Worst Pain You've Ever Felt

[Dom Heffner]

As I said on another thread with a correction I forgot about (it was the second worst by far):

1) Asthma attack
2) Woke up in the middle of a colonoscopy (I was under an amnesiac/twilight type drug- which obviously didn't work very well- when they took tissue sample from my colon and the pain awakened me. It hurt so bad I hit the tech and we got into a screaming match. It happened twice.
3) Abcess tooth

[WMR]

Rooting for the Bengals

[marcshoe]

From the other thread:

I was in a car wreck many years ago, and some time later discovered that I had torn a hole in my diaphragm. My colon apparently wanted to go exploring and tried to move up, through the small hole, into my chest cavity. It managed to partly make it. I threw up for a longer period of time than I would have thought possible and remained doubled over for a long, long time.

They flayed open my back, pushed the colon back down where it belonged, sewed up the diaphragm, and vacumed out my chest cavity.


Second worst was my first kidney stone, followed by a bad front tooth.

[Deepred05]

Burned the whole right side of my body when a radiator hose popped off and sprayed me. Incredibly it missed my face by seconds as I had put my head in there to try to hear where the hissing was coming from. Third degree burns over 25% of my body. Not so much as a scar today.

[wheels]

From the other thread:

I was in a car wreck many years ago, and some time later discovered that I had torn a hole in my diaphragm. My colon apparently wanted to go exploring and tried to move up, through the small hole, into my chest cavity. It managed to partly make it. I threw up for a longer period of time than I would have thought possible and remained doubled over for a long, long time.

They flayed open my back, pushed the colon back down where it belonged, sewed up the diaphragm, and vacumed out my chest cavity.


Second worst was my first kidney stone, followed by a bad front tooth.

Holy Mackeral.

I don't know if anyone can beat that one.

I once popped my kneecap up almost to my thigh during a football game. Stupid idiot that I was, I jammed it back down without coming off the field and played the rest of the game.

After that (and a knee scope), I became the slowest runner in the history of high school athletics.

Hence the nickname Wheels, which is still my real nickname to this very day.

[Reds Fanatic]

A year ago I had a kidney stone and it is amazing the amount of pain a little stone can cause. I woke up in the middle of the night in the worst pain I have ever felt and the stone was fairly small but it caused a lot of pain until I got some good painkillers at the hospital.

[Chip R]

Gastroenteritis for about a week when I was a senior in college.

[Yachtzee]

ACL surgery. They took a graft from my patellar tendon and drilled a hole through my bones to run the graft through as a replacement ACL. Before they had given me anything for the pain, I woke up in the recovery room, screaming from the white hot pain that was searing through my leg and shooting out to the entire length of my body. Just thinking about it makes my teeth and toes tingle.

#2 was back pain from a herniated disk. I woke up one morning and it felt like someone had taken an ax and just hit me right in the lower back. The pain was so bad I couldn't lift the weight of the upper half of my body out of bed. I couldn't get out of bed for 3 days and had to walk with a cane for a month after that.

[minus5]

A stone in my liver (yeah, liver) that kept starting to pass and going back in. It finally came out (I have no idea where it passed to) and I turned bright yellow for a few days, my doctor didn't realize that my severe abdominal pain was from a liver stone and was in quarantine because they thought I had a nasty case of hepititis. It was just all the backed up bile in my bloodstream finally getting back out of my liver.....weird.

[minus5]

Oh yeah, I had 4 herniated discs from a car accident, that hurt too...and once while mowing the grass I popped something or other in my calf and thought someone had shot me in the leg.

[jimbo]

2) Woke up in the middle of a colonoscopy (I was under an amnesiac/twilight type drug- which obviously didn't work very well- when they took tissue sample from my colon and the pain awakened me. It hurt so bad I hit the tech and we got into a screaming match. It happened twice.

Oh, wonderful. I'm supposed to be scheduling one of those within the next month. I had one about 10 years ago and do not remember having any problems, but I wish I had skipped this thread. :scared:

[sonny]

I had a screw go through my eyeball.

While trying to get a stripped screw from something, It got to the end and the pressure from the driver and the plate cause the screw to spring our right into my left eye. I had shattered my lens and it had to be replaced with a plastic lens that needs "cleaned up" every couple of years with a laser.

By the way, it really hurt.

[WMR]

I had a screw go through my eyeball.

While trying to get a stripped screw from something, It got to the end and the pressure from the driver and the plate cause the screw to spring our right into my left eye. I had shattered my lens and it had to be replaced with a plastic lens that needs "cleaned up" every couple of years with a laser.

By the way, it really hurt.

Oh. My. God.

[pedro]

When I a freshman in HS I fell off a cliff and broke my wrist, shoulder and hip. Then my friends carried me off the mountain, dropping me a couple of times on the way.

[Blimpie]

When I was 38 years old, I had open heart surgery performed to correct a congenital birth defect. Essentially, they had to crack my chest and shave down the size of my septum.

After enjoying a chest tube for a few days, the time came for them to remove it. I don't know if the ICU nurse was inexperienced with the procedure or not....

But, without a doubt, it was the greatest amount of pain I have ever experienced in my life.

[SunDeck]

When I was a fireman I once made a run where a guy had been using a belt sander. It slipped and ran into his thigh, biting into his skin through his pants. About three inches of skin was caught between the belt roller and the housing. We had to take him to the ER with the belt sander attached to his thigh. Now, I made a lot of runs and saw some pretty egregious stuff, but nothing struck me as being any more painful than that.

[cumberlandreds]

Reading this thread has put me in pain. Gee,you guys have been through it. I can't say anything that can come close to most of these. Probably mine would be turning my ankle really bad and it swelling to about the size of a basketball. But that's a piece of cake compared to your colon trying come up your body.

[Falls City Beer]

I've had broken bones, terrible gastro pain, but the worst by far is an abscessed tooth. Nightmare.

Brush your teeth, kids.

[Rojo]

Heading full speed down a steep hill on a bike, my foot got caught in the spokes of the front wheel. When the caught foot met the fork, the front wheel stopped. The momementum sent the back of the bike -- and me -- flying. I landed a block away, on my elbow, cracking it. It was late at night. Yes, I was drunk.

Getting it fixed would've meant telling my folks, I was still a dependent at 19 and covered by the Marine Corps.

