Unique/memorable experiences you never want to experience again...

[MacTech]

For me, it was being bitten by a Yellow Garden Spider when I was a teen....

I was tromping through the field, no reason, just out for a walk, when I accidentally stumbled through a low-lying web, getting the spider on my lower arm, she bit me in self defense, poor thing was probably terrified....

here's what the experience felt like....
the bite produced an initial pain like an electric shock, immediately after, I could feel the muscles in my lower arm and hand spasming for the next few hours, as muscles were involuntarily contracting and releasing, it was the first, and so far, last time I had experienced the direct effects of a neurotoxin, the spasming lasted for about 4 hours, subsiding into a dull ache the next day

Another one which I will *never* experience again, thank Og, was my bout of Appendicitis, culminating in an Appendectomy

Two week previous, I thought I had been suffering from severe food poisoning/stomach flu, but it turns out that was the opening stages of Appendicitis, now that my appendix has gone bye-bye, I never have to deal with that kind of pain again

[billfish678]

Two weeks ago.

Sunburned eyeballs . Sun Burned Eye Balls.

Rub sand in your eyes. Lots of it. Then add hot sauce. Its so painful you want to cry in pain. Except your frikkin eyes are already full of tears. Ugghhhh, worst pain I've ever had.

[ToeJam]

Breaking up with my first gf/crush/ "so called girl of my dreams", man- that one sucked.

Also- Applying to medical school. Getting in is a great feeling. Not getting in really sucks. Alot. I wouldn't wanna do it again just because it's a stressful year of hell leading up to a small moment of yay! "now what have I done?? O_O"

[glee]

Treading on a wasp in bare feet. (Ow!)

Having a bowel spasm. (The worst pain of my life.)

[Llama Llogophile]

Cliff diving.

Well, jumping off of a high ledge at a theme park. Probably about 40 feet. But it was a "cliff" to me.

Glad I did it - twice actually. But I never want to fall that far again.

[Xema]

Chartered sailboat sunk by a hurricane. Interesting, but once is enough.

[Broomstick]

Having the world outside my cockpit window fading into a gray, featureless murk requiring me to make an emergency landing in a rough farmfield that, by the book, was technically too short for me to land in (the hay stubble was long enough to slow me down faster than usual, so I was able to stop before I hit the land owner's garage).

Frostbite. I had a "mild" case. Do. Not. Want. To. Feel. That. Again. Exactly the same pain as slamming a bodypart down on a red-hot stove and holding it there. It's enough to make a grown man cry piteously and I was just a little girl at the time.

Norovirus. Being unable to keep even water down for a week, unable to eat for a week longer, losing 25 pounds in one month, having to eat mush for six months, having to regain the muscle tissue lost to starvation - nope, don't wanna have to do THAT one again.

Being told a family member committed suicide. That sucked.

I do wish to note that, despite the above, I have also had many wonderful, happy experiences in life I'd be overjoyed to experience again....

[BaneSidhe]

Breaking my left leg while playing kickball as a child. The sound...AAAGGGHH!!

[FlyingRamenMonster]

Dysentery. Worst intestinal cramps I've ever had. Getting up every 15 minutes at night to do tiny bloody shits was fun too, as was the 40-degree fever. The only upshot now is I get to tell people I had dysentery, which is apparently an inherently hilarious disease.

[dwyr]

Splitting my head wide open and seeing my own skull* was quite memorable as was the sixty stitches to put my forehead back together but once was more than enough, thanks.



*The ER doctor helpfully pointed out to my upset mother that you could obviously see that I didn't have a fracture or anything. She was not amused.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Childbirth. Once was quite enough, thank you. I had my daughter in an Air Force teaching hospital, and so I had a group of wannabe docs looking up into what I had always thought of as my private regions. I learned then that I could not, in fact, literally die of embarrassment, no matter how much I wanted to. I also had a couple of wannabe nurses who made some mistakes. Since the pregnancy was an oopsie anyway (foam AND condoms together), this just reinforced my notion that I didn't want any (more) kids.

I've had several bouts with cellulitis. I really think that once was more than enough, thank you VERY much. My doctor finally gave me a prescription for an antibiotic, to be taken at the first sign of the infection.

[wunderkammer]

Originally Posted by Lynn Bodoni

I've had several bouts with cellulitis. I really think that once was more than enough, thank you VERY much...

