# What is the most painful thing you can think of **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 14, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230 "2011-09-14T01:38:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Igrapeape](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Igrapeape](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Igrapeape)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/41 "2011-09-14T21:09:33Z")
How big are they? How long do they usually take to pass? I can’t imagine the pain. Ive always wondered why they can’t put you asleep and go in to get it while you are under. > [@nonacetone](#): > > In my particular case, whenever I have one (or two, Deity forbid - But, it happens on occasion), and I end up passing it, the nausea comes over me in waves, I sweat like crazy, I have to ‘bear down’, such as when giving birth. The pain is much worse than contractions. Much worse than the worst intestinal pain you’ve ever had, I guess. I really don’t know how to explain how it feels, other than it’s almost like the contractions a woman has when she gives birth, only much, MUCH more painful. I guess because they don’t ‘go away’ after a minute or so…It just keeps hurting. It doesn’t stop until the stone passes. ---
**Author:** ![COGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@COGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/COGringo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/42 "2011-09-14T21:10:52Z")
Well I would have said kidney stones, had them and it was torrific. However, my bout of pancreatitis was up there, too. Morphine worked for kidney stones but I needed something stronger for the pancreatitis. Good thing I am getting used to this junk. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/43 "2011-09-14T21:22:28Z")
I’ve passed about 8 kidney stones, and one had to be removed up and out the ol’ yinyang. This hurt. A lot. Like writing on the floor, a lot. _ **But I can imagine worse:** _ Take a spiral vegetable slicer, put the tip in your penis hole, and start making some _[cuisine art.](http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/1/6/7/3/8/ar124486336683761.jpg)_ Meanwhile, have someone take a power-drill with a [step-bit](http://www.plumbersurplus.com/images/prod/5/DeWALT-DW1793-rw-78522-136623.jpg) to your ass, as your feet are slowly being thin-sliced by an industrial-grade meat slicer. Oh yeh, and white-hot sewing needles in each eye. I read a lot of Stephen King. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/44 "2011-09-14T21:28:52Z")
Being slowly drawn and quartered (eviscerated) sounds awesome too. The idea that there were actually real-live people who were tortured this way haunts me. ---
**Author:** ![COGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@COGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/COGringo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/45 "2011-09-14T21:42:27Z")
OK, drawn and quartered. You win. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/46 "2011-09-14T22:25:55Z")
Spoilered because it’s gross: My wife worked at a hospital that had a call that a motorcycle accident victim was on his way in. After he got there, they got the whole story. He had ridden his bike through a barb wire fence and crashed. He also had the misfortune of landing on a nest of fire ants. He had a gaping wound in his midsection and his guts were falling out. Fire ants, being fire ants swarmed and attacked his innards. If you’ve never been bit by one fire ant, it hurts. It hurts a lot. I cannot fathom hundreds or thousands of them feasting on my insides. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/47 "2011-09-15T00:34:46Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Spoilered because it’s gross: > > My wife worked at a hospital that had a call that a motorcycle accident victim was on his way in. After he got there, they got the whole story. He had ridden his bike through a barb wire fence and crashed. He also had the misfortune of landing on a nest of fire ants. He had a gaping wound in his midsection and his guts were falling out. Fire ants, being fire ants swarmed and attacked his innards. If you’ve never been bit by one fire ant, it hurts. It hurts a lot. I cannot fathom hundreds or thousands of them feasting on my insides. oh baby jezuz. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/48 "2011-09-15T00:38:24Z")
I’ve heard cluster headaches be described as the worst pain people go through, and that includes people who have them who have also given birth or had kidney stones and felt the headaches were worse (I don’t know if that is a universal response among all cluster headache sufferers though, or if some feel kidney stones, bone biopsies, childbirth, etc are worse). Luckily I haven’t had any of those so I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/49 "2011-09-15T01:13:17Z")
