Lingual frenectomy when I was seventeen. I never had any speech problems from being moderately “tongue-tied,” but I was self-conscious about it as a teenager. I didn’t think it would be bad because my doctor had wanted to snip it without anesthesia when I was a baby.
Holy fuck, was I wrong! My dentist did it under a local anesthetic. I had seven stitches under my tongue. Once the numbness wore off, I was near tears for the rest of the day and night. I was not given any pain medication afterward, not even Tylenol. It sucked a lot.
Last summer, I got a second-grade sprain. I hobbled about 1 km back home and immediately iced it, wrapped it, and popped some ibuprofen. It was pretty badly bruised and swollen, and I’d definitely torn some of the connective tissue, per the doctor I went to. He actually suggested casting it, but sports orthopedists have found that casting leads to longer recovery times for full function, though the initial sprain heals slightly faster.
For at least a week, it hurt like hell. It was only really tolerable when elevated. Even then, it throbbed and hurt. Icing hurt even worse at first, but then made it feel better for a while. The first couple of days, it hurt badly enough to make me nauseous. It was about 4 weeks before it was mostly okay, and still hurt a bit for a couple of months later. I could walk on it, carefully, but at least at first, it pretty much always hurt when it wasn’t elevated.
For comparison, I broke and partially dislocated both wrists in a near-full-speed collision with a gym wall several years ago. That hurt. A lot. The sprained ankle actually was almost on a par with that, and for that accident I had to undergo surgery to get the Colles fractures repaired.
…What has turned out to be more painful than I expected?
GOUT
I had my first gout attack on my honeymoon – something I do not recommend. We had no idea what it was, and thought I’d broken my foot. We went to the nearest hospital, and in the emergency room, we found someone who had broken their foot. Only they weren’t in as much pain. I spent the rest of the honeymoon lying in bed watching TV, my foot uncovered since I could not bear the weight of the sheet on it.
Currently recovering from a fall in which I sprained my right ankle and broke the cuboid two ways (standard-issue hairline fracture, plus a lovely little sliver that broke of when the ligament pulled away, oy!) If it had just been a fracture, I’d’ve probably just wrapped it well, but the sprain hurts far, far more. The orthopedist agrees with me: a sprain is more painful, and heals far more slowly, than a break.
Lucky for me, various sprains are probably the hurtiest things I’ve experienced - worse than childbirth, IMHO, but my labors and deliveries were relatively quick and uncomplicated, whereas the pain from a sprain goes on and on and on.
Those of you who suffer from gout? My husband concurs. He says that he’d rather recover from another knee replacement surgery than have a gout attack.
A few years back, I went out to the freezer warehouse where I worked. Coming out, I slipped on a patch of ice and went ass-over-teakettle, landing with my right foot at an awkward angle. Thinking that I’d just sprained it, I didn’t get in a big hurry to get it documented, waiting until the end of the day, when it was very swollen and painful.
They sent me to the doc-in-the-box immediately where the doc called it a sprain (but took x-rays just in case), recommended RICE and NSAIDS and I went home immediately afterward. I was just pulling into my drive when my phone rang…it was the doctor. I had broken my ankle on top of the sprain. I went in the next day for a boot that I’d wear for eight weeks.
Like the poster upthread, the sprain took longer to heal. I was in a boot over the holidays (this all happened about two days before Christmas) and generally a bit cranky.
To answer the OP’s other question: the most pain that I’ve been in, including dental and post-surgical, was last year’s pinched sciatic nerve. It hurt to the point of tears sitting, standing or lying down. Thank Og for good drugs. 
I sprained my ankle while out for a walk while on vacation in Maui last year. I still don’t know exactly how I sprained it, but it was definitely a sprain. Hurt like a beast to walk for about a month.
What hurt more than I expected? Kidney stones. Holy hell. Healthcare professionals will use a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is very minimal pain, and 10 is “the worst pain you’ve ever had”. My kidney stones went to 11. :eek:
I’ll answer the second part, about what turned out to be worse than you expected.
The correct answer is a migraine.
What hurt worse than I expected?
Having the packing removed from my sinuses a few days after nasal polyp surgery. Prior to removal, the formerly brusque surgeon began speaking to me in a soft, gentle voice. That was worrisome. Then one of the pretty nurses grabbed my hand with both of hers. That was really worrisome.
I was right to worry.
I have sprained many an ankle over the years. Once I fell down a cliff about 8 feet and sprained the living shit out of my right ankle. Started walking back to camp and could not make it. I had to be carried the last 1/2 mile. I hurt like a mother, and it was 4 or 5 days before I could bear any weight on it. Probably 3 weeks before I was 100%. All I can say is you heal quick when you are 8.
All of that pain pales in comparison to when I shattered my heel. The pain was instantaneous and unrelenting. It was at least one order of magnitude worse than any sprained ankle.
I’m pretty lucky in that I’ve never had horrible injuries, but I’ve sprained ankles several times. Always hurts and there’s not much you can do about it.
I will say I’d rather have a sprained ankle than another sprained big toe. THAT hurts like a mofo, and it’s constant since your toe has to bend each time you step. Plus, you start walking funny and eventually screw up your other foot or your leg as well. With an ankle, you can tape it up and walk somewhat normal as long as you don’t twist it. I was always a little skeptical about football players out with “turf toe”. Not anymore.