So I lived in denial for five days, going to my job at the movie theater where I slung popcorn, wincng in pain every time, as my arm swelled up like Popeye and turned a purplish green color.

Finally, I had to show her the arm. She flipped.

I still have the pins they drove in my arm with a hammer.

[GAC]

The passing of my Dad, which has been 10 years ago this past Christmas.

[SunDeck]

A drunken grocery cart race down Warner ave.- I was pushing, running behind the thing as fast as I could go. We hit something, a crack in the pavement, a homeless guy, I don't know. The cart stopped, I kept going right into the handle, just below belt high if you know what I mean. There was some serious swelling and bruising the next morning.

[Gainesville Red]

Couple of years ago a guy jumped my best friend and sliced his throat. I ran over and knocked the guy. While trying to minimize the amount of blood pouring out of his neck while waiting for the ambulance, the guy came back and stabbed me in the back six times and once in the back of the head.

Rough couple of months followed. Blade nicked a vertebra, punctured a lung. All kind of staples and stitches. Whoever said earlier that having a chest tube removed wasn't joking. Apparently there's no gentle way to do it. They just kind of yank it out of your lung. On the plus side, I have a sweet looking scar on the back of my head.

P.S.: My buddy's fine today. He died in the ambulance and hospital a couple of times. Paramedics and police said I his life, so I guess I'm pretty awesome.

[sonny]

Couple of years ago a guy jumped my best friend and sliced his throat. I ran over and knocked the guy. While trying to minimize the amount of blood pouring out of his neck while waiting for the ambulance, the guy came back and stabbed me in the back six times and once in the back of the head.

Rough couple of months followed. Blade nicked a vertebra, punctured a lung. All kind of staples and stitches. Whoever said earlier that having a chest tube removed wasn't joking. Apparently there's no gentle way to do it. They just kind of yank it out of your lung. On the plus side, I have a sweet looking scar on the back of my head.

P.S.: My buddy's fine today. He died in the ambulance and hospital a couple of times. Paramedics and police said I his life, so I guess I'm pretty awesome.

I think we have a winner.

[Blimpie]

Whoever said earlier that having a chest tube removed wasn't joking. Apparently there's no gentle way to do it. They just kind of yank it out of your lung.:wave:

[WMR]

Couple of years ago a guy jumped my best friend and sliced his throat. I ran over and knocked the guy. While trying to minimize the amount of blood pouring out of his neck while waiting for the ambulance, the guy came back and stabbed me in the back six times and once in the back of the head.

Rough couple of months followed. Blade nicked a vertebra, punctured a lung. All kind of staples and stitches. Whoever said earlier that having a chest tube removed wasn't joking. Apparently there's no gentle way to do it. They just kind of yank it out of your lung. On the plus side, I have a sweet looking scar on the back of my head.

P.S.: My buddy's fine today. He died in the ambulance and hospital a couple of times. Paramedics and police said I his life, so I guess I'm pretty awesome.

Did they catch the guy who did it?

What were the circumstances?

What sort of punishment did he get?

That is extremely scary stuff.

[gilpdawg]

Couple of years ago a guy jumped my best friend and sliced his throat. I ran over and knocked the guy. While trying to minimize the amount of blood pouring out of his neck while waiting for the ambulance, the guy came back and stabbed me in the back six times and once in the back of the head.

Rough couple of months followed. Blade nicked a vertebra, punctured a lung. All kind of staples and stitches. Whoever said earlier that having a chest tube removed wasn't joking. Apparently there's no gentle way to do it. They just kind of yank it out of your lung. On the plus side, I have a sweet looking scar on the back of my head.

P.S.: My buddy's fine today. He died in the ambulance and hospital a couple of times. Paramedics and police said I his life, so I guess I'm pretty awesome.
Holy crap dude! You're the man.

[Gainesville Red]

Did they catch the guy who did it?

What were the circumstances?

What sort of punishment did he get?

That is extremely scary stuff.

Caught the guy who did it a couple hours later.

Ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Really flipped out. We were leaving a party in an apartment complex. My buddy probably didn't even see the guy coming. Happened really fast. He doesn't remember anything from the night, or a couple weeks before for that matter. Just a weird, dangerous, jealous guy I guess.

He went to jail. Don't know if he's still in. I think his name was Paul something.

Scary stuff indeed.

[WMR]

I wonder if they charged him with attempted murder? Certainly sounds as though his intent was to kill you guys.

When did this happen?

[Gainesville Red]

I guess this was a little over three years ago. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they charged him with attempted murder. I'd have to google the old newspaper articles to be sure.

[WMR]

Damn, pretty recently then!! :(

Glad you're okay, buddy.

[Gainesville Red]

I asked him, he said four years ago. My bad.

[WMR]

I asked him, he said four years ago. My bad.

That guy still hasta be in prison. Surely.

[WMR]

Good thing about Florida courts: they don't play around with sentencing.

[KronoRed]

Lets see pictures of the scar GR :D

Seriously, glad you guys came out ok, what a nut job :help:

[Handofdeath]

I've had broken bones, terrible gastro pain, but the worst by far is an abscessed tooth. Nightmare.

Brush your teeth, kids.

Absolutely. I once had three at one time. I no longer have any of my original teeth. Got the 18 that were left pulled because I just kept having problems, a lot of which there was nothing I could do about. The dentist hurried through it and I wound up with dentures that a guy made that looked like they came out of a horse's mouth. They were so big and my mouth so sore I couldn't take my pain medicine for the first 36 hours. FCB is right. Please take care of your teeth.

[Gainesville Red]

Lets see pictures of the scar GR :D



Scars really aren't as bad as you'd think. It was just a pocket knife or something. No slashes, small blade. Just look like little lines on my back.

The one on the back of my head is the only one that's really cool looking. Just the kind of scar on the back of the head that doesn't allow hair doesn't grow. I think it looks cool.

[Scrap Irony]

Back pain since June this summer. As a golf coach, I thought I'd pulled a muscle, or, maybe, had some sort of weird back thing. Turned out I had a giant cell tumor that had eaten through my T-2 vertebra, almost severing my spinal column.

A cage in place of the vertebra and a couple titanium rods on each side of my spinal column later, I felt okay.

But, in order to put in the cage, the surgeon had to slice off two ribs and spread the others. Nine total ribs cracked or bruised plus the two cut out.

Couldn't breathe properly for three months.

