I fractured my arm in 5 places that was nothing id take that over CH anyday

Emotional pain and physical pain are 2 diffrant things and IMO can not be bunched togeather

However i would take my CH over loosing a loved one every time, i would consider loosing a aunt uncle or cousin to stop the CH though to be honest

My Uncle Morty and Aunt Gladys have been trying to get rid of each other for the last 40 years!

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Has a transcript of an interview with Dr Peter Goadsby a CH specialist that said "Cluster headache is probably the worst pain that humans experience".

That said you can only compare to what you have had. Personally for me the only other noteworthy cases of physical pain are:

2nd degree burns up my side/chest when I caught on fire.
3rd degree burns on my thumb (Had CH at the time, was cooking carelessly)
3 shattered molars to various causes (but I really should eat/drink less sugar :p)
Dislocated shoulder (fell down stairs)
My right nipple burned off by cleaning chemicals (funny but true )

Anyway for me none of the above even rates in the same league as a 9/10 CH for intensity of pain.

Bad teeth can cause you a sleepless night, but really its a severe ache compared to an icepick through the eye and drill through the temple...

The burns, I was lucky to have the medical supplies handy to have both treated quickly which helped avoid scarring. Alcohol was enough to take my mind off the pain on the chest. And while I thought to myself "this is going to hurt" as I watched the skin on my thumb shrivel and shrink compared to the two months of CH id been going through at the time it didnt even make me flinch. For me part of the burns not being as bad is there seems to be a limit to the intensity. Yes it really really really burns, and it keeps up for days really, but medication/treatment seems much more effective at easing the pain compared to a CH.

As for the shoulder I just put it back in myself to the horror of my friends/family and again didnt find it so bad. Having talked afterwards to a doctor he said putting it back in quickly probably prevented the swelling which causes the pain usually involved so I guess I cant comment properly.

And for the nipple well. It hurt a LOT less than you would think. Id rate it EXTREME discomfort rather than actual pain

I think this is a very interesting threat, more so because I get to compare it to my own condition.

Today I had to make a trip to the ER. I managed to trip and fall on the floor so that the nail from my left big toe ripped off. I'd say that the pain I experienced then was pretty intensive and around the same that the worst of my attacks have been. Except that it lasted at least an hour before it started to settle down a bit.

But does this mean that I don't have CH then? Or is pain so subjective? Don't I get the very high-KIP hits then, even if it is CH? Normal CH meds are not seemingly affecting me anyways, is that a clue to me not having CH?

I don't know, but I do know that I get intense hour-long headaches 2-3 times per day, with the normal symptoms of CH - droopy eye, runny nose, etc. They often make me unable to do anything else. I've also understood that the high-KIP level hits are rare. Whatever or however it might be, I think that pain all in all is something I'd rather be without. I also think any kind of "my pain is worst" -competition is childish - there are many types of intense pain and people feel pain at different levels. What can be a screamer for someone is just gritting teeth to someone else.

Altogether I wish that we all and people in general would have a little less pain. The world could really use it.

- Best regards,
Rosa

Apparently my toe has a joint fracture. No wonder it hurt so much.

Anyways, I'm not sure if you were speaking personally or just generally, but I've certainly had worse hits than KIP 3. Or at least in my opinion. A lot of people seem to be reading the KIP scale differently...I've heard opinions that a very bad migraine is just KIP 4 or so. Yet, according to the KIP scale, you can still go to sleep at KIP 6. I'm usually able to get sleep through a moderate migraine, but not an extremely bad one. With CHs, I have had hits where I have been able to lie in bed, but also hits which have made me somewhat unable to sense my surroundings from the pain.

I think something what should be thought about is the quality or type of the pain we experience. Pain can be sharp, cutting, dull, throbbing, piercing, boring and so on. I think it can be sometimes difficult to compare two different types of pain accurately.

- Best regards and PFDAN to everyone,
Rosa

All I know, is that it IS the worst pain I go through. I rarely get sick, per se, the only real problem I have is these headaches that come on once in a while, it is the only thing that can bring me to tears begging for relief. Even a toothache didn't hurt as much.

Pixie-elf, np

Pascal, ok then. To recapitulate, my answer would be that a lot of pain is subjective. It's difficult to say if CH is the worst, the second worst or even the 10th worst pain that is there. In my opinion, it depends on the person experiencing the pain and also the level of the CH-attack. My CH, although very painful, isn't the worst pain I've experienced.

I also wanted to emphasise the point that all pain is uncomfortable. Whether it's a very bad migraine, a compound fracture, or continous rheumatism, it's something that can make the person suffering it very unhappy. The tolerance to physical pain is one thing, but yet another thing is the invidual tolerance to the psychological effects caused by that pain. Various things can make people feel or remember the pain as more difficult or easier to handle. All this makes it very difficult to say what or which pain is ultimately worse than some other, although of course there are some clear cases here.

- PFDAN to everyone,
Rosa

worst pain ever wrote on Aug 21^st, 2008 at 6:54am:

"And my point in quoting Pascal without commenting myself was ______________."
(you fill in the blank)

StressFree wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2008 at 8:51pm:


I can agree with this.

On my own personal pain scale, what I at first thought was a 9, one week, suddenly became a 6 in 2 weeks, because the pain got worse. Make sense? ^^;

maalstroom wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2008 at 5:27am:


The suicidal ones for me are "Anything to make this pain stop." I've advised my family to keep any sharp objects or anything I could hurt myself with away from me. (I'm more afraid I might jab myself in the eye with something...)  It's not that I want to die, it's that I want the pain to end.

You could try what I do, when you get those thoughts (you'd need to set it up beforehand) maybe make a little book or wall-hanging with pictures of the things you have to live for, and look at that. Even though hanging on to "it WILL" end is good, it never hurts to have backups.