Worst pain you've ever been in?
 

I have a sort of mystery illness that comes out of nowhere. At first, we thought it was my gallbladder so I had it removed. But I'm still getting these episodes where it feels like a vice is clamped down between the top of my ribcage right in the center. It's fucking agony - I literally writhe and sob and kick my legs in the air like a small child in pain. I've had multiple scans, endoscopies, work-ups, etc. Doctors are clueless. Anyways, that's my pain.

k u go.

Hmm. I'm sure there are other contenders, but this one comes to mind as the top of the pile: I fell out of a C130 on Sicily DZ at Fort Bragg in the middle of some summer night. Rucksack was loaded heavy and there was no wind to be had. 'Chute seemed to barely hold me up. I landed right on large rock with my tailbone. I don't think I've screamed like that before or since. I had a hard time walking for two weeks after that... I was struttin' like a BDU pimp.

Yes, yes... go ahead.

I was butthurt.

3rd grade. Got braces. Oh boy. My top jaw was narrower than my bottom jaw, so they installed this thing called a palette splitter. 4 posts attach to 2 teeth on either side of the top jaw, and there's a screw in the center. You turn the screw and the thing expands. Your parent is supposed to turn it 1/2 turn per night and since kid's palettes haven't yet turned from cartilage to bone, it just slowly moves the jaw apart and then holds it there while new palette is grown. Easy and painless aside from the mounting process (those of you who had braces know that those bands freaking hurt when they're hammering them onto the teeth). All good, right?

Cept I was one of the ultra rare freaks who's palette had already fused into bone. So the pressure was unreal the first 2 days. Constant. Didn't hurt, though, so we kept going. 3rd day, the bone broke. Pain did not begin to describe it, especially as a little kid. I had a grudge against my orthodontist from that point on.

lol I had one. They called it an expander back then though. It was definitely rough. I kept getting in trouble in class because teachers always thought I had gum in my mouth.

After all that expander / brace hell, my upper jaw went right back to being narrow. Probably should have worn my retainers like they told me to. http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4255/unreal.gif

The most immediate short term pain would have to be passing kidney stones. Dear god...agony for a few days, and a pain that wouldn't quit. I should have gone to the hospital and asked to ease the pain. but the docs took their sweet time diagnosing the problem.

The greatest long-term pain would have to be healing my own dislocated ankle. weeks and weeks of using crutches and canes. my foot was black and blue for a long time. and the crunch sound I heard when it gave out still gives me a chill up my spine. I know now that I damaged ligaments as well, and didn't reset the ankle for a few days. It felt like I was on a torture table with one machine pulling off my foot when I walked and didn't hold my ankle at the perfect degree. *shudders*

I gots stories.

Worst pain? Probably the first time I almost died. I formed an abcess in and around my liver, which went undetected and therefore untreated for I don't even know how long. By the time the doctors figured out I wasn't just suffering from a stomache flu, I was running a fever of 104 or so and completely delirious. One emergency trip to the city hospital and one CT scan later, and the truth of the situation was discovered. It was decided that I needed to have these things drained immediately, or else risk.. well, death. I was wheeled into an OR, given a shot to freeze the skin, and in went the drains. They gave me a shot of some sedative to calm me down, but it did nothing to dull the pain of having two wires driven through my abdominal wall and into my liver.

There's been others, but nothing before or since has compared to that. People wonder how I can handle chronic pain as stoically as I do; go through something like that and everything else seems like child's play by comparison.

The worst pain was when my father died.

I can't remember feeling like that before, or after.

Childbirth.

No epidural, no drugs of any kind. Luckily labor only lasted 7 hours and it was over.

My son also weighed 10 1/2 pounds.

This is why I only had one child!

Chronic pain is a bitch, especially when the doctors still don't know what the fuck is wrong. It's "autoimmune" but no idea which one. It's worse when they take away the drugs that actually work. I've learned to deal with it, but it still sucks.

I don't know if I've ever had anything sudden and excruciating, for example, no broken bones, or kidney stones anything like that. I've had the sports injuries, but nothing major..guess I've been lucky so far.