Very true. When I was nine or so, I had the mother of all sinus infections, which crept over to my eye sockets in a case of periorbital cellulitis (way too close to the brain for comfort!) and gave me two enormous purple goose eggs for eyes. I'm sure I looked like a victim of child abuse or someone who had lost several fights simultaneously--it must have been terribly awkward for my mom to sit around with me and my two black eyes--but I was in too much pain to care.

Fortunately, the rest of my life has been pretty uneventful as far as unpleasantness goes.

[GameHat]

Two things spring to mind:

1) Striking a bicyclist with my car.

It was dark, he was wearing black and had no light. I was turning left; bicyclist was in the right lane approaching. I wouldn't even have noticed him but that my girlfriend at the time screamed. Dude splayed across my windshield. He hit the ground and stayed there until after paramedics attended to him for about twenty minutes. Amazingly, he wasn't badly hurt. It was in the city, on campus so there were like ten observers, all of whom dialed 911 on their cells within seconds.

I was trying to help the guy up, shaking like a fool, apologizing like a madman. One of the witness bystanders (perhaps a law student?) pulled me aside and told me I should be careful what I said. The cops were there in under two minutes. Ambulance shortly thereafter. First aid was administered. Amazingly - despite me being a 17-year-old kid, the cops took my side. Told the rider he needed to get a light on his bike, "or else."

We exchanged info, I apologized profusely again. The bicyclist was pretty cool about the whole thing, despite some nasty bruises. I never heard another word about the incident.

Then I went to my girlfriend's dorm room and just sat on the bed and shook for like an hour. Hurting myself, well I can deal with that. Nearly killing somebody else - that's entirely beyond anything I ever want to experience again. To this day, ten years later, I still am overcautious about checking all possible accident routes when I drive. I suppose that's a good thing.

2) Smashing my face

I was probably only four years old. This might be my first vivid memory. I was at my grandparent's house. I was being overactive, like four-year-olds tend to be. My grandmother had a step-stool for the kitchen. For reasons known only to four-year-olds, I decided that an excellent game would be this: climb up to the top step on the stool, then jump off. Grandma scolded me at least once - "Stop that, you'll fall and hurt yourself"

I don't know why, but I remember climbing onto the top step and looking through the window into the microwave. Grandma was defrosting some ground beef. For whatever reason I still have a vivid memory of that pound of ground beef turning in the microwave. Anyways, I jumped. But this time I misjudged. I overshot by a few feet. I caught the top of my open mouth directly on a chair, smashing my front teeth. I distinctly remember the force and the shock, though not the pain.

My next memory is sitting on Grandpa's lap, sobbing and shrieking. He was patting my head and telling me it would be all right. This is memorable because he is a famously unemotional man - even at that young age, I remember understanding that if he was trying to comfort me it must be bad, because anything up to a broken bone was typically met with "walk it off."

My next memory is being in the emergency room. My parents were holding me down while a surgeon did...I don't know. This is one of my worst memories. I remember screaming a lot. Also the sheer horror at being restrained while somebody did painful things to me (granted, it was necessary.) That was just triage. I remember being at the dentist the next day. Again, my parents held me down while the dentist poked, pulled and prodded. I still have a distinct memory of hands covering my face to hold me down while the dentist removed shattered teeth. *shudder*

Unlike most pre-schoolers, I had dentures until my adult teeth came in.

Interesting fact - I jokingly mentioned this incident to my Grandmother, twenty years after the fact. Now, my Grandma is a tough lady. Lots of kids, a couple of wars, general "Texas" attitude (where she grew up). On my mentioning, she began weeping. Never mind that I'm grown up and have forgotten the pain (though not the horror of the treatment, as a child). Never mind that I have no trace of the trauma but two bent teeth where the adult teeth were affected by the blow.

"You just kept cying, 'I just want my teeth back'".

Bad experience for me, terrible experience for her. I dread an experience like this if I ever have kids of my own.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Originally Posted by wunderkammer

Very true. When I was nine or so, I had the mother of all sinus infections, which crept over to my eye sockets in a case of periorbital cellulitis (way too close to the brain for comfort!) and gave me two enormous purple goose eggs for eyes. I'm sure I looked like a victim of child abuse or someone who had lost several fights simultaneously--it must have been terribly awkward for my mom to sit around with me and my two black eyes--but I was in too much pain to care.

Fortunately, the rest of my life has been pretty uneventful as far as unpleasantness goes.