There are a lot of horrifically painful things that I have not yet (knock on wood) experienced. Kidney stones. Migraines. Childbirth. Gallbladder attack. Compound fractures. Etc. Today I had medicated gauze shoved down into the gap between my back molar and my (swollen, irritated) gum with one of those pointy hooks sans any kind of numbing agent. No, there isn’t supposed to be a gap there, which is why my dentist was shoving gauze into it. I had my wisdom teeth taken out 8 weeks ago and one of the sites never healed, so this is supposed to fix it. It hurt like hell and if it’s not better next week I have to have it done again. Yay. I have a pretty high pain tolerance if I’m warned it’s coming, so I managed to avoid moaning, but I wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/50 "2011-09-15T01:29:16Z")
I once heard a story of a P.O.W. who had his balls, penis and eyes cut off. Then they set him free. Worst thing I’ve ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/51 "2011-09-15T01:39:10Z")
> [@Igrapeape](#): > > How big are they? How long do they usually take to pass? > I can’t imagine the pain. > > Ive always wondered why they can’t put you asleep and go in to get it while you are under. They are just about any size. From a grain of salt, to a grain of rice. I don’t know if there are larger ones, or not. I assume by the time they get as large as a grain of rice, there has already been some medical intervention. As for how long they take to pass, it’s a crapshoot. There’s no definite answer for that one. Depends on how the body works, I suppose. Usually, you know you’ve got them before you pass them. They bang around in the kidney or bladder, and scuff up the inside of it, making it bleed. You pass urine, and things are painful. That’s _before_ they even try to make their way out. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/52 "2011-09-15T01:49:24Z")
Damnit. Missed the edit window. I meant to say that…you pass _blood_ in the urine… ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/53 "2011-09-15T02:04:14Z")
I think that others have this beat, but mine is the time that a truck hit me in the femur. [spoiler]Nurse: “Where do you hurt?” Me: "OAAGHH!!! MY LEG!!! MY FREAKING LEG!!! Nurse: “Sorry. I mean, where else do you hurt?” Me: “Uah-uh… um, my shoulder hurts a little, and my mouth feels funny.” I had a separated shoulder and three broken teeth that I almost didn’t feel because of the broken femur and associated muscle, nerve and arterial damage.[/spoiler](Spoilered to avoid being gratuitous; it’s really not that gross.) That said, I fear that eye damage would hurt more. (…And I’m not saying anything about kidney stones. I haven’t had them, but I’ve seen a patient go from no pain at all to receiving a shot of demerol in less than three minutes.) ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/54 "2011-09-15T04:20:54Z")
Galbladder attack, for me. Besides the pain, I felt like I couln’t breathe. Recovering from the surgery was bad too, espically when I woke up. I think they hadn’t given me any pain medication for a while so I would come to. Worst short term pain, spilling boiling hot water on my foot. I imaginine being immersed in boiling water would be some of the worst pain I could imagine. Or the device I saw at Ripley’s that was used to pour boiling oil in someones ears. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/55 "2011-09-15T06:23:05Z")
Actually, plucking a nose hair might be the all-time greatest pain ever. RE: Kidney Stones. My urologist told me, it’s not necessarily the stone, with it’s jagged, razor-sharp crystalline edges that cause the extreme pain, but when urine backs up in the ureter. This causes your renal system to spasm, or what’s called renal collic. If you’ve never had one, the pain usually comes and goes. My first one, the attacks were on and off for two weeks before I peed it out. Sometimes it’s an extremely dull ache in your lower back, other times it’s full-on agony as it feels like someone’s taking vicegrips to your kidney. The pain can last from minutes, to hours or even days – non-stop. You’ll be popping vicodins like tic-tacs, and it’ll barely take the edge off. Every one I peed out was 2mm or smaller. A couple, I didn’t even feel. But when it’s near the end of your ureter (the tube that runs from your kidney to your bladder) your usually home free. The ones that didn’t give me colic make themselves known when they’re in your bladder and you feel a small _pricking_ sensation against your prostate (if you’re a dude). Then… Voooop! Out it comes. Very tiny. The one I had to have removed was 6mm in size and was stuck just shy of the opening to my bladder. 3 weeks of agony and opiates. Some colic attacks lasting for 18 hrs straight. Besides the unrelenting pain, you have THE strongest sensation that you have to pee, really really bad. So that was double-my-pleasure. I do not recommend. Drink plenty of water and lemonade. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/56 "2011-09-15T09:54:19Z")
