Pain scale.

I love XKCD.  They hit the nail on the head so often.  And I about died when I saw this one.  See, I was just in the doctor's office for an ear infection on Thursday and she asked me to rate the pain on a scale from one to ten.  I said eight.  Then I thought about it.  I've broken my toe and that was excruciating.  I've had a root canal on a live tooth.  *shudder*  I've woken up from a surgery during which they've sliced open my abdomen and spread apart my rib cage...  After thinking about this for a minute, I turned to her and said, "You know, like an eight as far as ear infections go.  It's not really all that bad..."

Speaking of that particular appointment, I learned that I have this thing called bullous myringitis.  I will spare you most of the details on that, 'cause it's gross.  Anyway, the doc looks in my ear and says, "Oh, wow..."  I've gotten a little desensitized to this kind of a reaction given the fiasco that occurred two years ago.  I ask her what's wrong and she just looks at me and says, "Can I have the other doctors come in and look at your ear?  It's just that, you never really see a good example of this outside a textbook."  *sigh*  I guess if I'm gonna be a medical wreck, I may as well be a learning experience.