The pain scale; highest rating you ever gave

In My Humble Opinion
41

I’ve never had any stones or broken bones or parts ending up where they shouldn’t be.

So, the worst pain I’ve ever felt, personally, was when my ear drum burst. I prayed to die, much like Khadaji did. I suppose it’s one thing to have an ear drum just “go” but when it’s due to a really bad infection…it’s just no fun at all.

And…it’s happened to me twice now :frowning: :frowning: I would have given it a 10 at the time but hearing some of these stories maybe an 8 instead. As soon as my ear feels a little “funny” I run right to the ENT and make them promise me there will be no bursting.

I have TMJD too. The time I spent between initial diagnosis and initial treatment (you need to wait a while to get your damn appliances made), I spent most of my days living in level 7 pain.

42

[QUOTE=Cyn]
Cyn, OB/GYN RN
She rates her pain at a 10. While talking on her cell phone and eating a bag of potato chips. Yup. 10.

[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I was part of a volunteer ambulance crew once, and we picked up a woman with chest pains. She was calmly sitting in her chair, no signs of distress on her face. When asked on a scale of 1 to 10, she said:
“Oh, it’ s a 10.”

Look people, if it’s a ten, you should barely able to tell them it’s a ten.

That being said, I figure I was about a 6 when I broke my collar bone, and I would say about a 7 for a few random bouts of intestinal pain I’ve had before.

43

[QUOTE=Cyn]
She rates her pain at a 10. While talking on her cell phone and eating a bag of potato chips. Yup. 10.
[/QUOTE]

These are the people I talked about who report 9s and 10s all the time. I don’t know if they’re total wimps or if they all reason like Kalhoun, but they fuck up the pain scale for the rest of us, who understand what it’s for.

44

For me the highest rating I’ve ever given was coming out of surgery for an inner ear operation (stapedectomy for those interested). In the immediate post-op phase I was asked about my pain level and I mumbled a 1, maybe.

Ten minutes later the local anaesthetic had worn off and I was in the throes of the worst unexplained* pain I’ve ever experienced, and I rated it a 6. I was figuring that the fact I could understand their question and could respond meant it didn’t deserve any higher rating.

They pumped me with morphine anyway, and again and yet again when it didn’t abate the pain level in any way…eventually a simple coedine pill took the agony away strangely enough. :confused: And of course, once the pain had gone I still had all the fun of the morphine floating around my system…I was bouncing off’ve the walls all freaking NIGHT…wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

:smiley:

*In terms of real pain, late second stage labour is a hard one to beat, as is the intense and localised distress caused by acute glaucoma attacks. Them’s are definitely 10’s on the scale.

45

Man, I feel like a wimp compared to y’all. Or maybe I just don’t get pain.
I had both of my babies drug-free and I’d probably give than an 8, maybe that first kid, for a few minutes, a 9.

I wonder if I am somewhat oversensitive?
I don’t know how this happened, both my husband and I came down with simultaneous ear infections.
I had run to the doc at the first sign of irritation, my husband followed a couple days later. The doc said my spouse’s ears were far worse than mine.

A couple months ago I sprained my foot.I could not understand, that night, why I felt nauseated, close to vomiting, and light-headed–I soon realized it had to do with pain from my injury, but it did not occur to me right away.
Still, I can’t imagine that pain being a 10. I guess I’m just a big baby.

46

Kidney stone. It was a solid 14. I’m a wimp.

The only other time I have had pain approaching anything like a 10 was an infected wisdom tooth which reduced me to a whimpering zombie. Mersyndol couldn’t dull that one - I was high as a kite, somnambulent, moaning in pain.

mm

47

[QUOTE=mamboman]
Kidney stone. It was a solid 14. I’m a wimp.

