How would you rate your pain?

"On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worst pain you've ever experienced, how would you rate your pain?"

No, I haven't been in the hospital lately, but I recall thinking how unscientific, how unlike me, to rate my current pain based on previous pain.  I would quip, "I've had three children, so no pain could be as bad as that."  Even if I were in the midst of a blinding migraine, or suffering from a painfully infected tooth, nothing could be above a "nine".  And scientifically, if I were counting each childbirth separately, then 8, 9, and 10 would all be claimed.  But, like most mothers, I have literally forgotten the physical pain of childbirth.

What I haven't forgotten is that time in 8th grade shop class, when I knicked off the tip of one finger with a router.  I still feel phantom pain in that fingertip when bad weather is coming in, or when I clip my nails.  There's no real way to describe it. It's a "needling" sensation.  As I was in shock, and only remember coming to in the nurse's office, I don't exactly remember the pain itself.  However, the whole time it was healing, it throbbed, and I could feel my pulse in that fingertip.

I've also had two bad tooth infections in my life.  One was in college; I got thrown from the back of a mule (the horses were all taken) and landed on my face.  Two days later, I had an abscess so bad that I literally woke up blind, with both eyes swollen shut from the infection, and I had to feel my way to my phone to call my parents and come get me.  By the time my mom got there, the swelling had gone down enough that I wasn't completely blind.  The dentist was only able to do part of the emergency root canal, and I had to return to college for a few days before going back for the rest.  In the meantime, I sat in class sucking on ice chips to numb my teeth.

I also had a wisdom tooth come in while pregnant, and no dentist wanted to give me anesthesia, so after a week or so of pain I finally got in to see a dental surgeon who would do the deed.  I wasn't even thinking about that one.

The second infection that I was thinking of came a few years later.  I had a bad cavity - that root canal in college had killed all the nerves in my teeth, so I didn't feel the pain from the cavity.  But when it got so bad that the jaggedness of the tooth cut my tongue, that hurt.  The dentist pulled the tooth, but I got dry socket.  I didn't smoke.  I didn't drink with a straw.  I don't know how it happened.  It just did.  That hurt.

So, thinking about pain, I've got to admire the "smiley face" pain scale in the pediatrician's office.  It's at least moderately more scientific, more quantifiable, to say, "It's not a six unless you're grimacing.  It's not a ten unless you're crying."  So I thought I'd list some of the painful things I've experienced, and where I would rate them, on a scale of one to ten...

1. Phantom pain in missing fingertip

2. Purell in a papercut

3. Deep cut on my hand

4. Falling on ice and landing hard

5. Waking up with a leg cramp while pregnant

6. Waiting on a dentist to pull my wisdom tooth while pregnant

7.  The worst migraine I ever had

8. Giving Birth

9.  Waiting on a two-part root canal in college

10.  Dry rot

I know some of you might disagree with my rankings, but part of the positioning, for me anyway, is how long the pain lasted, combined with how intense it was.

I'm curious to know about your painful experiences.  Where do they fall on a 1-10 scale? What's the most painful moment you've ever had?  The least painful moment that still qualifies as "pain"?