Owowowowwow! That hurt just to READ about. Sinus infections are painfully bad in themselves. I cannot imagine getting cellulitis of the eye sockets. I think that you have used up your lifetime allotment of pain and suffering with that little episode.

And again, owowowowow!

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

Originally Posted by billfish678

Two weeks ago.

Sunburned eyeballs . Sun Burned Eye Balls.

Rub sand in your eyes. Lots of it. Then add hot sauce. Its so painful you want to cry in pain. Except your frikkin eyes are already full of tears. Ugghhhh, worst pain I've ever had.

How the hell did you manage to sunburn your eyes? You're not supposed to look at the eclipse directly, you know.

[Ale]

Last week, I rode the back of a small truck (it had seats for 14 people) through dusty, bumpy gosh darn hot and humid roads in southern Laos, me and 35 of my new closest friends. Pinned down almost unable to move at all for 3 and a half hours.
The previous day I rode a tuk-tuk with other 12 passengers and the driver...
It was a wonderful experience and all, but I'd rather gnaw my own leg off and bludgeon myself to death with it before doing it again.

Sneaking into the abandoned, decaying morgue of a hospital when I was in high school. There weren't too many body parts around, but whatever remained was way past it's best use date.

[Small Clanger]

Running a sound system hire business has put me in a few interesting situations.

Had a gun pointed at me during a robbery at a night club. I had time to wonder if our bass bins were tough enough to stop a bullet. It was in the news the next day, apparently the robbers got away in a police car.

Spending an evening in the not entirely pleasant company of dozens of Nazis, skinheads mostly, celebratiing Hitler's birthday no less. Brown shirts, arm bands, giant swastika flag on the wall. Not a good vibe. Luckily the skinheads stuck to fighting between themselves.

Lost, driving an unsuitable car around strange woods in the middle of the night. We'd been given a brick of dope as a deposit on a set of projectors being used for a middle-of-the-spooky-wood rave. So far so good, now the exhaust falls off the car. We found our way out eventually. Do you know how much noise a car makes with no silencers? It's a lot.

[chela]

On a cross country motorbike trip, seeking shelter in a taco bell in Wva from a tropical storm that was racing across Appalachia. We were hundreds of miles from home on our way to Florida, on two sportbikes trying to navigate a mountain highway with wind shears, driving rain, flood advisories and road construction to boot. Soaked, cold, saddled with doubts uncertainty and fear we soldiered on. Twas the return trip, where we met the same conditions and I nearly cracked after hunkering down under a bridge, seriously considered renting a uhaul to get home. Managed to get back on the bikes, OHio dealt us with some serious SW winds that has us leaning into the wind for hundreds of miles, dear God I wanted off that bike

I'd do it again, but would weather any bad storms in a hotel no matter how long it blew!

[Arglefraster]

Planning a big, fancy, all the bells and whistles wedding. Lordy what a nightmare.

When I married my second husband, we went to the courthouse to make it legal, then later threw a celebration party for our friends and family. Fun, casual, no muss, no fuss.

[billfish678]

Originally Posted by BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed

How the hell did you manage to sunburn your eyes? You're not supposed to look at the eclipse directly, you know.

Beautiful, warm, sunny with nary a cloud in the sky, no wind day. Snow everywhere. At about 9000 feet in the Utah desert mountains. No snow googles.

[tdn]

Two words:

Foley. Catheter.

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

Getting bitten by a lion.

Had it happen this summer, never wanna experience it again. And that's the last time I believe a tour guide when he says, "Go ahead and pet it. It's tame."

[Alienhand]

I was close enough to a lightning strike to the hear the fizz-crackle of the streamers before the BOOM. I never ever ever want to be that close to lightning again. Ever.

[Jettboy]

Having a post-surgery chest tube removed. I was out cold when they put it in, but wide awake two days later when they pulled it out.

I've been cut, stabbed, and had a few broken bones, but having that garden hose-sized tube yanked out of my chest was a brilliant flash of the worst pain I've ever experienced. I cried like a baby for five minutes; the pain was over quickly but the shock...man, oh man.

[billfish678]

Originally Posted by Alienhand

I was close enough to a lightning strike to the hear the fizz-crackle of the streamers before the BOOM. I never ever ever want to be that close to lightning again. Ever.

Makes my hair stand on end just thinking about it

[Jettboy]

Originally Posted by tdn

Two words: Foley. Catheter.

I had one of those too, brother. My wang stills recoils in terror at the memory.

