Your pain scale is very interesting. Thank you for posting it.
Pain perception is highly individualized. What is a 5 to me, would not be a five to you, according to your scale. And my five would probably not be someone else's five.
GrayScale may have had very difficult childbirths, while other's like my aunt do not. My aunt said childbirth was like having a large bowel movement. My 4'10" mother claims childbirth is by far the worst pain she has ever had and compares only to the quad heart by-pass she had 2 years ago. Her list of surgeries are long and include repair of spinal stenosis, hysterectomy, hip and knee replacements, all according to her less painful than childbirth. .
These scales were designed and developed to help medical professions understand their patients level of pain. When explained and understood accurately they can be an effective tool. Very often ppl develop their own pain scales which do not necessarily coincide with the medical professional scales. Some facilities even develop their own pain scales independent of the general one used by the majority of facilities. In my opinion this can confuse matters even more, especially if you are new to the facility.
I have placed in my journal the pain scale that I think is most accurate and easy to understand. It's similar to Dame's and many others. It's just my personal favorite. If interested here is the link to the journal entry:
http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/191268/Comparative-Pain-Scale
What's most interesting and I am repeating myself, is an individual perception. I've had a ten once, when the little red sports car I was driving was struck head on by a loaded dump truck. That ten lasted for more than a few hours!! :)
I live between a 3 and an 8 on the scale I have in my journal, and between a 4 and 9 on your scale. Luckily nine's (my eight's) are not a daily occurrence and sometimes not even a weekly occurrence. I cannot remember a day less than a 2 since the dump truck and I did the tango.
~Tuck
For those who are interested, here's a link to the pain scales she mentioned.
http://community.livejournal.com/daily_migraine/2931.html