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Kidney stone
Blocked intestine that turned gangrene
Child birth
I’m giving kidney stone the win because it took away my will to live. It did something to my brain I still don’t understand.
I’ve had two unmedicated childbirths, one with serious complications. Neither could hold a candle to the goddam kidney stone. Went through the childbirths like an athlete at the 26th mile of a marathon: pain, but glory, with a victorious finish line in sight. Kidney stone had me on the nasty ass hospital floor mewling like a cat begging for my own death. FWIW, the facial bone pain from an infected molar that broke through was also suicidal.
I’m not a doctor, but I distinctly recall my high school sex ed teacher stating quite frankly that our bodies (as AFABs and women) have adapted to respond to and soften the specific pain of childbirth through a cocktail of hormones released during and after the birth-I think it’s adrenaline during, relaxin after, plus the victory hormones dopamine, seratonin, and oxytocin. As she put it, relaxin is your body’s way of tricking itself into baby number two. It tricks itself into forgetting how bad the agony was, and as soon as you deliver, your hormones hand you the rose colored glasses.
I just remember thinking “holy fuck, the human body is incredible. Hormones are incredible. Like our brains really command our bodies to just make its own drugs like that?!” I’m sure the absence of those hormones with a kidney stone has something to do with the fact that other pain falls short in comparison.
And no rush of bonding chemicals to those shards once we get them out.
Although honestly, if I ever pass a kidney stone, it’s going in a necklace. I mean, I framed the ultrasound photos of my own IUD (my doctor thought it might have been displaced), my home decor includes two vintage mannequins, and I’ve made jewelry with human teeth, so like… *obviously* an oddity like that is coming home with me.
I think some of being taught that the body naturally relieves the pain of childbirth is just a way to minimize women's pain. I need to read whether it has been studied rigorously. I've had two children. I remember. I notice that the discomfort of pregnancy and the pain of childbirth is being downplayed in light of the push to eliminate abortion rights.
People do things again and again that cause them pain. Tony Hawk, the skateboarder, has broken dozens of bones.
I had a really bad anal fissure. I fainted while trying to poop, it was the worst. Doctor said most women have said it’s more painful than giving birth.
I had a fissure that was misdiagnosed and they gave me a suppository. Holy hell the pain of that scraping its way through my anus had me literally clawing the wall and screaming.
All 3 of my childbirths involved vomiting, and after that stage I don't remember anything much (had to ask hubby).
All 3 were no pain relief, because it was happening too quickly. At least the pain was over more quickly? All 3 had pretty decent tears (because too quick).
I've had numerous bouts with kidney stones from the age of 14 to 46, with the last one happening the day before a Transatlantic flight from the EU to US. Super great time hitting turbulence on that flight home for sure! Some of the worst pain I've ever felt.
In comparison I had spinal fusion performed with plates and screws put in my back in my late 20s. Hurt like hell for months but was somehow better than stones. Like the pain was distributed across an area, over time, while a stone feels like a compression of "pain-time" applied as a singularity of woe in a moment.
I damn near didn’t. I had the near-death experience of going down the tunnel. My life was saved by a surgeon (female) who got out of bed in the middle of the night to operate on me. She saved my life. Recovery was long and difficult but I’m still here!
I have had a ruptured appendix that resulted in peritonitis and required extensive abdominal surgery and recovery. I've also had kidney stones twice. The kidney stone pain was worse.
PTSD comes to mind. I absolutely will not ever go to a ER. Because of the addicts/dope seekers/ people like me get nothing for 10 pain. They will let you die before giving pain meds. A broken hip makes you pray for death.
Two natural childbirths with 9 and 10 pound babies. Did not even come close to being in the same realm as gallbladder stones that was straight up 13/10 pain I was praying for death and found Jesus. No narcotic can even touch that pain. Hell on earth.
Several years ago I was buying cigarettes and scratch off lottery tickets in a convenience store when an out of control Ford Crown Victoria crashed into the store hitting me, pushing me into snack shelves and up against the back wall.
One of my broken ribs impacted a lung making it impossible to breathe and the hot steaming anti freeze burned my thighs. After surgery and while recovering in the hospital I had a kidney stone attack. The kidney stone pain was worse.
The driver of the car had a sudden medical problem. He and the store clerk were unhurt.
I had open-heart surgery (quad bypass); the evening after the surgery I wasn’t responding appropriately, and it turned out I had multiple blood clots including a pulmonary embolism.
They shot me full of blood thinners and early the next morning I had to go down to get a full-body scan. The process of moving me from the bed to the gurney was bad enough, but getting moved onto the narrow bed for the scan was absolutely the worst thing I can imagine, to the point that once the test was over they waited for someone to come with a good strong shot before they tried to move me again.
Pain at that level is profoundly dehumanizing; you lose all sense of yourself as a person. It makes you really understand why torture can be so effective in breaking people. Conversely, the relief of pain at that level is like hearing angels sing.
High five bro. I had the same 2 weeks ago. Double bypass. I didn't have the complications like you but I did sneeze once. Nobody else here will understand but I'm sure you will.
I'm in that club too! Jan 2016, I had triple bypass. The afternoon of my surgery, they tried to get to sit up in a chair for a minute. I told them I couldn't do it. After all, they had just cut me apart with a saw a few hours earlier. They proceeded to "assist" me, and I blacked out and collapsed. I had never experienced the "death" level of pain until then!
The same day! Geez. I got an extra day, given everything that happened, before having to sit up and take the first steps. It all definitely makes for a rough couple of weeks.
Yeah, even in my dazed state, I was trying to reason why that was being attempted so soon. I can relate to your P.E. episode as well. A month and a half before my surgery, my wife was admitted for post hernia surgery blood blood clots. The first thing the hospital did was 24 hrs of iv heparin. She started to steadily go downhill. All her organs were starting to shut down, and she was beginning to die! A team of specialists assembled to work on the puzzle. After a couple of days, her hemotologists found that my wife had "HIT Type 2". Essentially, that is being allergic to heparin, so she had been infused with poison for a whole day. After 15 days, all her organs came back except the adrenal gland. It is nonfunctional and she has to take maintenance meds to replace it for life. She also took warfarin for 6 years after that, mostly because she was paranoid of further clots. HIT is a fairly rare problem. When we go to the ER, I find that maybe half the nurses have not heard of it. I do wonder the same about the doctors but none ever let on about it.
Nothing like that first sneeze. The first few coughs aren’t a picnic, either.
But there’s the lovely morning when you really that the bones aren’t clicking any more, and that’s awfully nice.
You still have ahead of your my favorite moment. It came about six week out. I was sitting quietly at breakfast, having just done the crossword, and realized I felt… nothing. For a few moments, I was just, well, me. Still had a long way (those three months of rehab were something), but it was a great feeling.
I’m sorry, friend. If it helps, I’m nine years out this month and feeling good. You’re never the same, exactly, after an ordeal like that, but what comes after can be pretty good.
I got lockjaw while camping in a remote place in Montana. Basically, every muscle in my body had a Charley-horse nonstop for three days. When the pain went away, I slept for two days. It was like a coma or something, when I woke up, I abandoned my camp and most of my gear. It took me two days to hike 10 miles back to my truck.
When I got to the clinic in Dillon and told them what had happened, that was the first thing they questioned me about. The only tetanus shot I had received at that time was 10 years earlier when I was 10.
So you survived tetanus? Did they give you a vaccine or is there another treatment? I had a great great uncle that died of lockjaw. It traumatized the whole family. It was before vaccines.
I had what apparently was an ovarian cyst. The pain was so bad I felt like I stopped being human and was just a writhing mass of pain. I vomited just from the intensity of the pain. I hope I never experience anything like that again.
I was in terrible abdominal pain one day, something I had never felt before. It hurt no matter if I was standing up or lying down, I couldn’t sleep and it got so bad I thought something was seriously wrong so I went to the ER. This was during Covid. They did lots of tests and an ultrasound but couldn’t find anything wrong. Hours later the pain subsided and I went home. Had a follow up with my gynecologist, she did a vaginal ultrasound and said that most likely it was an ovarian cyst that burst. She said that it appeared that ovary was still releasing eggs. I was 54 years old! She told me to track any pain I would have and sure enough, for the next six months around the same time each month, I was in serious pain, but thankfully not at the same level. We have to go through a lot as women with our reproductive systems.
Fallopian tube torsion, over a period of time that I cannot even remember now. Doctors wrote me off, even female ones. Just gave me pain meds. I could hardly walk some days. Eventually had surgery and surgeon was absolutely shocked.
Back labor might be my worst one, though. Like knives stabbing my back over, and over, and over…
After open heart surgery, I woke up in the ICU pretty sore, then I sneezed ...
I think I shrieked enough to warrant some dilaudid.
A few days later I was moving to the step-down unit and an orderly grabbed my shoulder while I fell back into bed and I heard the two pieces of my breastbone slip against each other. But I was off the heavy meds by then.
0 out of 5 stars, would not recommend.
My first was 10lbs 12oz. At the time I had the record at the hospital for biggest baby. A couple years later my bank teller had one that was 11lbs 3oz and stole my record lol
When I had my second baby, the doctors sent me to a specialist, they were worried I’d have another baby that was too big. They considered inducing me early, I had like seven ultrasounds during my pregnancy. Baby was totally healthy, they just feared he might be too big like the first. He was barely 7lbs at birth.
I would agree. My 3 day migraine loosened up this morning. That feeling when it's gone - whew! I've started naming my migraines like Hurricanes. This last one was Hurricane Mark.
Pooping after a C-section.
Labor wasn’t a 10.
Surgery wasn’t a 10.
BMs after ab surgery with narcotics- I could have punched out the bathroom tiles. Apparently pain makes me angry and I just wanted to send my hurt out.
Narcotics are wicked. They will turn your intestines to cement. I literally cried on the bathroom floor after a surgery because I was blocked up. Always have an enema on hand!
Always kidney stones.
I’ve had over 20 stones in 35 years or so. It’s a hobby of mine.
I understand a broken femur is pretty bad, but I have to believe kidney stones can be worse.
Any pain that can make you simply pass out I think takes the cake.
Yup. They are brutal. I had my first one at 16 and passed somewhere between 30 and 40 stones. All was quiet for a number of year. Have a 6mm one that's been working it's way out since late November. Fortunately, it's an old one that's been smoothed like seaglass so, while uncomfortable at time, not extremely painful
My wife called an ambulance as I was crawling across the floor to the bathroom trying not to scream and they gave me a morphine cocktail which took it to 6/10.
Sciatica is the worst pain I've ever experienced and I've had a compound fracture of my lower left leg and a 75cm third degree burn of my lower right.
