--and for each of us, it probably sucks differently.

And, it sucks differently for any given individual at different times. I know that during the "acute" phase of my small-fiber neuropathic burning, the pain I was experiencing was by far the WORST pain I had ever experienced, and that's how I would have described it. Now, though, while I still have pain (and it is controlled)--even when I have bad flares, which I would think objectively compare with some of that earlier pain, I do not describe it in those terms any more--it is almost if I have become "used" to it, and it comparatively doesn't seem quite as bad as it did originally. (I've become inured. I have a "new normal".)

On the other hand, when I first tore the right trapezius and rhomboid muscles in September--hoo boy. That was enough to make me almost forget about the neuropathic pain for a while. And, when I broke a toe last July (little toe in right foot), while it hurt, it didn't really feel THAT bad. The podiatrist was apoplectic--when he saw the x-ray, he asked how I was walking around without asking for painkillers--and I just said I've had interesting experience with pain the last four years; this hurts but I can tolerate it. (It did eventually fade over several weeks.)

I know we are so individual in our pain responses--and so varied in our tendencies to be stoic or not--that anyone's pain complaints really should be taken at face value, and not with the presumption of exaggeration that so many physicians seem to have. What we have to push for, when we can, is more medical professionals taking our pain claims seriously and searching for ways to help us reduce the suffering.