I had some Gallstones. If you do a search, I wrote about it here in the “I thought I was going to die” or some such thread by yours truly. I have had broken bones, nasty sprains (one that kept me in a cast for over 2 months which is bad for a sprain), all sorts of emotional turmoil, etc. As for physical pain gallstones were the worst. Luckily, the docs got rid of them with medicine to break them up. Peeing out gallstones isn’t that fun either but at least you know what they are then. One of my coworkers said it was much worse when she had them than when she was in labour with her 12 lb bouncing baby boy.
I cannot read through half of the responses here without blanching and nearly throwing up from the visuals.
I am such a pantywaist.
Labor and delivery was fine by me.
But when I get a migraine, *Buddha on a Pogo Stick * it feels like a nail is being driven through my skull. Moving my head is painful. Light is painful. Smells nauseate me. Noise nearly makes my head pop off.
And I get them fairly frequently. Thank God for aspirin and Imitrex.
On the whole, I’d rather give birth. It’s quicker and easier to control.
Worst pain was when I cracked my ribs in a wrestling match. Wasn’t the worst pain I felt from an injury. It was the fact that after a brief injury time out I finished the match and wrestled two more that day. After that my side was screaming.
However I still took first place.
Straight up, Shirley Ujest: thank god for Zolmig. I couldn’t find a single neurologist in my area who took my insurance who would also take me on as a migraine patient, so I suffered for way too long, until my regular GP took pity on me and prescribed Zolmig. If I was a Hindu I’d set up a shrine to it as an avatar of Shiva. It’s utterly amazing to me that it works so well, so completely.
My poor husband goes through significant pain when he sees me have a migraine, because he guesses what I feel like and can’t do a damn thing for me but bring me a barf bowl and close the shades (very, very quietly).
I think I’m defective. I’ve been in pain, but never enough to alter my mindset or leave me writhing uncontrollably, or even bring me to tears. Let me tell you what doesn’t make the list. Running four + mileswith a broken foot on a rocky trail. Slipping in muddy water while running and injuring myself badly enough to require surgery, and walking a couple of miles to the EMTs. (Nothing says “oh shit” like the pupils of two EMTs when they look at your wound.)
What does make the list? Feeling my wisdom teeth get cut in half and yanked out, because my nerves are wired funny and they ran out of novacaine. (Much later, a dental prof explained what happened to me.) Getting bit by something (brown recluse?) that resulted in a painful swelling so bad a month later that I couldn’t wear long pants. Then having doctors cut it open and push out all the dissolved tissue, without any pain killer. Same thing happened to a friend. He had a large, unattractive nurse and kept passing out, only to be revived. I had a very pretty nurse, and never passed out. Biology is rather interesting.
On the emotional side, I know where of Isabelle speaks.
In our case, it wasn’t so much giving him up, as it was reaching the conclusion that it was best for all concerned. Couldn’t help crying once we put the little guy on the plane, though.
It was hard enough putting my boy on the plane. I couldn’t handle this. There doesn’t seem to be anything to write that could possibly help, but you have my deepest sympathies and warmest hugs.
Having 5 needles on each foot stuck under my toenails to freeze them so they could then pull my toenails off.
I’ve been attacked by a dog, had a dentist saw my tooth into a dozen little pieces because yanking on it for half an hour wasnt working and nothing, nothing can compare to having needles stuck under you toenails.
shiver My dad just about passes out when i tell that story.
I did get a lot of shots in my feet when I was a kid, but they were on the surface - nothing under the toe nail. Ow.
Broke my tibia when a teacher fell on me and twisted my right foot all the way to the right. I heard the <pop!> I had ot wait on the playground until my mom got there with a stationwagon. Then I had to ride in the back end of the station wagon all the way to the hospital.
Makes me shudder to think of it.
