I have no c/s experience, so do feel free to tell me to get lost, but these are some thoughts i had when reading this thread.
My mum had 2 sections, one emergency (my brother, 31 weeks, abruption of placenta praevia, massive bloodloss, GA, oxygen problems during surgery, brother nearly died, mum nearly died, just awful) and one elective (me, 37+4, first c-section at that hospital to be done with mum awake with spinal block, mum, an ex-nurse, watched the whole thing with interest in the operating lamp reflectors). She always said she was in much more pain after my brother than me, and that most likely it was because when it's a true emergency they are very rough getting you open and your guts out of the way, in order to get in asap and save you and the baby. With me they took their time and were much more careful because i was fine, mum was fine (mum's BP was 80/37 when they began cutting my brother out) there was no need to hurry. She also remarked with surprise when her hysterectomy, years later, which had some severe complications, was MUCH more painful. Which brings me on to the other thought i had...
When i had my teeth (4 premolars and 4 molars) removed from my jaw when i was 10 i had some pain, not agony, but it was like i'd been kicked in the face. When my XP had HIS molars (same position) removed his tongue went numb and he lost his sense of taste for 18months. Because the nerves that feed HIS tongue were close enough to his roots that they got very badly damaged. And when i stupidly stuck a hand-wood-carving chisel into the ball of my left thumb the doctor told me i must have missed the nerve which allows one to bend one's thumb by millimeters and he i should be grateful i don't have "normal" nerve patterns there or i'd have lost my grip on that side. Not everyone's nerves run in exactly the same places, and not everyone will experience the same kinds of pain from having a particular nerve cut as others might. Mum's surgeon after the hysterectomy told her he'd cut out the previous scars from the csections, and just those few extra millimeters higher and lower on the same area had obviously interrupted nerves which left her in much more pain that the previous surgical cuts had. There was a neighbour when i was a kid who only had one arm, having had the other removed after polio (it was paralysed and got injured and infected and they took the view that he'd be better off without it) and we were fascinated with his stumpy shoulder. I once asked him if he still got an itchy hand on that side and he told me that for months after the amputation he had to be tranquillised for long periods of time because he felt like his arm had been skinned and rolled in salt, he was in such agony. His brain registered the nerve severage at the site of amputation as major major damage and issued emergency-type pain impulses for a long time.
My only personal experience is of tooth extraction, which i never find to be more than a bit tender the next day. My DP was similar, but XP (same one with the numb tongue) is in agony, real blinding agony, for weeks after an extraction.
It's unfortunately a bit of a lottery as to which nerves will be cut during a csection (depending on where one's specific nerves run - some women have very little numbness after a c/s and some feel nothing from their navel to their knees from then on) and how one's brain will interpret that damage and react to it. I guess that might be one reason why some are in mild discomfort and some in terrible agony after surgery of any kind.
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