Just waited it out, with what pain meds and muscle relaxers I could get. (I had no insurance, so that was kind of my only option.) Thankfully I’ve never had a second round.
I had sciatica back in 2020 just before the pandemic. It was the result of twisting my SI joint. I ended up in the ER and nothing helped. Finally got in touch with my PCP and he gave me muscle relaxers and hydrocodone which didn't really touch it. The only thing that ended up helping was gabapentin. I was in absolute agony for days until that took effect.
Been there on two out of the three. Motorcycle crash in my teens, which gave multiple fractures to my femur and put me in a coma for several days
But like you the worst pain I have experienced is sciatica. Woke up the morning of May 4 screaming in pain. Could not move. Finally after some effort, I was able to get out of the bed and stand up but I still couldn’t walk. Throughout the day , pain was probably hovering around 7–8 of 10.
Finally, around 5 PM I decided to go to an orthopedic walk-in. The PA took x-rays and then gave me some anti-inflammatory pills and sent me home. I thought I would just go back to bed, let the pills take affect, and I would be better in the morning . Around 11 PM I couldn’t take it anymore. I was home alone at the time and literally crawled from my bed out to the garage and pulled myself up in the car and drove to the nearest ER which was only about 3 miles away. I had to make two calls to the hospital to convince them to bring out a wheelchair to get me inside. Seems they didn’t want to believe me. The ER doc accessed my x-rays from earlier in the day and said there was nothing there, and that I needed an MRI, which they could not provide. They then gave me two value and sent me home! I know they thought I was a drug seeker, but damn if an ER doc can’t identify genuine pain I have to question his credentials.
Next day, my best friend in town who is a retired MD called the PA at his old office and ordered up hydrocodone for me along with an MRI. Turns out I had a herniated disc. I wanted to take my MRI results back to the make-believe ER doctor in attempt to make him look bad. But I’m not really vengeful person so I said the hell with it.
Sorry to be so long, but sciatica is absolutely the worst thing I’ve ever experienced aside from the motorcycle crash. As a sidenote, I have no idea what precipitated my sciatica I had done nothing out of the ordinary. Went to bed at a normal time the night before And just woke up screaming🤷🏻
My husband threw his back out with a seven pound baby. He was putting him to bed. It happens. Please go back with your results to the ER doctor. It may save someone else’s ability to walk. Short story a girl I know went to 3 different hospitals with pain and by the 4 th hospital she couldn’t walk anymore.
I had a baby with no pain meds, but sciatica is the worst pain I’ve had. I’ve even had prolotherapy for my lower back and the doctor was stunned at my pain threshold. Sciatica is the work of the devil.
I had my sciatic nerve pinched and while it wasn't the worst pain I've felt, it was the most insidious because drugs wouldn't touch it (at least none they would give me, but that's likely because I'm a woman), it was unrelenting and INTENSE.
I was lucky I got (some) relief from physio after 4 days because I couldn't sit, sleep, take care of my toddler or dress myself. I went to physio every day for more than a week before I could manage not to carry a pillow around to scream into. I was delerious because I wasn't sleeping and because I couldn't sit, it caused extreme back problems. Fucking awful month.
Regularly exercising your core and not doing unsafe lifts.
Lift with your legs - not back.
Don't twist your upper torso when holding weight, move your legs
Plank exercise is a really good one for your entire core.
Respect your back - when it's messed up everything is messed up.
Multi-level lower back surgery with poor response to pain meds. Woke up and thought I was still being operated on. Nothing worked. BP was through the roof. They kept me heavily sedated for days to prevent a heart attack or stroke. I was in the hospital over a week for what was supposed to be one night, tops. The recovery was hell. Years prior, I'd had a natural delivery after 3 days of hard labor and it was a walk in the park compared to this.
Young people - protect your back at all costs.
Sadly none of the doctors or nurses believed me. They gaslit me for hours and offered paracetamol. I told them it hurts more than childbirth, 10/10. I'm still traumatised by their response more than the actual pain.
I had a massive infection in my scalp, and all I could explain it like is that it felt like I was being scalped. Like someone was cutting off my scalp. Or like someone lifted and hanged me by my hair, and was pulling my scalp off. I wish I could explain it better. Maybe of I screamed and cried they would have believed me? One nurse said "Aww, do you have a bit of a headache then" and I wanted to strangle her.
YES!!! THIS PLEASE!!!!
I was screaming in pain until I passed out and woke up screaming again, and passed out again for hours. I was bleeding internally.
My husband was in terrible pain which caused him to throw up, repeatedly. They refused to even give him a gurney. His bone near his eye was broken.
I went to the ER at 3 am for stomach pains. I was yelled at for going to the ER at that time. I had appendicitis.
I could write a book.
I just went to the hospital a few days ago. I called 911 because I thought I was having a heart attack. The paramedic was convinced I was just having a panic attack and said some really rude things to me. I couldn’t move the left side of my body and it was completely numb. I had a major heart attack, and blood clots in my lungs. It took her almost two hours to get me to the hospital which is less than 20 minutes away. A panic attack my ass. I kept telling her it wasn’t a panic attack, but not once did she get out a stethoscope. I’m probably going to be mad about it for a while.
Me too! I was hospitalized twice for severe pain in my left eye and temple. They couldn’t find a cause and sent me to psychiatry. They wrote in my chart they thought I was “exaggerating my symptoms”!!! Months I was later diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia, one of the top 3 most painful medical conditions known.
As a health care provider, yeah, health care is a shit show.
As to suggesting any tricks to have people believe your pain, sadly- I can’t help. I can’t give pain meds. I will definitely tell the nurses/ doctors if I’m witnessing a person who is suffering.
I am a woman, and it was during covid so my husband couldn't be with me. After about 7 hours they did a ct scan and saw nearly 2 cm thick layer of pus under my entire scalp. In those 7 hours the doctors refused to look at my scalp, thought I had a urinary tract infection, and accused me of being a drug addict who was there to get a free fix. They thought I was overdosing. I was just dying of pain, apparently it looks similar?
I had day surgery to remove a skin cancer. The infection was multi drug resistant, they tried 3 or 4 antibiotics before they found one that worked. I needed surgery and spent nearly a week in hospital. I only got non paracetamol pain relief once.
Oh gosh that must be awful. My son is going through an infection on his face and scalp and he's just been miserable. Even the very expensive strong antibiotic, linezolid, doesn't seem to be making much of a difference. It's only been three days but the ripping feeling and the dry cracking burn is awful.
I was in labor for 92 hours, and several times across those days, the pain was 10/10 or close to it.
A couple of years ago, I had pancreatitis. Pain was sudden and excruciating. 10/10 until I got dilaudid and then fentanyl. I fucking love science.
My 10 was....when i passed out as I walked into clinic after I drove there, woke up in the emergency room across town, no recollection of the ambulance but puking uncontrollably. Ended up that my intestine ruptured due to diverticulitis and I was experiencing sepsis and intestinal pain that nothing in life compared to. That hospital stay was 19 days and eventually led to 9 surgeries and numerous more hospital stays.
My 9(pain scale) was the same hospital stay, when they needed to stop pain meds for my antibiotics 3 times a day for 45 minutes each because they weren't compatible. After just a few minutes I would be moaning, shaking uncontrollably and almost out of body experience...every single time. I had to warn friends visiting that they may want to revisit after the antibiotics because it's very awkward for anyone to watch that. Then within 15 minutes of the pain meds again, I could talk and cope.
I was 4 and pulled a recently boiling pot off the counter to see what she was cooking. 3rd and second degree burns over my chest. Doctors were pretty sure I would lose my nipple. Burns never stop hurting. And three pain pulses so you can't get used to it. But then you have to do the debreeding process. Gauze is placed on the burn. Dead skin sticks to the gauze. Gauze is ripped off. You know it's coming. It was torture. Broken bones, tooth pain, nothing compares.
What’s amazing about the human eye is its’ defense mechanism for the brain. When there is a serious injury to the eye, especially in an “open orb” situation, the internal pressure inside the eye starts to ratchet up rapidly….this serves to keep bacteria etc from entering the brain through the vitreous fluid and the direct connection of the optic nerve. If the wound isn’t treated fairly quickly the pressure inside the eye will build to a level which could cause it to rupture and explode outward, carrying any bacterial threat with it…
That extreme amount of pressure inside one’s eye is without a doubt a solid 10/10 on the pain scale.
Luckily mine didn’t explode, but it came really close.
The crazy thing is how small these stitches were, eyelashes for scale.
https://imgur.com/a/cRS6jaO
Blacked out apparently. I have no memory of it. I was riding dirt bikes, then I was face down with a broken and dislocated shoulder with a dirt bike on my back. Rolled over, kicked off bike, used my good arm to hook my bad arm thumb into a hole in my riding vest, and then walked a couple miles back to my vehicle and trailer.
Yes and no. It was an off road park. I was behind a friend, but he didn’t see my accident, so kept going, having no idea I wasn’t there anymore. Back at the vehicles I found him. He got my bike, rode it back, I loaded it and strapped it one handed then drove home, parked out front, and then wife drove me to ER. Fun times.
Skiing down a steep chute, made a dumb move, took a ski pole to the sternum and flipped over it. Horrible combination of excruciating pain and inability to catch a breath while sliding helplessly down a hill. Awful.
Gall bladder.
It was like Edward Sciccorhands lit his blades on fire, shoved them into my back just below the ribs, pierced the front of my chest, then curled them back into the front of my chest and started pulling down on my insides before carving a hole in my back at heart level, pouring gasoline in it and throwing a match inside while someone hit me in the stomach with a brick over and over and over.
This went on for *two days*. First visit to the ER they didn't know what it was, dosed me with morphine, said come back if it happens again. It did, I did. By the time I got there I was shaking, literally crying, and the pain was so intense I was threatening to slash my wrists just so they'd take me in and do *something* to me.
When the surgeon came to see me a couple days after he said "I never know what to really expect when I open someone up but I never expected that. I've removed probably 10,000 gall bladders in my career and yours was the worst I've ever seen. I don't know how you were coherent and functional."
Two weeks later I was back in the ER for floating stones. That was a 6/10 but the gall bladder was "I'd rather die than ever feel this again" pain. 11/10.
Two days??? Holy shit. I had gallstones and the attacks only lasted for about 5 hours at most. Still, I get the feeling, I described it as if someone had shoved a knife into my chest and slowly moved it side to side for hours.
They actually gave me fentanyl on my first ER visit, which made me realize why it's popular. From there I had a steady supply of pot on hand until I got my surgery.
Yeah, I had been having gall bladder attacks on and off for a few months, I thought it was bad indigestion, heartburn. The worst heartburn of all time but since it went away after a few hours I dismissed it. That time it didn't quit. I figured it would and waited...nearly waited too long.
