Worst Pain You've Ever Experienced?

[transmogrifier]

Just out of interest. Share your stories.

I've been pretty lucky so far (touch wood)! For me, the worst pain I can remember is when I was about 9 or 10, and I was living on a dairy farm. We used to burn our household rubbish in a big steel drum in the middle of the house paddock. I took over the plastic rubbish bin from the house, and emptied it into the drum. For some reason, however, the drum was already pretty full, so the rubbish ended up overflowing onto the ground. Fun! I set fire to the rubbish in the drum AND on the ground, and had a good time watching things get incinerated.

After a while, I decided to go back to the house, so I picked up the plastic house bin and started walking back. Now, I was not the most observant, and I missed that the bottom half of the house bin had been sitting in the fire on the ground, and was nice and melted at the base. As I walked back, I swung the house bin right into my leg, which then got the side of my knee absolutely coated in melted plastic.

That, right then and there, is the most pain I have ever been in.

I kicked off my gumboot and ran to the house screaming. Luckily my mother is the unflappable type, and instead of trying to pull the plastic off or something stupid like that, she ran my leg under cold water. I still have the scar, but luckily I didn't require any skin grafts, though it was touch and go for a while.

And that was the end of me ever becoming a pyromaniac.

[D_Davis]

Ouch!

I've had surgery on my sinuses twice to have polyps removed. After the surgery, they shove about 5 feet worth of gauze into your sinuses; they absolutely PACK that shit in. Then, about a week later, they slowly pull it out. It actually feels like they are pulling your brain out through your nose. There is an itch from the inside of your head, and the pain caused by the release of pressure is super intense. While I didn't pass out (both times) the doc said that most people do. I did however get drenched in sweat - I could actually wring sweat out of my clothes. And I turned ghost white from the pain. The doc said that it's probably the second most painful and uncomfortable thing you can feel, second only to giving birth.

So basically, I gave birth through my nose.

[megladon8]

I fractured my spine in 5 places, then had a 9 hour surgery to reinforce the bone with coral, and place 3 titanium rods around the vertebrae at the small of my back.

But the surgery and recovery from it was nothing compared to having the catheter removed.

I'm not joking. That is the worst pain I have ever experienced.

Simply describing it the way it is (having a tube the size of a Sharpie, with a deflated balloon on the end of it, pulled out of your bladder through your urethra) doesn't do it justice.

The only thing I was left happy about was that I wasn't awake when they put it in.

Oh, and after having it removed, it left a small air pocket inside my bladder which was expelled the first time I urinated.

My penis farted.

[transmogrifier]

Yeah, catheters, kidney stones and testicular torsion are regularly mentioned in threads like these. 0 for 3 so far for me, let's hope it stays that way!

But I've never heard of gauze being unpacked from your sinuses. That shit does not fly.

[Scar]

I've had bones broken, muscles torn, but this is what sticks out right now:

I was returning from St Louis with an absolutely killer sinus headache. When the plane began to descend, it felt like daggers sticking through my eyes, and it just kept increasing until we were on the ground.

[megladon8]

I've had bones broken, muscles torn, but this is what sticks out right now:

I was returning from St Louis with an absolutely killer sinus headache. When the plane began to descend, it felt like daggers sticking through my eyes, and it just kept increasing until we were on the ground.

Eeekkk...honestly I find regular headaches bad enough. Can't imagine this.

Do you get migraines?


And would I be nuts if I said that I find muscle pulls and tears much more painful than bone breaks?

[Scar]

Eeekkk...honestly I find regular headaches bad enough. Can't imagine this.

Do you get migraines?


And would I be nuts if I said that I find muscle pulls and tears much more painful than bone breaks?

Yeah, I get the occasional migraine. I absolutely hate the first 45 minutes, because I lose my periferal vision, and get blind spots. The headache that follows I can deal with, but losing my vision drives me insane.

I agree with you in regards to muscle pulls and tears hurting more. However, I have not, and hopefully will not have a compound fracture, which can't be pleasant.

[Dukefrukem]

Yup.

Catheter in the pee hole, water tube in the butt hole during a CAT Scan.

FML

[Dukefrukem]

Oh and getting my nipple tattooed too.

[megladon8]

Yeah, I get the occasional migraine. I absolutely hate the first 45 minutes, because I lose my periferal vision, and get blind spots. The headache that follows I can deal with, but losing my vision drives me insane.

I'm very tired from doing 12 hour inventory days, and my eyes are starting to cross from sleepiness. I read at first, "The headache that follows I can deal with, but losing my virginity drives me insane."

