hardbodysub
Posts: 1654
Joined: 8/7/2005 Status: offline
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This thread got me thinking about different types of pain, the characteristics that determine how we perceive it. Different types of pain vary in a number of ways: - level of intensity
- duration/constancy - does it hurt only when you touch it or move it, and if so how long does the pain last; or does it hurt all the time
- type of sensation - e.g., sharp or dull
I've known the pain from several different types of injuries, surgeries, and illnesses. When I think of the worst pains I've ever known, what usually come to mind is ones that are high in both intensity and duration/constancy, and a sharp pain usually seems more intense than a dull one. In my experience, one of the worst pains in intensity is the dentist's drill hitting a nerve when it hasn't been numbed. Since the duration isn't very long, it doesn't make it to #1 on my list, but it's pretty high, 1 or 2. I can imagine how horrible it would be if someone did it to me for a long time, ala Marathon Man. The broken bones and torn ligaments don't make it to the top, either (interestingly, sometimes the tiniest fractures hurt more than full breaks), mostly because the pain tends to fade or be just a dull ache unless it's moved. The severe migraine is up there near the top, probably fighting it out for #2 or 3; it was constant, so severe that I was completely incapacitated, and intensified upon any movement or sound. But #1 so far has to go to waking up when the anesthesia wore off after some major internal surgery. We're talking uncontrollable screaming out loud pain, simply unbearable until they gave me morphine. I was never more thankful of anything in my life. The intensity was a severe as anything I've ever felt, the pain was both sharp and dull at the same time, and it was constant.
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