> [@Igrapeape](#): > > I can’t say I had the kidney stone, or some of the other things, but one other thing which was psychologically the most terrifying is waking up in surgery from an anesthesiologist who was chatting with someone else, carrying on a conversation. He got moved out of rotation for it. Now I’m scared to death of hospitals and all I can remember is the pain and hearing get him back under now, my hands were tied down (blood pressure cuff, but also at the wrist, and I don’t want to talk about rest but wow I’m sorry Papergirl you had to go through that. My prayers to ya. You mean your anesthesiologist badly dosed you and you woke up during your surgery? Something a bit similar happened to me (it wasnt full anesthesia but I was getting back sensations in the anesthesized -_spelling_?- area while the surgery was still going on. Lost a few SAN points there). As for the OP, as the guy who used to have one eye herpes crisis per year, I can answer easily: anything eye related (like an untreated eye herpes for three days, welcome to pain and a Big Dark World). And for things I havent experienced, without a doubt, it would be being burnt. > [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Spoilered because it’s gross: > > My wife worked at a hospital that had a call that a motorcycle accident victim was on his way in. After he got there, they got the whole story. He had ridden his bike through a barb wire fence and crashed. He also had the misfortune of landing on a nest of fire ants. He had a gaping wound in his midsection and his guts were falling out. Fire ants, being fire ants swarmed and attacked his innards. If you’ve never been bit by one fire ant, it hurts. It hurts a lot. I cannot fathom hundreds or thousands of them feasting on my insides. Wow. Just wow. Did he survive? > [@Scotty Mo](#): > > I once heard a story of a P.O.W. who had his balls, penis and eyes cut off. Then they set him free. Worst thing I’ve ever heard. You mean he was tortured that way by his wardens, or was he wounded in battle and had to be amputated (though it would be a strange battle wound that takes out the three -well five- most precious things in a man’s body)? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/57 "2011-09-15T10:03:49Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > As for the pure physical side, being burned alive at the stake has got to take the cake here. Specially the variety where you’re not tied, as Hollywood oh so politely depicts it, but sat on top of a stake which slooowly works its way in… (I was really, really, really glad I hadn’t been finishing that biography of Miguel Servet just before bed) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/58 "2011-09-15T13:21:58Z")
I had an absessed tooth. I hit that side of my jaw on a couch arm, bit down hard, and it burst. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/59 "2011-09-15T13:59:37Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > Wow. Just wow. Did he survive? Yes but he needed extensive therapy afterwards. ---
**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:** [September 15, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230/60 "2011-09-15T14:01:57Z")
As far as things that have actually _happened_ to me: 1. Induced vaginal delivery, cervix not ready to go but water had broken so no choice, botched epidural. 2. Electromyelogram on both legs. They go zapzapzapzapzapzapzap **OMG I’LL CONFESSS**. Then they do the other leg, and you know what’s coming that time. Makes it extra special. A similar experience with “sensory evoked potential” on the legs was maybe an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, but there wasn’t the pause, it was a nonstop thing. 1. Getting my finger caught between the top of a chair leg, and the improperly-fastened-down semi-flexible plastic of said chair, as I brought my entire weight down on the seat while scooting the chair forward. Only time I nearly threw up from pain. As I was sitting at a tableful of strangers in a company cafeteria, I’m VERY glad I was able to hold it in. Though I don’t think the not-so-muffled schriek of pain helped their digestion much. By comparison: C-section with incomplete epidural, gallbladder attack, and broken elbows (got a matched pair of those) were a walk in the park. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-painful-thing-you-can-think-of/596230.md?page=4)