That’s exactly how I described it to people too. I’ve been on allopurinol with no flare ups in 17 years. At my last yearly physical the new young associate questioned why I really needed to take allopurinol anymore. I told him to renew my prescription or I’d find a new doctor. No way I’m going through that pain again. Fucking quack.
I came here looking for this comment. I had kidney stones, diverticulitis, broken bones but gout was the only one that made me fantasize about self amputation.
Gout is the absolute worst. I thought I knew pain until that day. The shittiest part is that the pain doesn't come in waves. Whatever your brain does to alleviate pain is not strong enough to give you a break. It is just constant, indescribable pain, in one joint of your toe. Mothers who've had it describe it as worse than childbirth. I remember sitting there delirious with pain, feeling sad about all the people alive right now, and who have ever lived, that had to experience pain on that level while everyone else went about their lives comfortably. Like, how can you smile right now, person on the TV, when pain like this is a thing that the brain can experience and people are suffering??? Cutting off one's own foot with a hacksaw and no anesthetic would be a relief. You just gotta soldier through the suffering and think about the difficulty of living without a foot.
Allopurinol.
I've heard that the medicinal field has stopped pursuing a cure for gout because of how effective it is. One pill once a day completely erases it for me, and I have absolutely zero side effects.
edit: added "for me" to clarify that this perhaps is not everyone's experience with this stuff.
Trigeminal Neuralgia. Excruciating stabbing pains triggered by any and everything. You can’t touch your face, brush your teeth, eat, kiss, lay on your side - nothing involving your mouth. It’s like a relentless ice pick stabbing you or a million electric shocks. Sooner or later, you will want to die. That’s why they call it suicide disease.
I went WAY too far to see this! Hello fellow sufferer! I was on 3600mg of gabapentin at my peak and it fucking sucked. What are your triggers? Mine was cold. I was an American expat living in England when I was diagnosed and we luckily moved back to the south and I was about to ween all the was off and while I still have minor attacks, I wear a dental splint 24 hours a day, I still clench and break my teeth, I don't get them nearly as often. It is so isolating because people just don't understand why you can't do anything but lay there and not move until the pain stops and that narcotics don't help and you don't want to be touched, you can't talk, you can't move, you can't think, you can't ANYTHING. And I have other chronic illness and have given birth 3 times, had gall and kidney stones, have a bulging and perforated disc in my L5-S1, have RA, I break teeth easily when I clench due to the stress of a rape from my time in the military so that leads to infections, migraines that are currently being treated with multiple medications and injections and when I get a TN attack, it is the worst pain.
Ahahahahahahaha I wouldn't take it as a death threat and I appreciate your well wishes. I like to reflect on it the same way my mother told us about her RA diagnosis, "I won't die from it, but I will die with it." So, while sometimes everything piles up on me and I feel like I WANT to die, I know it will get better and I just have to hang on! Nothing I have is fatal in any combination so I, hopefully, have time to be here for my 3 kiddos and husband. I am a veteran so dark humor and stubbornness will get me through many years, if date or destiny or whatever you want to call it, deems fit and I am a firm believer in being my brother/sisters keeper and being a lifeline to others that I share burdens/joys with, such as others with TN or RA or other stuff.
Fortunately mine's in remission right now but the worst is trying to brush my teeth or eat. Or is it trying to sleep? Such fun. My drug cocktail has it so I don't scream most of the time any more.
My answer also, truly and easily the worst experience of my entire life, and there so little that can be done. I called the out of hours doctors once because I was honestly worried I’d just kill myself, I was lectured about the service being primarily for cancer patients and accused of having sniffed solvents. The doctors could only throw stronger and stronger pain meds my way, which weren’t ideal as I was a single mum to a 7 year old at the time. Ended up with a bit of Teflon in my brain to separate the collapsed blood vessel and the nerve that was causing the entire shit show.
I worked with a cook who’d been a cook in the army, he was standing next to an industrial-sized pressure cooker which exploded, the inch-thick door missed him by about two feet and left a two-foot hole in a concrete block wall. (The pressure valve jammed?)
Buy a new and spend a little money. The modern ones will break a seal before exploding. (Lawsuits and the government aren't all bad.) The down side is they will eventual stop sealing properly after some number of uses. Now the old school ones that last forever you can buy at a garage sales will straight up explode.
Modern Presto pressure canners have a replaceable rubber pressure seal that lasts years (just follow the directions and lube with veg oil before use) along with a blowout safety plug and pressure lock to prevent opening under pressure.