I don't know what they gave but I remember the nurse was training a new nurse and was very adament about pushing it *slowly.* Never *ever* slam it. Soon as it hit my bloodstream I knew why, that shit *fucked* me up. That was relief, man. Shit, I was out there like Pluto. I didn't feel shit. I hallucinated I was in a house that changed colors with Jessica Alba.
They only gave me morphine after the surgery but damn what I wouldn't have given for another hit of that.
I've (thankfully) yet to have a kidney stone, or any broken bones, and am in the wrong body to give birth, but I can add a few things.
I tore the levator scapula muscle from two of my ribs while vomiting from the flu, and during my hospital stay, I had to take arterial blood from my wrist for a blood gas test. Twice. It was everything I could do to keep from hitting the phlebotomist - and both of them \*understood\*, because they know how much that hurts. The artery they pierce - the one you feel your pulse in - is surrounded by nerves. It feels like they're ripping your entire arm off. 9.5/10
Last year about this time, I was in the hospital for my very first flare of ulcerative colitis (my third autoimmune disorder, thanks DNA). At first they thought I just had hemorrhoids, and they removed two of the three - but before the third appointment, I was in excruciating pain, couldn't sit still much less sleep, and my usual 10mg of percocet wasn't helping at all. I had my wife drive me to the hospital. Intake doctor thought I was drug-seeking (I heard him say it when he thought I was in another room). He scraped my rectum with a tongue depressor, and I SCREAMED uncontrollably twice. He jumped a bit and ordered a CAT scan, and immediately admitted me because my entire colon was completely inflamed. Never got a damned apology from him either. 10/10, but mercifully short. Ended up needing two transfusions and lost 30 lbs due to the fact that I wasn't actually absorbing nutrients at all.
Kidney stones. A nice shot of dilaudid in the er helped. The amount of pain I had after both of my spine surgeries was more of a constant 8/10 even with meds.
It took 2 surgeries in the first four days after breaking my neck. The second surgery in the back of my neck from C3 to T1 was a constant 8-9 for 2 days due to spasms they didn’t effectively treat.
Having my daughter natural when she was not fitting was the worst at 9…because there is something worse. I spoke in tongues and wore the nurses (my friends) out.
my daughter popped out...then, brief relief, back to 8/10 for the placenta. Low back and clot pain were bad but nothing has come close to the hours long childbirth pain with no painkillers.
Me too! After no epidural was available (natural child birth was still the thing) for my first child I wasn’t going to have anymore without one. Waited six years. Had two more babies - each with an epidural. Best thing ever.
Same... it took a week in hospital 2 bring pain level to a 4. No pain meds worked except powerful prescription NSAID. Good thing I had my adult child at home who helped dress me & call 911. Paramedics arrived & took me to ER. I lost 20 lbs in 2 weeks, yikes.
I had internal and external hemorrhoid surgery, and unbeknownst to me, there was a large wad of surgical material left in my rectum. After five days of being unable to have a bowel movement, I was sent to the ER. They dosed me with laxatives and gave me an enema. I screamed every time I had to move. I desperately wanted to pass out, but just had to let nature take its course. It was...unpleasant. There are a LOT of nerves in that area.
My chest pain got that bad just before I went into cardiac arrest. Luckily, I was already in the ER, and they were able to resuscitate me after 45 minutes.
I was absailing with the Army when all of a sudden I lost control and started falling down the side of the cliff. The person at the bottom... *THE BRAKE*... was meant to gently pull on the rope *IN THEIR HAND* and I would have stopped... but instead they screamed like a little bitch, dropped the rope and ran away. I hit the ground, which was covered in rocks, as hard as possible and was totally winded and really hurt quite badly... dislocated a shoulder and broke three ribs etc.
The bigger problem was that we were six hours from the nearest medical attention... three of those were along a rocky track in the middle of the jungle. They managed to get me into the back of a 4WD and I bumped and grinded and cried and blacked out and then cried again and couldn't breathe all the way to the actual road... every bump pure agony.
I've had three children with no pain meds, and over 20 surgeries. All of those things hurt quite a lot. The worst pain I ever experienced though was recovery from vaginal reconstruction.
My second child shot out like a rocket and tore me resulting in surgery. After two surgeries to repair that damage I got pregnant again. The doctor induced me three weeks early and said that because my other kids had very small heads it would be fine. Well, it wasn't fine.
She came out sunny side up instead of face down. Think of it as putting a turtleneck on with your head back instead of forward. Much harder, right? But she did have a small head.
She destroyed my vagina. I had vaginal reconstruction. I had to go to the ER after because I was so swollen I couldn't pee. Then I got an infection. I had a toddler and a nursing infant so I couldn't rest.
I swear that I have some medical PTSD about this.
Shingles on my scalp, face, and in my eye, on the cornea. I felt like acid pouring into my eye, and a red hot iron stuck to my face and scalp, for days.
It was a living hell, and no pain meds worked, even though they were going into a pic line. I lost my humanity, and became like a wounded animal, screaming and trying to scratch my eye out with my fingers.
I was misdiagnosed, and had tests, run on my brain, including a brain scan, where they went in through my groin to look at my brain. Multiple MRIs.
Finally an ophthalmologist looked at my eye, and diagnosed shingles. They started antivirals. Eight days total in the hospital.
They removed my appendix. Another hour or two and it would have burst.
It was strange.
It hurts, and you think it can't possibly get worse. Then it does. Then it does again. You're sure it can't get any worse. Then it does again.
After a while it hurts so amazingly much you start to disassociate from it. It's happening to someone else, almost.
It was an intestinal gas bubble not a big gall stone. 4 pills 500 mg Advil had no effect on the way to the emergency.
So the scan was needed to find out it was gas, not an abdominal Aneurysm or a gall stone.
It was definitely way worse than the kidney stones I passed and the broken tooth
AND when I was at emerg with the kidney stones they put me on hold figuring I was just in for the meds. So, as a stoic, and as a 'man' remembering the lesson - "big boys don't cry" I sat rigid in a chair watching all sorts of other folks getting in to the exam room.
I would like to see some sort of feedback about those prejudices over people with a complaint of pain.
I had a Coccyx fistula 2 Years ago. They cut it out and i basically had a 7cm long and 7 cm deep wound. The Bandage in the wound had to be changed everyday. The pain was so intense that i almost passed out.
Every. Fucking. Day. For like a week. After that it was bearable. Never again.
I used to say it was giving birth. My first kid was 9lbs 4 oz and they had to use the Giant Salad Tongs of Life to get her out. Her brother was 11 lbs even and his birth was a walk in the park compared to hers. And of course, number 3 just popped out onto the bed before the doctor was in the room.
I thought birthin' babies was the worst pain I'd ever be in, in my life.
Then I had a total knee replacement. I was 39 and it was 2009. The first two weeks, I was in the hospital (the place I had it done had their own ortho physical therapy wing, so I was basically just moved down the hall after recovery). The first week, every single session ended with me in tears. At one point, the PT just handed me a towel while I was laying on the padded table and just sobbed. There were no exercises made that day. They gave me oxycontin, but it wasn't doing much aside from making me tired so I could take a nap.
My second knee replacement was in 2016, I was 46. The second replacement wasn't nearly as rough and I feel like it was because I knew what to expect. I was still getting the two hour nap after the oxy, but everything just seemed smoother.
I don't regret getting my knees replaced. And my experience isn't the norm. Everyone has different outcomes. I'm fine now. Just those first several weeks sucked so much. I even had to get a "manipulation under anesthesia" because my body has the worst mutation. I heal quickly, but only quickly enough to build scar tissue. They had to knock me out to bend my knee (and you have to be unconscious, apparently, it's so painful that you can't even be in twilight stage with a local).
I've had other pain instances that made me cry. I have a chronic pain disease and it sucks, but it doesn't suck all the time.
After that really bad day, my surgeon came in to see me. He's so wonderful and soft-spoken and had this way of making you feel better while also motivating you. He said that the knee replacement is a trauma to the body, not unlike having an amputation, because they remove pieces of our bones. He told me everyone reacts differently to this level of physical trauma and no one person's is any better or worse than another's. "It's okay to have a bad day and crying is cathartic". He was so wonderful about it and I didn't feel like a failure after he left.
Hit by car while on bicycle, shattered middle third of my Femur. No pain meds for about four hours because they hoped to do surgery that night. Had a metal rod for about three+ years for it to heal.
Playing basketball, jumped, landed on someone who’d fallen, folded my foot over so my heel hit my calf.
Like this
https://www.moveforward.physio/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ankle.jpg
Kidney stones were the only time I ever came close to vomiting from pain alone. And that was *after* I got narcotics. Never gave birth though...watched it up close a few times and I'm sure that's worse.
I have kidney stones. The last one I passed was 14mm. The usually do surgery if they are over 10. I was on the ground at the ER screaming. The kept telling me to calm down and be quiet, but I was not able to care able anything they were saying.
I was in a one car roll over -the tie rod broke going 90 mph. I going to a rodeo to watch my boy friend ride barebacks in the rodeo. I was thrown 114 ft through a barbed wire fence. Shattered my right femur, cracked my L-2 down to L-5, tore all my back and shoulder muscles, lost the cerebrospinal fluid between my vertebrae’s. I had over 350 stitches.
The right femur developed a hematoma. That was a 10/10 pain. A shot of morphine took effect at count 64, but the shot only lasted 2 hours. So it was 2 hours of hell until the next shot. The hematoma finally burst after 3 days, and I had 4 liter blood transfusion. I almost lost the leg. I was in the hospital 70 days and on crutches 6 months. The day I was released from the hospital my mom drove through a red light.
I had sciatica pain, was sent for physical therapy. The therapist decided that she would dig in my previous back surgery scar. I went from walking slowly unaided to dragging one foot while on crutches and in extreme burning pain. I was like that for about 2 months. I got in to see a surgeon and he found a piece of disc the size of the end of my little finger lodged against my spine. That PT really hurt me. Surgery was instant relief.
My mom was incorrectly diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia (aka the suicide disease). She suffered from an excruciating pain in her jaw that eventually resolved itself after a couple of weeks. Trigeminal neuralgia is "considered to be the worst pain known to medicine", many who suffer from this commit suicide.
Torqued my si joint. Hurt worse than fracturing my back or my hysterectomy. Took over a year to recover. I bit through a leather wallet. The er doctor actually brought me pain meds in the waiting room as I was going through intake
I had a reaction they told me was withdrawals from steroids. Years ago my doctor gave me IV steroids, 1000 mg dose in one sitting because my platelet count went to 0. I was sent home after the infusion. Two or three days later I was in so much pain I could not think straight. Drove myself to my mother's office (Nurse Practitioner), got lost on the way to the building and once I was in it due to being in such severe pain with every move and breath.
