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This topic came up while talking with my sister. It seems that all her life she has had to deal with one or another type of physical pain.
I, on the other hand, have had almost no physical pain throughout my 22 years. So I thought up this question.
What's the worst physical pain that you have ever been in that you can remember?
For me it probably was a really bad sprained ankle I had in high school. I know it's lame, but that's all I got.
?
P.S. Remember that this is physical pain only. I personally think mental, emotional and spiritual pain is much worse.
Posts: 219 | Registered: Aug 2001
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A sprained ankle with two torn ligaments. I've had a few broken bones, and this was worse. Also, the bruising was spectacular.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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When recovering from knee surgery, physical therapy the day they took me off morphine... and then later, they mis-filled my painkiller prescritpion with antihistamines... so I went the first few days out of the hospital with no pain relief at all, till we figured out what had happened.
Honorable mentions: 1)The dry socket infection when my wisdom teeth were pulled 2)The hangover resulting from finishing off 3/5 liter of Scotch single handedly 3)Getting upwards of 20 novacaine shots into my toe joints when getting warts removed (very intense pain, but only lasted a few minutes)
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Do migraines count? Because in seventh grade I had the worst migraine ever. I couldn't see, think, or breath. I didn't even want to live. I was practically in tears. And aspirine wasn't working. Worst of all, it was at school.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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The answer used to be cutting off the tip of my finger in a deli slicer, or the food poisoning I got at Wonderland, but they weren't so bad compared to the stomach cramps I got from eating one day about a year and a half ago. *shudder*
Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2005
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oh, I think migraines count. I get them regularly. MISERABLE agony when they're bad. No light, no sound mo movement and there's still a little man in your head with a hammer...
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Toss up between child-birth and having my jaw rebuilt. The drugs were better for my jaw. Liquid Demerol rocked!
Posts: 601 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Migraines defnitely count- my mother gets "Cluster Headaches" the absolute worse kind of pain you can have in your head. Neurologist said they are worse than pain from brain tumors, also called suicide headaches because a higher percentage of people who have them kill themselves to try and get rid of the pain.
As for me having pain- not really anything. One time in 3rd grade I fell and hit my head on concrete. That was probably it- I've ever broken a bone.
Posts: 980 | Registered: Aug 2005
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It's a tough call. My really serious injuries have all come with a healthy dose of shock so they weren't that bad. I think fracturing my kneecap and tearing off my ACL was probably the worst, but I might just be saying that because the rehab was around 3 years. All that and only 3 scars to show for it. Totally cheated.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I had shingles when I was 5 months pregnant. Shingles was FAR more painful than childbirth was.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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Though, extremely bad for me seems light from what I've read about other people's migraines. It still hurt.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I had a badly infected ingrown toenail removed, that pain was worse than childbirth.
I'll also add the recovery period right after my abdominal hysterectomy - also very, very bad. After the first few hours, when my pain came under pharmaceutical management, it wasn't that big a deal.
For long term, endometriosis. Mainly because it was a different type of pain, it was a burning sensation type of pain, and it was relentless - there was a period of three or four years in between pregnancies where I had to take prescription pain meds almost every day. Thing is, I was so scared of becoming addicted to them, I usually only took them at night, so I could sleep, and during the day just had to cope with the pain.
Oh, I forgot - gallbladder attack. That wasn't fun either.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Worst was temp-capped tooth that went bad. It's a long, long story, but suffice it to say that my husband was trying to explain to an ER doctor why I couldn't walk straight and stank of bourbon and madeira at 3am. Both of them were laughing at me. (I was a medical student, and I didn't want to "bother the intern.")
Second worst: definitely one of the migraines or cluster headaches. I've had both, though not had pain from either for a long time now. If there were a handy method of suicide that didn't require me to get up off the floor, I would've used it.
Third worst: Agonizing UTI.
And neither open-heart surgery makes it on the list, despite the fact that I was just on advil alone at 4 days post-op. Diffeerent sort of pain.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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With my back the way it is now, ruptured disc in my lower lumbar, it hurts to sit down for more than 5 minutes. The other day we went to Cheddars and after 5 minutes I was in agony. Ive had broken bones and a skull cracked open but this was much worse. The pain was in my leg and I had to sit there for 30 mins waiting for the advil to take effect. It never did of course. So thats my worst pain.
