I wish I'd seen this earlier, mate, but it is what it is.

I strongly advise anyone facing some unknown surgery or other potentially serious medical procedure NOT to ask about whether it was painful, or how painful it was, comparatively or absolutely. DO NOT ASK such questions.

Why?

Because there is no possible benefit from asking, and for a number of reasons.

1. As Cheryld mentioned above, we all have different perceptions of pain; of how painful something is or how uncomfortable it might be. IF you ask someone who has a lower pain tolerance than you, you will aggravate/exagerate the fear. The pain you actually feel will be less, but it will bother you more. IF the event is in 5 days, you will have increasing anxiety each day, rather than calm and peaceful days for that time.

2. The fear of anything unknown is always worse than the actual event. Write that down, it WILL be on the exam.

3. When the event arrives and you have avoided dwelling on it prior to the event, it will be no more painful that it would otherwise; but the converse is not true.

If you have asked, you will be dwelling on it, and it will be much worse simply because you will have programmed yourself to believe that it's going to be horrible. That's just the way the untrained mind works.

And here's the best thing about pain (There's a good thing about pain? Why didn't I get that memo...?) is that it's usually over and done with before you are out of the hospital.

NO, wait, that's just ONE good thing about pain. The BEST thing is that you cannot remember the actual pain, you simply cannot recreate it in your mind, the closest you can come to remembering it is to remember that you HAD pain, but you can't remember the actual pain, no matter how hard you try.

Like Cheryld, I have a very high tolerance of pain myself, but that's another of the unsung beauties of pain; the more you actually experience, the more tolerant of it you are (the less "painful" the actual experience of it is.)

And in closing, (to the deafening cheers of the audience at the happy prospect) be advised that there is one thing worse than asking about pain, and that is allowing yourself to be overcome with the "Woe is me"s.

If you simply advise yourself that the procedure "is what it is," and what it is, is saving your life; you will sail through and wonder after what the fuss was all about.

But if you start feeling sorry for yourself because you are in some (transitory) discomfort, you will be condemning yourself to additional suffering when the pain and discomfort passes, but you've been so busy singing "woe is me" that you didn't notice that your body no longer is hurting so bad.

Good luck!