I thought I was the only person in the world that had this done....I had it done TWICE

would you believe after 10 years worth of that, braces, rubber bands (excruciating pain just from those the first week you have to wear them) etc, 2 weeks after I got them off, my top jaw snapped back and the retainer wouldnt even go in my mouth. My orthodontist (this was back in the 70's) would submit my case at orthodontial conventions.

I'm also in the process of having my 5th full set of wisdom teeth pulled (yes I've had 4 complete sets taken out of my mouth)

I hurt my back like 3 weeks ago or a month ago and that is the worst pain I've ever felt that I can remember. Pure agony...I almost called 911 while I was driving because the pain was so unrelenting and sharp.

On another note, I also get really really really bad legcramps. My mom gets them as bad as I do, and she said giving birth doesn't hurt nearly as bad as one of her legcramps. We're talking kicking, thrashing, clenching, biting down as hard as I can with tears welling up pain from a simple leg cramp.

After I had a deviated septum corrected, there were two ropes placed in my nose and into my sinus. You know how circumcised penises are extra sensitive because they are sheltered, happy penises? Well, imagine your delicate, untouched sinuses getting deflowered by ropes that have had blood drying on them for weeks. The first movement of getting unstuck is not at all pleasant, but the kicker is having a man grabbing these knots sticking out of your nose and yanking. Cat-of-nine-tails. Through the sinus. Over the river. Through the woods. Out the nose.

Now, lean back awkwardly and sit still. I'm going to pull out the other one.

I am unsure, i was horse back riding and the horse bucked and I went forward and hit the horn, and as a guy I was on the ground for maybe 10 minutes in pain.

But I think the winner is gallbladder attacks. I have a blood disorder that creates gallstones, needless to say at the age of 18 I had 3 gallbladder attacks before it was removed it was hours of insane pain each time.

Worst pain? Easy. Crushed my foot and lower leg. Doc looked at the x-ray and said I can't see it for sure but I'm certain you have a small fracture in your foot. He asks if it hurt and I said "Yeah, feels like it's on fire." Into a cast for six months. Six months of burning extreme pain and the cast comes off. Looks as bad as it did going on. Doc says your using it too much. Back on with he cast. Lay on the couch for six more months of unreal burning pain. Felt like my foot was on fire night and day. Little over six more months and it comes back off, still looks bad. Doc again says you're using it too much. I told him unless I install a toilet in my couch I can't possible use it less. He said "It still hurts?" It's purple and the size of a large grapefruit. "Hell yes it hurts! Feels like it's on fire!" "Oh, Ok I'm going to send to specialist." I go to see him and he says "How long has it been like this?" "Over a year." "Well you have RSD and we need to do some nerve blocks and see if that helps." After the third or fourth nerve block he says "I was afraid of this, think we waited too long to start the nerve blocks. They really should be done right away after you have the burning pain of RSD. Did you tell your last Doc it was a burning pain?" "YES! (you dumb fuck I thought) of course I told him." Five years of medicines like prednisone et el with great side effects and high costs. With pretty damn good insurance I think the whole thing cost me about 35K. Not mention several years of my life.

Would not care to do that again.

Broke my pelvis in 1993... the little ring you sit on? I broke the left one off. Nothing like grinding bone for 5 weeks until that sucker knitted enough to hold.

Tore my peroneal tendon at some point in 2004... chronic pain for 18 months while they pushed me through physical therapy until someone found the tear that was 10x worse than it should have been. Couldn't walk for almost 2 years without pain.

Had cluster headaches for three years, every single day with no relief.

What they now think may have been Thoracic Outlet Syndrome... which I called zombie arm. My right arm was basically dying. Grey/greenish with no pulses below the elbow. Would wake up screaming in pain, ER thought I was drug seeking. It resolved on its own after a rigorous nerve conduction study, which I still suspect woke something back up. They told me I was feeling nerve and tissue death. It hurt.

Yay, fibromyalgia. It makes every pain feel like the worst ever.

And this relationship with my SO that is ending, again.
The most exquisite emotional pain I've ever experienced.

