My wife has a very bad back and has had pain for close to 40 years. She has had 3 surgeries, multiple injections and all kinds of prescription pain medicine. There is no simple relief it seems. One thing we have noticed is that doctors will ask "what is your pain level today", and that is impossible to answer. One pain management doctor ask her on a bad day what her pain level was and she said 10. He said that was impossible, if she was a10 pain level it should be like having your skin peeled off and a hot fire applied.
I've always thought that pain scale was a joke. Some people have a higher tolerance than others. I've had two doctors look at my knee problems and ask how in the world I'm even walking. There are ways to actually measure pain. Asking someone is not an accurate measure.
