For me, this is the injection of anesthesia at my latest consultation at the dentist, it was so painful that i screamed to him. Anesthesia is rarely a time of pleasure, but damn, it has never been so painful.
Kidney stones. I’ve passed three of them and the last time my wife called an ambulance because I couldn’t get off the floor. Think I’ll go drink some water…
Same with me. I felt ill overnight, and if I sipped a tiny bit of water, I would throw it up moments later, still cold. I tried to ride it out until morning, but the pain was so severe I had my wife take me to the ER.
I was embarrassed at how much I was vocalizing at the ER, but it was like nothing else I've ever been through. I've broken off almost a whole toenail, and that was nothing.
I had bad effects of them for several years. My dad did too at similar age. The consultants thought they could pass by themselves as small enough but got stuck in ureter and had to be pulled out. Ive had two years free of them since then but every now and then get warning signs.
I don't think mine were as bad as some people, I was never floored to the ground but have witnessed others curled up on floor with them. Having said that it's still the worst pain I've had and it was not just the pain it was that there was no relief, it was just constant wave after wave of it with no let up, no position to move or lie in to make it stop. It turned my stomach.
The day I had them take out, peeing afterwards was a horrible burning and stinging blood filled tomato soup of a thing that went on for a couple days as healed but despite that I was delighted that the real pain was gone.
Is there any real solution to not get them again? I just try to drink lots of water, watch weight, and keep eye on salt intake. I've heard fizzy drinks and cola are bad but despite seeing a number of doctors I never got any other advise outside of the above. I had hoped they would test the stone so would know it's make up they took out but they lost it!
I still live in fear of them and sadly suspect I will get them again.
Same. I had my first one when I was in another country (fortunately, my wife was from said country and I was covered under her insurance, 'merica!). I thought I had to pee really bad, and the feeling never went away. And within minutes I was on the floor in a ball with tears in my eyes. Because of the way military insurance worked, we had to get approval from the post doctor, who originally told us it'd pass. He called back within minutes and said "yeah no, that's an emergency, get to the hospital now."
That was the day I learned how people get addicted to Vicodin (I didn't, I just realized how great they felt).
Anyway, I've had 12 more since, that I know of. Lots of people form stones that cause no pain. I've had surgery for 4 of them, the rest I just took meds to help pass them faster.
Actually passing the stone from your bladder to cursed "birth" is the easy part, I always say. It's over in a second. The problem ones are when they get stuck in the ureter. One of mine actually got me bumped ahead of a guy having a heart attack. Not sure how that worked. Another one resulted in an infection around a stent, which then likes to move, and feels like a mega-kidney-stone. From what I understand, the doctor who saw me that day was going to escalate because of the total lack of medication they sent me home with (nothing for infection, and a handful of Tylenol 3. For reference, it took 10mg of morphine to effectively manage the pain).
Anyway yeah, kidney stones are literally the worst. My aunt has had 4 kids, and gets stones like I do, and has said repeatedly that she'd rather have more kids. That's pretty damning.
I've had two kids, both ending in emergency c-sections after many hours of painful labour.
A few months after my second was born I got kidney stones. And that pain completely erased any conception of pain I had up to that point. Paralyzing, terrifying, unrelenting. It fucking sucks.
Oh good. So I wasn't overly dramatic as I broke down to the floor, crawled to the toilet and threw up from the pain when I had one? That had to be the worst physical pain of my life. Hope I never feel this again.
No. Literally everyone I talked to in the hospital when I was in for my few all said the same thing, it'll take even the biggest, baddest, meanest guy out there to his knees in tears. Until someone has experienced one themselves, it's impossible to describe, but I understand EXACTLY what you went through. I have no shame in admitting I cried. I'm pretty good with pain, I'm the weirdo who literally enjoys the feeling of being tattooed.
Extreme gallbladder attack. I'd gone through a few in the months prior, and while excruciating, I wouldn't call unbearable. The last one though? The one that put me in hospital and required emergency surgery that day due to risk of rupture? Yeah. I've never felt pain like it. I've been stabbed and had kidney stones before. I'd rather get stabbed and have kidney stones again than EVER feel the level of pain that rotting, inflamed, shard-filled organ put me through (and kidney stones were fucking BAD.) I'm a 31 year old 6ft1" man, and this thing had me writhing on the floor in pain for hours before my wife forced me into the passenger seat of the car and rushed me to the ER.
I later found out that the 'food poisoning' I was hospitalized for around 5 years earlier was actually a gallbladder issue, and the hospital never told me. Basically, this fucking thing had been slowly rotting inside me for 5 years and I had no idea until it almost killed me out of nowhere. I'm still extremely fucking angry about it.
About a year back or so, I had a double epidural injection into my spine to relieve pain from pinched nerves/messed-up discs. They stuck two needles into this deep source of pain in my spine that nothing had ever touched so directly. It was indescribably awful. I still cringe and can imagine the pain when I think of it. I don't think I'd do it again without being put under.
Blew myself up (long story) and the damaged skin had to be abraded (scrubbed) off of my arms. It’s quite amazing how many nerve endings you have in your skin and how angry your brain gets when the skin is torn off bit by bit. Your brain is similarly unhappy when there is no skin covering your insides.