Posts: 457 | Registered: Jun 2005
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My freshman year of college I had to go to the emergency room for abdominal pain. It was all I could do to crawl the the phone to have someone come get me. In the end, they never did figure out what had caused it.
I've never had any broken bones or anything like that.
Posts: 3214 | Registered: Apr 2002
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It's a toss up from the multiple ongoing throbbing for the week after I got in a car accident (broken nose - two torn rotator cuffs - no painkillers) or the severly sprained ankle I got right before senior year playing basketball.
The doctor's recommendation for the ankle was 8 weeks on crutches. I decided on playing my senior year of football on it instead.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Getting stabbed with a rusty nail in my eyebrow when I was younger (I was lucky I didn't lose an eye)
Getting my thumb struck by a big metal fan going full speed. At first when I hit it I didn't think anything was wrong so I stuck my thumb in my mouth to help the pain only to realize my mouth was filling with warm liquid, I pull my thumb out alarmed and I notice the liquid was indeed blood and that my thumb was spraying it everywhere. Thankfully it was only a really painful wound and my thumb was fine (no fracture or long term damage). I still have a big scar in my thumb though, right down the middle.
Posts: 459 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Not childbirth itself because I had an epidural by that point, but the part where they were pumping 6 units of Pitocin into me and refused to give me pain medication. They asked me what my pain was on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain imaginable. I said, "Nine and a half." Then I threw up because the pain was so bad.
(I wasn't progressing because I tense up when I'm in pain. If they'd given me the epidural at the start, I would have had the baby about three hours earlier. Next time, I will know this and demand it when I need it.)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Belle, I totally understand the slow burning long-term pain. I have a spastic colon (sounds comical, but it isn't!) and the attacks I've had with that didn't result in sharp, agonizing pain, but 5-6 days of unbearable sizzling, burning pain all around my stomach and lower back. I had two attacks a year in high school until they figured out what it was. (I know it probably doesn't compare to real long-term pain, but I remember thinking "Why can't I handle this pain? It's really not sharp!" But I was still doubled over on the floor for 5 days at a time.)
I'd have to say that a migraine has been my worst and most unbearable pain to date. It's the only time I've ever considered calling an amublance for myself just so someone could come and knock me out. The fact that it's in my head just seems to make it even more unbearable. I can't think, I can't look at or hear anything without agony...yeah. It sucks.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I've had worse pain than this, but this is the one that still makes me wince to think about:
When I was about 10 years old I was out hiking with a friend of mine. We climbed a chain link fence that was about 6 feet high. When I reached the top I jumped off on the other side, and my thumbnail caught on one of the wires at the top. Ripped off nearly the entire thing in less than a second.
Oh, please make me stop thinking about that now.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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I think maybe having a torn cornea. But it is hard to compare pain to pain, especially when different body parts hurt in such different ways. I may just have been particularly squicked because it was my eye. I'm squicky about eyes. Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Most painful would be the year I had a headache every day for 4 months in a row. Saw a neurologist and he said, once I was diagnosed, that they were likely the pain of 10 migraines combined. I was glad to see those go.
Second most painful was the spinal tap I had to get to make the headaches start to go away. They didn't completely go away until I lost at least 10% of my total weight at that point.
Yay for Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension! Posts: 378 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by SteveRogers: Gryph, have you spent most of your life glaring at the little man menacingly?
oh yes indeed. I've even considered killing him with an icepick thru my ear... but of course, in the long run that probably wouldn't work out for me. Thank God for vicodin and naproxen. (Imitrex just makes my skin crawl)
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Shattered wisdom tooth. Not only did I have exposed nerve but I think it may have cracked down into the jaw itself because the pain radiated all the way from the back of my ear to my chin, down my neck and up to my temple. And that lasted about a week the first time. Nothing worked to dull the pain or take my mind off it, and I couldn't bear to eat anything solid for days. Frozen yogurt smoothies were my best friend!