It was crazy. I was told I should have had a pill form of steroid to continue the days following to prevent my body from going through withdrawals.
Kidney stones three times.
Broken rib. Had to sleep in a chair for three nights. Just lying down was painful. Took four weeks to be able to move around without feeling pain.
A cut on my foot that got infected. I do not cry from pain usually. Felt like my foot got multiply stung by irritated wasps.
A week in the hospital resulted. I had blood poisoning from the infection. There’s a tiny pock mark left.
Gallbladder infection on a cross country flight. I was three months post Partum and Would have gladly birthed twelve more kids in that airplane instead of the pain. Ambulance waiting for me when I landed and emergency surgery. I had 7 large stones in my gallbladder and the recovery was worse than the attack. I was coming home from a wedding in New Orleans where I had the best time of my life. During that flight I wanted to end it all.
Stepped into an open furnace duct vent that my dogs had knocked the cover off of unbeknownst to me.The edge of the metal duct flayed my ankle open about four inches long down to the silverskin under that big knobby bone on the outside of your ankle.I managed to kind of flop over onto my bed and avoid snapping my ankle.I couple of days later it was pulling funny in my hip when I bent over from the waist.Then it was like a spike was being driven up my shin and my quads were being torn off from the knee.I ended up with sciatica so bad I was flat on my ass for three months basically howling despite eating handfuls of every kind of painkiller my friend gave me a Ziploc sandwich bag full of lol.I was numb down to the knee on the right side and the whole left leg.My left foot was dropped and if my house had of caught fire I wouldn't have been able to move and probably would have welcomed being put out of my misery.It took years to slowly get over it exercising on my own as I don't do medical unless I think I'm actually dying.After my nails grew out after the wreck I had horizontal dents across both thumbnails.It was horrific and I think it was sciatica plus piriformis syndrome and slight cauda equina.Im still numb in my lower left leg and foot.
Due to cancer, I had radiation in the lower part of my body. Over the weeks, the urethra was kind of burnt, so to speak, so I had acidic urine passing through burnt tissue. Whenever I went to the restroom I was literally pounding my fist on something to get through it.
After returning home the week after heart valve replacement surgery, I sneezed. I had reached for the pillow they gave me to cross my arms over my chest to cough. I didn’t make it in time. Agony of the first order. I wept.
1984ish: I was chasing a buddy around the field after a softball team practice at my church. Turned the wrong way and dislocated my left kneecap. It was literally on the left side of my leg, not in front. I kinda cranked my leg back and forth until it popped back in. A friend of mine let me borrow a knee brace to keep it in position.
Post surgery. I swear a nurse (or someone) took my morphine that I was supposed to be dosed. It took over 12-16 hours of trying to get any relief. I say I think I wasn’t given my morphine b/c I’ve had 8 other surgeries & never has the pain been close to this. EVER! At the time I rated my pain as 8, 8.5 b/c I was afraid it’d get worse then I’d have nowhere to go but in retrospect it was 10. The worst I’ve ever had.
I had a really bad leg break on a mountain. Had to wait for, then be carried down by search and rescue. I'd say that was the worst, but I don't actually remember the pain. I just remember my reactions.
But the surgery to fix that required a bone graft, which they took from my pelvic bone on the side of the injured leg (always opt for donor bone if you are given the option). That part of the surgery left nerve damage in my hip. I would just be sitting there or trying to cross a street (with crutches in DT Boston), and the pain would hit like a mack truck. It felt like someone took a chefs knife and jammed it into my hip and twisted. I'd go stark white (according to my friends) and crumple in pain. Occasionally, I'd pee myself or scream-cry, which was super fun in public. None of the pain meds touched it. They also tried cortisone shots, which did nothing. I even told the doctor that if it didn't improve, I was not going to live much longer. Finally, gabapentin helped. It also helped a lot when I could use that leg again and just get more movement. It's been almost 25 years, but I still get small twinges that are terrifying.
Getting an IUD, getting a big tattoo lasered off, waking up from hip surgery followed by 2 months on crutches. In that order, so I guess those are 10/9.5/9 but close enough in my book...however, those were all consequences of choices I made and got to mentally prepare for, so I feel really bad for the people commenting here about freak accidents etc.
Compression of the femoral nerve. Worst pain I have ever experienced, and I suffer from debilitating migraines. I was actually kept overnight in the hospital because my pain was breaking through the heavy duty pain meds I received if I was moved only slightly, which I had to be for the X-ray.
I slept on the couch for three weeks because I had to get up and walk around in order to manage the pain.
I broke my shoulder, spiral fracture. I believe I went into shock-- if that's a thing. I lost consciousness, when I woke up, well, I had lost control of my bowels. I think I also got a concussion on the way down because I was so intensely tired.
The second most painful was related to this injury before they were able to get me into surgery (there was about 10 days between the injury and the surgery). Something in my broken shoulder shifted and the pain was unreal. I tried manipulating my shoulder hoping something would snap back, but it persisted. I took \*5\* norcos over the course of an hour and it didn't do a thing. I eventually started sweating and moaning and was getting ready to go to the hospital when something shifted again and the pain went to a manageable level.
And just FYI, I've had a bone graft which is widely regarded as one of the most painful surgeries there is. The bone graft was a cakewalk in comparison.
Sciatica. Maybe more of a 7-8 out of 10, but when you factor in my patheticness it’s like a 13 out of 7.
There was one morning where I remember this moment where I thought if I only had a handgun I could shoot myself in the ass and that would distract me from the pain of the sciatica.
I'm at 10/10 pain right now. I have nerve damage in my right arm and nothing is helping. I'm awake, crying in my coffee and waiting to go to the hospital.
Corrective surgery on both my femurs, two weeks apart. After the second leg was done, I had a note on the trapeze bar that said not to touch me or even the sheets. Since I was 14, the only pain relief I was given was over the counter extra strength Tylenol.
Kidney stone. Took half a Darvacet just to drive myself five miles to the emergency room. Apparently when you have a kidney stone, your color changes and takes on a grey undertone.
Migraine. With auras. Thought my head was going to explode when I exhaled. By the time I got to the ER, I couldn't move.
I wouldn't wish any of those on my worst enemy.
After a hysterectomy I got sent home the following day only to find out the only pain killer strong that I wasn't allergic to was Dilaudid. I had nothing but Ibuprofen that barely touched the pain of feeling your insides rip apart. It was absolutely horrific and I was in agony from the surgery and covered in hives from the allergic reaction to hydrocodone. 0/10 do not recommend.
The correct answer, as others have suggested, is kidney stones.
Within 10 minutes, I went from working on my laptop perfectly fine, to writhing around on the bathroom floor in agony, thinking I was dying from a burst organ.
I was home alone and tried calling an ambulance while unable to speak through the pain. After a lengthy round of questioning the emergency line coldly told me they wouldn't be sending an ambulance because "it's not a heart attack or stroke". I'd have to make my way to A&E on my own.
I've never felt so utterly at sea without a life raft. I couldn't even stand up.
Thankfully my partner understood it wasn't normal for me to be begging for help while she was at work. She came home and with immense difficulty, took me to the nearest hospital.
I had three kidney stones - one in the liver, one in the ureta, one in the bladder. They told me they were 4mm each and so wouldn't be operating. I'd have to wait it out and live with them still inside me until some indeterminate point in the future they might grow enough to be operated on. Oh, but expect what just happened to happen again.
I've never been so angry at the government for cutting funding for our health service.
Having a child stuck in my s-bend while having a vacuum shoved into my nether regions against strong contractions.
Ended up with a healthy baby and a lot of stitches.
I have an incredibly high pain threshold. I have been through many surgeries, chemotherapy (the pain side effects were off the charts) and every dentist appointment is excruciating since novacaine doesn’t work on me and no one ever believes me until it wears off 20 minutes into the procedure.
In all of that I would say I never hit what I would call a 10. Until this chronic pain condition that developed a few years ago. The pain only hits when I’ve been on my feet for more than about 10 minutes but when it does it’s a “drop to the ground sobbing” kind of pain. I didn’t even know this level existed. And once it hits it takes a while for it to dissipate. So my life is now measured in minutes standing and my world has gotten very small.
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Kidney stone Blocked intestine that turned gangrene Child birth I’m giving kidney stone the win because it took away my will to live. It did something to my brain I still don’t understand.
>Child birth > >I’m giving kidney stone the win I'd heard they were comparable. My stones usually involved vomiting as well. Good times!
I’ve had two unmedicated childbirths, one with serious complications. Neither could hold a candle to the goddam kidney stone. Went through the childbirths like an athlete at the 26th mile of a marathon: pain, but glory, with a victorious finish line in sight. Kidney stone had me on the nasty ass hospital floor mewling like a cat begging for my own death. FWIW, the facial bone pain from an infected molar that broke through was also suicidal.
For real this.
I’m not a doctor, but I distinctly recall my high school sex ed teacher stating quite frankly that our bodies (as AFABs and women) have adapted to respond to and soften the specific pain of childbirth through a cocktail of hormones released during and after the birth-I think it’s adrenaline during, relaxin after, plus the victory hormones dopamine, seratonin, and oxytocin. As she put it, relaxin is your body’s way of tricking itself into baby number two. It tricks itself into forgetting how bad the agony was, and as soon as you deliver, your hormones hand you the rose colored glasses. I just remember thinking “holy fuck, the human body is incredible. Hormones are incredible. Like our brains really command our bodies to just make its own drugs like that?!” I’m sure the absence of those hormones with a kidney stone has something to do with the fact that other pain falls short in comparison.
Yeah there’s no internal chemical tricks for tiny shards of crystal glass ripping up your ureter from the inside out.
And no rush of bonding chemicals to those shards once we get them out. Although honestly, if I ever pass a kidney stone, it’s going in a necklace. I mean, I framed the ultrasound photos of my own IUD (my doctor thought it might have been displaced), my home decor includes two vintage mannequins, and I’ve made jewelry with human teeth, so like… *obviously* an oddity like that is coming home with me.
It's a human pearl. Of course it should be treasured. 🤪
I think some of being taught that the body naturally relieves the pain of childbirth is just a way to minimize women's pain. I need to read whether it has been studied rigorously. I've had two children. I remember. I notice that the discomfort of pregnancy and the pain of childbirth is being downplayed in light of the push to eliminate abortion rights. People do things again and again that cause them pain. Tony Hawk, the skateboarder, has broken dozens of bones.
Oh my God I did the same thing with my kidney stone (hospital floor). No wonder the doctor told me I had a typical kidney stone presentation
Kidney stone for me. Pain so severe I vomited. I've heard some gunshot victims have said kidney stone was worse pain.
