What is the most painful thing you can think of

In My Humble Opinion
81

I’ve had more than 40 kidney stones. The worst event was when 13, 9, 5 and 4 mm stones got jammed together in the ureter and I had a good old fashioned lithotomy with a scar about 8" long on my flank, a drain tube, TWO catheters (a long skinny one up to my kidney and a shorter fat one around it up to my bladder), and 10 days in the hospital. I’ve also had about 4 lithotripsies and enough basket retrieval procedures that I lost count.

But worse (though briefer) than any of those was when I woke up in the operating room near the end of the lithotomy. One nurse said “Hey, he’s waking up!” and another said “Hey, you, go back to sleep, you don’t want to be awake now!” and I thought it funny they both said “Hey” the same way.

But worse (though briefer) than even that was when I got a steroid injection around a spinal nerve root in my lower back. They hit the inflamed root with the needle. This explosion of disturbing pain couldn’t have lasted more than half a second but it left me forever shaken that such sensations are even possible. It’d be like taking somebody with a phobia about matches and throwing them into a volcano.

82

That’s what I’m talking about Napier, in the back even just for a half a second, when they hit that area, it gives you a whole new 10 for sure.

So you remember waking up in the OR, are you now psychologically scared from OR’s or are you OK? Was this modern medicine, or a long time ago with different anesthesiology?

I was awake lots of years ago for a foot surgery but I was also draped and was talking, telling jokes, etc. but then more recently the guy was just lax in his duties and that is when I woke up and now as I walk to the OR I get shakes and have to stop, start to panic, (the xanax they give you ahead of time does nothing.)

83

What the hell did you do to piss off so many Gods?!

84

I’ve had a lot of painful physical things happen. Some of them mentioned above. Gallbladder attacks (and eventual removal with complications) check. Horribly shattered leg bone with surgery and repair etc. check, childbirth (WITH complications and sans drugs) check (kid1) check (kid2), migraines check, myofascitis check, …out of all of them, the gallbladder attacks were the worst.

But out of all of the pain I’ve felt in my life? For me, emotional pain is the worst. I lost a boyfriend to suicide back in the 80s. In Dec. 2003 my longtime boyfriend (love of my life) and I broke up. That’s the worst. I’d gladly have another few babies or break another bone before I’d go through that again.

85

No, I’m not. I had rotator cuff surgery 6 weeks ago with nary a care.

It is important, I think, that the pain I felt waking up was very powerful but it just felt like a hole cut in my side. Reasonably enough. It wasn’t disturbing, it was just fantastically sore.

The spinal pain I got with the nerve root DID leave me scarred. To make matters worse I was given a huge dose of prednisone that day - IIRC it was 100 mg orally in the morning and another 200 mg by IV at the beginning of the procedure. This is because they need to use iodine-based radiopaque dye with the X-ray monitoring to steer the device, and I have an allergic response to iodine this way, which makes breathing difficult. High doses of steroids can make one especially emotional and agitated, making one overreact - and I did. I spent probably 10 minutes in the parking lot afterward shivering and sobbing. I’ve had a few surgeries with local anaesthetic, and even had a dozen moles removed and sutured with NO anaesthetic. In fact I passed a kidney stone while driving in multilane traffic once, and managed fine. Doctors have told me I seem to have a very high pain tolerance, and have remarked what an easy patient I am to perform procedures on, so it isn’t that I’m touchy in general. But now I get panicky and flinchy about spinal procedures - not a happy situation considering how bad my spine is.

86

Probabely ripping off your fingernails while lookin’ :smiley:
Or waxing your eyebrows, or a clump of hair.
squirting lemon juice,pure alchohal, and a pinch of salt to a deep wound…(this could possibly happen making a dinner with these ingredients in the bathroom :dubious: )

Or getting a highly detailed tatoo from an amature tatooist, or even a professinal…

Listening to rebecca black’s song Friday for at least 0.0000008008135 seconds
Or 3rd degree burns over large parts of your body

87

To Mosier:

Occasionally a root canal does NOT solve the tooth pain.

I had a problem tooth. Thing had given me major grief for many, many years. I’d had fillings, I broke off a piece, you name it.

I finally demanded that Something Be Done, because it hurt all the time.

Dentist says, “You need root canal, here’s an endodontist name and number.”

The endodontist wanted an arm and a leg to do the job. Even with insurance, he wanted over a thousand dollars extra. His insurance clerk came to see me and said in her sparkly, Barbie-Doll voice, “Oh, we have an excellent credit company.”

I told her, “Yeah, right. Good luck. I just had a foreclosure, and I’m poison right now.”

