When my younger son was born after I’d had hyperemesis right up until the bitter end. (I puked for the last time while in labor.) As soon as the midwife lifted him up and said “Here’s your son!”, not only did the pain stop immediately, but the nausea just evaporated. Within five minutes I was demolishing the plate of sandwiches the nurse brought in for me, the first time in nine months that food had tasted good and I wasn’t worried it was going to rebound on me.
I’ve also had some nasty headaches that left me with a feeling of real joy when they went away - I’ve asked my husband to make sure I never sign anything legally binding when I’m in that mode - but that happens more gradually. This was like someone flipped a switch.
This is a tie for me. I didn’t take any pain meds while in labor–I guess once you’ve had severe back pain, everything else is easy–and the relief of actually pushing our son out was just incredible. * Ahhhhhh.*
The second is my most recent back surgery–a repeat microdiscectomy (had one in 8/06, too). A Doper described that the relief provided by a microdisc is akin to opening a car door when you’ve slammed your hand in it, except it’s the entire lower half of your body in the car door. Pretty acurate. The pain was absolutely hellacious pre-op, a 9-10 on the pain scale; yet when I woke up, though sore from the incision, it was just…gone. I was able to sit and stand for the first time in weeks less than 24 hours after surgery.* Ahhhhhhhhhh.*
That sweet relief when the Imitrex kicks in. It’s like someone has flipped a switch.
Demerol and Vicodin are okay, but they don’t hit the migraine like Imitrex. I can give myself a shot, lie back down (shivering, shaking, puking and wishing to die) and in 10 minutes I’m up and raring to go. I suddenly realize my head no longer hurts, and that I actually feel pretty good. The relief is just so instantaneous, it’s amazing.
And like someone else mentioned, pain meds have different effects on different people. I had that dose and thought it did OK at removing the ache of my broken wrist, and liked the feeling of well-being. 90 minutes later when I threw up I had my doubts. A repeat of this had me wondering how anyone could actually get addicted to the stuff.
The very first time I got an effective migraine-killer. I had had a massive, agonizing migraine for 24 hours (the last 12 of which I hadn’t even been able to drink water, because I just threw it up). My wife had to run an urgent errand, and returned to find me crying in pain. She takes me to the ER, and they give me an intramuscular shot of ketoprofen. After 10 minutes, it’s like I was never sick. 30 minutes later, I’m eating a chicken fajita sandwich bought from a sidewalk vendor. Blessed relief.
A visit to the toilet after doing the “gotta pee” dance for a while is lovely… but I think my personal “best” relief was when I was about 18 and just home from college after Freshman year.
Intestinal cramps.
BAD ones.
Fetal-position-on-the-floor ones. Bargaining with God ones.
I was just about to whimper for my parents (who, being at the other end of the house would not have heard me) when I decided to try ONE last time to pull myself up to sit on the toilet and hope maybe this was just digestive rather than, say, ruptured-all-my-innards pain.
And Things Started To Happen. and the pain didn’t go away but it became much less.
And things continued to happen. And the pain went completely away.
IIRC, I wound up shaky, sweating, and floating on the best euphoric haze in the world for several hours. The pain was very nearly worth it!
To this day, I do not know what caused the problem. I’ve had intestinal cramps since then - with full-blown food poisoning and oh no, there go my inner ears swirling down the drain, but never anything REMOTELY like that since.
Well, it turned out that she was saying that I had to come pick up the daughter, because her sister had died and she was closing down for the rest of the day to attend to stuff.
I still can’t understand how I managed to misunderstand so outrageously, but it was a pretty bad half-hour or so for me.
Our second, Littlest R, was delivered by c-section. Apparently when the birth is natural, the contractions of the uterus massage the baby and get the circulation going; but Littlest R was delivered before the contractions had really started, and she came out a startling blue color. She was obviously alive, she was wiggling a bit, but I swear she was cobalt blue.
