Pain is about control. If you continue to be a victim to the pain, the pain will own you. It will terrorize you. It will kick you when you're down then let you get back up just to kick you again.

You are in massive pain right now because the situation is entirely beyond your control. You are reliant on others for status, you are reliant on others for palliation, you are reliant on others for diagnosis. There is just you and the pain and you have relinquished all else to others.

Find something you can control. Focus on that. Focus on the things within your sphere that you have influence on, and influence them. Focus on the sensations of every part of your body that isn't in pain. Touch your thumb to your fingers (on the other hand) one by one. Touch them hard. Be aware of everything that is going on except the pain - the pain is your body screaming at you to do something about its injury and it does you no good to listen to it right now.

The worst pain I've ever been in was as a child. I was climbing a two-step stepladder. It collapsed and trapped me in it. however I moved it just pinched me harder. I was probably only trapped there for 30 seconds before my screams brought my father to pick up the whole apparatus and extract me from it but it was a formative experience. I'm still not cool with ladders. It didn't help that I put a leg of a 10 foot ladder in a snake hole on a 6 foot stage and went over at the top; I managed to break my fall by destroying the ladder as it went over sideways.

But it hurt a lot less. Because all the pain I felt was there because I put it there. I hurt that way by design rather than hurting some other way.

I have a high pain tolerance. I used to think that was badass. I was one of those guys who put cigarettes out on his palm. I once walked a quarter mile barefoot in subzero weather to prove I could. I weld; I've got some burns. As I age, though, i recognize that pain is a useful signal that something is wrong. I have a scar on my back from where I was reclining against the wall in a sauna. There was something hot - a nail. I lied against it because it wasn't that bad and I figured it'd cool down eventually. It didn't. It scarred.

My grandfather died of diabetes. More specifically, my grandfather died of blood poisoning when he failed to notice the capsaiacin creme on his legs to promote sensation so it gave him a chemical burn. He rotted away over the course of months. If he had a lower pain tolerance he probably would have lived.

Do not let pain master you, but do not be pain's total master. Listen to what it says but listen to the rest of your body when you can't do what it asks.

And feel better.