>There have been times where, if I had the training and knew that self-surgery would lead to quick relief after only another few hours of excruciating sensation, I might have been willing to give it a go.

i've had similar thinkings about dental surgery during intense oral pain.

Tooth pain is pretty bad -- it's amazing that anything can make a human come to the conclusion of : "Well, if I ripped all the bad teeth out of my head..."

The lead in Darren Aronofsky's 'Pi' comes to a similar conclusion before self-trepanning due to intense migraines, although in that movie it is made intentionally unclear whether or not the peace the lead comes to is due to the hole in his head, or something else.