According to the McGill Pain Scale, the level of pain CRPS can cause outranks childbirth, kidney stones and even the amputation of a limb. “I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night screaming.

Another option is the McGill Pain Questionnaire. First published in 1975, it suggests 78 descriptors for pain, from “searing” to “annoying” and “blinding”.

The McGill Pain Index doesn’t just rate pain. It uses metaphors to categorize it: Pain can flicker, jump, drill, stab, cut, rasp, burn, or shoot.

Schmidt said the pain travels from her foot, up her leg and describes it as sharp, throbbing and aching. CRPS ranks more than 40 out of 50 on the Mcgill Pain Scale outranking childbirth and the ...

“If you look up the McGill pain scale, it is the most painful condition ever recorded in history.” It's so debilitating that her mother, Ruth, had to become her full-time caregiver.

“We have invented techniques to quantify and objectify pain,” says pain specialist Mark Sullivan. “Most famously, the zero-to-ten pain scale that everybody's had administered to them when they're in ...