I've been reading various diaries and reports of people who have lengthened or are in the process of doing limb lengthening. One thing I've noticed is that there is considerable variation between individuals in terms of the frequency and severity of the pain that they rate. To some extent this seems to be related to differences between methods of LL (eg externals vs internal old precice vs internal stryde). I also imagine that even between people who used the same method, the amount of pain that they experience may vary. This would also be affected not only by differences between doctors in terms of how they carried out the surgery but also between physical therapists as well as what types of pain medication were used. And then of course, different people have different pain tolerances as well, not to mention different ideas of what pain corresponds to a given rating out of 10, which is typically what people report in diaries or accounts of their LL experience.
That last element--subjectivity of pain ratings--is what I wanted to ask about. I've seen people rate their pain as 10/10 in certain cases, and to be honest, that scares me. As far as I understand, 10 represents "the most pain that you can imagine." For example, I imagine that being burned alive while having acid poured down your throat and rats eating your intestines while someone saws bits of your limbs and genitals off--this would probably be close to the most pain that I could imagine. I don't think I could withstand months of this kind of pain occurring, and would probably kill myself or develop serious PTSD if it continued for any extended period of time.
On the other hand, I wonder whether the pain that people are describing as 10 instead corresponds to something "really fking hurting," like pain that is debilitating in the moment and that makes you cry. I think that would be on the whole more tolerable, at least if it isn't constant for weeks on end. I've broken bones before, and while that was seriously painful, I would much prefer that to being burned alive, for example. And I would think that level of pain is worth it for limb lengthening.
Just to clarify, I'm not trying to suggest that it is one way or the other, or to downplay others' experiences of pain during limb lengthening. I just want to better understand what people mean when they rate pain a certain number out of 10. (For reference, I am considering going with stryde, and most of the diaries I have seen show relatively lower pain ratings).
Any advice or insight from people who have done LL, or anyone at all really, would be helpful. Thanks!
TL;DR: what do pain ratings on a scale out of 10 really mean? When people say that pain was a 10, do they really mean "the worst pain imaginable?"
