Nothing trumps my back pain in my own pain calibration. I hit a 10 at least twice (literally screaming and sobbing in the ER, being told by a nurse to "quiet down"; I would have punched her if I had been mobile), and prior to the surgery it was basically an 8-9 full time.

However, yeah, bad dental pain is fucking evil. My cracked tooth that was eventually pulled -- that pain was a damn 9, but only for 10-15 minutes at a time, and then it would settle down to a 2 or 3. It was weird.

If I ever need to have more oral surgery comparable to the quadruple wisdom tooth removal, I want them to put me under so deep that I see that kid who was stalking Kiefer Sutherland in Flatliners.

this has cracked my shit up and down and all the way around.

Oh, ita !, it's so inadequate, but I'm sorry you have to deal with this.

My tattoos were probably the worst physcial pain I've gone through lately--on my sides, partially on my ribs, and both done the same day--and I'd put that as a 6ish. I once had a sunburn that was a 7, but that was almost 15 years ago. Let's not talk about emotional pain; I can even quantify how much it hurt when Rob died.

le n, I never take Novocaine for basic fillings. If there's anything more advanced, my dentist and I will discuss, but nothing for a cleaning and fillings. Hate the needle more than the discomfort.

that is straight baller, no Novocaine. A friend of mine in college had an emergency tooth pulling and she couldn't afford the pain meds. So the dentist did it with just a topical. As a result of her stress and fear over the pain, she seized her neck up during the procedure and had horrific migraine and neck pain until she could take muscle relaxers to get the knots out of her muscles. It took her like 1-2 weeks to get the muscles to properly unclench.

Tooth pain! Yeah, I think the worst was definitely the infected/dead tooth that made my face swell and led to the oral surgeon going "oh honey no" and putting me on Percocet for an entire week before they could schedule me for oral surgery.

The thing about labor pain is that it's intermittent, so you get a break from it. However it was bad enough to make me sweat and freak out a bit, so I got the epidural. Turned out to be a good choice given that I was in labor for almost 12 more hours.

I am ita's obverse when it comes to pain. I have a low pain threshhold (I can tolerate moderate pain OK but not major pain) and I am very sensitive to pain meds and anesthetics.

Tooth pain was bad. I also had almost all of a root canal finished before the dentist realized that the Novocain did not kick in. I don't get numb easily

I have chronic hip pain, very bad cramps, but the worst pain I ever felt is when my knee gave out. The intensity was very fleeting but for a few minutes I almost blacked out. Since it was accompanied by a loud pop, and I could feel bones moving, it was scary. I cannot imagine having that intensity of pain for any length of time.

I have a colleague here who refuses to use pain meds during dentistry.

I HATE needles, but I've had so many surgeries that I just grit and bear it. But I want ALL THE DRUGS when I'm getting a crown or a root canal. A filling -- a little Novocaine and I'm ok.

When I had my wisdom teeth taken out in 91, I had an old-school orthodontic surgeon, and he had me connected to a morphine drip. AWESOME. He gave me gas because I was REALLY bad about needles, less experience then, and then popped in the IV and next thing I remember, my Grandpa was steering my loopy ass out the door.

When the shoulder goes nuclear it's just bone resting on nerve (hey, Steph!) and I hold my breath for as long as I can. Being dizzy never doesn't distract me from pain as long as I pay attention to no deep breaths to compensate and not die. I will feel like I'm at a nine, but then I will lean back or otherwise shift position and feel the pain rocket what must be two or three points and the crying starts again (it also starts if I have to read or talk or otherwise brain). It's appallingly ludicrous. And annual.

It used to take one procedure to take it from "damn that hurts and makes headaches worse" to "annoying, don't touch that", but now it's two procedures to get from "please kill me, I don't have the range of motion to do it myself" to "I seem to recall this not being as bad as before, right? Do I have notes I can refer to?"

Which is a fucking shame. I was supposed to be having the procedure on my right neck/shoulder this morning actually. Fuck that! I need another on my left! Yes, I'm diagnosed with the problem on both sides, but the right side is a constant 3. I can use the shoulder for hanging things off of, the arm has full range of motion, and I don't let anyone touch the trigger points. Totally manageable without medication.

YOU HAVE TO DO THE LEFT SIDE AGAIN. Especially since my migraine doctor is now medicating it with anti-depressants and not painkillers. That's what I'll be telling the pain guy in next week's appointment. AND SOON. Because bitches will get bitched at.

OK- this 70's Lite Rock station is very informative. I just found out that the guy who plays "Ridge" on Bold and the Beautiful was the bass player for the band (Player) who sings 'Baby Come Back'. Weird.