The only other time I have had pain approaching anything like a 10 was an infected wisdom tooth which reduced me to a whimpering zombie. Mersyndol couldn’t dull that one - I was high as a kite, somnambulent, moaning in pain.

mm
[/QUOTE]

You’re not a wimp. I have a fairly good pain tolerance, but passing a kidney stone felt like a white-hot strand of barbed wire being dragged through my guts. I was sweating so much that when I undressed in the ER, sweat dripped from my undershirt. I don’t remember what pain killer was used (the word “cocktail” was used by the ER doctor) but when it took effect I actually had a strong emotional response to the nurse who administered it – to this day when I see that guy I want to by him a beer.

48

Kidney stones.
Portugeuse man of war wrapped around body as child, ended up in hospital.
Wisdom teeth - favourite story of mine - I woke up in the middle of it, the dentist said a naughty word and ran out of the room. About then I knew it was going to go well. Had to wait a week before they could fix up the mess they made of my mouth, oral surgeon said no way the dentist should have been trying to take them out given their position. Noone thought to give me painkillers during the week, I was too out of it to ask.

The kidney stones were worst of those. I still felt shaky a few weeks later whenever I thought I was having another , but Id say maybe an 8 in that I can imagine pain thats worse.

Otara

49

I woke up in the OR at the end of a lithotomy, with a 6" wound plus a drain in my side. I’d have given that a 9 if asked but all they said was “Hey, go back to sleep, you don’t want to be awake now.”

50

My top three in order (btw, I had all of these over about an 18-month period during the late '90s; I called it “the year of pain”).

  1. Kidney stones; I passed three over the course of a year, the first was the worst and rated at least a 9

  2. Impacted wisdom teeth, 8-9

  3. Gout; solid 8 when it flared up inconveniently when I was working on a drilling rig offshore Angola. Took five days to get relief crew out to the location so I could go home.

I shattered my right arm near the wrist a couple of years ago and I remember at the time marvelling at how little it hurt compared to the kidney stones.

51

[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
When the dentist drilled my tooth without novacaine. He didn’t believe in it for small cavities (if there was a cavity; I have my doubts now).
[/QUOTE]

I can relate to you on this one.

I had 4 cavities- 2 that were minor and my dentist wanted to patch before they got any worse, and 2 average cavities.

He gave me some shots, into my cheeks. It barely did anything. I had never had cheek shots before, but then again I hadn’t had any teeth pulling/fillings in 5 years or so; I thought that maybe this was a new development in medicine or something. :smack:

He left the room for about 10 minutes. Yeah, that medicine wore off before he even came back into the room.

He asked me how I was doing and I said “Um, I think the medicine wore off…” and the moron didn’t believe me! So there I was being drilled on without novicane.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my teeth are extremely sensitive to pain and cold.

It was the worst pain I have had in a long time. Between the drilling, scraping, digging into those sensitive holes, and blasting said sensitive holes with a jet of ice cold water, it took all of my power not to cry. “It’s just four little holes. I think he’s done with one, or two. If I’m lucky, I’ll pass out soon”, I encouraged myself. Regardless, I was fighting back tears. Six tears- three from each side- rolled down my cheeks.

“Gee, with the way this is going, you’d think that we didn’t even give you medication to begin with!”

:rolleyes:

The combination of cold water, and metal poking into my weak, sensitive teeth was the worst pain I’ve felt in a long time. On my experience of pain, I’d give it a 6.5/10

52

Good God. All of you who have let dentists work on you without anesthesia must be nuts! You could have gotten up and left, you know! Yikes!

53

Lemme think about it…

  1. Popped eardrum. My Doctor used a device similar to the one that I use to check my blood sugar. He cocked it, then stuck it in my ear. Amazing pain; I’d give it a solid 6.5.

Bonus points for the huge amount of disgusting green gunk that was sucked out afterwards.

  1. Replacing a temporary crown with the permanent one. Dentist removes the temp, then calls two hygenists in. “What are they doing?” I was informed that they were going to “help” me while the Dentist rinsed the tooth with water.

One of them held my legs down, while the other one grabbed my right wrist and elbow. The Dentist was pressing against my left side, and then he applied cold water.

I tried to run away. On a scale of 1 to 10, probably a 7.

