The amounts and types of pain varying during the process and are different for different people. Distraction can be very painful for many, often more so the older you are. Once done lengthening and consolidating the pain typically subsidies. The first few weeks recovering from the trauma of the surgery is often the worst. The comparison is not a good one with the kicked in the balls since that does not occur with you on a load of oxy... When oxy wears off till you take next one is very rough for some. Also, there is a Chinese water torture aspect to LL which is such a different animal than the pain being kicked in the balls, being intense but subsiding rather than constant and endless. If you get a complication like nerve pain or tendonitis those are different types of pain and very very rough. I suspect penguin was lucky and had neither of those given his comments, but many people get them and those that do would not be cavalier about the describing the pain and dealing with it the way penguin seems to be. Many people can't sleep more than an hour a day if that for a week or longer at times due to pain from something during the process. I heard it out well once, LL is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get... Easy like penguin happens sometimes with young guys doing internal femurs, and brutal unholy pain can happen too...