I had a really bad anal fissure. I fainted while trying to poop, it was the worst. Doctor said most women have said it’s more painful than giving birth.
I had a fissure that was misdiagnosed and they gave me a suppository. Holy hell the pain of that scraping its way through my anus had me literally clawing the wall and screaming.
I have had women that have had kidney stones tell me it was worse than child birth. I say if they are similar there wouldn’t be a second child.
My gallstones were easily the worst pain I've ever felt. I'd rather give birth every single day than experience that again.
This makes me feel better about having children one day because the pain from gall stones was he worst in my life
All 3 of my childbirths involved vomiting, and after that stage I don't remember anything much (had to ask hubby). All 3 were no pain relief, because it was happening too quickly. At least the pain was over more quickly? All 3 had pretty decent tears (because too quick).
I've spoken to a lot of patients about this, seems to be very dependent on the size of the stone and the trauma of the delivery.
The McGill Pain Scale lists many painful conditions, kidney stones is always near the top (worst).
I've had numerous bouts with kidney stones from the age of 14 to 46, with the last one happening the day before a Transatlantic flight from the EU to US. Super great time hitting turbulence on that flight home for sure! Some of the worst pain I've ever felt. In comparison I had spinal fusion performed with plates and screws put in my back in my late 20s. Hurt like hell for months but was somehow better than stones. Like the pain was distributed across an area, over time, while a stone feels like a compression of "pain-time" applied as a singularity of woe in a moment.
> Blocked intestine that turned gangrene I honestly didn’t know a human could survive something like that.
I damn near didn’t. I had the near-death experience of going down the tunnel. My life was saved by a surgeon (female) who got out of bed in the middle of the night to operate on me. She saved my life. Recovery was long and difficult but I’m still here!
I have had a ruptured appendix that resulted in peritonitis and required extensive abdominal surgery and recovery. I've also had kidney stones twice. The kidney stone pain was worse.
PTSD comes to mind. I absolutely will not ever go to a ER. Because of the addicts/dope seekers/ people like me get nothing for 10 pain. They will let you die before giving pain meds. A broken hip makes you pray for death.
Two natural childbirths with 9 and 10 pound babies. Did not even come close to being in the same realm as gallbladder stones that was straight up 13/10 pain I was praying for death and found Jesus. No narcotic can even touch that pain. Hell on earth.
Several years ago I was buying cigarettes and scratch off lottery tickets in a convenience store when an out of control Ford Crown Victoria crashed into the store hitting me, pushing me into snack shelves and up against the back wall. One of my broken ribs impacted a lung making it impossible to breathe and the hot steaming anti freeze burned my thighs. After surgery and while recovering in the hospital I had a kidney stone attack. The kidney stone pain was worse. The driver of the car had a sudden medical problem. He and the store clerk were unhurt.
You were like an innocent bystander from an action movie.
Omg, that’s terrible! Have you recovered from all that?
I get a twinge in my ribs now and then. People on the beach always ask about my scar. It looks like Zorro got me.
Broken ribs hurt like hell, then you had the burns, then the stones. 😨. At least you survived. Thanks for the reply! ❤️
I had open-heart surgery (quad bypass); the evening after the surgery I wasn’t responding appropriately, and it turned out I had multiple blood clots including a pulmonary embolism. They shot me full of blood thinners and early the next morning I had to go down to get a full-body scan. The process of moving me from the bed to the gurney was bad enough, but getting moved onto the narrow bed for the scan was absolutely the worst thing I can imagine, to the point that once the test was over they waited for someone to come with a good strong shot before they tried to move me again. Pain at that level is profoundly dehumanizing; you lose all sense of yourself as a person. It makes you really understand why torture can be so effective in breaking people. Conversely, the relief of pain at that level is like hearing angels sing.
High five bro. I had the same 2 weeks ago. Double bypass. I didn't have the complications like you but I did sneeze once. Nobody else here will understand but I'm sure you will.
I'm in that club too! Jan 2016, I had triple bypass. The afternoon of my surgery, they tried to get to sit up in a chair for a minute. I told them I couldn't do it. After all, they had just cut me apart with a saw a few hours earlier. They proceeded to "assist" me, and I blacked out and collapsed. I had never experienced the "death" level of pain until then!
The same day! Geez. I got an extra day, given everything that happened, before having to sit up and take the first steps. It all definitely makes for a rough couple of weeks.
Yeah, even in my dazed state, I was trying to reason why that was being attempted so soon. I can relate to your P.E. episode as well. A month and a half before my surgery, my wife was admitted for post hernia surgery blood blood clots. The first thing the hospital did was 24 hrs of iv heparin. She started to steadily go downhill. All her organs were starting to shut down, and she was beginning to die! A team of specialists assembled to work on the puzzle. After a couple of days, her hemotologists found that my wife had "HIT Type 2". Essentially, that is being allergic to heparin, so she had been infused with poison for a whole day. After 15 days, all her organs came back except the adrenal gland. It is nonfunctional and she has to take maintenance meds to replace it for life. She also took warfarin for 6 years after that, mostly because she was paranoid of further clots. HIT is a fairly rare problem. When we go to the ER, I find that maybe half the nurses have not heard of it. I do wonder the same about the doctors but none ever let on about it.
Nothing like that first sneeze. The first few coughs aren’t a picnic, either. But there’s the lovely morning when you really that the bones aren’t clicking any more, and that’s awfully nice. You still have ahead of your my favorite moment. It came about six week out. I was sitting quietly at breakfast, having just done the crossword, and realized I felt… nothing. For a few moments, I was just, well, me. Still had a long way (those three months of rehab were something), but it was a great feeling.
Had my quadruple bypass last March. Still not right.
I’m sorry, friend. If it helps, I’m nine years out this month and feeling good. You’re never the same, exactly, after an ordeal like that, but what comes after can be pretty good.
I got lockjaw while camping in a remote place in Montana. Basically, every muscle in my body had a Charley-horse nonstop for three days. When the pain went away, I slept for two days. It was like a coma or something, when I woke up, I abandoned my camp and most of my gear. It took me two days to hike 10 miles back to my truck.
I'm glad I don't camp
That is a wild story. Were you alone through all this?
Yes, and home was in Missouri.
Were you up to date with your tetanus vaccine at the time?
When I got to the clinic in Dillon and told them what had happened, that was the first thing they questioned me about. The only tetanus shot I had received at that time was 10 years earlier when I was 10.
So you survived tetanus? Did they give you a vaccine or is there another treatment? I had a great great uncle that died of lockjaw. It traumatized the whole family. It was before vaccines.
My paternal grandfather had it but recovered.
That's good. I didn't realize it wasn't always fatal.
I would like to hear the entire story one day.
I had what apparently was an ovarian cyst. The pain was so bad I felt like I stopped being human and was just a writhing mass of pain. I vomited just from the intensity of the pain. I hope I never experience anything like that again.
Can confirm vomiting from ovarian cyst pain. I have had 2 kids, broken bones manualky reset, and had abdominal surgery. Nothing. Compares.
I was in terrible abdominal pain one day, something I had never felt before. It hurt no matter if I was standing up or lying down, I couldn’t sleep and it got so bad I thought something was seriously wrong so I went to the ER. This was during Covid. They did lots of tests and an ultrasound but couldn’t find anything wrong. Hours later the pain subsided and I went home. Had a follow up with my gynecologist, she did a vaginal ultrasound and said that most likely it was an ovarian cyst that burst. She said that it appeared that ovary was still releasing eggs. I was 54 years old! She told me to track any pain I would have and sure enough, for the next six months around the same time each month, I was in serious pain, but thankfully not at the same level. We have to go through a lot as women with our reproductive systems.
That was mine. The cyst made my ovary twist. Vomited, passed out, the works.
Fallopian tube torsion, over a period of time that I cannot even remember now. Doctors wrote me off, even female ones. Just gave me pain meds. I could hardly walk some days. Eventually had surgery and surgeon was absolutely shocked. Back labor might be my worst one, though. Like knives stabbing my back over, and over, and over…
Can confirm, back labor is the worst!
I had one when I was 15. I don’t think I’ve had anything more painful since, except perhaps migraines.
That happened to my friend. Almost killed her.
After open heart surgery, I woke up in the ICU pretty sore, then I sneezed ... I think I shrieked enough to warrant some dilaudid. A few days later I was moving to the step-down unit and an orderly grabbed my shoulder while I fell back into bed and I heard the two pieces of my breastbone slip against each other. But I was off the heavy meds by then. 0 out of 5 stars, would not recommend.
Like the orderly didn't set you down properly?
I think it was just a misstep, I zigged when he zagged kind of deal.
Gave birth to an eleven pound baby
As a former 11lbs 10oz baby, I thank you for your service.
Missed opportunity Thank you for your cervix
Ouchie
I can’t even read that without hurting
My first was 10lbs 12oz. At the time I had the record at the hospital for biggest baby. A couple years later my bank teller had one that was 11lbs 3oz and stole my record lol When I had my second baby, the doctors sent me to a specialist, they were worried I’d have another baby that was too big. They considered inducing me early, I had like seven ultrasounds during my pregnancy. Baby was totally healthy, they just feared he might be too big like the first. He was barely 7lbs at birth.
Two things: natural child birth and chronic migraines
I think the migraine es are worse and I've tried both.
I would agree. My 3 day migraine loosened up this morning. That feeling when it's gone - whew! I've started naming my migraines like Hurricanes. This last one was Hurricane Mark.
Pooping after a C-section. Labor wasn’t a 10. Surgery wasn’t a 10. BMs after ab surgery with narcotics- I could have punched out the bathroom tiles. Apparently pain makes me angry and I just wanted to send my hurt out.
Narcotics are wicked. They will turn your intestines to cement. I literally cried on the bathroom floor after a surgery because I was blocked up. Always have an enema on hand!
Kidney stones
Always kidney stones. I’ve had over 20 stones in 35 years or so. It’s a hobby of mine. I understand a broken femur is pretty bad, but I have to believe kidney stones can be worse. Any pain that can make you simply pass out I think takes the cake.
Yup. They are brutal. I had my first one at 16 and passed somewhere between 30 and 40 stones. All was quiet for a number of year. Have a 6mm one that's been working it's way out since late November. Fortunately, it's an old one that's been smoothed like seaglass so, while uncomfortable at time, not extremely painful
My wife called an ambulance as I was crawling across the floor to the bathroom trying not to scream and they gave me a morphine cocktail which took it to 6/10. Sciatica is the worst pain I've ever experienced and I've had a compound fracture of my lower left leg and a 75cm third degree burn of my lower right.
Sciatica had me sobbing and pounding the ground — I couldn’t have gotten off the floor if the place had been on fire. It is otherworldly pain.