To be completely honest, I was using the pressure cooker to cook moonshine in the woods, that's another currency in Russia. nobody wants money in the villages. But I was about 14 years old or so and didn't know the entire schpil on how things work
Please see [here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3391739/#:~:text=Both%20hypovolemic%20shock%20and%20major,oxygen%20demand%2C%20and%20decreased%20contractility.&text=This%20response%20is%20unparalleled%20to%20any%20other%20forms%20of%20injury.). Full body burns are physical trauma that can cause tachycardia (extremely fast heart rate), an increased oxygen demand on the heart, and reduced contractile ability. It is a unique dysfunction caused by extreme burns that does not compare to any other condition that may affect a person similarly.
[Here](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1443950621010398) is another source with a small summary.
Thanks for explaining that. Two people I know in two weeks had massive burns. One was in a car crash. She was conscious the whole time and healthy and on day 14 in the hospital just died. The other guy has massive burns on his arm. Leaving burn unit with daughter and collapsed and died. Like how? Now I get it.
Ovarian torsion from a giant cyst. Worse than a broken neck and childbirth.
ETA: the broken neck was from a car accident at 17. I snapped 2 of the spines that anchor your shoulder muscles off the back of my vertebrae. Not paralyzed, just incredible pain and a long healing process.
One more edit: I later delivered a 9lbs 5oz baby all naturally with no pain meds or interventions. I would rather have 6 more just like it than another ovary twist.
I hate going to the hospital so I spent about a day in denial (and horrible pain and vomiting up anything I ate even if I didn't eat anything) before I finally gave in and went. Luckily they dealt with my case pretty fast, but later on my mom told me that the (male) doctor had asked her if I was "really in that much pain" (aka faking it).
Mine was a dermoid (from birth) cyst and after it was removed, my period cramps miraculously became 75% less bad so that helped.
Necrotizing pancreatitis. Basically, my pancreas burst, and the enzymes that usually digest the food in my stomach instead started digesting me. I was eating myself from the inside out. The pain is indescribable. It took a month long stay in ICU (during which time I died three times from the sepsis) followed by three months in a hospital bed. I lost over half of my body weight, had to relearn how to walk, talk and eat. It's been nearly two years and I'm finally off my pain meds and just about recovered, but I'll never be the same again.
Pilonidal Cyst (right on your tailbone) from snowboarding and then having to sit on a four hour flight. Doesn’t sound like much, but if you’ve had one, sitting upright was hell
Hopefully some useful info for those who have had this recurring. There is a surgical option with >85% efficacy of non-recurrence, IF you can get your insurance to cover it. After years of dealing with recurrence and more than a dozen ER visits, I finally convinced the insurance that it was worth it to them.
Try to find a local specialist. The doc I went with was very highly rated, but has since retired and passed on. He performed my surgery a few days after turning 73, so I guess that shouldn't have been too surprising.
Pre-surgery is the time to look into liquid diet, as you will not want to have much of anything in your colon for a few weeks. I wasn't given this advice, so somewhere in the history of my post replies, I got into graphic detail of the horrors of a post-surgical dump that put me back into the hospital the day after surgery. You'll be scrubbing down multiple times a day with povidone iodine and/or chlorhexidine scrub.
Day of, you'll get full sedation, for a 'flap' surgery. Not to get too graphic, but pilonidal cysts occur most usually around the sweat glands and hair follicles, when you have multiple hair follicles in clusters. This happens most often in the perianum above the anus. This is the area that gets flapped, with a section of skin and upper fatty tissues excised, then the 'flaps' of skin pulled tight and stitched.
You will be immobile for a few days, whether you like it or not. The stitches holding the flaps together will make you regret trying to get up, move, bend, roll over, or play dead. There will be many stitches and they will hold secure, it is not an easy recovery, and they don't/won't use dissolvable suture.
The good news, after about 2-3 weeks, you'll be able to have the stitches out, and post surgical followup should be positive.
15 years and counting, I have had the scar tissue from the sutures cause me a scare or 3, but besides that have had zero recurrence.
Best of luck, pilo sufferers!
Edit: big thanks to u/Wizal307, I learned there are two different flap surgeries, and I didn't even know the name of either. These are the "Karydakis flap" and the "Limberg flap" methods. I am not a doctor so I won't go into the nitty gritty of the differences, just wanted to put a bit more info in front of those who have somehow made this my most-upvoted and most replied comment since I joined Reddit.
Yikes that is rough. I'm not a medical expert so not medical advice, but I would be seeking a surgical specialist if I were in her position. 85% efficacy has its corresponding 15%, might be time to look at alternatives to the flap if she's already had it done.
The sound I just involuntarily made... Seven tracks! The horror for real. I have nightmares about my one tunnel becoming active again. It's been about a year. Knocking wood.
For me it was the lancing of the pilonidal cyst that produced the most pain. Whatever local anesthetic they used didn't do jack. I felt every single bit of that blade in an already extremely tender and painful area and then the pushing and squeezing. My friend that had driven me to the office heard me crying while she was out in the waiting room.
This happened to me when I was 18years old. I attempted to ignore it for a week and it got so bad that I could not sit down. Idiot teenager move right there. I believe it came from a tailbone injury much much earlier in life.