Worst Physical Pain - impacted wisdom tooth. Infected for 8 days before I could get in to my dentist. Couldnt eat anything, just sitting still brought me to tears, the pain was undescribable. Then AFTER the novacaine shot and 5 minute procedure to extract it, I was in pain for 3 more days, still not able to eat either, and the painkillers made me throw up before they could help me in any way. I’ve still got the full bottle.
I’ve had stitches, torn muscles, a nasty bite from a Rottweiler - hell, I’ve had a dentist sit on my chest and crush a molar with a hammer and chisel, but I’ll take 10 of those at once rather than that infected impacted wisdom tooth. Of course, I may change my tune if I ever experience childbirth.
Worst Emotional Pain - Burying Mommy when she was only 53.
I fell off a motorcycle at about 50 mph. I could see my knee caps.
Physical pain: cramps in my feet. When these happen, I can alleviate them by stretching out my toes. But I don’t, as I know that they are not dangerous, and that it will inure me to pain eventually. So often, they last for minutes. But, alas, sometimes they double in strength (i literally feel the cramp doubling in size), then, sadly, i dont have the strength of character to let them continue.
Emotional pain: I dont want to deviate from the OP, but I must agree that emotional pain can have physical effects. You ever cry so much that you feel something in your lungs due to so many tears dripping down? That’s what my heart breaking feels like, except without tears, and for days on end 
Mom, what’s a lemon hole?
Kidney stones for sure as a short term pain are the worst … but for long term white hot agony you can’t beat a displacement of the sacro-illiac [sp] joint in the back of your pelvis for rendering you unconscious …
And if we’re going to talk emotional pain? the slow dawning realisation that your mother didn’t want you but gave birth to and raised you and blames you for all that there is wrong in life …
Being stung by a box jellyfish the day after my tenth birthday.
Or… having both shoulders simultaneously dislocated while playing rugby later that year…
ten was not a good time for me 
Kidney stones, more than 40 of 'em (I’ve lost count).
Actually the worst was four of them stuck at the same time, the largest being 13 mm. I got a good old fashioned lithotomy - sliced my side open - 10 days in hospital. The most painful moment was when they woke me after the surgery moving me onto a gurney (sp?).
'Course, now, the cystoscope (probe with a basket on the end for dragging stones out) leaves one somewhat uncomfortable, too.
Don’t ask me how kidney stones feel - when I’d only had a few I thought I knew, but new sensations keep presenting themselves. There’s quite a variety.
Forgot to mention, there’s what appears to be a special room at the little county hospital just for kidneystone cystoscopy procedures. Has a special table with brackets on the end to hold your legs up and out of the way.
For some reason, they have cartoon-like pictures of little bunnies and duckies and the like all around the walls. Unless…
Sometimes I get some extremely painful headaches, and my menstrual cramps in the 1st 24 hrs. are bad enough to make me consider hysterectomy at 39. I also occasionally get some kind of “spasm” of pain in my rectum that I equate to having a hot poker shoved up the ass - it literally stops me in my tracks and I writhe in pain on the floor with tears in my eyes until it goes away.
But I think the worst pain I’ve ever experienced was when I was helping someone move a sofa and they dropped it on my big toe. Wow! That thing throbbed with mind-altering pain for days! I couldn’t sleep for the pain!
I’ll cast my own vote and a proxy for kidney stones.
I remember reading a badly-written novel in which the hero was said to be in so much pain he doesn’t know whether to throw up or pass out. Not that it excuses the rest of the book’s problems, but the author sure had that feeling right. When I was passing my first stone I was hoping that if I did both I’d manage to turn my head between the two so as not to drown. I couldn’t wish that much pain on my worst enemy. (A perpetual yeast infection, yes. Kidney stones, no.)
The proxy is from a secretary in my office. She’s given birth and had kidney stones. She said she’d prefer natural childbirth to another stone.
when i pulled my toenails out (not the actual action because i was disassociating but afterwards trying to walk…)
pulling my fingernails out
Taking a knife to my calf
as for emotional- major depression=physical pain, OCD, psych hospital 2, OD and stomach pump ouch