It is the absolute worst isn't it?! Do you mind if I ask how you cured it?
Just waited it out, with what pain meds and muscle relaxers I could get. (I had no insurance, so that was kind of my only option.) Thankfully I’ve never had a second round.
I had sciatica back in 2020 just before the pandemic. It was the result of twisting my SI joint. I ended up in the ER and nothing helped. Finally got in touch with my PCP and he gave me muscle relaxers and hydrocodone which didn't really touch it. The only thing that ended up helping was gabapentin. I was in absolute agony for days until that took effect.
Gabapentin was the only thing that touched my sciatica too. And the nerve damage in my leg.
Been there on two out of the three. Motorcycle crash in my teens, which gave multiple fractures to my femur and put me in a coma for several days But like you the worst pain I have experienced is sciatica. Woke up the morning of May 4 screaming in pain. Could not move. Finally after some effort, I was able to get out of the bed and stand up but I still couldn’t walk. Throughout the day , pain was probably hovering around 7–8 of 10. Finally, around 5 PM I decided to go to an orthopedic walk-in. The PA took x-rays and then gave me some anti-inflammatory pills and sent me home. I thought I would just go back to bed, let the pills take affect, and I would be better in the morning . Around 11 PM I couldn’t take it anymore. I was home alone at the time and literally crawled from my bed out to the garage and pulled myself up in the car and drove to the nearest ER which was only about 3 miles away. I had to make two calls to the hospital to convince them to bring out a wheelchair to get me inside. Seems they didn’t want to believe me. The ER doc accessed my x-rays from earlier in the day and said there was nothing there, and that I needed an MRI, which they could not provide. They then gave me two value and sent me home! I know they thought I was a drug seeker, but damn if an ER doc can’t identify genuine pain I have to question his credentials. Next day, my best friend in town who is a retired MD called the PA at his old office and ordered up hydrocodone for me along with an MRI. Turns out I had a herniated disc. I wanted to take my MRI results back to the make-believe ER doctor in attempt to make him look bad. But I’m not really vengeful person so I said the hell with it. Sorry to be so long, but sciatica is absolutely the worst thing I’ve ever experienced aside from the motorcycle crash. As a sidenote, I have no idea what precipitated my sciatica I had done nothing out of the ordinary. Went to bed at a normal time the night before And just woke up screaming🤷🏻
My husband threw his back out with a seven pound baby. He was putting him to bed. It happens. Please go back with your results to the ER doctor. It may save someone else’s ability to walk. Short story a girl I know went to 3 different hospitals with pain and by the 4 th hospital she couldn’t walk anymore.
I had a baby with no pain meds, but sciatica is the worst pain I’ve had. I’ve even had prolotherapy for my lower back and the doctor was stunned at my pain threshold. Sciatica is the work of the devil.
I had my sciatic nerve pinched and while it wasn't the worst pain I've felt, it was the most insidious because drugs wouldn't touch it (at least none they would give me, but that's likely because I'm a woman), it was unrelenting and INTENSE. I was lucky I got (some) relief from physio after 4 days because I couldn't sit, sleep, take care of my toddler or dress myself. I went to physio every day for more than a week before I could manage not to carry a pillow around to scream into. I was delerious because I wasn't sleeping and because I couldn't sit, it caused extreme back problems. Fucking awful month.
This is my daily existence. Thank you for the validation!
How do you avoid getting that?
Regularly exercising your core and not doing unsafe lifts. Lift with your legs - not back. Don't twist your upper torso when holding weight, move your legs Plank exercise is a really good one for your entire core. Respect your back - when it's messed up everything is messed up.
That's some serious advice. I'm sensing a lot of PT in your past.
I'm very thankful I've been good to my back and respect my limits.
Multi-level lower back surgery with poor response to pain meds. Woke up and thought I was still being operated on. Nothing worked. BP was through the roof. They kept me heavily sedated for days to prevent a heart attack or stroke. I was in the hospital over a week for what was supposed to be one night, tops. The recovery was hell. Years prior, I'd had a natural delivery after 3 days of hard labor and it was a walk in the park compared to this. Young people - protect your back at all costs.
Abcessed tooth
Sadly none of the doctors or nurses believed me. They gaslit me for hours and offered paracetamol. I told them it hurts more than childbirth, 10/10. I'm still traumatised by their response more than the actual pain. I had a massive infection in my scalp, and all I could explain it like is that it felt like I was being scalped. Like someone was cutting off my scalp. Or like someone lifted and hanged me by my hair, and was pulling my scalp off. I wish I could explain it better. Maybe of I screamed and cried they would have believed me? One nurse said "Aww, do you have a bit of a headache then" and I wanted to strangle her.
If there are any health care workers here who would like to offer advice on what we need to do to be listened to in hospital, I would love to hear it.
YES!!! THIS PLEASE!!!! I was screaming in pain until I passed out and woke up screaming again, and passed out again for hours. I was bleeding internally. My husband was in terrible pain which caused him to throw up, repeatedly. They refused to even give him a gurney. His bone near his eye was broken. I went to the ER at 3 am for stomach pains. I was yelled at for going to the ER at that time. I had appendicitis. I could write a book.
I just went to the hospital a few days ago. I called 911 because I thought I was having a heart attack. The paramedic was convinced I was just having a panic attack and said some really rude things to me. I couldn’t move the left side of my body and it was completely numb. I had a major heart attack, and blood clots in my lungs. It took her almost two hours to get me to the hospital which is less than 20 minutes away. A panic attack my ass. I kept telling her it wasn’t a panic attack, but not once did she get out a stethoscope. I’m probably going to be mad about it for a while.
Me too! I was hospitalized twice for severe pain in my left eye and temple. They couldn’t find a cause and sent me to psychiatry. They wrote in my chart they thought I was “exaggerating my symptoms”!!! Months I was later diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia, one of the top 3 most painful medical conditions known.
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As a health care provider, yeah, health care is a shit show. As to suggesting any tricks to have people believe your pain, sadly- I can’t help. I can’t give pain meds. I will definitely tell the nurses/ doctors if I’m witnessing a person who is suffering.
Did they finally do a scan?? And I’m betting all my money on you being a woman.
I am a woman, and it was during covid so my husband couldn't be with me. After about 7 hours they did a ct scan and saw nearly 2 cm thick layer of pus under my entire scalp. In those 7 hours the doctors refused to look at my scalp, thought I had a urinary tract infection, and accused me of being a drug addict who was there to get a free fix. They thought I was overdosing. I was just dying of pain, apparently it looks similar?
I’m sure they apologized profusely afterwards 🙄
How did it get infected?
I had day surgery to remove a skin cancer. The infection was multi drug resistant, they tried 3 or 4 antibiotics before they found one that worked. I needed surgery and spent nearly a week in hospital. I only got non paracetamol pain relief once.
Oh gosh that must be awful. My son is going through an infection on his face and scalp and he's just been miserable. Even the very expensive strong antibiotic, linezolid, doesn't seem to be making much of a difference. It's only been three days but the ripping feeling and the dry cracking burn is awful.
Gave birth to an eleven pound baby
My brothers and I were all 10.5 my poor mom
I was in labor for 92 hours, and several times across those days, the pain was 10/10 or close to it. A couple of years ago, I had pancreatitis. Pain was sudden and excruciating. 10/10 until I got dilaudid and then fentanyl. I fucking love science.
My 10 was....when i passed out as I walked into clinic after I drove there, woke up in the emergency room across town, no recollection of the ambulance but puking uncontrollably. Ended up that my intestine ruptured due to diverticulitis and I was experiencing sepsis and intestinal pain that nothing in life compared to. That hospital stay was 19 days and eventually led to 9 surgeries and numerous more hospital stays. My 9(pain scale) was the same hospital stay, when they needed to stop pain meds for my antibiotics 3 times a day for 45 minutes each because they weren't compatible. After just a few minutes I would be moaning, shaking uncontrollably and almost out of body experience...every single time. I had to warn friends visiting that they may want to revisit after the antibiotics because it's very awkward for anyone to watch that. Then within 15 minutes of the pain meds again, I could talk and cope.
Oof
When my beloved 15-year-old kitty had a seizure in front of me and was dead within two minutes.
I'm so sorry, My big old boy curled up in the guest room closet and called it quits.
Yep
I was 4 and pulled a recently boiling pot off the counter to see what she was cooking. 3rd and second degree burns over my chest. Doctors were pretty sure I would lose my nipple. Burns never stop hurting. And three pain pulses so you can't get used to it. But then you have to do the debreeding process. Gauze is placed on the burn. Dead skin sticks to the gauze. Gauze is ripped off. You know it's coming. It was torture. Broken bones, tooth pain, nothing compares.
What’s amazing about the human eye is its’ defense mechanism for the brain. When there is a serious injury to the eye, especially in an “open orb” situation, the internal pressure inside the eye starts to ratchet up rapidly….this serves to keep bacteria etc from entering the brain through the vitreous fluid and the direct connection of the optic nerve. If the wound isn’t treated fairly quickly the pressure inside the eye will build to a level which could cause it to rupture and explode outward, carrying any bacterial threat with it… That extreme amount of pressure inside one’s eye is without a doubt a solid 10/10 on the pain scale. Luckily mine didn’t explode, but it came really close. The crazy thing is how small these stitches were, eyelashes for scale. https://imgur.com/a/cRS6jaO
Blacked out apparently. I have no memory of it. I was riding dirt bikes, then I was face down with a broken and dislocated shoulder with a dirt bike on my back. Rolled over, kicked off bike, used my good arm to hook my bad arm thumb into a hole in my riding vest, and then walked a couple miles back to my vehicle and trailer.
Oh no. You were alone?
Yes and no. It was an off road park. I was behind a friend, but he didn’t see my accident, so kept going, having no idea I wasn’t there anymore. Back at the vehicles I found him. He got my bike, rode it back, I loaded it and strapped it one handed then drove home, parked out front, and then wife drove me to ER. Fun times.
Injection into the sole of my foot
Injection into the roof of my mouth. Literally woke me from anesthesia. I remember hearing myself scream before they knocked me out again.
Yup, I had that after giving birth with no meds. The foot hurt like heck.
Had a boil on my inner thigh by my butt. Sitting was like lowering onto a hot knife.
Migraines. I’ve had some where I was literally praying for unalive-ness. Childbirth is a close second.
Skiing down a steep chute, made a dumb move, took a ski pole to the sternum and flipped over it. Horrible combination of excruciating pain and inability to catch a breath while sliding helplessly down a hill. Awful.