  1. I had a Hemmorhoid/Fissure-ectomy. This was before I was diagnosed with Apnea, so when they gave me some morphine, I stopped breathing. It was then determined that I was allergic to pain killers. I woke up still laying on the operating table.

They decided to inject Demerol every hour after that, and I was only in severe agony as a result. I spent the night moaning/sobbing, so the night nurse gave me an extra shot before her shift ended, as she felt sorry for me. Suddenly, I was ready to go to the Dry Cleaner, and pick up my cape.

After getting home, my wife and son went over to her folk’s house, to celebrate Thanksgiving. About 4:00 that afternoon, the Demerol wore off.

There were no pharmacies open (it being a holiday and all), so I’d have to rate the pain that I felt that day at a 9.5, at the very least.

54

Back and neck pain. As in, I didn’t want anyone coming within 10 feet of me, lest they breathe on me and make it worse. I don’t know what I could rate it, other than more pain than I want to be in ever again, and more than I’d wish on my worst enemy.

I don’t know how anyone with chronic pain from spinal issues manages. If I knew I was going to be in that kind of pain for the rest of my life, I’d kill myself. No joke.

55

[QUOTE=Nic2004]
One time, back in '89, I hit this truck broadside with my motorcycle after she ran a stop sign, breaking both hands and shattering the right fore arm and left upper arm. I hit the street, rolled came to rest on my back and had a GMC dually, hauling a horse trailer, with a horse in it, run over both of my legs crushing the right and breaking the left.
Now THAT hurt.
When the nurse asks me that stupid pain question I typically just laugh. BTW, I never lost consciousness even through the helicopter ride to the Trama Ward. I was awake also for the weeks of debriding that was to follow.
[/QUOTE]

Here is my beautiful 1977 Harley Superglide.

56

[QUOTE=romansperson]

I don’t know how anyone with chronic pain from spinal issues manages. If I knew I was going to be in that kind of pain for the rest of my life, I’d kill myself. No joke.
[/QUOTE]

I felt the same way. As far as on a scale of 1-10, the pain wasn’t all that bad, maybe a 6 or 7, but it just never went away. I was pretty close to batshit crazy by the time I finally got it fixed, I know I couldn’t have kept on living like that.

Personal pain? Only in small doses. I had a huge splinter jammed under a thumbnail. The doctor shot that thumb so full of novocaine (or whatever it was) that it was as big as my big toe and told me it wouldn’t make much difference. He was right. He tried to pry it out with a large hypodermic needle, finally had to get some nurses to hold the arm down while he dug it out with a pair of hemostats. That hurt worse than back pain, but just for a few minutes. I’d give it an 8, the doctor actually made a remark about splinters under the nails used as torture.

Broken coccyx. Again, it hurt pretty good and I went to the doctor. The pain involved in setting a broken coccyx is orders of magnitude worse than the pain of the broken coccyx. The method for setting the broken coccyx involves the patient on all fours, a rubber glove, some lube, and in my case a doctor with an index finger the size of a Louisville Slugger. Understatement of the day: “This might hurt a little”. Maybe an 8, but just for a second.

After the chronic back pain, my overall pain threshold has really gone up.

57

[QUOTE=romansperson]
Back and neck pain. As in, I didn’t want anyone coming within 10 feet of me, lest they breathe on me and make it worse. I don’t know what I could rate it, other than more pain than I want to be in ever again, and more than I’d wish on my worst enemy.