I believe they gave me fentanyl for the pain. I don’t remember exactly, except it was iirc fairly new at the time (1997), administered in microgram doses, and one nurses job during the procedure was just to ensure that I didn’t stop breathing.
It's the only time I've literally felt like vomiting from pain. I went to the ER, waited for hours and went through a bunch of tests for them to tell me they couldn't really do anything and that it would feel better over the next few days. $12k bill came in the mail a few weeks later.
I was standing in my kitchen with a chef's knife trying to work out just how to position everything. I didn't think I could get a good angle on it. Then I stopped and went to ask Wikipedia if people can live without a big toe.
Wikipedia told me that without a hallux you'll walk funny. And between having an unwillingness to walk funny and not being able to figure out how to actually take the swing, I ended up calling someone to take me to an ER.
It's a little embarrassing to be complaining so much about "Ow. My big toe hurts." but holy shit that pain is real.
My worst ever is a gout flare that I got in my knee once. That's when I discovered I don't like morphine.
But yeah, I've had sciatic issues associated with spinal disease, a three-hour tooth extraction, a section of flayed skin. All of that doesn't compare to gout.
When I came out of a two-hour knee surgery. It was exploratory to see if I needed a major knee surgery (I did), and when I woke up, I was in so much pain I literally went into shock - I remember waking up, then excruciating, mind-numbing pain, instantly being freezing cold and starting to shiver uncontrollably (which made the knee pain WORSE), and the nurses rushing me to the recovery room then covering me with blankets and constantly checking my temperature.
For my second knee surgery, they gave me an epidural beforehand.
That was before I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which can cause anesthesia not to work properly. I’ve actually had an anesthesiologist write a medical paper on me after I had a surgery. I’m guessing my reaction to anesthesia is odd, which is why time coming out of my first surgery was hell.
I’m suffering from migraines. Sometimes it feels like the new universe is being born inside of my skull. I’m cold and hot, I can’t move and I can’t open my eyes. I’m in an absolute darkness and it feels too bright. It’s most likely the worst.
Migraines are the worst. I have some form of migraine pain daily, but luckily those really hardcore debilitating ones are only a few times a month. 😵💫
When a stone had my gallbladder blocked to the degree that they rushed me into emergency surgery when they saw it on a CT and it ruptured before they could remove it.
I have a very high pain tolerance and I couldn’t do pretty much anything but curl into a reverse ball and grit out a few words. They gave me as much morphine as is medically allowed and it did almost nothing. Dilaudid works though, not gonna lie lol, that finally helped until they put me under.
What’s funny is the memory of the pain has faded away somewhat, what I feel like I’ll remember on my deathbed is the sheer clarity of relief I felt when I woke up after surgery. I can’t describe how good that felt…
Gall bladder stones. Sent me to the ER where even after a strong opoid (Tramadol) was administered, it didn't do anything for me. Nurse asked me 1-10 pain scale, I remember replying 11. xD
I have scoliosis, and it was not noticed when I joined the USA military. Then, during a training exercise, I fell down a flight of stairs while carrying >100 lbs of gear.
After medical and a discharge, I was at home and I stood up from my couch only to hear a loud crack and suddenly realized that when people see stars they LITERALLY see stars
My lower back felt like someone had jammed a needle between two vertebrae, and I could see pulsating waves of red and blue over my vision. 0/10, do not recommend. Don't join the military 👍
Real bad tooth infection. Hurt so bad I couldn't sleep, just constant indescribable pain for 14+ hours that you cannot numb with OTC products until I could get in to the emergency dentist appointment. Genuinely would not wish it on my worst enemy.
Second place would be getting tattooed on the elbow ditch. It hurt about as much as above, but didn't last nearly as long.
It's not very exciting, but sinusitis. Three weeks in bed, unable to do anything to distract myself because moving/light/sound made it worse, sobbing from the pain despite maxing out on painkillers. Felt like my brain was trying to crawl out of my eye socket.
Testicular torsion. It felt like I was being kicked in the balls every time my heart beat. It was my senior year of college and I was home for the weekend, but my parents were gone and I didn't think I could drive myself to the hospital. Luckily my uncle was around to take me. I dry heaved out the passenger window the entire drive there.
I had barely gotten into the room when the doctor came in and helped me strip down, then proceeded to do what he called the "open book maneuver", wherein he rotated my testicles to remove the twist. The relief was instantaneous, like my balls had been released from a vice grip. Luckily no permanent damage was done, but an ultrasound confirmed that I'd need surgery to prevent future torsions, which I had during spring break... yay.
It took me 4 different urologists to properly diagnose this. I had it for YEARS. Every single time it happened I thought I was going to die. The only thing I could do was lay down on a hard flat surface (usually the floor wherever I happened to be at that time) and just let it pass with lots of heavy breathing and silent crying. I basically was immobile, couldn't even move without getting super light headed and felt like passing out.
Once I finally found a dr that properly diagnosed it, he taught me the open book trick and MY GOD what a difference. He is also the same one that did the surgery, and it's been many years now without an instance. Life changing.
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