I agree with you in regards to muscle pulls and tears hurting more. However, I have not, and hopefully will not have a compound fracture, which can't be pleasant.

Yeah, that's something I hope I never experience in my life, nor would I wish that on anyone.

I can take gore by the bucket load in movies, but compound fractures make me cringe.

[chrisnu]

Yes, sinus headaches were horrible. Made me want to rip my face off. Wearing an occlusal guide to help correct an overbite was also excruciating at times.

[megladon8]

I've known a few people who have had to have this corrective surgery on their jaws, wherein their jaws is broken in the middle and then separated with a spacer. They then have their jaw wired shut for like 16 weeks while it heals, so they can only eat through a straw.

I thought that sounded pretty damn awful.

[Thirdmango]

This was around 06/07, I had gotten to a point where I was able to dry swallow pills, I've had to regularly take something like nexium now for about 10 years and sometimes I didn't have water readily available so I learned how to dry swallow. This would come back to haunt me and now I never dry swallow.

Because, there was a party I was going to that night, I had barely gotten any sleep and at the time I didn't allow myself to drink coffee so I would once in a while take caffeine pills. This particular night I dry swallowed a caffeine pill and went on to the party. Shortly after the party ended and I had dropped off my friend it came on with such a sudden urgency.

The best way I can describe it is if you imagine a looney toons cartoon where Wile E Coyote swallows a stick of dynamite and it blows up inside him, now imagine that's really life and the constant pain of explosions is happening within your chest. I drove to the emergency room they gave me a prescription, I went to a pharmacy and they said it would take about 24 hours to cure. Basically because I had dry swallowed the caffeine pill it lodged in my esophagus and burned a hole through the lining creating an ulcer. I was told that because I have esophagitis already that it was likely that at some point I would develop an ulcer but the pill just quickened the process. I went to a girl friend's house at the time and she held me for roughly 16 hours as I was in absolutely horrible pain. The pain didn't start to subside until about 24 hours after it started so not only was it the worst pain I've ever felt it was continuous.

The ramifications are what most people say are even worse then the pain I went through. Basically my doctor told me what I can and can't drink at this point. I could start drinking caffeine again about 3 months after it but he warned me that if I around a medium level of alcohol in one night then it's likely that it could reopen so he recommended to never drink alcohol ever. So now I actually do have a slight fear of drinking and I've never in my life been drunk. I allow myself to taste things but even then as it goes down I can feel it burn down my throat and I just know if I drunk any more then that it could bring back the worst pain ever. So I just don't drink.

[Lucky]

Davis, your story made me hold my breath. That sounds awful.

Mine doesn't seem nearly as bad as what's already been said, but I had an ingrown toenail that I kept pushing off getting taken care of for months until it became pretty seriously infected. It was gross. I could push blood and pus out of it every morning and it made my socks smell so bad after a day of wearing them. Just wanted to set the tone...

I was in college, it was summertime. I went out to the bars one night wearing a pair of flipflops and a girl I was dancing with stepped on my ingrown toenail with her high heels. I thought my heart exploded. Being intoxicated, I couldn't get my freaking toe to stop bleeding and I left a spotted trail of blood all the way home. This acutally wasn't the worst bout of pain I had with this toe...

Needless to say, I decided to finally get this taken care of and went to the university hospital to get a toenail extraction done. The doctor, not being a podiatrist, decided to numb my toe by injecting anesthetic DIRECTLY INTO THE INFECTED SIDE OF MY TOENAIL. TWICE. My entire leg was shaking. Worst pain I've ever experienced. He basically ripped it off after that and prescribed me some Vicodin. The afterpain was also awful, it felt as if my foot had been set aflame.

Well, my toenail grew back ingrown. I learned my lesson this time and got it taken care of right off the bat by a specialist and I was so nervous about the procedure this time around because I didn't want to experience that pain ever again. However, the podiatrist actually knew the nerve anatomy of the foot and gave me two or three injections right at the base of my toe. Was a virtually painless procedure, before and after. My toenail is fine to this day.

[MadMan]

When I fell on the road and busted both of my knees open. Blood was everywhere, and there was pieces of road in the wounds. They had to drag me to the grass, and I felt like I was dying. That shit hurt like hell. Otherwise I've been fairly lucky, a couple of stitches aside-but that was when I hit my head on the floor at the skating rink and blacked out, so I really didn't feel too much pain. It just hurt only a little, more slightly stinging, really.

