Well my family and friends can see the deformities of my fingers and nail beds and the joints that are currently affected so they kind of get the fact that it's painful but explaining how painful is very difficult. The swelling in my thumbs and the permanent damage to my joint in my thumbs makes them almost unusable. During a flare up my knuckle closest to my nail bed gets swollen very large and it gets very inflamed and hot and it itches so intensely that it feels like my bone is itching. It's very hard for family members to understand that kind of description. 😀 but when I I am able to get my thumb into the hole in the scissors to cut something, the pressure to cut just a piece of paper makes me cry out in pain because it puts the joint in a position that causes pain directly to the Joint. Needless to say I do not sew anymore. Describing the pain of the story addict plant and the skin that cracked open I don't think a useful term has been given for that type of pain.