I’ve also pulled a muscle (?) in my lower back. That’s immobilizing since it hurts to walk, stand up, sit down, or do anything. I can’t imagine how people live with chronic back pain.
I recently sprained the LCL (the ligament the runs down the outside of your knee). It hurt enough when it happened that I knew something was wrong, but not enough that I couldn’t function. The next day, however, my knee was swollen like a football and I couldn’t move without severe pain.
On the plus side, I didn’t snap any tendons in my knee so I should be ok after doing a lot of PT.
For the second part, I’ll second gout. It’s the only thing that’s ever made me throw up from pain alone. I’ve sprained stuff, dislocated shoulders, and had migranes until my teens, but by far the worst pain I’ve ever been in has been from gout.
The really annoying thing about gout is that it’s a disease seemingly lost in time - it’s like the medical establishment thinks they got it all figured out in mid 19th century England and haven’t done any research since then. Even now, when you search for “gout diet”, websites tell you to avoid things like pickled herring and pheasant. Great. Real helpful advice. I’ll also be sure to avoid wearing monocles, taking in precocious street orphans, and saying “harrumph” too much.
This is what I’ve heard, though I’ve never broken anything. I’ve sprained both of mine playng vollyball. My toes and the bottom of my foot turned purble from all the interior bleeding. It was bad, bad news.
When I was 15, I sprained my ankle in a fall off the balance beam. It was a nasty sprain. My parents didn’t take me to the doctor right away, because I sprained ankles pretty regularly. It got really swollen and turned a nice shade of green, and when I was still refusing to put any weight on it after a couple of weeks, my mom finally took me to see the orthopedist.* I got a fancy brace, instructions for physical therapy, and weaned myself off the crutches over the next couple of weeks.
I’d been back at the gym and up to full speed for less than a month when I broke the other ankle, also while on beam. It was a nice, simple crack right above the ankle bone. I remember that it hurt, but what I really remember was how pissed off I was to have another freaking ankle injury. I got a quick trip to the doctor that time. I was hobbling around on my walking cast the next day and was back in the gym pretty quickly. All in all, I’d much rather have a simple break than a bad sprain.
*I was a pretty accident prone kid. I was taken to the ER or the orthopedist pretty frequently, but my parents still have a lot of stories that end with, “Yeah, we probably should have taken BetsQ to the doctor for that…”
I pinched a nerve. (For added embarrassment, I did it while curling.) Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, don’t ever pinch a nerve.
They really need to come up with a less wussy name for this injury, because everything I’ve heard/read is that it is complete hell and can render a QB essentially useless, especially if it’s in the foot he throws off of.
I’ve had a couple mild ankle sprains and also fractured an elbow. Neither of them hurt much, to be honest. I would take them any day of the week and twice on Sundays over the pain I’ve experienced from kidney stones or cluster headaches.
I was thinking about the most painful experience I’ve ever had again. I’d say that shingles and migraine are tied for most painful. Childbirth was a close second, but not quite that bad. The worst migraine was the two-week-long migraine where I couldn’t sit up. The shingles was about as bad because it also involved a migraine and full body agony, but it was mostly centered around my eye where shingles was quickly encroaching on my optic nerve. That was fun.
Oh, and I found out yesterday it is indeed a sprain, just a really nasty one. My doctor offered me crutches, but warned that it would actually heal more quickly if I just put weight on it and put my foot and ankle through the regular range of motion. The snap was apparently the ligament being overstretched. She was right - it’s already mostly just stiff not as excruciatingly painful as it was yesterday morning or the night before when the pain was keeping me awake. I’m still limping, though, and my 18-month-old daughter walks faster than I do.
My husband sprained his ankle playing volleyball a few years ago and the doctor said the same thing to him: He would have been better off had he broken it. Set it and a couple months later, it’s healed. Sprains just mess you up for years.
Oddly enough, the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced with a cut on my finger. Granted, it was a big cut that took off a little bit of the tip and some fingernail (WARNING: Kinda gross,) and it wasn’t the cut itself that hurt as much as the next morning did when I have to remove the gauze and wash the wound. Holy mother…
What are you basing this on? That just isn’t true. A grade 3 sprain is a complete tear of the ligament that might even require surgery. I’ve broken bones playing football, I got hit by car while riding my bicycle and broke my collarbone. I can tell you from personal experience that the most pain I’ve ever felt was from a grade three ankle sprain.
I was running and stepped down on the edge of the road where the asphalt was higher than the concrete ‘gutter’ next to the curb and my ankle rolled under. I folded like a cheap card table. I managed to make it back to my hotel room and asked my daughter to get me an ace bandage from the store. Before she even made it to her car, I told her to come back in and take me to the emergency room before I passed out from the pain. I had to have her take me to the car in a luggage cart because I was blind with pain. I was in a cast for 8 weeks. I can unequivocally say I have NEVER been in more pain than when that happened.
If you want to see a little bit of the gory details; and my my ankle swollen up like a balloon… have at it.
I’ll second this type of experience. My ankle still bothers me when it rains for example (injured it two years ago). Doc gave me the option of surgery to repair my ligaments; but at my age (47 at the time) it was a wash since I would heal slower. He too told me that a break would have healed faster and with less pain.