Two weeks ago, my lower extremities went all numb yet again and they had to re-affix the cage on my spinal column. Turns out the tumor is extremely aggressive and grew back in just over six weeks.

At least this time they didn't mess with my ribs, which just healed two weeks ago.

Worst pain ever.

[WMR]

Holy crap. :(

[Tommyjohn25]

Back pain since June this summer. As a golf coach, I thought I'd pulled a muscle, or, maybe, had some sort of weird back thing. Turned out I had a giant cell tumor that had eaten through my T-2 vertebra, almost severing my spinal column.

A cage in place of the vertebra and a couple titanium rods on each side of my spinal column later, I felt okay.

But, in order to put in the cage, the surgeon had to slice off two ribs and spread the others. Nine total ribs cracked or bruised plus the two cut out.

Couldn't breathe properly for three months.

Two weeks ago, my lower extremities went all numb yet again and they had to re-affix the cage on my spinal column. Turns out the tumor is extremely aggressive and grew back in just over six weeks.

At least this time they didn't mess with my ribs, which just healed two weeks ago.

Worst pain ever.

Umm...that's horrible! :( Do the Doctors think they got it this time around?

[WMR]

This thread has made me feel like a real pansy.

:knocks on wood:

[Gainesville Red]

God, that sounds terrible.

[vaticanplum]

I'm waiting for a woman to pop into this thread to talk about childbirth.

I've not experienced anything like the pain on this thread (some of which has actually made me a little dizzy). The worst pain I ever had probably resulted from a fainting episode. I faint a few times a year on average and have fallen in all kinds of unseemly ways. The nice (and extremely weird) thing about fainting is that you can have the crap beaten out of you while you faint and never feel a thing. I've fallen into tables, burnt my hand, sprained an ankle, you name it.

But one time I was in a doctors office and had blood taken -- just a little finger prick, so I thought I might not faint. Wrong. The nurse left and I started to feel dizzy, which made me make the extremely stupid decision to try to put my head down to get some blood to it. Problematically, I was sitting on an examining table. I woke up and had no idea where I was, which is always the case when you come to after fainting, but then the next thing I realized was that my entire head felt like it was splitting apart and I had blood all over me. I had fallen head-first (and full-force, since when you're fainting you have nothing to break your fall) on the sink counter and somehow also scraped off the entire center of my face on the carpet. I had a concussion, a chipped tooth, and due to all the missing skin down the center of my face, I also looked like Hitler for two months. Very unsightly. Extremely painful. My whole body felt like it had been hit like a truck.

So, worst pain ever for me. Relatively speaking, though, kid stuff. I've been very lucky.

[paintmered]

As a kid, I took a fastball to the bridge of my nose. It shattered my nose and made for a bad day, but it's still nothing like some of the stories shared in this thread.

[vaticanplum]

Oh, I also got hit by a bus once. I was the dumbflip American looking the wrong way down the street in England. But actually, that didn't hurt too badly. The bus wasn't going very fast.

[paintmered]

Oh, I also got hit by a bus once. I was the dumbflip American looking the wrong way down the street in England. But actually, that didn't hurt too badly. The bus wasn't going very fast.

So you're the reason why they have "Look right ---->" painted on the roads in London?

[TC81190]

I can't match anything thing in this thread. At least not physical pain.

The worst pain I've been through is emotional; I'd go into detail, but it's probably laughable to you guys.

[HumnHilghtFreel]

Man, I can't beat most of you guys...

But the worst I've had I would probably have to say was a torn lumbar muscle. It takes the cake simply because of how long the pain lasted. I was in a soccer game and I went to slidetackle a guy and legs got tangled, I made a weird twist and didn't really feel anything. Went to get up and... I couldnt! It felt so bad I just had to lie there. I didn't get it checked out until the next day when I also couldn't get out of bed.

After that, it would be the time I slipped in the shower and put a small tear in my MCL and chipped small parts of my knee cap. I could actually see the little bone chips "floating" around in the swollen knee. Ended my highschool sports career with that one :(

[Gainesville Red]

The fainting is scary. I lived with a girl for a couple of years that had the same problem. A couple of times a year she would faint. Real out of the blue. No real rhyme or reason to it. Very scary and very frustrating. She couldn't get a doctor to give her a real solid answer as to why it was happening.

They would just tell her to be careful. As I'm sure VP can confirm, it's tough to be careful when it only happens a couple times a year. Makes driving scary.

[bthomasiscool]

I have two shoulders that constantly dislocate/separate. First time it happened I was playing home run derby in my buddy's back yard, tried swinging left handed (normally a righty) and my shoulder popped out of socket and stayed out. It was ridiculously painful (I don't handle pain well at all).

[vaticanplum]

The fainting is scary. I lived with a girl for a couple of years that had the same problem. A couple of times a year she would faint. Real out of the blue. No real rhyme or reason to it. Very scary and very frustrating. She couldn't get a doctor to give her a real solid answer as to why it was happening.

They would just tell her to be careful. As I'm sure VP can confirm, it's tough to be careful when it only happens a couple times a year. Makes driving scary.

Non-fainters get very concerned, but I think for some people it just happens. All the women in my family faint. I'm sure it's compounded by the fact that I have a low pulse, low blood pressure (hypotension), low body temperature...basically, I'm barely alive. Seriously, though, if it's connected to an actual physical problem driving might be a concern, but for people to whom it just happens there's usually some warning or cause (drop in blood pressure via blood taken, listening to a gory story on the radio etc.) I've learned that fighting fainting can actually be worse. It makes you terribly nauseated and usually doesn't even work.

Suffice it to say, nothing like getting stabbed in the back. Not even close.

[919191]

This doesn't compare either, to some of the above. When I was 15, I caught an elbow playing basketball in PE and got 2 teth knocked out. They weren't broken, and the dentist pushed them both in at the same time. It made a loud pop (he said it was the air being forced out of the socket around the tooth), and he was pushing so hard veins were bulging on his forearms. When they popped in it hurt so bad, in a hot kind of way, bt for only a moment. It was so intense. Then, I had to get root canals. He said since they were now "dead" he didn't need to apply anesthesia. Well, they ween't dead yet. He drilled into a still living tooth and I came up ouy of the chair. Pain was beyond description.

[Deepred05]

I'm waiting for a woman to pop into this thread to talk about childbirth.

