Dear Rachel, skip the screaming:

get the epidural. :D As Robert Bolt has St. Thomas More say in his play:

"But Man he made to serve him wittily, in the tangle of his mind! if he suffers us to fall to such a case that there is no escaping, then we many stand to our tackle as best we can...But it's God's part, not our own, to bring ourselves to that extremity! Our natural business lies in escaping . . ."

of course, Thomas More died a martyr's death when he found there was no escaping, so take it as you will. But no one objects to giving someone morphine when he's passing a kidney stone. Medicine is a wittiness.

-Jess