[Kyla]

Pr-Service Training for Peace Corps.

I went from living in my own apartment in Chicago to being a guest in a house with a family in a village (pop. 700) in Bulgaria. Couldn't speak the language, couldn't communicate, didn't understand the customs, immediately started missing foods I could no longer get... It was probably the loneliest and most isolating periods of my life. There were four other Americans in my village, and it didn't seem to matter. I spent the whole time wanting to hide in my room and never come out.

I'm not alone, either. I think every Peace Corps Volunteer remembers PST as a complete nightmare. It's just total culture shock. It is a pretty effective learning technique, but it's not a whole hell of a lot of fun.

[Harmonious Discord]

I've done a very good job of burying the experience. Thinking about it and writing it down would require me to remember details I've buried. Yes I've been there and leave it at that.

[PoorYorick]

I've had a sunburned eyeball before (yeah, just the one eyeball). It's as bad as described.

I've had quite a few experiences I wouldn't want to relive, but the first was when I was 8 or so and got poison ivy. Now, I'm pretty allergic to the stuff, and this first time I got it on both of my legs, and I mean my entire legs, from the buttocks down (none on my tiny little junk, thank God). It was more than itchy, it was like my legs were on fire. I remember the doctor gave my grandmother some liquid that was supposed to "dry it up," but I'm pretty sure it made it itch worse, and calamine lotion did absolutely nothing. My grandmother spent about three days doing nothing but restraining me from scratching the oozing sores.

C'mon, this was an 8 year old kid, and even though "poison ivy" sounds pretty benign, this was serious stuff. I think some sedatives or something stronger than calamine lotion was called for. It was a week (or however long it lasted) of hell.

[Chimera]

Marrying a psycho-victim.

Spending a night sick (food poisoning) on the floor, throwing up 4-6 times at a crack, repeat every 30 minutes all night long.

Being an armed guard on the overnight shift in "family" restaurants and having to break up fights and kick large groups of drunk, angry people. ALONE. That job doesn't pay enough, doesn't provide insurance, doesn't provide support.

[even sven]

Originally Posted by Kyla

Pr-Service Training for Peace Corps.

Seconded. PST is hands down the hardest thing I've ever done, and I've been living a pretty full life.

Malaria is second worst. I woke up from a nap in such great pain that I wondered if I had somehow fallen off the bed and gotten a full-body bruise. I had to arrange my pillows so that I was kind of suspended over space, with the bare minimum of my body touching anything. Then the headache started. After an hour of slipping in and out of consciousness in the 100+ degree heat, something clicked. I suddenly had a full-body realization that I was sick with something that was going to kill me. It was the strangest feeling. Just this sudden clear understanding that what I had was fatal.

I stumbled out of the house and collapsed on a rock, where I managed to flag down a motorcycle to take me to the hospital. I was wandering the grounds of the hospital in a malarial haze, mumbling in my broken French, and trying to refuse the doctors who were trying to give me blood transfusions (!) and surgery (!).

I successfully avoided these medical procedures, took some tests and some pills and made it back home. The Fete de Mouton festivities were well underway, meaning that every family in my neighborhood ritually slaughtered a goat, and of course wanted me to watch and eat. I have these vivid feverish images of blood pouring on sand in the burning heat seared into my brains. As the evening wore on, my neighbors brought me great piles of jiggly purple goat meat. I was half-crazed with anemia, and spent all night in front of the stove, feverishly shoving fresh curried goat into my mouth.

I spent a week battling it out- first the chills, then the fever. Pain everywhere. Then, mysteriously, I turned blue. I never figured out why. The Cameroonians said it was probably the medicine, which apparently frequently turned them red. I had my doubts.

[Soul Brother Number Two]

One word. Shingles.

[runner pat]

Originally Posted by tdn

Two words:

Foley. Catheter.

Originally Posted by Jettboy

I had one of those too, brother. My wang stills recoils in terror at the memory.

I had one of those. Piece of cake.

Compared to being hit on my bicycle, breaking the femur and tearing away part of my left hamstring and sciatic nerve, helicopter ride, coma and other fun things.

Once per lifetime, please.

[Kyla]

Originally Posted by even sven

Seconded. PST is hands down the hardest thing I've ever done, and I've been living a pretty full life.

