It was either falling down a stairwell, going through the handrail and breaking it off the wall and, in the process dislocating my shoulder, hitting the stairs a split second later and whacking it back into joint.
I only felt it for a moment, because I went into shock. I was, in fact, so out of it all that I was able to stand up and walk to the restroom quickly before the shock emptied my bowels for me.
Shock is a good thing, actually… I can see how it would have let our ancestors survive by giving them the ability to flee when badly injured.
Having my arm moved around for x-rays before they gave me a shot for the pain was also memorable.
er, not “either”, I meant “likely”. Upon second thought, the moving-around-for-xrays wasn’t quite as painful as the actual injury, which although pain-free for about 10 minutes, hurt like the (#$&%(#%& afterwards.
Eve, how did you lose your spinal fluid? The wife of an ex-coworker had a spinal during her delivery, and her spinal fluid leaked out a little. She had a headache the size of the Titanic. How awful!
Tearing the cornea out of my left eye. I was raking leaves from under a tree about fifteen years ago, and turned the wrong way. A dead branch hit me in the eye and ripped the cornea. Funny thing was, it didn’t hurt until the next day. At the time it just felt like I had something in my eye that I couldn’t get out. 24 hours later I was on my knees in pain! I couldn’t see out of that eye for a couple of months.
Fortunately, corneal tissue is remakably regenerative. I didn’t need a transplant - it healed itself. I lost about five percent of my vision in that eye, though, and still have to wear sunglasses even on cloudy days.
I’ve heard people who wear contacts talk about scratching a cornea, and how painful it is. Tearing it in two is sheer agony.
You know that old cliche about something being better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick? It’s true!!
That’s pretty much what happened to me—I was given a spinal for a minor procedure (never again!) and they made way too big a hole in my spinal column. It took them two days to even admit anything was wrong, during which time the pain got so bad even the nurses started yelling at the doctors . . .
Gallbladder attacks happening weekly and lasting from 2 - 5 hours. It was much worse than labor and there is no way to treat the pain - pain killers do not help at all. Yes, I was stupid not to call 911 with the first attack and yes I was stupid not to go to my original ultrasound because it was scheduled on my first day back from maternity leave. You know how they don’t do the big cut anymore with gallbladder surgery? They had to with me. It’s 16 inches long.
In high school, I tore my ACL and a good bit of my lateral meniscus while playing soccer. The surprise that I was tearing my knee to shit probably added to the pain. All I remember thinking as I fell to the ground was “Don’t cuss, don’t cuss, don’t cuss.” I didn’t even accomplish that task.
The night after knee surgery also hurt pretty bad too, especially when they are supposed to give you morphine and you cant sleep the entire nite b/c your knee is thobbing in pain. (The whole surgery is funny… before i had it, i could lift my leg. after, i couldnt.)
Breaking my radius-ulna (the two bones in the forearm), I guess. The break formed a tent, so that while I was lying on the bed I could slip my fingers under the arm without touching the underside. Pretty unsettling for an 11 year old.
Fell off the back of a truck and broke my heel bone.
Made every other pain I have ever experienced look like a love massage.
For the next 4 months I lived on extra strength vicoden. I do mean lived. Two every four hours and even that did not stop the pain most of the time. :eek: At times it was necessary to ah “self medicate” in addition to the vicoden. Do not try this at home children.
Emotional pain can be much worse than physical pain. I remember more than once asking my father if he could just hit me instead. Emotional pain lasts longer too and the memory doesn’t fade as readily - sometimes it gets much worse over time.
Dislocating my right kneecap twice. That hurts for a long time. Before surgery to fix the problem, I could move it back and forth across my knee with my hand.
Gallstones. It felt like someone set off a small thermonuclear device just above my stomach that burned cleanly and intensely for a good three or four hours. And it did that several times before I figured out it wasn’t indigestion, and that I should go see a doctor.
That said, and while I don’t look forward to experiencing it, I can imagine pain being worse. Some of the other answers on this thread, for example . . .
Ruptured Appendix and Pancreatitis were about equal in pain. Both sent my mind into a somewhat altered state so memory of them is somewhat softened. Can remember shouting, cussing, laughing and retching, at the pain. I wanted to bash my head against a wall till I could become unconcious, but I knew the doctor was coming, and I knew doing so would be a really bad idea, so I laid back and giggled, and cried, and swore, until the doctor arrived and called me an ambulance (this was in UK where Doctors calling on patients is not too uncomon, if required).
Emotional pain isn’t more ‘painful’ it is though much more difficult to transcend. The physical pains I discribed were soon mittigated by my mind wandering off into a strange state with my body lieing passive and just giggling and crying… I believe emotional pains are impossible to transcend in such a fashion, and unlike a physical pain cannot be aclimatized to.
I’ve been pretty lucky, but migraines as an adult and dismenorea at age 14 are tied for me.
I so agree. The minor surgeries I’ve had, and chemotherapy, hurt a lot but they were understandable. I knew the pain was finite and sort of clean. But when your head or your belly hurts so much it makes you puke and you don’t know if it will ever stop, pain is very scary.