Every once in a while it will flare up again, usually when I get food stuck in the crevice, but nowhere as bad as that first week.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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It's like someone is ramming a hot electrical prod into your jaw, which then shoots the pain everywhere throughout your head.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Migraines. The kind where you see explosions even when you close your eyes and there are no pressure points to relieve the pain and the slightest noise is a clash of agony but that's ok because your ears are ringing so loud you think you're going deaf.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Broken nose - actually, it was more the waking up 3 times in the middle of the 5-hour reconstructive surgery that was worse than the break itself.
Ovarian hyperstimulation wasn't much fun, either.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Without a doubt, Gale stones, nothing else has come close. (Not kidney stones, haven't had those yet) It felt like an alien was trying to get out and got stuck on my right bottom rib. For the worst attack I was balled up on the floor until I got a couple shots of pain killer. 1st one didn't work.
One of the women at work had the same thing, said it was much worse than child birth.
Posts: 555 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Yikes, these migraines sound NASTY! I would not trade all my pain in my life for one of the ones described here, methinks.
I've been burned, and it hurt pretty bad. I was playing with a lighter, melting various plastic items when a big drip of liquid plastic landed on my thumb.
I've had a broken toe, and it wasn't very fun. It got infected really badly, and even less fun was when I stubbed it again, rebreaking it.
I've had quite a few cuts which needed stitches. None of these gave me more than minor pain.
I don't consider any of these to be true pain, as true pain only comes to me through my teeth.
Twice in my life I have had infected roots for my teeth, and its hard to compare the experiences to eachother. Once was when I was 13 or so, and the other when I was 22. I think the time when I was 22 was probably worse, but I was older, and more able to deal with it. My preferred method of dealing with it was being curled up in a ball on my bathroom floor crying.
Tylenol with Codeine did absolutely nothing for me, except make me sick. Even vicodine barely was able to give me respite enough to sleep. I was going through Ambesol at a tube every couple hours. Amazingly though, plain old Ibuprofen helped. It reduced some of the inflamation, helping the pain more than the narcotics did.
But overall, I would say most people have had to deal with more pain than me, and I wouldn't be surprised if those two times are trumped by another problem down the road, most likely tooth related. All four of my wisdom teeth are severly impacted, so I'm sure they will do their best to hurt me...
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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When I had my wisdom teeth out, the codeine they gave me didn't affect me, but it didn't hurt that bad. And the dry sockets didn't hurt too bad either (the medication for dry sockets was the worst for me).
The worst pain I've ever felt: getting hit directly in the testicle by a hockey puck while playing pond hockey in February.
Posts: 162 | Registered: Dec 2004
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Mine would have to be my chain saw accident. I was cleaning up downed trees and my friend, whom we shall refer to as moron, pulled on a log that i was standing on and i fell... I put a chain-saw a half inch deep across my leg, just below the knee cap. you know, the skin hurt way more than the bone... and i refused to go to the ER... until I caved the next day.... But i got out of the stitches because i waited "too long"... *happy dance*
Honorable mention- This would be my number one, but i had so much adrenaline that it didn't even tingle. My Last Wrestling match, I was at Free Style Nationals, in the semi-finals. I crushed 8 bones in my foot, broke 4 ribs, gave myself a stress fracture to my spinal column, and banged my head really hard on the other guys knee (they think the swelling from that is what finally made me pass out)... But I did win the match and took second over all, even though i was unconscious and on my way to the hospital....
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I had REALLY REALLY BAD ... er ... intestinal problems after eating a plate of undercooked brownies while I had the flu.
I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I had been stabbed in the gut with a jagged knife. I ran into the bathroom, and didn't know whether to sit and take care of the problem, or kneel and vomit from the pain.
Posts: 1539 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I'm going to throw my vote in for dry socket.
However, the most disconcerting injury that involves a near abscence of pain is dislocating your knee. I don't recommend that.
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I don't remember exactly how much pain I felt from this since I was 7 years old, but I imagine it was worse than anything I encountered recently. I was in Israel with my family when me and my older sister were jumping rocks. There was a large one that my sister dared me I couldn't jump. So obviously I took the dare. When I couldn't reach the top, my knee didn't just scrape across the rock like you'd expect it to. It collided head on with a jagged part that was sticking out. I remember seeing my bone. I should have gotten stitches, but being in Israel it was waved off with an "Ehhh, don't worry. No bullet wound, no pain." 8 years later, I still have the scar.