I've not experienced anything like the pain on this thread (some of which has actually made me a little dizzy). The worst pain I ever had probably resulted from a fainting episode. I faint a few times a year on average and have fallen in all kinds of unseemly ways. The nice (and extremely weird) thing about fainting is that you can have the crap beaten out of you while you faint and never feel a thing. I've fallen into tables, burnt my hand, sprained an ankle, you name it.

But one time I was in a doctors office and had blood taken -- just a little finger prick, so I thought I might not faint. Wrong. The nurse left and I started to feel dizzy, which made me make the extremely stupid decision to try to put my head down to get some blood to it. Problematically, I was sitting on an examining table. I woke up and had no idea where I was, which is always the case when you come to after fainting, but then the next thing I realized was that my entire head felt like it was splitting apart and I had blood all over me. I had fallen head-first (and full-force, since when you're fainting you have nothing to break your fall) on the sink counter and somehow also scraped off the entire center of my face on the carpet. I had a concussion, a chipped tooth, and due to all the missing skin down the center of my face, I also looked like Hitler for two months. Very unsightly. Extremely painful. My whole body felt like it had been hit like a truck.

So, worst pain ever for me. Relatively speaking, though, kid stuff. I've been very lucky.

I remember going into the hospital with back spasms. Hurt like hell. The nurse tells me that this is the closest I will come to experiencing childbirth. What I told her cannot be repeated on this forum.

Gainseville!! A true American Hero. Did you have time to think about it or was it all reaction?? I am a coward at heart, but I like to think that if I didn't have TOO much time to think about it I would do the right thing. :beerme:

[guttle11]

I've sprained my ankle a few times, broken a few bones, and stubbed many a toe on a table/ottoman. Sprained ankle wins by far. First is hurts, then it burns a bit, then it just hurts real bad for a few hours. I don't have a high pain tolerance, so it's probably a good thing that I've been serious injury free in my life (knock on wood).

[BoydsOfSummer]

Those Jackass puds have nothing on RedsZone.

Toothaches and earaches don't sound like much, but those who have had them know the agony.

VP brought up child birth. This is the one subject I don't care to hear about. It totally chills me and "creeps" me out for some reason. I've killed/gutted several hundred animals and am assisting in dissecting an actual human being but that subject gives me the heebie-jeebies for some reason.

Guess I won't be around for my first born's arrival, eh?

[Roy Tucker]

Worst pain I ever felt was when my first wife told me she didn't love me any more.

The current Mrs. Tucker gave birth to all 3 of our children without any kind of pain-killers. She doesn't like needles or drugs. After the first one was born, I said "look, I've seen what its like, it's really OK if you take something for the pain". She said "nope". She said its really not that bad. :dunno:

[dabvu2498]

Worst physical pain: 3 broken ribs during an intramural football game in college. But that's not the bad part. Went to the hospital and got taped up. Got back to the apartment and about an hour later, sneezed hard and blew them back out again. That sucked.

[vaticanplum]

Worst pain I ever felt was when my first wife told me she didn't love me any more.

The current Mrs. Tucker gave birth to all 3 of our children without any kind of pain-killers. She doesn't like needles or drugs. After the first one was born, I said "look, I've seen what its like, it's really OK if you take something for the pain". She said "nope". She said its really not that bad. :dunno:

That may have been her experience, but I'm willing to bed a lot of angry mothers would speak to different experience (including my own -- 30 hours of labor with a very stubborn baby). :)

You've seen the size of your babies, and you've seen the size of what they come out of. They don't really line up so well.

My understanding of a lot (not all) women's labor is that the only thing that makes it bearable, and in retrospect not the worst thing ever, is that you get a baby at the end.

[westofyou]

Worst metaphysical pain, end of first love.

Worst physical pain - Broke my ankle and didn't get it set for 3 days, on day three smacked it on the base of the toilet and well.....

Also root canal nerve was touched... short and nasty, an awesome electrical shock surged through my body.

[SunDeck]

My wife said that the great thing about childbirth is that, although the pain is absolutely excruciating, it's like you completely forget about it the moment it's over. She credits this rather cruel amnesia as the reason that any woman has ever chosen to give birth to more than one child.

[SunDeck]

I think the worst pain I ever experienced was the morning after shoulder surgery. I remember thinking that this must be what it feels like to get shot with a 12 gauge.

[Roy Tucker]

That may have been her experience, but I'm willing to bed a lot of angry mothers would speak to different experience (including my own -- 30 hours of labor with a very stubborn baby). :)

You've seen the size of your babies, and you've seen the size of what they come out of. They don't really line up so well.



My point exactly. I saw what she went though with our first. I thought she was crazy when she said she didn't want anything for our second.

I said "look, if it was me, I'd be begging for very strong drugs. I saw how this all went down. I don't think you recall clearly what this was like". But it was her decision.

So when she tells my daughters that birthing "isn't all that bad", I tell them to check back with me later and I'll tell them what it was really like.

[NYMoose]

Physical pain: About 15 years ago I had a piece of galvanized nail stuck in one of my eyes. The great part is that it had to be drilled out.

Last year I had a complete tear of my right achillies tendon. After about 20 minutes of quite potent pain, it wasn't too bad. Foot did not work very well though.

[TRF]

I had my gall bladder removed. This required a trifecta of pain.


1st the pain that caused it. Apparently I didn't have stones, I had gravel. It completely blocked my liver. this flared up on me three times in about 5 years. Always diagnosed as gas. My liver had swelled up in the episode that I had Hepatitis.
Catheter... need I say more.
drainage tube from where the gall bladder was. This felt like a knife coming out. at least I imagine that's what a knife would feel like.


That surgery was my first experience with projectile vomiting too. Imagine this fresh hell... Catheter, Drainage tube and vomiting so hard it goes across a room.

[flyer85]

easily ... passing kidney stones. The pain combined with the heaving was beyond description.

[RichRed]

The passing of my Dad, which has been 10 years ago this past Christmas.

I hear you, GAC, my dad passed last November. It hurts.

Worst physical pain was following cancer surgery. Incision was in my lower abdomen and for about a week afterwards, I thought I was going to pass out every time I stood up and tried to walk. Nausea from the radiation treatment only added to the awesomeness.

The good news: cancer-free now for 10+ years!