I don’t know how anyone with chronic pain from spinal issues manages. If I knew I was going to be in that kind of pain for the rest of my life, I’d kill myself. No joke.
[/QUOTE]

You’re not kidding.
I had a really bad case of sciatica from a herniated disk.
The morning I finally went in for an MRI I could not get. Out. Of. Bed.
I had to go pee so bad and I just couldn’t get off the bed. It had been getting progressively worse for 7 months (7!) and that morning I’m sure I was at a stiff 9 on the pain scale. I had to go to the bathroom and I just could not put any pressure on my spine, at all. Couldn’t crawl even. Hurt too much.
Every time I tried to get out of bed it felt like someone was just wringing my spinal cord.
I took an anti-inflamatory, a couple tylenol, and then finally I was able to slink off to the bathroom to relieve myself. I was this close to peeing the bed.
I would have traded that moment for any other pain including child birth or kidney stones at the time because I knew that the latter were only temporary. This pain had no end in site and that was the scary part. If I had to live in that much pain for long I’d be a pile of mush right now.

58

(1) Pain=10: Same thing as rhythmonly, although it only lasted for about 5 seconds. They placed the new crown on the ground-down tooth, with root exposed, with no novocaine, and pressed really really hard for a good 5 seconds. I was screaming, with tears running down my face, then when they were done, I sobbed and cried like a baby right there in the dentist’s chair. That was about 6 years ago, and it was so traumatic that I haven’t been able to go back to the dentist since.

(2) Pain=9: Really bad urinary tract infection.

(3) Pain=8: I was in the ER for a broken rib and they wanted a urine sample, so they inserted a catheter. That hurt like hell, and even after they removed it, it burned so bad for another 15 minutes. Is a catheter supposed to hurt that bad?

(4) Pain=8: Cramping during a medication abortion (where they give you medication that induces strong cramping to expel the pregnancy.) And I had taken a couple Tylenol 3s (the kind with codeine), and it was still excruciating.
Man I really don’t ever want to get kidney stones. In fact, I am going to do some research on them and find out what to do to avoid them!!

59

I hit 8 when my back went out the last time, but I think of it as a logarithmic scale.

How bad was it? The paramedics went to help me stand up so they could get me on the gurney. It went into spasm. And I started to faint from the pain. So they stopped, which was (IMO) a mistake. Better I should have fainted and woke up on the gurney.

Instead they set me back down, and gave me the second of the two shots of morphine they were allowed. Ten minutes later, they tried again. It didn’t help. So they set me down again. And I said, “Look, there is nothing else you can do. Give me something to bite on, let’s do this again, and don’t stop.”

So they gave me a lump of gauze to bite down on, and we did it. I don’t remember much about it, because, as requested, they didn’t stop. I had hoped that fainting would mean it didn’t hurt, but it didn’t work out that way. I was allowed another shot of Demerol at the emergency room, and a potentiator (sp?) to make it work better.

The nurse kept checking to see if I had “fallen asleep yet” from all the drugs. I didn’t, but at least that and some Valium relieved the spasm to the point that they could send me home.

Regards,
Shodan

60

[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
The worst pain I ever had in my life was a scratched cornea. If you open the eye, it hurts in an excruciating way yet paradoxically it hurts even worse when you close it the way you had it before. I had to go to the eye doctor every day for a week and then every other day for a week to have it treated. You have to lay very still for all that time and, believe it or not, noise also feels like someone is dripping acid in your eye as well. I went psycho a few times trying to get people to be quiet and was almost literally willing to kill them to shut the fuck up now and forever. Light is even worse and you have to avoid it like the plague when you get up the courage to walk around. It is a simple injury yet the most painful one I know. Also use goggles when dealing with building materials that might hit your eye.

Rating: 9.5 and I have had lots of injuries that were considered serious.
[/QUOTE]
Yup. I’d agree with that. Although I’ve heard a detached retina hurts even worse. In the “Worst Thing Ever Done to Your Genitals” thread, I mentioned one of my most painful experiences and I’d still rank that lower on a pain scale than when I my cornea got seriously scratched by nasty road grit on a really windy day. I was sitting in my desk at school repeatedly smashing my shin against the leg of my seat in spasms of pain because my eye hurt so bad.

After school, my freind’s mom, a nurse, put some kind of eyedrops in my eye. It helped a bit, but also gave me an eye-centered throbbing migraine, but at least that sort of put me to sleep. I’d rank the cornea scratch as a 9. Dental pain outranks it.