The doctor and nurses didn’t want me to look at her; they kinda nudged me aside and hid her with their bodies–perhaps they were afraid I’d freak out–but after a whiff of oxygen she pinked right up and has been healthy and happy for 17 years.
Like others here, getting the intrathecal catheter for my Ceasarian delivery was blessed blessed relief. I had not been sleeping for a few days prior to delivery, having a nasty headcold and being enormous (foolieboy was 10lbs even at birth) and uncomfortable. I’d been having contractions on and off never more frequently than every half hour or so. Just enough that I couldnt sleep. Or lie down. Or get comfortable.
My water broke at 5 am and contractions started. Hard nasty contractions, plus my water was all green and brown and just evil looking so I knew this was not a good sign. So stress+ no sleep + contractions. I knew if I stopped being logical and controlled for even one minute I was going to lose it.
When the doctor told me I wasn’t dialating enough and there was fetal distress I tried to take it in stride. Then she said they needed to do a Ceasarian delivery, and I told the doctor in a very controlled voice “Look, Im sure you’re very nice, and doing what you have to do, but you absolutely cannot talk to me now, Im having a contraction and I need to concentrate” (!)’
Minutes later the anesthesiologist started explaining to me about the intrathecal catheter for spinal block I said “Look, Im sure you’re very good at your job, but you absolutely must not insert a needle in my back because Im having”
Anesthesiologist interjects “Last one!”
Me"A contrac------------shhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuuun" Wow, it came mid word.
Instant.
Pain
Relief.
Labour pains was not the worst pain Ive ever had, but an intrathecal catheter is the bestest most blissful rapid relief Ive ever even imagined. Faster than I can say “contraction” and it was over.
A terrible gall bladder attack resulted in a night of me rocking on all fours humming the mantra “if I vomit, it’ll stop hurting.” After 5 hours of that, and several vomit sessions later, I was still in pain. A quick ride to the ER at 5:30 am and the blessed shot of Morphine, I was in heaven. Granted that was short lived as I found out I was allergic to morphine. Even still, the feeling of ants crawling all over my body was still better than that pain. Of course the demerol they put me on for the next couple of days until surgery wasn’t half bad either, but still nothing like that initial relief.
Also another childbirth story. I did the gambit: one C-section, knocked out; one with an epidural; the last with nothing. The feeling just after #3’s shoulders passed was bliss.
I was once hiking (yes I said hiking…as in nature…please don’t tell anyone) with a group of people and we had those huge heavy packs on. We were only supposed to go about a mile or two that day to the next spot, so we got up and expected a really easy day of just meandering over. Somehow we end up getting SO LOST and off map that after about 6 up and downhill miles we realize that no one has any water. We were meeting friends at the next stop with a water purifier and all the bottled water. It was scorching hot and we were all so exhausted and hung over and dehydrated. I mean I’ve never felt DEHYDRATED like this. We were all dry heaving and headachey and just all around miserable.
My friend had a bottle of water and let me have a swig of it and she warned me AFTERWARDS that there was a lot of poptart backwash in the water bottle. So I take a huge glug of this girls recycled breakfast and just throw it up everywhere.
The relief comes when we finally got to the camp site and took our packs off and sat down with water. We all must have chugged several of those huge evian bottles. It was almost like I could feel my cells plumping back up after having shriveled. It was definitely going from the worst to the best in a short amount of time without the use of narcotics.
I had an adverse reaction to anesthesia 24 hours after surgery. My crappy insurance wouldn’t pay for an overnight stay and they sent me home after ovarian cyst surgery.
I developed an excruciating pain in my right collarbone. It was so terrible that I couldn’t move that side of my body and I was considering calling 911. I ended up calling a neighbor to take me to the ER to receive a blessed shot of morphine.
The moment the drug started to work was incredily delicious.
and she was closing down for the rest of the day to attend to stuff.
but it was a pretty bad half-hour or so for me.