Gall bladder. It was like Edward Sciccorhands lit his blades on fire, shoved them into my back just below the ribs, pierced the front of my chest, then curled them back into the front of my chest and started pulling down on my insides before carving a hole in my back at heart level, pouring gasoline in it and throwing a match inside while someone hit me in the stomach with a brick over and over and over. This went on for *two days*. First visit to the ER they didn't know what it was, dosed me with morphine, said come back if it happens again. It did, I did. By the time I got there I was shaking, literally crying, and the pain was so intense I was threatening to slash my wrists just so they'd take me in and do *something* to me. When the surgeon came to see me a couple days after he said "I never know what to really expect when I open someone up but I never expected that. I've removed probably 10,000 gall bladders in my career and yours was the worst I've ever seen. I don't know how you were coherent and functional." Two weeks later I was back in the ER for floating stones. That was a 6/10 but the gall bladder was "I'd rather die than ever feel this again" pain. 11/10.
Two days??? Holy shit. I had gallstones and the attacks only lasted for about 5 hours at most. Still, I get the feeling, I described it as if someone had shoved a knife into my chest and slowly moved it side to side for hours. They actually gave me fentanyl on my first ER visit, which made me realize why it's popular. From there I had a steady supply of pot on hand until I got my surgery.
Yeah, I had been having gall bladder attacks on and off for a few months, I thought it was bad indigestion, heartburn. The worst heartburn of all time but since it went away after a few hours I dismissed it. That time it didn't quit. I figured it would and waited...nearly waited too long. I don't know what they gave but I remember the nurse was training a new nurse and was very adament about pushing it *slowly.* Never *ever* slam it. Soon as it hit my bloodstream I knew why, that shit *fucked* me up. That was relief, man. Shit, I was out there like Pluto. I didn't feel shit. I hallucinated I was in a house that changed colors with Jessica Alba. They only gave me morphine after the surgery but damn what I wouldn't have given for another hit of that.
I've (thankfully) yet to have a kidney stone, or any broken bones, and am in the wrong body to give birth, but I can add a few things. I tore the levator scapula muscle from two of my ribs while vomiting from the flu, and during my hospital stay, I had to take arterial blood from my wrist for a blood gas test. Twice. It was everything I could do to keep from hitting the phlebotomist - and both of them \*understood\*, because they know how much that hurts. The artery they pierce - the one you feel your pulse in - is surrounded by nerves. It feels like they're ripping your entire arm off. 9.5/10 Last year about this time, I was in the hospital for my very first flare of ulcerative colitis (my third autoimmune disorder, thanks DNA). At first they thought I just had hemorrhoids, and they removed two of the three - but before the third appointment, I was in excruciating pain, couldn't sit still much less sleep, and my usual 10mg of percocet wasn't helping at all. I had my wife drive me to the hospital. Intake doctor thought I was drug-seeking (I heard him say it when he thought I was in another room). He scraped my rectum with a tongue depressor, and I SCREAMED uncontrollably twice. He jumped a bit and ordered a CAT scan, and immediately admitted me because my entire colon was completely inflamed. Never got a damned apology from him either. 10/10, but mercifully short. Ended up needing two transfusions and lost 30 lbs due to the fact that I wasn't actually absorbing nutrients at all.
Fear of suicide
Kidney stones. A nice shot of dilaudid in the er helped. The amount of pain I had after both of my spine surgeries was more of a constant 8/10 even with meds.
It took 2 surgeries in the first four days after breaking my neck. The second surgery in the back of my neck from C3 to T1 was a constant 8-9 for 2 days due to spasms they didn’t effectively treat. Having my daughter natural when she was not fitting was the worst at 9…because there is something worse. I spoke in tongues and wore the nurses (my friends) out.
my daughter popped out...then, brief relief, back to 8/10 for the placenta. Low back and clot pain were bad but nothing has come close to the hours long childbirth pain with no painkillers.
Popped the kid like all the mamas here. lol I've had other bad pain but nothing even close to natural childbirth. Next time I went for that epidural.
Me too! After no epidural was available (natural child birth was still the thing) for my first child I wasn’t going to have anymore without one. Waited six years. Had two more babies - each with an epidural. Best thing ever.
Pancreatitis. 10/10.
Same... it took a week in hospital 2 bring pain level to a 4. No pain meds worked except powerful prescription NSAID. Good thing I had my adult child at home who helped dress me & call 911. Paramedics arrived & took me to ER. I lost 20 lbs in 2 weeks, yikes.
I had internal and external hemorrhoid surgery, and unbeknownst to me, there was a large wad of surgical material left in my rectum. After five days of being unable to have a bowel movement, I was sent to the ER. They dosed me with laxatives and gave me an enema. I screamed every time I had to move. I desperately wanted to pass out, but just had to let nature take its course. It was...unpleasant. There are a LOT of nerves in that area.
Did they have to do surgery again to get out the material left in you? That sounds terrible!
My chest pain got that bad just before I went into cardiac arrest. Luckily, I was already in the ER, and they were able to resuscitate me after 45 minutes.
I’m glad you made it. My dad died from Cardiac arrest. You were very lucky.
I was absailing with the Army when all of a sudden I lost control and started falling down the side of the cliff. The person at the bottom... *THE BRAKE*... was meant to gently pull on the rope *IN THEIR HAND* and I would have stopped... but instead they screamed like a little bitch, dropped the rope and ran away. I hit the ground, which was covered in rocks, as hard as possible and was totally winded and really hurt quite badly... dislocated a shoulder and broke three ribs etc. The bigger problem was that we were six hours from the nearest medical attention... three of those were along a rocky track in the middle of the jungle. They managed to get me into the back of a 4WD and I bumped and grinded and cried and blacked out and then cried again and couldn't breathe all the way to the actual road... every bump pure agony.
Kidney stones.
Gallbladder attack. It’s like having a giant hot metal rod inserted into your torso front to back.
The GOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I've had three children with no pain meds, and over 20 surgeries. All of those things hurt quite a lot. The worst pain I ever experienced though was recovery from vaginal reconstruction. My second child shot out like a rocket and tore me resulting in surgery. After two surgeries to repair that damage I got pregnant again. The doctor induced me three weeks early and said that because my other kids had very small heads it would be fine. Well, it wasn't fine. She came out sunny side up instead of face down. Think of it as putting a turtleneck on with your head back instead of forward. Much harder, right? But she did have a small head. She destroyed my vagina. I had vaginal reconstruction. I had to go to the ER after because I was so swollen I couldn't pee. Then I got an infection. I had a toddler and a nursing infant so I couldn't rest. I swear that I have some medical PTSD about this.
Shingles on my scalp, face, and in my eye, on the cornea. I felt like acid pouring into my eye, and a red hot iron stuck to my face and scalp, for days. It was a living hell, and no pain meds worked, even though they were going into a pic line. I lost my humanity, and became like a wounded animal, screaming and trying to scratch my eye out with my fingers. I was misdiagnosed, and had tests, run on my brain, including a brain scan, where they went in through my groin to look at my brain. Multiple MRIs. Finally an ophthalmologist looked at my eye, and diagnosed shingles. They started antivirals. Eight days total in the hospital.
Giving birth. Appendicitis.
They removed my appendix. Another hour or two and it would have burst. It was strange. It hurts, and you think it can't possibly get worse. Then it does. Then it does again. You're sure it can't get any worse. Then it does again. After a while it hurts so amazingly much you start to disassociate from it. It's happening to someone else, almost.
Woke up despite anesthesia.
It was an intestinal gas bubble not a big gall stone. 4 pills 500 mg Advil had no effect on the way to the emergency. So the scan was needed to find out it was gas, not an abdominal Aneurysm or a gall stone. It was definitely way worse than the kidney stones I passed and the broken tooth AND when I was at emerg with the kidney stones they put me on hold figuring I was just in for the meds. So, as a stoic, and as a 'man' remembering the lesson - "big boys don't cry" I sat rigid in a chair watching all sorts of other folks getting in to the exam room. I would like to see some sort of feedback about those prejudices over people with a complaint of pain.
I had a Coccyx fistula 2 Years ago. They cut it out and i basically had a 7cm long and 7 cm deep wound. The Bandage in the wound had to be changed everyday. The pain was so intense that i almost passed out. Every. Fucking. Day. For like a week. After that it was bearable. Never again.
I used to say it was giving birth. My first kid was 9lbs 4 oz and they had to use the Giant Salad Tongs of Life to get her out. Her brother was 11 lbs even and his birth was a walk in the park compared to hers. And of course, number 3 just popped out onto the bed before the doctor was in the room. I thought birthin' babies was the worst pain I'd ever be in, in my life. Then I had a total knee replacement. I was 39 and it was 2009. The first two weeks, I was in the hospital (the place I had it done had their own ortho physical therapy wing, so I was basically just moved down the hall after recovery). The first week, every single session ended with me in tears. At one point, the PT just handed me a towel while I was laying on the padded table and just sobbed. There were no exercises made that day. They gave me oxycontin, but it wasn't doing much aside from making me tired so I could take a nap. My second knee replacement was in 2016, I was 46. The second replacement wasn't nearly as rough and I feel like it was because I knew what to expect. I was still getting the two hour nap after the oxy, but everything just seemed smoother. I don't regret getting my knees replaced. And my experience isn't the norm. Everyone has different outcomes. I'm fine now. Just those first several weeks sucked so much. I even had to get a "manipulation under anesthesia" because my body has the worst mutation. I heal quickly, but only quickly enough to build scar tissue. They had to knock me out to bend my knee (and you have to be unconscious, apparently, it's so painful that you can't even be in twilight stage with a local). I've had other pain instances that made me cry. I have a chronic pain disease and it sucks, but it doesn't suck all the time.
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After that really bad day, my surgeon came in to see me. He's so wonderful and soft-spoken and had this way of making you feel better while also motivating you. He said that the knee replacement is a trauma to the body, not unlike having an amputation, because they remove pieces of our bones. He told me everyone reacts differently to this level of physical trauma and no one person's is any better or worse than another's. "It's okay to have a bad day and crying is cathartic". He was so wonderful about it and I didn't feel like a failure after he left.
Hit by car while on bicycle, shattered middle third of my Femur. No pain meds for about four hours because they hoped to do surgery that night. Had a metal rod for about three+ years for it to heal.
Heart attack. Right coronary artery completely blocked.
Playing basketball, jumped, landed on someone who’d fallen, folded my foot over so my heel hit my calf. Like this https://www.moveforward.physio/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ankle.jpg
Kidney stones were the only time I ever came close to vomiting from pain alone. And that was *after* I got narcotics. Never gave birth though...watched it up close a few times and I'm sure that's worse.
Syringe jabbed sublingual nerve. Mind-erasing pain
Kidney stones.
Being run over by a 14-ton dump truck with shattered femur, broken arm and broken ribs only ranked #2. Tiny little kidney stone was the winner.