After several tries to put my loan request through, HAHAHAHAHAHA! The insurance clerk came back in and said, “Doctor is going to waive a portion of the charges and your copay will be $200.”

I’ve had many root canals in my life. And those were long, drawn-out affairs, involving several appointments and using ridged pins to scrape the canal inside the tooth to widen it for the cement. The NEWFANGLED root canal is 100% drilled, and it’s all done in one visit.

The pain I went in to cure had scheduled a party, and it invited all the friends and neighboring pains to celebrate for over a week.

The tooth NEVER stopped hurting.

I finally went to a dental school, where I was evaluated by several professors, and I had testing done. The instructor of the student who was handling my case came to me and said, “The tooth itself is cracked, and there is nothing which can be done to save it. It needs to be pulled.”

I had it pulled, and received blessed, permanent relief. As I look back, I think a LOT of problems with TMJ and headaches were all caused by that damned tooth.
~VOW

88

I was going to come in here and mention the pinky toe I stubbed this morning, and which is now black and blue.

And then there’s the time I was standing on the crossbar of a swingset and slipped and fell, one leg on either side of the bar…you get the picture.

But I guess those are nothing compared to the above! :eek:

89

I always wonder about pulling teeth (especially the back ones) because how many can be gone before you can no longer eat meat or things which require being torn or chewed up?

You only have is it 4 or 8 meat grinding teeth?
I’ve not experienced a “new” root canal, although the older ones didn’t really hurt, this one tooth which I had pulled as opposed to the previous posters listed costs, I got a chance to look at it, and it was just foul. It had little oyster like things inside of it, 2 of them (I’m talking about the gray thing which holds the actual oyster to the shell) I looked at the tooth and am like what in the world are those 2 things, he said they are abscess’s? NASTY and all the minor things I had to try to save the tooth, all along there was a huge hole in the tooth, no one said anything, they had to know it was there. lol.

Most of the posters have me beat on pain. Sorry you all had to go through it.

90

worst pain I’ve ever had was when I cut the tip of my finger off, the doc froze the end of my finger to stop the bleeding

91

Mostly work related…the severed tendon (scalpel blade), dog bites, corneal laceration and bleeding ulcers.

Spine surgery for scoliosis. Gum grafts as a kid. Added up it does sound a little scary, doesn’t it!

92

As a friend said to my sister-in-law once “What did you do? run over God’s dog with your car or something???”.

93

After hernia surgery, I remember rolling over in bed and thinking “LET GO OF ME! LET GO OF ME!”. Fortunately, the pain didn’t last too long.

94

My personal experience?

A couple of memorable gallbladder attacks. I thought my ribs were breaking.

An undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy (some days I’d be OK and other days it was a good thing I didn’t know any state secrets).

Rupture of same. I was (sorry, TMI, I know) on the toilet when I felt a massive burst of pain that put me on the floor on hands and knees, begging God for relief. I did manage to get back on the toilet, where I began vomiting (good thing I had a wastebasket nearby!).

Spinal headache–DAMN.

Blood patch to treat spinal headache. 30 cc’s of blood from my arm, rapidly injected into the epidural space. I think the nurse whose arms I was gripping at the time had to have them surgically reattached. At least it worked–my headache was immediately relieved!

95

having your hip crush you sciatic nerve against your pelvic bone on the pain scale of 1-10 10 being the worst pain you have ever been in (child birth) its a 20 i could not walk sit stand very very bad

96

Wait, can you please explain a spinal headache.

The CC’s of blood taken from your arm into your intrathecal space may just be the winner.

I first mentioned that was my worst when they go inside the intrathecal space with needles.

What happened, did you get 0 painkillers or couldn’t be put out for a minute?
sorry for your pain, sorry for everyone on the lists pain.

97

Spinal headache.

I had spinal anesthesia with my third C-Section and wound up with one of these. The meds I was getting for the post-surgical pain didn’t do a thing to the headache! Procedure only took a couple of minutes, including the blood draw, not worth full general anesthesia. It was just VERY intense while it lasted.

98

I had to have an IV for an MRI recently and they couldn’t find my vein in the pit of my elbow. So she started feeling the webs of my fingers and my fingertips (!) for better places, but I whined “nooooooooooo”, so they tried my elbow again and found my vein that time, thankfully. :eek:

99

The time I rolled my right ankle over so my foot was past perpendicular to the ground was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. The tendon that runs from the top of my foot up into the knee area broke, and I felt it retract inside my leg. My ankle swelled up like a softball and my toes were black from the bruising of it. I couldn’t bear any weight on my foot; even touching it to the ground was sharply painful.

100

Yes tdn, I didn’t mean to imply that the poor woman wasn’t sufferring for her injuries. I was too factual in my response. I too would be glad for her passing.