# How old were you the last time that physical pain made you cry? And Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 29, 2011, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996 "2011-09-29T10:48:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/41 "2011-09-30T14:44:00Z")
Pain/illness doesn’t make me want to cry or bring involuntary tears to my eyes. Last time I can remember it doing so I was a little kid. I’ve had bad migraines since I was 4 years old, so I think that’s why. Even injury pain doesn’t feel like a shock to my system since I’m used to having to endure hours of severe pain, vomiting, etc that I can’t control. On the other hand I haven’t had all that much trauma to my body in my life, so it’s possible that a bad enough pain could make me have this reaction. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/42 "2011-09-30T16:39:14Z")
I’ve had many migraines that made me cry; probably the most recent one was within the past year so I was either 70 or 71 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/43 "2011-09-30T16:50:22Z")
The only time I’ve cried from pain as an adult is when my husband accidentally hit me on the head with a 10 pound weight. He\* claims\* it was an accident anyway. If it was a murder attempt, he should have picked a heavier weight. Wimp. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/44 "2011-10-01T00:12:42Z")
I was 41, I think. I woke up in the middle of the night in the most excruciating pain I had ever been in, and I had 2 kids after more than 24 hours of back labor each. Nothing I did helped at all. I finally dragged myself out of bed, stopped crying, woke up my son and we headed to the ER in our pajamas. I had to drive, and stopped twice on the way to throw up and spent most of the time trying to convince my son I was not going to die on him (that was his big anxiety trigger) and trying not to start crying again. I must have cracked tooth enamel, I was gritting my teeth so hard… When the EAR doctor made the pain go away by dosing me to the gills, I may have declared my undying love for him. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/45 "2011-10-01T00:18:23Z")
> [@Arden\_Ranger](#): > > I was 41, I think. I woke up in the middle of the night in the most excruciating pain I had ever been in, and I had 2 kids after more than 24 hours of back labor each. Nothing I did helped at all. I finally dragged myself out of bed, stopped crying, woke up my son and we headed to the ER in our pajamas. > > I had to drive, and stopped twice on the way to throw up and spent most of the time trying to convince my son I was not going to die on him (that was his big anxiety trigger) and trying not to start crying again. I must have cracked tooth enamel, I was gritting my teeth so hard.. > > When the EAR doctor made the pain go away by dosing me to the gills, I may have declared my undying love for him. Yoiks. What was the problem? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/46 "2011-10-01T02:55:16Z")
I’m 36, and it was just last weekend actually. One of my chronically bad knees gave out while I was climbing some concrete steps and I went down in a heap. Hit both knees on the corner of the step, nearly broke my hand when I landed on it, and hit my head on something. Don’t remember what. I just remember laying on the ground crying and my boyfriend picking me up and carrying me inside. Then I remember some ice packs and some ice cream. Stupid knees… still aren’t right. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/47 "2011-10-01T02:57:10Z")
I don’t remember. I must have been a really young boy. Five? Six? I only cry for emotional reasons now. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/48 "2011-10-01T03:41:05Z")
Early 30s, and the physical pain was my wife’s (labor). Can’t remember the last time I cried because of my own (I don’t think it’s happened yet as an adult). ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/49 "2011-10-01T03:58:48Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Waking up from sinus surgery, in my forties, as I was coming to, when they asked how I was feeling, I couldn’t speak but just cry big old tears. They gave me a shot and I was gone. This happened 3 times, then they removed the packing, which hurt tons but, aaaah! Somewhere in another thread a nurse said that in the recovery room, people coming out of sinus surgery seemed to be in the worst pain. So ow! I feel for you. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/50 "2011-10-01T04:05:28Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > Last summer, when I was 34. I developed a Bartholin’s gland abscess, a huge one with palpable swelling about an inch into my vagina and almost 2 inches back into my perineum, which was plenty painful all by itself–by the time I could get into the doctor I was sitting sideways even on deeply-cushioned chairs. Diagnosis involved poking and prodding the area. Treatment involved getting multiple needles full of Novocaine stuck into my already-painful tender bits, for reasons I’m still not really clear on since Novocaine doesn’t work on infected tissue and I could feel everything when they sliced the area open with a scalpel and mashed and squeezed all the yuck out. And then they put direct pressure on the swollen, infected, sliced open area to control the bleeding before packing it very firmly with gauze. > > But that’s not the part that made me cry. > > The bleeding turned out to be less under control than previously thought and didn’t really respond to at-home measures to get it under control, resulting in poor **DoctorJ** having to leave work to fetch me back to the clinic and finding me sitting half-naked in the floor of a bathroom that looked like someone was using it butcher livestock with a bloody towel pressed to my crotch trying not to hyperventilate. > > Now we’re getting to the part that made me cry. > > Back at the clinic, there was more pressing and poking and mashing. A _lot_ more. Then they brought out the electrocautery, which wasn’t as pleasant as it sounds and turned out to be ineffectual. So they went back to just trying to hold it off, which meant another 15 or so minutes of direct pressing. Which is when the tears started. And then there was another go with the cautery. And back to the pressing. Which was when I asked for the emesis basin and they decided it would be best to just take me to the OR and remove the damn thing. > > At no point before being prepped for surgery did I get any kind of pain relief or happy juice beyond the thoroughly ineffective (and quite painful to administer) Novocaine. At the point surgery was suggested, I would have agreed to letting them cut off my fucking head if it meant they would stop mashing on my mutilated crotch. > > But on the bright side, everything else felt so much better than that, I got up and went to work at the vet clinic the next morning without any pain meds and did great. Bless your heart. Makes you just want to slither into that special lingerie with that come-hither look, huh. So glad it’s OVER. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/51 "2011-10-01T04:26:50Z")