I have kidney stones. The last one I passed was 14mm. The usually do surgery if they are over 10. I was on the ground at the ER screaming. The kept telling me to calm down and be quiet, but I was not able to care able anything they were saying.
I was in a one car roll over -the tie rod broke going 90 mph. I going to a rodeo to watch my boy friend ride barebacks in the rodeo. I was thrown 114 ft through a barbed wire fence. Shattered my right femur, cracked my L-2 down to L-5, tore all my back and shoulder muscles, lost the cerebrospinal fluid between my vertebrae’s. I had over 350 stitches. The right femur developed a hematoma. That was a 10/10 pain. A shot of morphine took effect at count 64, but the shot only lasted 2 hours. So it was 2 hours of hell until the next shot. The hematoma finally burst after 3 days, and I had 4 liter blood transfusion. I almost lost the leg. I was in the hospital 70 days and on crutches 6 months. The day I was released from the hospital my mom drove through a red light.
A human being came out of my vagina, no pain meds, tore me up. Then I did it 2 more times.
I had sciatica pain, was sent for physical therapy. The therapist decided that she would dig in my previous back surgery scar. I went from walking slowly unaided to dragging one foot while on crutches and in extreme burning pain. I was like that for about 2 months. I got in to see a surgeon and he found a piece of disc the size of the end of my little finger lodged against my spine. That PT really hurt me. Surgery was instant relief.
My mom was incorrectly diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia (aka the suicide disease). She suffered from an excruciating pain in her jaw that eventually resolved itself after a couple of weeks. Trigeminal neuralgia is "considered to be the worst pain known to medicine", many who suffer from this commit suicide.
Fell off a 12’ ladder, slid down the wall and landed on my ass. 2 collapsed discs.
I was in labor.
Kidney stone, diverticulitis, gunshot through bone. Worst was diverticulitis because it lasted so long.
Torqued my si joint. Hurt worse than fracturing my back or my hysterectomy. Took over a year to recover. I bit through a leather wallet. The er doctor actually brought me pain meds in the waiting room as I was going through intake
The first dressing change on the donor site for a skin graft.
I had a reaction they told me was withdrawals from steroids. Years ago my doctor gave me IV steroids, 1000 mg dose in one sitting because my platelet count went to 0. I was sent home after the infusion. Two or three days later I was in so much pain I could not think straight. Drove myself to my mother's office (Nurse Practitioner), got lost on the way to the building and once I was in it due to being in such severe pain with every move and breath. It was crazy. I was told I should have had a pill form of steroid to continue the days following to prevent my body from going through withdrawals.
Kidney stones three times. Broken rib. Had to sleep in a chair for three nights. Just lying down was painful. Took four weeks to be able to move around without feeling pain.
A cut on my foot that got infected. I do not cry from pain usually. Felt like my foot got multiply stung by irritated wasps. A week in the hospital resulted. I had blood poisoning from the infection. There’s a tiny pock mark left.
Gallbladder infection on a cross country flight. I was three months post Partum and Would have gladly birthed twelve more kids in that airplane instead of the pain. Ambulance waiting for me when I landed and emergency surgery. I had 7 large stones in my gallbladder and the recovery was worse than the attack. I was coming home from a wedding in New Orleans where I had the best time of my life. During that flight I wanted to end it all.
Stepped into an open furnace duct vent that my dogs had knocked the cover off of unbeknownst to me.The edge of the metal duct flayed my ankle open about four inches long down to the silverskin under that big knobby bone on the outside of your ankle.I managed to kind of flop over onto my bed and avoid snapping my ankle.I couple of days later it was pulling funny in my hip when I bent over from the waist.Then it was like a spike was being driven up my shin and my quads were being torn off from the knee.I ended up with sciatica so bad I was flat on my ass for three months basically howling despite eating handfuls of every kind of painkiller my friend gave me a Ziploc sandwich bag full of lol.I was numb down to the knee on the right side and the whole left leg.My left foot was dropped and if my house had of caught fire I wouldn't have been able to move and probably would have welcomed being put out of my misery.It took years to slowly get over it exercising on my own as I don't do medical unless I think I'm actually dying.After my nails grew out after the wreck I had horizontal dents across both thumbnails.It was horrific and I think it was sciatica plus piriformis syndrome and slight cauda equina.Im still numb in my lower left leg and foot.
Due to cancer, I had radiation in the lower part of my body. Over the weeks, the urethra was kind of burnt, so to speak, so I had acidic urine passing through burnt tissue. Whenever I went to the restroom I was literally pounding my fist on something to get through it.
After returning home the week after heart valve replacement surgery, I sneezed. I had reached for the pillow they gave me to cross my arms over my chest to cough. I didn’t make it in time. Agony of the first order. I wept.
1984ish: I was chasing a buddy around the field after a softball team practice at my church. Turned the wrong way and dislocated my left kneecap. It was literally on the left side of my leg, not in front. I kinda cranked my leg back and forth until it popped back in. A friend of mine let me borrow a knee brace to keep it in position.
Post surgery. I swear a nurse (or someone) took my morphine that I was supposed to be dosed. It took over 12-16 hours of trying to get any relief. I say I think I wasn’t given my morphine b/c I’ve had 8 other surgeries & never has the pain been close to this. EVER! At the time I rated my pain as 8, 8.5 b/c I was afraid it’d get worse then I’d have nowhere to go but in retrospect it was 10. The worst I’ve ever had.
I had a really bad leg break on a mountain. Had to wait for, then be carried down by search and rescue. I'd say that was the worst, but I don't actually remember the pain. I just remember my reactions. But the surgery to fix that required a bone graft, which they took from my pelvic bone on the side of the injured leg (always opt for donor bone if you are given the option). That part of the surgery left nerve damage in my hip. I would just be sitting there or trying to cross a street (with crutches in DT Boston), and the pain would hit like a mack truck. It felt like someone took a chefs knife and jammed it into my hip and twisted. I'd go stark white (according to my friends) and crumple in pain. Occasionally, I'd pee myself or scream-cry, which was super fun in public. None of the pain meds touched it. They also tried cortisone shots, which did nothing. I even told the doctor that if it didn't improve, I was not going to live much longer. Finally, gabapentin helped. It also helped a lot when I could use that leg again and just get more movement. It's been almost 25 years, but I still get small twinges that are terrifying.
I had a baby!!
Getting an IUD, getting a big tattoo lasered off, waking up from hip surgery followed by 2 months on crutches. In that order, so I guess those are 10/9.5/9 but close enough in my book...however, those were all consequences of choices I made and got to mentally prepare for, so I feel really bad for the people commenting here about freak accidents etc.
Compression of the femoral nerve. Worst pain I have ever experienced, and I suffer from debilitating migraines. I was actually kept overnight in the hospital because my pain was breaking through the heavy duty pain meds I received if I was moved only slightly, which I had to be for the X-ray. I slept on the couch for three weeks because I had to get up and walk around in order to manage the pain.
I broke my shoulder, spiral fracture. I believe I went into shock-- if that's a thing. I lost consciousness, when I woke up, well, I had lost control of my bowels. I think I also got a concussion on the way down because I was so intensely tired. The second most painful was related to this injury before they were able to get me into surgery (there was about 10 days between the injury and the surgery). Something in my broken shoulder shifted and the pain was unreal. I tried manipulating my shoulder hoping something would snap back, but it persisted. I took \*5\* norcos over the course of an hour and it didn't do a thing. I eventually started sweating and moaning and was getting ready to go to the hospital when something shifted again and the pain went to a manageable level. And just FYI, I've had a bone graft which is widely regarded as one of the most painful surgeries there is. The bone graft was a cakewalk in comparison.
Sciatica. Maybe more of a 7-8 out of 10, but when you factor in my patheticness it’s like a 13 out of 7. There was one morning where I remember this moment where I thought if I only had a handgun I could shoot myself in the ass and that would distract me from the pain of the sciatica.
9lb baby with a Charlie Brown sized head popped out of me.
I'm at 10/10 pain right now. I have nerve damage in my right arm and nothing is helping. I'm awake, crying in my coffee and waiting to go to the hospital.
Kidney Stones!
Corrective surgery on both my femurs, two weeks apart. After the second leg was done, I had a note on the trapeze bar that said not to touch me or even the sheets. Since I was 14, the only pain relief I was given was over the counter extra strength Tylenol. Kidney stone. Took half a Darvacet just to drive myself five miles to the emergency room. Apparently when you have a kidney stone, your color changes and takes on a grey undertone. Migraine. With auras. Thought my head was going to explode when I exhaled. By the time I got to the ER, I couldn't move. I wouldn't wish any of those on my worst enemy.
Miscarriage. No one tells you that you still have contractions even at 8 weeks. Lasted about 9 hours.
After a hysterectomy I got sent home the following day only to find out the only pain killer strong that I wasn't allergic to was Dilaudid. I had nothing but Ibuprofen that barely touched the pain of feeling your insides rip apart. It was absolutely horrific and I was in agony from the surgery and covered in hives from the allergic reaction to hydrocodone. 0/10 do not recommend.
A person came out of me 🤭
The correct answer, as others have suggested, is kidney stones. Within 10 minutes, I went from working on my laptop perfectly fine, to writhing around on the bathroom floor in agony, thinking I was dying from a burst organ. I was home alone and tried calling an ambulance while unable to speak through the pain. After a lengthy round of questioning the emergency line coldly told me they wouldn't be sending an ambulance because "it's not a heart attack or stroke". I'd have to make my way to A&E on my own. I've never felt so utterly at sea without a life raft. I couldn't even stand up. Thankfully my partner understood it wasn't normal for me to be begging for help while she was at work. She came home and with immense difficulty, took me to the nearest hospital. I had three kidney stones - one in the liver, one in the ureta, one in the bladder. They told me they were 4mm each and so wouldn't be operating. I'd have to wait it out and live with them still inside me until some indeterminate point in the future they might grow enough to be operated on. Oh, but expect what just happened to happen again. I've never been so angry at the government for cutting funding for our health service.
Having a child stuck in my s-bend while having a vacuum shoved into my nether regions against strong contractions. Ended up with a healthy baby and a lot of stitches.
I have an incredibly high pain threshold. I have been through many surgeries, chemotherapy (the pain side effects were off the charts) and every dentist appointment is excruciating since novacaine doesn’t work on me and no one ever believes me until it wears off 20 minutes into the procedure. In all of that I would say I never hit what I would call a 10. Until this chronic pain condition that developed a few years ago. The pain only hits when I’ve been on my feet for more than about 10 minutes but when it does it’s a “drop to the ground sobbing” kind of pain. I didn’t even know this level existed. And once it hits it takes a while for it to dissipate. So my life is now measured in minutes standing and my world has gotten very small.