[Mara]

I know the time I was the most seriously wounded-- I had a chunk ripped out of my leg when I was about eight-- and it has a nifty scar. You can feel the bone underneath it.

But I don't actually recall it hurting that badly. I guess it must have-- I remember the night after they stitched me up trying to get to the bathroom by crawling and being completely unable to get there until my Dad woke up and carried me.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Yeah, the story I should be recounting is when my sister broke a wooden bat over my face when I was seven, but I blacked out on impact and don't remember anything until I woke up under an x-ray machine.

I'd have to say my migraines are the worst pain. They're so debilitating. My entire body shoots with pain any time I move. Even lying in a completely dark room with no sound and no movement hurts so bad it makes me sick to my stomach. I only get them once a year, maybe less, but they're intense and they make me want to run away from myself.

I have habitual knee pain (arthritis in my left knee), back pain that gets worse with age, and a normal headache once a week or so, but those are nothing compared to a migraine.

[Russ]

migraines

This. Had 'em a lot when I was a kid. Not only do you think you're gonna die, you kinda wish you would.

[Kurosawa Fan]

This. Had 'em a lot when I was a kid. Not only do you think you're gonna die, you kinda wish you would.

Yeah, I didn't want to say it because it sounds so morbid and melodramatic, but it's true sometimes.

[Raiders]

When I was 8 years old, I was in my grandparents' front yard, throwing a football back and forth with a neighborhood kid. He threw one too high and I made a leap up and backwards and lost my balance when I landed. Behind me was an old water pump and I nailed the back of my head smack on the faucet. It was so painful that I must have been in shock because I initially didn't feel anything. I put my hand to the back of my head and when I looked at it, it was absolutely covered in blood. My grandfather wrapped a cloth around my head and we drove quickly to the hospital which was only a few minutes away. During the ride there, the pain became intense, throbbing unbelievably. I had a headache for about two days.

My other head injury is when I suffered a bad car crash about three years ago (can't remember if I posted about it here). I got cut-off on the highway going about 60 and didn't want to slam on my brakes, so I swerved but the roads were a little wet and I lost control. I was sliding into the back of an SUV that had stopped due to traffic. I lost consciousness for a few minutes after my head went through the driver's side window. When I woke, the back of my head (again) was bleeding profusely. I had a three-inch gash all the way to my skull. The pain wasn't as bad as the first time. It required stitches and staples. To this day, the scar tissue is painful if I lean my head on that spot.

I also suffered a high-ankle sprain during a street hockey game when I was about 16. That was far more painful than I expected.

[Mysterious Dude]

November 2010, I'm about ready to go to a work-related seminar. I notice that my back hurts a little bit, but don't think much of it. Then I bend over to spit in the sink and I'm suddenly doubled over in agonizing pain. I went to the fucking seminar anyway, but I could not stand up straight for several days. My spine seemed to be bent to one side, and if I deviated from that position, I would experience sharp, shooting pains in my back. When I got home from the seminar, I slowly walked from my car to my apartment, wondering if this is what it's like to be old. I went to the doctor the next day ($30 co-pay!) and got some muscle relaxants. It gradually got better over the next few days. I did not complete my novel that month.

[Wryan]

A nurse/attendant was cleaning one of my ears out (which had gotten severely clogged), and instead of using a nice fancy vacuum, she used the squeegee pump thing. She stuck it in my ear and squeezed hard. I think she must have gotten the bulk of it out quickly but didn't realize it, because she kept squeegeeing water point-blank into my eardrum at a surprisingly high velocity. The ear drum is a pretty thin membrane, and it soon punctured. Excruciating. It felt like a hot ripping explosion. I always thought teeth pain was pretty bad, but for me this ear pain surpassed it.

My mom (also a nurse) had to watch just two feet away while my muscles and face balled up in pain, and I was crying. The nurse kept going for a little bit after that, though. Despite cotton balls replaced every 20 minutes, the ear leaked for a solid 24 hours, which meant no sleep and a painful wet itch.

[Derek]

This thread is made of my nightmares.

[Watashi]

This thread is made of my nightmares.

Seriously.

I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

Never broken a bone, had surgery, or have severe headaches.

[Skitch]

Kidney stone, bottle smashed on my head at age 12 resulting in half a dozen stitches in my scalp, box cutter incident resulting in half a dozen stitches in my leg, slipped cutting a carpet seam resulting in ten stitches in my index finger...all in all probably nothing worth bragging about.