I got dry socket in all four sockets when I had my wisdom teeth removed. That was pretty sucky - I was unable to keep food or even water down for days until my oral surgeon FINALLY gave me some pain meds that worked and stuffed the sockets with numbing gauze.

The headache I had for 3 weeks after getting some serious whiplash was pretty bad (migraine that I started and ended the day with, every day, for three weeks - and it kept me from sleeping, too). I got a similar headache after being in a car accident a couple years later - that time, however, I knew to go to a chiropractor right away instead of waiting until one side of my face was hypersensitive and the other was numb.

Worst pain? Flying over my handlebars while going down a hill on my bike as a kid. I used my head to break my fall with the help of the sidewalk. Lesson? Always wear a helmet when cycling.

Worst agony? The brief moment while the urologist removed the rubber catheter tube from my urethra. I can't say it hurt much, but—holy shit—was it agonizing. Thank god I was out when they put that thing in. Lesson? Don't complain if it isn't kidney stones.

The torn cornea was the worst.
I didn't realize your cornea has the most nerve endings,
of any body part.

It kept re-tearing for a few years. It wouldn't heal correctly.
The eye doc, finally did an alcohol burn on the thing.
So far so good....and I finally have my third dimension back...yay!

i dont feel pain. im a machine from the future

cant say ive been in great pain. sure, ive had operations, ive had stitches, bumps, injuries, bruises..but you forget the pain..or is it just me?

i honestly think im a machine from the future

Really, the BEST the future can come up with is YOU?

We're fucked. Book it, done.

Now I'm picturing him as a dystopian steam-powered android, fully equipped with the rectal exhaust pipe.

Thanks.

Wait, I thought GG was our house bot?

Also thought maybe dlish should seek help. Everyone I've ever met claiming to be from the future turned out to have an unbeknown to them mental health issue.

When I was three I got a pencil stuck in my eye. When my parents pulled it out the whole eye came with it. The pain was so bad that I found myself outside of my body floating above them watching them work on me.

COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE...

i'm here to save GG and her unborn son

I learned that lesson this winter. Kidney stones hurt like a motherfucker. I thought my menstrual cramps were bad, but at least they're controllable with OTC medication these days. The kidney stones were so awful that at one point I started sobbing because I just couldn't handle the pain anymore. I felt as if someone had my lower right half in a vise. Thank God for morphine, Vicodin, and Zofran.

I never want to have them again. EVER.

Before my eye was removed the 'pumps' that alter the pressure inside the eye - usually to compensate for atmospheric pressure, etc - weren't working properly/at all at times and so the pressure sometimes went up VERY high for certain periods.

Two incidents stand out. The first went on for around 4 hours and literally bleached my perception of vision from the non-blind eye, had me in cold-sweats like you wouldn't believe and 'on my back' but arched completely from heel to crown.

White Pain.

That incident led to my insta-prescriptions for constant, massive doses (1000mg/tablet+) of ibuprofen with a side order of potent, unadulterated codeine (I'm not saying the dose, but enough for me to get quite addicted very quickly) for the really painful times.

The second, I was in work... mid-meeting and blinding, debilitating agony suddenly struck. Tears streaming down my face from the eye, energy and control sucked out of my limbs, I couldn't even talk. I had to, literally, bolt up immediately, stagger/stumble/feel/run out, get home (10 mins walk, 3 mins run) and take enough codeine to help me through it... 6 hours later it was over.

A normal pressure for an eye is, iirc, around 11 (the units are within google-reach but i can't be bothered. ;) ). The day before i had the eye removed the measure was up to 54... but wasn't painful.

These were just the most extreme events... I was in chronic 'normal'/cope-able levels of pain all the time.

When I related my tale of agonies to the doctor, he says the pressure in my eye was probably up toward the point of exploding. Literally.

That would have been pretty.

:s

I've tried and failed to add to this thread with my own experiences. Anything I could contribute would pale in comparision to most things here, and you could rightfully call me a wimp.

Here's to staying lucky.