And you voluntarily did it a second time! I swear, I'd consider doing a second tour if it didn't mean another round of PST. Maybe in twenty years when those memories have faded a bit. I remember when we got invited to extend to China and I thought about it for a minute before I realized I'd have to do PST again. No way, no how.

[billfish678]

Originally Posted by Kyla

And you voluntarily did it a second time! I swear, I'd consider doing a second tour if it didn't mean another round of PST. Maybe in twenty years when those memories have faded a bit. I remember when we got invited to extend to China and I thought about it for a minute before I realized I'd have to do PST again. No way, no how.

So, what exactly is this PST ? Do they like airdrop you into a remote village and you have to assimilate? Is it like the travel channel meets survivor man?

[Khadaji]

My stomach perforated. Ripped open. It was the worst thing I can even imagine. I was begging god to take me home. I had a parrot at the time - she was given away while I was in the hospital - the person who took her asked why I had taught her to say: Please God, help me.

I do not use that phrase. Well, obviously, I did that night and at the top of my lungs, but she wouldn't have heard it any other time.

If there is something than hurts worse than that did, I don't ever want to feel it.

[ducati]

Two words: Kidney stones.
Unfortunately, they're a hobby of mine. I have one every year or two, just to keep life interesting.

Please stop.


Also, being crushed and left for dead by a hit-and-run driver with no respect for traffic laws or motorcycles. Broken ribs, punctured lung, torn liver, and more.
Plus my thumb won't bend right anymore.

No thank you.

[gigi]

Well, this is one of those threads that make me realize how very lucky I've been. The worst pain I've felt is dropping a bottle of water on my toe, for God's sake.

[overlyverbose]

Originally Posted by PoorYorick

C'mon, this was an 8 year old kid, and even though "poison ivy" sounds pretty benign, this was serious stuff. I think some sedatives or something stronger than calamine lotion was called for. It was a week (or however long it lasted) of hell.

I've never found calamine lotion to be effective on anything, even a mosquito bite. I once had poison ivy so bad my eyes swelled shut. The calamine lotion I was bathed in didn't do a damn thing, and I was too afraid to sleep because I thought I'd wake up blind.

Oh, I also had shingles last year. Given that I was 32, that was completely unexpected. I never, ever want that to happen again. It was so painful that the vicodin they gave me was only effective for about an hour before the agony would return. I'd lay there in bed, waiting for my next dose for just that hour of relief.

I've also had my eyes burned by the reflection of the sun on snow as I was climbing an active volcano. The skin across my nose and cheeks peeled off in one big piece and I had scabs in my nostrils for weeks afterward. The view was totally worth it, though.

[FallenAngel]

Getting shot didn't hurt at first, but I don't ever want to do it again.

Having ileus at age 9 (complete digestive system shutdown)

Spontaneous pneumothorax at 31 - woke up with a partially collapsed lung

Disc kicked out of my back

Home foreclosed even though I was no longer in arrears

[Kyla]

Originally Posted by billfish678

So, what exactly is this PST ? Do they like airdrop you into a remote village and you have to assimilate? Is it like the travel channel meets survivor man?

Ha! It's not that bad. This is how we did it in Bulgaria:

We arrived as a group of 41 new trainees and were taken to a mountain lodge for orientation crap for three days. On the third day, we found out what village/town we'd be spending the next ten weeks. They all surrounded one central city where we met every couple weeks for more stupid meetings and training sessions. Each training site had four to five volunteers assigned to it, where we all lived with host families.

Once we got started, we had five hours of Bulgarian language class a day, plus cultural immersion activities, and then teacher training and student teaching (we were all in training to be teachers). Our language trainer was fluent in English and could help us with communication problems with our host families if they came up.

All that might not sound THAT bad, but there was just a LOT of information being thrown at us all of the time, with pretty much no down time. I was living with strangers, getting used to a new country, and having massive communication issues constantly. It was extremely stressful. I spent a lot of my PST very depressed. Four people in my group quit before the ten weeks were up.

To top it off, two weeks before my group arrived in country, six volunteers were kicked out and sent back to the US for Extremely Naughty Behavior. PC Bulgaria totally overreacted and instituted a bunch of tightass rules on MY group to ensure we wouldn't be like them. It was really uncool and we were the only group that got this treatment. By the time the next group arrived six months later, they had calmed down.

[The Weird One]

I've mentioned these experiences elsewhere on the boards, so I won't go into great detail, but:

Having a homeless man hold a knife to my throat. I escaped with a couple gashes but nothing serious, and I think I actually gained quite a lot out of the experience, but not again, thanks.