First off, I didn’t cry tears till I was in the 7th grade. I was born with what they called “dry eyes.” (??? I was also admitted onto a children’s ward at age 4 with what was basically malnutrition but they called it “milk anemia”…don’t know what that is either.) But anyway, whenever I cried people either ignored me or thought I was faking. Also I had learned to cry silently due to the repercussions…so I don’t really cry at physical pain. Doesn’t do any good anyway. (By the way, I’ve learned a way to get through it. You literally go THROUGH it. Accept it, immerse yourself in it. And since you’ve quit tightening up it doesn’t really hurt so much. You still feel it, as a sensation, but it doesn’t really hurt.) But what does make me cry is emotional pain. Since, now, it’s safe to “be heard” I beller like a cow. Anybody ever heard a cow bellowing for her calf? Well, that’s me. Deep, heaving sobs. I don’t so much cry as kind of “throw up” my pain. It’s loud. It’s scary. It feels good. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/52 "2011-10-01T04:30:42Z")
Forty-eight and it was a year and a half ago. Sciatica. I was in tears sitting. I was in tears standing. I was in tears lying down. This went on for two days before I could get into the chiropractor. It took until the third adjustment before the constant pain let up. I’ve broken bones. I’ve had pins put in one foot and one wrist. I’ve had two root canals. I’ve had surgery with only a local antisthetic. The sciatica topped them all. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/53 "2011-10-01T05:28:23Z")
Not since I was very young, getting a painful shot in the butt from the doctor. I think my pain tolerance is average. I guess I’ve been lucky: no kidney stones, no broken bones (so far, knock wood). ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/54 "2011-10-01T05:59:11Z")
I had a biopsy earlier this year that was terrifying. They used this . . . thing that sounded like my vacuum cleaner and stuck it into my right boob. I was injected with local anesthetic but it still HURT. I could feel them poking around in there and the tiny blades whirring away . . . coupled with the engine noise in my ear, it was all I could do to keep from sobbing out loud. Although in comparison to a lot of the stories here it seems like it was a walk in the park. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/55 "2011-10-01T06:19:22Z")
> [@missred](#): > > Forty-eight and it was a year and a half ago. Sciatica. I was in tears sitting. I was in tears standing. I was in tears lying down. This went on for two days before I could get into the chiropractor. It took until the third adjustment before the constant pain let up.\ That sounds like my last time crying from pain - from a frozen shoulder. My shoulder was bugging me earlier in the day, but in the middle of the night, it started to hurt so bad that I knew it was time to go get it looked at. After a few hours in the emergency waiting room, I was crying from the pain. I couldn’t get comfortable in any position. Later that night my arm fell over the edge of the bed while I was lying in bed and I actually screamed - I’ve never screamed from pain before. On the plus side, my recovery from the frozen shoulder was actually quicker and easier than it could have been - I suspect I might have forcibly released it with that very painful accidental stretch. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/56 "2011-10-01T08:55:51Z")
I had a snowboarding injury that brought a couple manly tears to my eyes four years ago. It was the first time I’d ever tried an actual jump, as in one that kicks you upwards, as opposed to just going forwards off a mound that drops away. From point A to point B is called the table. Point B itself is the knuckle. I tried to slow down or something as I got to the apex and ended up launching my body horizontally. I didn’t quite clear the table and landed on the knuckle on my ribs. Fortunately I didn’t break anything, but it knocked the wind out of me like crazy, which made me gasp and my nose started running and my eyes teared up. My damn ribs hurt for 6 weeks straight. . ~~~~ /:::: .~~~ /::::::\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ ._**/:::::::🅰::::::::B .::::::::::::::::::::::::::: .::::::::::::::::::::::::::::\_**_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ I’m still hitting jumps these days (well, not these days as I’m still waiting for the snow), but every damn time during my approach this is somewhere in the back of my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/57 "2011-10-01T12:36:58Z")
I was 52, in the emergency room in the throes of my first kidney stone attack. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/58 "2011-10-02T23:19:13Z")
Five or six years ago, so I was about 50. My husband had committed us to doing embroidered towels for my daughter’s volleyball team, with the school initials on one end and each girl’s name on the other. He didn’t have time to do them all, although he did get a good start on them. We wanted them to be there for their first home game, so I was probably in more of a hurry than I should have been, doing the names. Somehow I missed the fact that the embroidery foot on the sewing machine had gotten a bit loose, and I had a guiding finger too close when it moved and the needle hit it. Needle then went through my index finger, fortunately beside the nail, not through it. It wasn’t a big injury, but it was very sudden, there was that big clunk, and it hurt a LOT. I cried some, and probably half an hour later I got very shaky. Of course, if you want to count a few tears and wishing I could actually cry, there was this past week, when I hit my toe on the cast iron chicken fryer sitting on the kitchen floor and broke the toe. Total surprise, because I didn’t even really kick it. But it hurt worse then most times I’ve really actually kicked something. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/59 "2011-10-03T00:22:46Z")
Purely from pain? When I was thirteen, I was playing third base in a Jr. High PE softball game, and the very athletic shortstop threw a hard fast relay to the very slow and not athletic me. It cleared the top of my glove and smacked into my nose, breaking it and leaving my face covered in blood, snot, and tears. I may have cried about 7-8 months ago when my gall bladder kicked up a fuss, but it wasn’t really the pain that did that, it was the confusion and despair when a little (read: “worst pain in my life”) goddamn “gas pain” simply Would. Not. Go. Away. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996/60 "2011-10-03T00:56:50Z")
I was (and am) 31 years old and I was on day 4 of a 6-day migraine attack. The continous, neverending torturous pain had me sobbing; which of course made my head hurt even worse and further exacerbated the problem. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-the-last-time-that-physical-pain-made-you-cry-and-why/597996.md?page=4)