Seriously. I got broken up with once.... (cue violins)

I SWEAR to myself that the worst pain I've ever felt was when I was making bacon naked (boxers only) a while back and the oil was popping off the pan. I mean, I've had a root canal, broken 4 teeth at the same fall and took a huge chunk of meat out of my chin but the worst was the bacon.

I'm definitely so lucky!!!!

Oh, I forgot eye surgery. Recovering from PRK wasn't very fun.

No, second to the bacon is food poisoning. I have a feeling everyone has gone through this, a clamp in the center of your stomach slowly pulling the muscles towards it from the four ends ... followed by diarrhea that feels like piss from your ass and if you drank a lot of soda, the acid, ohhhh the acidity is bad!!!!

I've broken many bones, but they were easy in comparison to some of the doozies. I got a little sliver of metal stuck in my eye once; literally blinding pain. And just a few weeks ago I screwed up my back so bad it would convulse and my diaphragm would seize up--I tried to get up out of bed, my whole torso locked up, and the next thing I knew I was lying on the floor with one side of my face rubbed raw. The nearest I can figure is the pain and inability to breathe made me pass out, and I flopped on the floor like a beached fish gasping for air.

Worst I have experienced was a bleeding stomach ulcer. (yeah, I think I am too young for that too.) It was enough to have the hospital break out the fentanyl, which is 10 times more powerful than morphine.

When Betty Lou wouldn't go with me to junior prom...

After my central line (a catheter placed into a vein in the heart, put there so the larger vein will dilute the chemo going into the bloodstream) got infected, it had to be removed. I was given chemo through the much smaller veins in my arms, hands, and eventually feet as the months of chemo had left the veins weakened and easily susceptible to collapsing (and they did often). I was given high doses of morphine due to the burning from the chemo as it slowly went through. Where the real pain came in was when the veins in my feet collapsed and some of the chemo pooled. The chemo ate away the protective, fatty coating around the nerves in my feet and lower legs (neuropathy). This caused any and all sensation felt by those nerves to be interpreted as intense pain. Anything from a temperature change to a slight breeze to a touch was agonizing. It took a few months of physical therapy and a lot of steroids before it went away. Now, it's just an occasional thing that's no where near as intense. It has left numbness throughout my lower legs and feet, but that's much better than it was. :)

This whole post immediately reminded me of a day I had an out patient nerve block. I was in for my 8th or 9th nerve block. My foot and leg hurt like hell. I had to drive in pain about three hours, hadn't slept in days. Then I had to walk about 1/2 mile in hail and rain because I couldn't find closer parking. I made that walk with one barefoot as I couldn't fit a shoe on my foot. By the time I made it to the office for the procedure I was pissed off at the world, in a lot of pain and couldn't possibly feel more sorry for myself. I went to the counter to check in and the nurse told me "fill this out, take a seat, we'll call your name." She never even looked up from her computer. I had a really strong desire to tell her to go fuck herself. I didn't, of course, I filled the forms out and returned them. I sat, I waited, I felt like shit. I had the thoughts 'how much longer is this shit going to go on? When will this be over? Why me? Oh why, oh why... poor me" rambling through my scrambled brain. Just then the entry door opened and they wheeled in two kids in wheel chairs. Both were strapped up so they wouldn't fall out of the chairs. Both were under 5yrs. Both looked miserable and in pain. I took one look at both of them and thought "man am I an asshole."

I read the above post and think "I was sad because I had no shoes, then I met and man who had no feet."

I have fucked sinuses/a nerve problem in my teeth so I get headaches/tooth aches/neck aches sometimes.

The night before christmas eve the year before last I was in so much pain that I thought I was dying. I can't remember much but I went to the hospital. I was screaming and hollering in pain and my ex's mother drove me to the hospital.

ROTFLMAO

Tully, no matter how bad things are for everyone, there's always someone who had it worse. You read my post and thought that, but I've met people who have it much worse than I have, and I had the same thought as you. It's all about perspective. So don't marginalize your own bad experiences, just keep in mind that they're not as bad as you think and you'll move past them. :)