and got through it last time, stop being a baby, you don't have any sick time, get your warpaint on, get in the car and get to work.

Dislocated shoulder? Not a lot of actual pain after the impact, which was white-out bad, but a lot of fuzziness and being on the other side of a transparent curtain--both vision and sound were reduced, as was clear thinking, obviously. It wasn't till I raised my arm (why can't I do this simple thing?) assisting with the other hand and the arm bone snapped back into the socket that I greyed out again, and then there was super brightness and hereness and some soreness.

I figured all this out later on my own. Nobody paid any attention to me because a handicapped classmate had gotten a concussion in the same fall, and everyone was concentrating on her. I was concerned, too, and tend to dismiss my own symptoms, a lot. I know I'm a hypochondriac, always with the, "What was that?" so I don't pay attention till it's really bad.

Which, not the way to go, really.

Dislocated knee, with accompanying torn ligaments and other delightful additions? Just let me pass out right here, baby. No, I can't stand on that leg, no not at all, I'm not kidding. No, the knee won't lockfuckdon'tdothat! When you wish you could just go to your happy place and hide from it.

I don't do trauma pain well. Grinding chronic pain? Yeah, pretty much ignore it, or deal, or work around it.

Whole complete other post to wish Theo, Rayne, and Jesse Felicitations on the Anniversary of their Natal Days! I hope there's cake, with candles and wishes. And many happy returns of the day!

That's true, different types of pain do spark different reactions.

Stubbing my toe doesn't hurt all that bad, but it stops everything and I can feel it up to my hair. I had many other much worse pains that don't produce such a reaction. For me, too, a lot of it is related to whether or not I understand why I'm having pain. If I do, I can live with. If I don't, my fear of what it might be often makes it worse.

I was walking after I broke my ankle in two places. It was weird - half the time walking produced no extra pain and half the time it produces a lot.

Nothing broken, but apparently I have a bone out of place that elicits a similar reaction.

Thanks, y'all!

Happy birthday, Theodosia!! I thought of you this morning.

I had a good birthday including breakfast with family friends and running into a friend at the airport. Now I'm on the sofa with my cat, gorging myself on candy. I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow.

My finger hurts. It hurts a great deal much of the time. When it is manipulated, it's some of the worst pain I've ever felt, and certainly the worst I've submitted myself to.

I sign up for pain, or the risk of pain very often. It's something I do like to avoid, but I don't like to fear pain. I will bear much of it without...without flinching. I complain because, well, because I'm tired. I get tired of not flinching or crying or breaking things or screaming. So I complain then. It lets a little steam off.

But the pain is there every day. So sometimes it's not complaining, so much as explaining. That I do a lot, and it makes me self-conscious. But, fuck, it hurts.