[Chip R]

My gastroenteritis certainly can't top most of these stories, especially GR's, but when I had my problem, I was in the process of moving out of a 3rd floor apartment all by myself and then driving from Omaha to my parents' house. I had to stop so many times to either go to the bathroom or just lie down somewhere to alleviate the pain. I went through commencement and then the day after went into the hospital. I broke my ankle a little over 3 years ago and that pain was nothing compared to that. Plus I could take pills for the ankle.

[Dom Heffner]

I hear you, GAC, my dad passed last November. It hurts.

Mine went in April of 2004. The pain will never get better, I'm convinced.

[SunDeck]

Frankie: What's the matter?

Willie: Eh, my shoulder hurts. You know - you know that narrow hallway in the boiler room? The one with the, uh--?

Frankie: Exposed bolts comin' out o' the wall?

Willie: Yeah. Well, every time I walk past it, the bolts dig right into my shoulder. I-- It's very painful.

Frankie: Boy. You wanna talk about some pain? I bought one o' them linoleum knives the other day, you know?

Willie: With the double edge?

Frankie: Right.

Willie: Yeah?

Frankie: So, I go home, you know, and I spread my toes apart and I just start sawing, back and forth and back and forth, you know?

Willie: Mm hmm.

Frankie: And I take a little thing o' Tobasco sauce, you know?

Willie: Yeah.

Frankie: And just dump it on there. Talk about a hotfoot, mister! Boy, that was rough.

Willie: Yeah, I know what you mean. You know, the other day, I took one o' them, uh--?

Frankie: Meat thermometers?

Willie: Yeah! And I just shoved it into my ear, you know? As far as it could go, you know? But then I took one o' them, uh--?

Frankie: Ball-peen hammers?

[marcshoe]

Hate it when that happens.

[Dom Heffner]

I'm willing to bed a lot of angry mothers

You know, I'd be willing to do the exact same thing. The mood never concerned me much. :)

[RFS62]

Yeesh..... youse guys and gals have been through some serious pain. I hate to even mention mine.

I had my lip stitched up with no antestetic when I was 12. Waited too long to tell my mom and the emergency room hack wouldn't numb it. Also had a big fish hook stuck in my head, past the barb. Doctor cut it from the lure with pliers and pushed it on through and pulled it out from the hook end, no antestetic then either.

Still small potatoes compared to some of the stories I've read here.

[SunDeck]

Yeesh..... youse guys and gals have been through some serious pain. I hate to even mention mine.

I had my lip stitched up with no antestetic when I was 12. Waited too long to tell my mom and the emergency room hack wouldn't numb it. Also had a big fish hook stuck in my head, past the barb. Doctor cut it from the lure with pliers and pushed it on through and pulled it out from the hook end, no antestetic then either.

Still small potatoes compared to some of the stories I've read here.

Did they stick a leach on the wound?

[Ltlabner]

Jeeeezuuusssss....I gotta quit reading this thread. You people have been through the ringer.

[Rojo]

Yeesh..... youse guys and gals have been through some serious pain. I hate to even mention mine.

I had my lip stitched up with no antestetic when I was 12. Waited too long to tell my mom and the emergency room hack wouldn't numb it.

Still small potatoes compared to some of the stories I've read here.


I don't know, that one makes me all squirmy, like torture.

[SteelSD]

Crushed my cheekbone playing baseball as a kid. Was playing 2B while doing basestealing drills. Took a throw from the catcher slightly off the bag toward the 1B side. Idiot runner was looking at the ball all the way, didn't slide, and smoked me with a knee to the head. Both luckily, and unluckily, I didn't pass out. In response to my coach's (another complete moron) demand that I just "Walk it off", I pointed to the growing pool of blood on the ground being expelled from what used to be my sinus cavity.

The bones broke in such a way that my left eye actually slid down a bit, which scared the bejeezus out of kids in the hospital waiting room. Hurt like nothing I've ever felt before or after, but they wouldn't give me anything at all to dull the pain prior to checking it out, running x-rays, etc. The fix was easy enough after they got me into surgery the next day, but waiting for a painkiller was the worst couple hours of my life.

The only thing that was even close was a couple years back when I had some sort of allergic reaction to something (docs could never figure out what it was) and ended up with a case of recurring, travelling full-body hives (including my face and scalp) that lasted for five days. The onset of each episode was so severe that huge wheals would explode my capillaries; leaving me with huge bruises all over my body. Three trips to the emergency room later, the docs finally prescribed ingestible steroids to help deal with this extremely nasty reaction. That may have saved my life when the hives finally went internal (yes, they can do that). The hives eventully hit my lungs, but because of the steroids I only experienced shortness of breath and burning rather than asphyxiation. And don't even get me started on how painful it is when wheals start busting out all over one's feet.

While the cheekbone issue was the most severe single event I went through, the hive issues were the single most frustrating thing ever.

[Tommyjohn25]

Can I get a vote for any time we hear the words "And here comes the lefty Mike Stanton out of the pen".

So painful...

[Raisor]

The only thing that was even close was a couple years back when I had some sort of allergic reaction to something (docs could never figure out what it was) and ended up with a case of recurring, travelling full-body hives (including my face and scalp) that lasted for five days. The onset of each episode was so severe that huge wheals would explode my capillaries; leaving me with huge bruises all over my body. Three trips to the emergency room later, the docs finally prescribed ingestible steroids to help deal with this extremely nasty reaction. That may have saved my life when the hives finally went internal (yes, they can do that). The hives eventully hit my lungs, but because of the steroids I only experienced shortness of breath and burning rather than asphyxiation. And don't even get me started on how painful it is when wheals start busting out all over one's feet.

.


I've been pretty much going through the same thing for the last couple years. Been to the ER six or seven times in that time period, mostly because my tongue starts swelling up. I'm on a bunch of precription allergy medicine, but can't take the steroids, since it seems I'm allergic to them too. Had a really bad reaction to them the last time they gave them to me in the ER.

Things have been better the last six months or so. I'm not breaking out in hives DAILY anymore, but then it's getting closer to spring, so we'll see. I can go days where I can barely move due to the pain from the swelling that happens.

This all reminds me that I need to get in for a check up soon.

[Rojo]

I've been pretty much going through the same thing for the last couple years. Been to the ER six or seven times in that time period, mostly because my tongue starts swelling up. I'm on a bunch of precription allergy medicine, but can't take the steroids, since it seems I'm allergic to them too. Had a really bad reaction to them the last time they gave them to me in the ER.

