I read once about a pain scale, calibrated in units someone invented called dols (from dolor). It was a logarithmic scale, where each unit is ten times as painful as the previous unit (however subjective that might be).
A chart was shown, showing various types of pain. They were mostly in the range from about 1 or 2 on up to 5 or 6 or so, covering a lot of the types of stuff discussed in above posts.
Then there was this big gap from there up to about 10 or 12. Then there was the really nasty shit, which IIRC included severe burns and heart attacks. I think sting-ray stabs were up there too.
I had what’s apparently now classified as stage 2 hypertension that caused a headache so bad I was literally screaming. That’s the standard by which I now measure all other pain (broken foot, ovarian cyst, gall bladder attack, torn rotator cuff, etc.) Nothing else was as painful.
I had a migraine that lasted around 36 hrs. My head was pounding so hard I wanted to drill through my skull to release the pressure. I couldn’t see anything because any light was too much. Any sound was too loud. It was far and away worse than being in labor.
Well, I once nearly dislocated my own thumb having a humongous festering abscess lanced and squeezed sans any anesthetic. That was pretty bad. Taking a dump after having an rectal fissurectomy is pretty bad (I imagine the folks in the neighboring apartment wondered why I was in my bathroom screaming twice a day). It was a month before I could say to myself, “Ah, I think I’ll sit down” without trepidation. But oddly enough what must have been the very worst was when I swiveled my chair and banged my knee on the corner of my desk. I woke up on the floor.
Previous pain record was a foot I broke kicking someone’s elbow in a Tae Kwon Do tournament.
Current record is the series of gall bladder attacks I’ve had since September. I now know what it’s like to have a spear in my guts. Good news is I lose the lil bastige in 3 more weeks.
I Googled the capsular shift procedure and the patient sheet I found said “You will probably have a little pain after your operation - slightly more if you have had the ‘open’ procedure.” But I dunno if I trust that statement - it sounds like a pretty awful thing!! Maybe they mean “Since we give you so many drugs, you will probably have a little pain…”
I’ve had some shoulder stuff before and it was mild (a sprain and surgery in my armpit) and it hurt like hell and it hurt all the time and it hurt all over and it SUCKED! I can’t imagine having the whole damn thing re-worked…repeatedly
Anyway, my worst pain was having an ear infection that burst my eardrum. It happened 3 times in my life and twice it was so bad I wished for death. It’s making me nauseated just to think of it.
I’d say migraines. They are unrelenting and make a person feel like pure shit for days. It takes over your whole life.
Then kidney stones. You just cannot get comfortable if that thing is lodged somewhere, or if its moving; you just want to reach up inside with a coathanger and get it OUT!
I’m not even trying to compete with some of these.
Worst I can recall is after periodontal surgery where I had my gums sliced open and then partially removed. This was only five years ago, so I was way old enough to know better than to ignore the surgeon when he told me to go straight to the pharmacy to get my Vicodin prescription. Instead, because I’m a moron, I went to visit some folks in the area because I felt fine at the time.
It was nearly two hours later, as the anesthetic began to wear off, that I finally got to the pharmacy. Way too late. I was in a bad way when I got home, and the first dose of Vicodin didn’t touch the pain, but I was afraid to take another dose. So I spent roughly four eyes lying in bed crying. Good times.
I just went the ER after I cut myself and they had the 1. -> 10. :eek: pain scale chart on the wall. They asked me to rate the pain in my thumb on a scale from 1. none to 10. the worst pain you ever felt.
So, the worst pain I ever felt was dropping a full liter bottle on the base of my big toenail. Not even a contender, and I feel lucky that that’s the worst I ever felt. So I rated my thumb against the worst pain I could imagine ever feeling, and gave it a 5. Clearly I have been very very fortunate.
I guess I passed a stone one night, never did figure out what caused it, but suddenly while urinating I was in horrible pain and I bled for about three days afterwards.
Little over a year ago I had an angioplasty, they claimed they gave me pain meds, but I swear they cut my groin open without anesthetic, then kept pounding on the tube to drive the stent up inside of me.
16-17 years old, running through some woods, stepped on a board, a barbed wire fence shot up in front of me and shredded my legs. Nice long and deep cut on one leg, a chunk about the size of a nickel and about 1/4" deep gouged out of the other. My parents refused to take me to the doctor.
Broken bones? Brutal sunburns? Kicked in the stomach by a horse? Leg cramps? Back injury? Hell, I once spent several hours face down on the couch with my knees on the floor unable to move because of the herniated disc in my back. THAT is pain! But the topper of them all?
Laying on the bed with my now ex-wife, both flat on our backs, talking. Nothing wrong, no warning. She suddenly rolls the other direction, then rolls back, leaps up into the air and comes down knee first on my groin. While I’m laying there, curled up in a fetal position thinking about going to the emergency room, she goes, in one breath and one continuous sentence, from ‘it was an accident’ to 'why are you being so mean to me by pretending to be in pain when I’ve apologized." :eek:
Dislocated thumb (diving for a softball).
The real pain: the medical team at the emergency room trying to pull it into place.
Worthwhile anecdote: Barbara Billingsley was in a neighboring bed – a cough or something – and I missed out on the ultimate shout-out: to tell her to, “Just hang loose, blood, they gonna rebound on da med side.”
Broken tibia (playing basketball), which I thought was torn knee ligaments.
The real pain: when my friends tried to lift me up into the car (unsuccessfully), displacing the fracture.
Worthwhile anecdote: it was the first day of Spring Break, but the school at which we were playing – a grade school – was still in session. Since no family members were reachable (Mom out state, sisters at work) the school would not call for medical help (I was only 16). So I had to lay on the pavement for two hours while schoolchildren K-3 had recess and lunch.
Sprained ankle (playing basketball)
No anecdote. Just hurt like crazy in the moment, two weeks before I could put weight on it.
Ya, I had the open. Like I said the second one wasn’t bad. The pain on the first one also probably had to do with the reason I was getting the surgery too. I had a 3mm crack to to bottom in the socket, no cartilage left and the arthritis of a 70 year old. they tried to clean up some of that stuff while they were in there. That or I was just I giant wuss, I’m ok with that too.
Another kidney stone survivor. Actually, two of them inside of four months.
ETA, I grew up getting debilitating migraines about once a week from first grade through high school (still get them but not as bad). Those are pretty awful, but the kidney stones were worse…and different. Part of the problem with the kidney stones is that I didn’t know what was going on or what to expect.
-> 10. :eek: pain scale chart on the wall. They asked me to rate the pain in my thumb on a scale from 1. none to 10. the worst pain you ever felt.
