Worst Pain?

I’ve lived a pretty fortunate life, no major injuries or illnesses.

Worst pain I felt was a second-degree burn (my leg got stuck to the side of a rice cooker when I was 11) and also a dislocated wrist (also around the same age.)

Aha, thanks. I’d forgotten that context. Sorry, @Spice_Weasel

On December 24, 2018 I awoke at 6:20 to let the dog out and start the coffee. I had a bit of a sore back, but no biggie. I took a few Advil with my coffee.

At 7 my back really hurt.

At 7:30 it was terrible.

At 8 my abdomen was exploding. I was honestly panicked I was dying. I was screaming in the car when my wife drove me to the hospital.

It was a kidney stone. I have never before in my life experienced a pain that even approached that; it was a new concept of pain, and I’ve broken an arm, had a migraine problem, you name it. I was beyond agony. The people at the ER instantly figured out what was happening and got drugs into me very quickly.

Did they use ultrasound to shatter the stone? (I think that was the go-to in the 1990s, I have no idea what the latest treatment technique is)

For all of my kidney stones, the treatment has been “wait until it passes”.

One of these two:

  1. having a wisdom tooth extracted, even with local anaesthetic. (and I developed dry socket afterward).

  2. going to the toilet with a swollen hemorrhoid.

Yeah, I didn’t really think it through enough before letting the thread loose into the wild.

Since comparisons to childbirth are in there and a couple of mentions as well i think, go ahead with the childbirth stories

I was present for the birth of both my son and daughter. I experienced no pain, but I missed dinner for each and was hungry.

Thank you. I don’t remember a lot about the pain of contractions, I think because of the morphine. The morphine didn’t seem to help much with pain but it kept me barely coherent. The epidural worked pretty well for a while, but it got disconnected at one point and so it started hurting again and had to be put back in.

I don’t remember being told this, but according to my Aunt, they were having trouble getting one side of my cervix to soften, so they put me in this horrible position with my hip extended for way too long. That was the most pain I had during active labor, not a cramping feeling like I expected but more like a really bad Charlie horse in my hip.

Delivery didn’t hurt at all, took one hour but because of the drugs it felt like fifteen minutes. A VERY intense 15 minutes. The superset from hell. But it was more about sheer physical exertion and exhaustion than pain.

The most painful part of it was pre-epidural having my cervix checked for dilation. I actually screamed I was in so much pain, and I’m not a screamer. Fortunately it was brief. And when they did it later, with the epidural, I barely felt it.

Thank God for epidurals.

It’s so odd because my memory of childbirth is that it was about as smooth and uncomplicated as can reasonably be expected, but my medical records tell a different story. Apparently if your water breaks too early and you don’t naturally go into labor, it can result in all sorts of complications. It took me two days from the point of my water breaking to give birth, which is not good.

Anyways, given the choice between labor or gallstones, I would choose neither! They both sucked! But at least with labor I wasn’t vomiting bile.

Maybe that’s the thing for me. I hate nausea. It really added to the suffering of the gallstones considerably.

Thought of a couple of others:

Epiglotitis when I was 31. Felt like I had razorblades in my throat.

When I was six or so, we visited some friends of my mom’s who were living in New Jersey. For whatever reason (maybe NJ house wiring was like this back in the day), they unplugged the TV at the end of the day. One morning, while plugging it in to watch cartoons, I touched the prongs as they went into the wall. ZAPPP Not a mistake I’d ever make again.

Shingles for me. Pain in my lower back that was so bad I couldn’t even walk. Had to crawl to the bathroom, and was crying every minute of it.

I’m so glad there’s a vaccine for that now. My grandmother had them and was absolutely miserable.

I got chicken pox as a 30 year old, it was horrible. I recovered just in time for my first child’s birth in fact.

So I made sure I got the Shingrix shots. But both shots kicked my ass. The good news is the next gen of shingle shots are in the works and are suppose to be less prone to adverse reactions and work even better.

I’m having to skim a lot of these because I just can’t bear the thought! Mine in order:

Abortion. At least it was brief.

Migraines. I used to get the kind that made me puke and lasted for days. Many times prayed for death. I seem to have grown out of them finally.

Anal fissure. Be kind to your butthole, people!

how would you compare the pain from an anal fissure to - say - the pain induced by the final season of “Lost”?

having fibula and tibia fractured in 4 and 6 pieces, and most of them penetrating my system border (aka: skin) … did the trick for me … could have easily done without it … and the 6 or so months that followed.

oh… and then falling over your own crutches and fracturing the leg again 2 months later… that hurt also … both in the leg and behind my eyes.

Didn’t see it, and with such a recommendation, plan to keep it that way! :smile:

My mother was the nicest person I ever knew and she told me that the night she was in labor with me a young nurse tried to cheer her up by saying “Tonight is my birthday too!” To which my mom replied "I don’t give a DAMN whose birthday it is! For my mom that was harsh. But she and the nurse(Mom was an RN too) knew each other to the end of their days, and would laugh about it many times.

And my dad just wanted me to be born by midnight, it was NYE. Luckily in those days fathers weren’t in the room or mom might have torn into him too

Worst pain? I have torn both ACL’s simultaneously. Herniated disc surgery while 6 months pregnant. 13 kidney stones and 5 pregnancies. And quite a few more. I personally would prefer birth while serving dinner to anything dental but that’s a phobia. I had gallstones but not pancreatitis. So I’m being honest as I can. Kidney stone and childbirth are similar in intensity and severity. Stones are perpetual pain as they move through the urethra but pass from the kidney painlessly. Giving birth is severe pain that comes in waves. Increasing in intensity and frequency. I prefer an epidural but have delivered drug free too. Labor pain, like stones occurs on the journey. The final exit is a great relief. One significant difference, the stone that made you cry is tiny. The baby you deliver will rock your world and you will do it again willingly!

That’s so true. I was so hungry delivering my first child that when I had my second I had my hubby order pizza when they told me I could begin “pushing” for delivery. It arrived 10 minutes after I delivered. That was a great idea! But , my 3rd child had me in active labor and we went to dinner before the hospital. Unfortunately when I got to the hospital it was too late for an epidural and I delivered naturally soon after. We probably should have gone through a drive thru . I could have had my son in a restaurant and that is definitely not ideal.

I responded to your inquiry yesterday but the question was still on my mind. I have a completely different answer in hindsight. I married the man of my dreams. We had been childhood friends but reconnected after college. 3 children and 22 years later he told me he was leaving on a Saturday morning and was gone by noon. I was completely unaware and shocked. My kids were gone for the weekend and I was left to tell them Dad was gone. I thought we had a fantastic marriage and we were best friends. When he left I felt pain that was physically unbearable. Not only did it feel like surgery without anesthesia but in my mind , I had just lost my entire life. I had a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with PTSD. My mind could not cope and I was emotionally devastated. It took years to recover and psychological medication. I would take physical pain of any type over mental illness. It changed me profoundly for life. It’s been 15 years and though life goes on and I am mentally stable but divorce was a torture for me. Hands down. Real pain.