Things have been better the last six months or so. I'm not breaking out in hives DAILY anymore, but then it's getting closer to spring, so we'll see. I can go days where I can barely move due to the pain from the swelling that happens.

This all reminds me that I need to get in for a check up soon.

Yikes! Its cliche but its the "not knowing" that sucks.

[IslandRed]

Definitely don't have anything for some of these stories.

Although, the mere words "twisted testicle" might get some of you to involuntarily pick your feet up off the floor. I was in junior high. Woke up for school feeling like I'd taken a good old-fashioned knee to the groin, except it failed to get better. I tried to tough it out for awhile, even made it to school (which was only about three blocks away), but before first bell the discomfort finally won out over the embarrassment factor of explaining -- first to the principal, then to my mother -- what was wrong. Went to the doctor, and ended up having to have surgery to tack it back down.

Otherwise, I'm sure the worst pain I experienced was when I was three years old. Remember the old wooden swings they had back before safety everything? I ran out in front of an older cousin who was really flying on his swing, and ka-pow. Sent me flying across the playground and cracked my skull. I still have the scar. I assume it hurt like all get-out, but I don't remember it because I was only three. And unconscious.

[BUTLER REDSFAN]

I have four fingers on my left hand--When I was about 4 my dad was cutting the grass and left it running just long enough to grab a towel inside the door--For whatever crazy reason I walked over and just stuck my hand in where the grass comes out...It's all scant visions now--an ambulance-a crowd of neighbors gathering around-my dad all over the place--whats strange is I dont remember the pain--I just remember the sound the lawn mower made when I stuck my hand in it--got my ring finger and half my pinkie but the were able to sew the pinky back together...:(

[Yachtzee]

Crushed my cheekbone playing baseball as a kid. Was playing 2B while doing basestealing drills. Took a throw from the catcher slightly off the bag toward the 1B side. Idiot runner was looking at the ball all the way, didn't slide, and smoked me with a knee to the head. Both luckily, and unluckily, I didn't pass out. In response to my coach's (another complete moron) demand that I just "Walk it off", I pointed to the growing pool of blood on the ground being expelled from what used to be my sinus cavity.

The bones broke in such a way that my left eye actually slid down a bit, which scared the bejeezus out of kids in the hospital waiting room. Hurt like nothing I've ever felt before or after, but they wouldn't give me anything at all to dull the pain prior to checking it out, running x-rays, etc. The fix was easy enough after they got me into surgery the next day, but waiting for a painkiller was the worst couple hours of my life.



I can sympathize on that one. I broke my cheekbone when I was five. I was riding in the front seat of my aunt's car in the days before they told people not to let kids ride in the front seat. She almost got into an accident when someone pulled out in front of her. She slammed on the brakes and my face went flying into the dashboard. I cracked the dashboard in half with my face. The whole left side of my face was purple for weeks and if you look closely at my cheek, you can still see broken blood vessels there.

That was a rough year. I also slid into a glass terrarium while running through the house with a clean diaper for my mom who was changing my brother. I had a huge shard of glass sticking out of my left arm. The cut was so deep you could see the bone. I still remember looking down as they were stitching me up and just freaking out.

When I played baseball, I was behind the pitcher's mound during pre-game warm ups and the pitcher was tossing some bp when the batter hit a sharp one hopper that hit a rock and hit me an inch or two away from the family jewels. Even though it missed, it hit me hard enough so that I still spent half the game with a bag of ice on my groin.

[SteelSD]

I've been pretty much going through the same thing for the last couple years. Been to the ER six or seven times in that time period, mostly because my tongue starts swelling up. I'm on a bunch of precription allergy medicine, but can't take the steroids, since it seems I'm allergic to them too. Had a really bad reaction to them the last time they gave them to me in the ER.

Things have been better the last six months or so. I'm not breaking out in hives DAILY anymore, but then it's getting closer to spring, so we'll see. I can go days where I can barely move due to the pain from the swelling that happens.

This all reminds me that I need to get in for a check up soon.

Thank goodness I'm not allergic to any medication. I've had wandering hives before in HS, but those pretty much worked their way around once and then left. What you and I are talking about is just plain excruciating and I think the worst part other than the actual pain is the anticipation of it. Y'know, when you start seeing the little blotches and hope beyond hope that they don't turn into the soon-to-be-connected huge wheals? That just flat out sucks. Unfortunately for about three days in my case it took only three to five minutes for the entire trunk of my body from neck-to-waist to be covered. I took my shirt off in the emergency room during one visit and it looked like I had hive torso armor.

I have a really high pain tolerance. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't use novocaine if needing a cavity filled. But there's little that can match repeated quick-moving hive attacks. At one point, it literally reduced me to tears (part pain, part frustration) during the third major attack on my feet. Pure nasty and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.


Yikes! Its cliche but its the "not knowing" that sucks.

To this day, I'm convinced that it was some kind of insect bite or sting as I slept. The docs couldn't find evidence in the bloodwork, but I awoke to what felt like a tiny sharp pain on the back of my leg and even after the hives went away, I noticed a small reddish bump there with what looked like a tiny entry wound.

But yeah, not knowing for sure really does suck because you just don't know what to stay away from. I'm not allergic to anything I know of so not knowing what caused such a reaction is a bit unsettling.

[HumnHilghtFreel]

Ah, reading some of the childhood stories brings me back to one. It's another of the "don't really remember the pain, but I remember screaming my head off" type deals.

I was about 4 or so and obviously, trying to annoy my sister. So I kept running in and out of her room teasing. She ended up slamming the door, and I stuck my hand out to try and stop it annnnnnd... my fingertips were right in the crease. I ended up losing 3 fingernails, which I think scared me more than anything.

[SunDeck]

Ah, reading some of the childhood stories brings me back to one. It's another of the "don't really remember the pain, but I remember screaming my head off" type deals.

I was about 4 or so and obviously, trying to annoy my sister. So I kept running in and out of her room teasing. She ended up slamming the door, and I stuck my hand out to try and stop it annnnnnd... my fingertips were right in the crease. I ended up losing 3 fingernails, which I think scared me more than anything.

