On A Scale of 1 - 10

Have you ever had a medical professional ask you how much it hurts, on a scale of one to ten? At least for me, being in labor at the hospital I was asked this question often. The experience of delivering my daughter with nothing but cranberry juice and water expanded my idea of pain. 

That being said, pain is a regular part of my life. I have 'chronic classic migraines' and have since 1998. I also have a pain in the neck from severely compressed vertebrae that are trying to grow together and no space in the spinal column around those vertebra. This is not a 'woe's me' story. This is background information for my recent revelation. 

Yesterday I had a debilitating migraine and in the midst of the pain I found myself thinking, "On a scale of one to ten, what is my pain level?" Now I am pretty sure that back labor reached a ten at times, but what about this pain? The process of trying to categorize my current pain distracted me from the pain itself. I found myself debating if this was more or less than the worst of labor.

Ultimately I reached a conclusion, though it didn't come until the pain had abated (thanks to lots of fantastic pills). I realized that pain in your head has a different scale than pain anywhere else as the pain in your head makes it hard to even think about how much the pain hurts as it absorbs all ability to think at all. So, on a scale of one to ten? I just might answer "kumquat".