Having someone I love go to jail.

Having to break up with the love of my life - while I was still deeply in love with him - because it was clear that he was pulling out of the relationship but wasn't willing to end things himself.

Rolling a car. My (current) boyfriend and I went up to Maine last February for our anniversary, and shortly after we left Boston, a storm blew in. Up in the middle of Maine things were finally clearing up, and they'd received snow instead of freezing rain so the conditions were better and traffic was up to about 45 mph. I was in the left lane but saw that the right lane looked clearer, so I changed lanes. In-between the lanes was a line of snow that had built up a couple inches deep, and as I crossed over it, my wheels lost traction. I couldn't regain control, and we went over into the ditch and flipped upside down. We were unhurt, the car was covered by insurance, and it was an interesting experience to have once. But we were very lucky in that it happened at a relatively slow speed, we didn't hit any trees or signs, and there was a highway patrol truck right behind us who called a tow truck.

[Myrrajh]

Worst pain would be keratitis, followed by jaw pain from clenching my teeth at night. The keratitis was caused from my contact lenses. No longer an issue since I had lasik surgery. Yay. It gave me the most screech-inducing, "Please let me die" kind of headaches I've ever had in my life. Couldn't leave a darkened room for 3 or 4 days. I think that's the most miserable I've ever been.

That was even worse than the huge abscess that went unexamined at my first doctor visit, then a week later he finally looked and said I needed surgery IMMEDIATELY. Went to emergency and was in the OR a mere 6 hours later. Trust me, around here that's as close to instant medical care as you can hope for. I never knew how bad it was until one of the surgeons saw me the next day. It was a look of awesome horror in her eyes. She said she'd never seen anything like it. Took forever to heal...the first few days when it was still draining, the smell just about made me throw up. Got a wicked ugly scar now, but at least it's over. And the surgeon I had follow up appointments with was really cute.

[Spoons]

Having a (presumably) loaded assault rifle pointed at my face.

I was a guest at an event on a Canadian Armed Forces base. I needed the men's room, and asked directions. The directions were rather complicated, but I figured I could follow them. Apparently not; I turned left when I should have turned right, and encountered a couple of sentries guarding something. Up went the rifles, and on came the questions.

It required radioing for the officer in charge of the event, who came and sorted things out, but the whole time, I was in some soldier's sights. No fun.

[Foxy40]

Barium Enema.

I have had C-sections, stitches, broken bones, Gall bladder pain, UTIs, root canals, etc etc. NOTHING has come close to having air and barium shot up an already irritable bowel.

Shudder.

[billfish678]

Originally Posted by Foxy40

Barium Enema.

.

One of my father's life advice things was along those lines. "If anyone ever tries to give you a barium enema son, run the other way"

I figure if he went to trouble of warning me, it must be pretty bad

[Chimera]

Originally Posted by billfish678

One of my father's life advice things was along those lines. "If anyone ever tries to give you a barium enema son, run the other way"

I figure if he went to trouble of warning me, it must be pretty bad

Thankyouverymuch, I had completely blanked that experience from my conscious mind.

Now I gotta work on that all over again.

Bastards.

[Cat Whisperer]

Originally Posted by even sven

<snip> I suddenly had a full-body realization that I was sick with something that was going to kill me. It was the strangest feeling. Just this sudden clear understanding that what I had was fatal.
<snip>

I had an ovarian cyst burst in the middle of the night, and I remember crawling to the bathroom to pass out on the floor there, thinking that I was going to wake up dead the next day. That was pretty much exactly my thought - "Wake up dead." I don't know what that says about me, that I expected to die and it never occurred to me to call anyone, including 911. In spite of the level of pain I was in, I could probably have taken a couple of ibuprofen and got it down to "not thinking I'm going to die" levels and got myself to the hospital. Funny how extreme pain turns your brain to mush.

I also had a frozen shoulder a couple of years ago - only time in my life that I've screamed in pain, when the arm with the frozen shoulder fell off the side of the bed. It felt like the joint had snapped.

[Dr. Woo]

Originally Posted by Xema

Chartered sailboat sunk by a hurricane. Interesting, but once is enough.

Holy crap. Have you told that story on the Dope yet? Wouldja?

[Stauderhorse]

Accidentally stepping into a pile of fire ants when I was 14.

Did I mention I was barefoot?

That was the day I learned why they're called fire ants.