Oh, I got my finger caught in the door of my car once. I forgot about how painful that was. Lost the nail. On the advice of some guys who worked at my dad's machine tool shop (which gave them considerable experience in the area of smashed fingers) I heated up a needle and jammed it through the nail to relieve the pressure caused by the blood flowing into the bruise. It was disgusting, but it worked.

[WebScorpion]

I tore my ACL, and MCL playing volleyball once. As I went up to block, the guy on the other side of the net's feet came under the net and hit my leg so that I came down on it at an angle and crunch! ... I was lying in the sand with my right leg bent sideways at about a 45 degree angle. Everybody came to look and went EEeeewwww!! and turned away, so I pushed it back myself. That was pretty painful. I had the ACL replacement surgery done with a local anisthetic so I could watch them drill and hammer my leg. It was pretty interesting.

I've had two fillings in my teeth with no painkiller...not even a local. The funny thing is, to endure the pain you mentally transport yourself to another place but the dentist kept stopping and asking, "Are you okay?" ... finally I told him the question was more painful than the drilling, so shut up. He quit asking.

I had a hernia operation with a local painkiller too. THAT was pretty painful. Near the end of the procedure they grab all of your manly equipment and yank on it REALLY hard (leaves bruises) to make sure everything is descended to the right height. They didn't warn me they were going to do it, or I'd have surely flinched.

When I was 19 I was in a house fire and had 2nd and 3rd degree burns on my eye, shoulder, both hands, right thigh, and both feet. I spent 30 days in burn therapy...as far as physical pain, that was the limit. The twice daily scrubbing of the burns was pretty torturous.

Like GAC and others have stated, that doesn't compare with the pain of losing a loved one. My mother died of uterine cancer December 23, 2006 and my father passed away from a heart attack (broken heart) February 23, 2007...exactly 2 months later. That's the kind of pain I do not know how to ignore. I just feel it and know that it is a sign of their great love for me and mine for them. It would not hurt so much, had they not been such great people.

The really strange part is that even emotionally, I did not feel that was the worst pain. On December 10th, 1992 I jokingly asked my first wife, "Have you been cheating on me?" and her response was to drop her jaw and look at me with this shocked look of disbelief. Sometimes no answer is an answer. But the really painful part was not that she did not love me anymore and wanted a divorce, it was that at that moment I knew my relationship with my then 2-year old daughter was forever changed. It wasn't my fault (well not completely) and it definitely wasn't her fault, but we would never have the relationship of people who live in the same house together every day of their formative years. Knowing that then was just an insufferable crushing pain. So much that I almost convinced myself that she'd be better of with the life insurance money than having me around. Fortunately, my mother's voice in my head cursed me out for being a coward, so I continued on to the other side of the pain and my daugher and I have a wonderful, loving relationship that is worth all the pain and then some.

So life is full of pain, but there are so many little moments in life that make it all worthwhile. The joy to be found in life is boundless if you just take the time to recognize it, and appreciate the beauty of things. I am truly blessed. ;)

[MrsHammer]

I'm waiting for a woman to pop into this thread to talk about childbirth.....

(Raises Hand) Ok, I'll bite. I had a baby 20 months ago and I have to say that it was very painful for a few hours, but, a timely epidural made the pain magically disappear. Even though I was quite sore for a few months afterwards, I don't think even all that can compare to some of the things I've read on here. It is very cliche, but childbirth really is one of those things that is excruciating at the time, but as soon as it is over, recovery is quick and really not that bad. I think it is the nagging, lingering pain of afflictions that can't be 'fixed' that would be the true torture.

[Rojo]

I think it is the nagging, lingering pain of afflictions that can't be 'fixed' that would be the true torture.

You mean life? I just try to distract myself.

[Redhook]

What a thread!

I can't hang with many of you but I've had a couple of painful experiences with my mouth. I've had teethed pulled, all my wisdom teeth taken out, my gum that was covering a tooth lasered off (nothing like the smell of burning flesh), and my tonsils taken out.

Tonsilectomy at the age of 25 was far and away the most painful experience I've had. It was absolutely awful. It was 3 weeks of pain every time I swallowed. The first week it's very difficult to eat. Jello, ice cream, apple sauce, cold eggs, etc. Fun food for a day or two, but after that it blows.

Towards the end of the 2nd week the real pain kicked in. I don't know how many know this or not, but when they take the tonsils out there are two wounds. Well, these wounds would scab up like other wounds. It's a nasty, pale white color in the back of your mouth. Occasionally, about 3 or 4 times a day, these scabs would crack. And when I say crack, I mean they would shut your body down. Kind of like when you 'click' your teeth and you're somewhat paralyzed for a second before the pain hits. Once the pain hits, it hurts so bad you can't think. It's like that, but worse. Much worse. It was very painful.

Not comparable to having nails in the head or some of the other crazy stories on here, but having your tonsils taken out as adult is definitely a painful experience.

[Patrick Bateman]

In response to my coach's (another complete moron) demand that I just "Walk it off", I pointed to the growing pool of blood on the ground being expelled from what used to be my sinus cavity.


Once in gym class, one of the larger students (chubby rather than tall) flet his leg go out on him while he was running and couldn't get up. The teacher of course said "walk it off". Turned out he broke his leg.

[Dom Heffner]

I remembered another one.

In second grade, I made fun of some kid for having a girlfriend. Apparently that didn't sit so well with him because he waited until I went to get a drink from the water fountain and slammed my head down into it.

Ripped my gums off of my teeth. Ouch.

[Raisor]

True story time.

Back in college my roomate and I got into a argument over some baseball trivia. I got out my (hardback) edition of the Guinness Book of World Records to prove my point (I don't remember what the question was). Anyway, he got ticked off about being proven wrong, so he took the (hardback) edition of the Guinness Book of World Records and smashed me in the face with it, shattering my nose.

Now to the funny part.

After the cops had left, I was still bleeding like a stuck pig, so I was walking the two blocks to the campus medical center was located when a car pulled next to me. The fellow behind the wheel put his window down, looked at me (including all the blood on my white shirt) paused, then asked me where the performing arts center was on campus. While holding my nose shut I, being the nut that I am, went on to tell him exactly how to get where he wanted to go.

He never even asked if I was ok.

[Raisor]

I remembered another one.

In second grade, I made fun of some kid for having a girlfriend. Apparently that didn't sit so well with him because he waited until I went to get a drink from the water fountain and slammed my head down into it.