Posts: 853 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Let's see, I've had dry socket..and then my sister's friend hit me in the head with a tennis ball while I was suffering from the dry socket. Ouch. Then there was the guy who dropped a giant can of spaghetti sauce ( they call it a "10 can...who knows why) on my big toe and broke that (through the work boot when I worked at Sam's club in Florida). I got my arm burned with bacon grease when I blocked it from hitting my face one summer during Jr.High. Still have the scars, but they only really show up when I am very tan, so that's a plus. Camping with my family when I was 5 and my sister was 8 she got to help chop the firewood with a hatchet, but I was "too young", so I waited until they went into the tent and picked up the hatchet to cut the wood ... and almost chopped my left thumb in half...didn't even notice 'til I saw my own blood...then I started screaming "MOMMY!" I have suffered horrific migraines since 10th grade.(had one last Friday wanted to curl up and die.) I broke my nuckle on my index finger when I got my hand caught in a very low ceiling fan... not very painful. The 3 most painful things I've ever felt would have to be (3) an epidural cortisone injection (you feel the layers of the spinal cord pop and can hear them as the needle goes through...and the Dr tells you not to breathe, move,(and to stop screaming) or he'll paralyze you from the waist down! (2)That horrible stomach pain in June that was caused by colon spasms. I couldn't eat, I couldn't move, and vicodin didn't touch the pain. threw up everything I ate because of the pain...not fun...... and (#1) is definately Kidney Stones! I don't wish them on my worst enemy. The Dr said it's is so much worse thannatural child birth - because the birth canal is meant to open and allow a child to pass through - the ureter is meant to fit something the width of a single human hair to pass through and it does not stretch so, fitting something the size of a small greenpea as you can imagine, is excruciating!
Posts: 325 | Registered: Aug 2002
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When I got the local anaesthetic in my broken toe so they could re set it. Normally they wouldn't bother, but it was sticking out like an opposable thumb.
I pretty much considered shooting myself when I had an abcessed tooth. There comes a point when letting a dentist stick tiny drills into the nerves of your teeth is the lesser evil.
Posts: 2010 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Before my first lumbar laminectomy, when worker's comp had refused to get me an MRI, I was in considerable pain frequently. When I coughed I would just fall down rather than fight the pain to remain standing, even if I was on concrete. But the real kickers were:
1. I got up to walk to the bedroom, because I knew my posture on the couch wasn't doing me any good, and as I walked, I found I could put less and less weight on one leg. When I flopped on the bed and started crying my wife called the EMT's and I felt stupid telling them how much it hurt, but then they rolled me onto a slat thing and tried to carry me out of the house. My foot hit the door jamb and it was all over. It felt like someone plugged all the nerves below my chest into the pain receptor and turned the volume up to 11. (Yes, I've ripped a toenail off. This felt like my whole lower body was the toenail)
2. After the first surgery, when they told me to lie flat on my back, doctors orders. It took them three hours to get someone who said, "Oh, yeah, you can put a pillow under his legs." At the same time, they got an order for morphine. I don't know which one solved it, 'cause I got the morphine first.
3. Before the second surgery, I was driving toward an intersection, minor back pain, like I was used to. When I hit the brake with my right foot, pain shot down my left leg. A car was coming through the intersection, and I had to consider whether it would hurt less to crash into the other car, or hold the brake down. Fortunately the car made it through just as I passed behind him.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Kidney stones. It's the only pain that has made me physically ill. I've dislocated joints, broken many a bone, had stitches several times, etc. but kidney stones tops them all.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Aug 2005
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When I broke my right ankle. OMFG... that hurt so much. I was sliding down a banister at college back in 98 and one of my buddies thought to scare me right at that moment… fell forward with my foot in-between the bars of the handrail. OUCH.
It still hurts a little to this day.
Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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The Dr said it's is so much worse thannatural child birth - because the birth canal is meant to open and allow a child to pass through - the ureter is meant to fit something the width of a single human hair to pass through and it does not stretch ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
so, fitting something the size of a small greenpea as you can imagine, is excruciating!
