You may have said it jokingly: Some part of your body was hurting so much that you wished you could cut it off.

Kathy Vail did just that.

The Prince Edward Island woman spent seven years in agony after a seemingly minor foot injury led to "excruciating pain." At times, she rated the pain as a 25 on a scale of one to 10.

"It got progressively worse and worse and worse. The pain level was getting higher," she said during an interview with CBC News at her Morell home. "I was taking more medications, more pain pills, which I definitely did not want to do, but had to if I wanted to function on a daily basis."

The pain burned. It stabbed. It was occasionally so bad that she said she couldn't even talk when asking medical staff for help. And no drug, nerve block or manipulation that doctors tried led to any lasting relief.

So when a doctor eventually told her that amputating her right leg had a 70 per cent chance of eliminating the pain, she took it seriously.

WATCH | This P.E.I. woman lived in excruciating pain. After amputating her leg, she's getting her life back: This P.E.I. woman lived in excruciating pain. After amputating her leg, she's getting her life back Duration 2:32 After seven years of debilitating pain that never went away, Kathy Vail made the decision to amputate her leg. CBC's Taylor O'Brien spoke with Vail and her husband about her journey with complex regional pain syndrome, and how she's ready to start living the way she used to.

"Many, many times during a flare-up, she would say to me, 'Just cut it off, just go get the saw and cut it off,' because it was so bad," her husband, Tom Vail, said.

"Like, the pain was just unrelenting.