Ripped my gums off of my teeth. Ouch.



Dude, that reminds me, when I was in 4th grade or so, I got into a fist fight with another kid over something or other. I miscalculated a little because I was wearing my headgear at the time.

Dude punched me right in the face, with my headgear on.

Loosened ever single tooth I had.

eek

[pedro]

I stepped on a pork chop bone when I was 5 and had to have it cut out of my foot at the ER.

[George Foster]

My 1st year of high school I was walking into the gym for P.E. I had my books in one hand and my P.E. clothes in the other. I rounded the corner of the bleachers and....POW...I get hit in the forehead/bridge of nose with a baseball bat. I saw it coming but I could not do anything about it, my hands were full with books and shorts. The guy did not do it on purpose, but he was always in trouble with the law and at school. He was just goofing off swinging the bat.

One of my best friends, heard someone screaming while he was in class, but just thought some poor kid was getting paddled.

As I was falling to the ground, I actually could already see the swelling. I swear. I looked like Frankinstine(sp?) within seconds. I never passed out, just remember screaming.

Everyone came to look at me on the gym floor. Principals, teachers, even the Superintendent. My father was a judge at the time, and they must of told him it was pretty bad because he came into the gym in his black robe. My dad who is just a little "old school," said when the ambulance came, " he's fine, he talking ok, I'll just take him home." No x-rays, no pain pills...nothing. To make matters worse, school pictures were 2 days later. I looked like Cher's kid in the "Mask." Seriously.

5 years later, while I was in college, my dad called me out of the blue. He said, " Hey do you remember that punk who hit you in the head with the baseball bat?" I said, "uh...Randy C.?" He said, "ya, that's the turd....I just sent him to prison for 5 years. Just thought you would like to know.":D:D

[KittyDuran]

Since I've only had two surgeries in my entire life (both teeth being pulled and I was put under that) - the only worse pain that I felt was on a monthly basis (cramps)! That was before I found Midol with IB - which is the best thing since sliced bread.

Before that I would pray for the weekend to start my cycle so I wouldn't miss school or later work. If it didn't happen on the weekend I would be immobilized for at least 2 hours in the nurse's office or at work in a empty office, usually in a fetal position, rocking side to side and sometimes (though I don't remember) people would say that I would talk out of my head. The weapon of choice was usually just regular Midol, then Tylenol, then Midol Maximum Strength (which had a enough caffeine in one pill of 2 cups of coffee - and I would take 2 pills every 4 hours- I was wired).

With all the downside of menopause, it can't come soon enough for me...

[SteelSD]

Once in gym class, one of the larger students (chubby rather than tall) flet his leg go out on him while he was running and couldn't get up. The teacher of course said "walk it off". Turned out he broke his leg.

Gym class teachers are often stupid. We were forced to do tumbling over classmated lying on the floor when I was in grade school. I ran. I leapt. And I landed on my neck. I couldn't move or breathe for about 20 seconds. All I got in support was, "Hey, you're all right! Just walk it off."

Stupid people suck.

[Sean_CaseyRules]

My sophmore year in high school, im a senior now, I got cheap shotted in a JV game and tore my MCL, ACL, Carteledge (SP?), Miniscis, and broke my femur, all at once. Trying to stand up, and my leg just giving out was the worst pain ever.

2nd is having my Appendix rupture inside me, 45 mins before I was going into surgery.

[BuckeyeRedleg]

Spiral obilique break of the humerus. Completely shattered.

Pitching a baseball.

Slider. 0-2 count. 5th inning. Two outs. Shutout in progess.

[TeamSelig]

Dude, that reminds me, when I was in 4th grade or so, I got into a fist fight with another kid over something or other. I miscalculated a little because I was wearing my headgear at the time.

Dude punched me right in the face, with my headgear on.

Loosened ever single tooth I had.

eek

sounds like you need some self defense classes ;)

[dougdirt]

Girls.

[Cedric]

Waking up one day with MAJOR anxiety and not being able to sleep for about a week. Something went wrong with my head and I went from the happiest person alive to seriously just wanting to sleep forever ha. I finally got some medical help but I'm still not 100% the same. It's been about 9 months but I'm still not completely over it. I wake up every morning with a twinge of anxiety or something in my stomach that I can't explain. It's the weirdest thing to explain and the feeling is PAIN. Not having control of your brain or happiness is the worst pain I've ever had, bar none.

[Roy Tucker]

2nd grade, playing on the playground at recess. I was riding one of those merry-go-round things were kids can push it 90 bazillion mph. Somehow my leg got caught in a support, torqued it around, and busted my femur clean in half. Sticking out of the skin and everything.

Gym teacher comes over, looks, and carries me into the nurses office. Nurse calls my mom to come get me. Mom is at the hairdresser so it takes a while to get a hold of her. While I'm laying there going into shock. My mom can't carry me, so I have to walk from the nurses office to the car, and then from the car to the ER door. With a completely busted leg and big bone sticking out of my leg. Probably wasn't till 2 houts later did I get medical care.

Nowadays, they'd immobilize my leg on the playground, call an ambulance, helicopters, national guard, etc etc. Then (1959), they treated it like a skinned knee. I've broken bones since, but that leg and subsequent walking around on it was the worst pain I've ever felt. Plus I was a little kid.

[Dom Heffner]

2nd grade, playing on the playground at recess. I was riding one of those merry-go-round things were kids can push it 90 bazillion mph. Somehow my leg got caught in a support, torqued it around, and busted my femur clean in half. Sticking out of the skin and everything.


Roy, you just made me squirm. Ouch, ouch, ouch. In fact, ouch isn't a big enough word.

[BuckeyeRedleg]

Roy, you just made me squirm. Ouch, ouch, ouch. In fact, ouch isn't a big enough word.

Me too. Lunch is now on hold.

[Driver62]

I've had lower back problems for 20 years or more and one day, I had so much pain that I was laying on the couch screaming. It was so bad, I had to crawl to the phone to call 911.

They kept giving me shots in the back at the hospital and none of the painkillers worked.

When I got back home, all I could do was lay in the fetal position to try to get some relief. It took 5 weeks of seeing the chiropractor three days a week for it to get better.

Over the years, I've had a dislocated thumb, a broken nose and a few other assorted injuries but I have never had pain like that and I hope I never have it again..