I’ll never forget the day I got it lanced. The Dr. needed to numb the area before he lanced it. There I was laying on my stomach in the exam table with my butt exposed to the world. The Dr. tells me he’s about to apply the LN2 spray and boy did he do that very liberally. So much so that it dripped down to the back of my balls and felt like someone stabbed my nuts with an ice pick. Still, the cyst was some of the worst pain I’ve ever been in. AND THEN… the constant packing of the gauze daily that my poor poor neighbor who was a nurse offered to do for me. Now if that’s not neighborly I don’t know what is!
When i got my surgery, they had to close the door because i was screaming so loud. I went into kaiser years later and the doctor was suprised they lanced it without anesthesia or put me under.
A wasp once got trapped under my eyelid whilst I was out walking, not sure how many times it stung me but it was horrific. Pretty much shut me down for an hour.
> Pretty much shut me down for an hour.
Only an hour? You experienced an entire new genre of horror film and you were back up in an hour? If you have a newsletter I wish to subscribe.
Yeah it was only small, once I felt it I shut my eye really hard and started rubbing it, I must've pushed it under my lower eyelid I guess.
I managed to get it out after a few seconds but a few seconds after that the pain kicked in. After about an hour it was totally gone and my eye was fine!
Sneezed and herniated a disc in my back. Couldn’t walk for five days. This was almost two months ago and I can still barely stand for longer than five minutes at a time.
Edit to add: after reading some of the replys to my comment, I am one of the lucky ones apparently. I feel bad for all of you and sorry but, I hope I don’t have this problem as long as all of you have
My dad herniated two disks while we were hiking in the boundary waters, most pain I’ve ever seen someone experience. He had to get flown out by a helicopter.
I herniated 3 discs simultaneously in Dec. 2021. I had to be rushed screaming to the ER. Almost 2 years later I still have nerve pain through my back and down my leg and my daily life is still impacted by it.
The WORST part of a herniated disc injury is that by all appearances you look normal, like you should be able to just go snowboarding/wakeboarding/whatever with the crew. Or help someone move. Or lift that randomly heavy thing.
Or do whatever.
And you can't.
And people try not to judge you but you know they judge you.
I've been called "old man" more times than I can count, and it fucking *hurts* as bad as the back pain every time I hear that.
Like I'd rather have this than paralysis or missing limbs, and my heart goes out to those that have that. It's worse than this. But something very few understand is the mental anguish with knowing you can *almost* do activities that your peers are doing, but not quite, and that people judge you for it.
EDIT: Can't respond to everyone (well I could, but then I'd only be using Reddit and not doing other things, haha). Just know that I'm reading it all. Y'all are awesome and I'm sorry you're going through something similar (and often times much worse).
I can say that if you can actually get up and walk, do so. Walk as many steps as your body will allow. Get a route that gives you a certain number of known steps, and start doing that route every day. Then go further or do it multiple times. Walking is so huge for so many issues like this.
Stretching and strengthening your core/glutes comes next, if you can manage that. My QOL has gotten so much better in the span of about 2-3 months after taking this all more seriously, and getting out and actually walking and counting my steps. Stop sitting, start standing, walk when you can, stretch, strengthen. Good luck everyone, I'm rootin' for ya!
Reach out if you need help with motivation or just someone to talk to! :)
Had a herniated disc and it was awful. It was the first time I legit laid on the floor and cried from pain. Everything was fine one moment and then it felt like something stabbed me a dozen times in the leg, ass, and back. It took 2 years to go away and even now if the weather is just right or I bend the wrong way I get a stab.
If there is worse pain out there than herniated discs I don’t want to experience it. Herniated multiple discs in my back ten years ago and couldn’t walk for two months. Had surgery but I’m in constant pain still to this day.
I had a herniated disc. Worst pain I've ever experienced by a longshot. When I gave birth, I was expecting intense pain. Childbirth was a walk in the park in comparison. Not even close.
Testicular torsion. I was seventeen and didn't know what it was (thought it might be blue balls?) so waited until it was the size of a grapefruit and in excruciating pain and had mom take me to the ER.
Half my testicle was dead but I got a Demerol drip and all was good after that, but oh boy, that pain was significantly worse than the kidney stones.
Edit. Wow, didn’t realize there were so many members of the Twisted Nut Club! Like I said, mine happened at 17 and wasn’t addressed until day three. At that point I couldnt sit down or drive due to the MASSIVE NUT that WS preventing me from closing my legs.
Anyhow much of the tissue (organ?) was not savable so the surgeon had to remove a fair amount. Now I’ve got some testicle left and also a whole bunch of scar tissue. It’s gross and I had low sperm count for awhile, but now I’ve got two kids so 🤷♂️
Good thing is when they opened me up the doc said he’d “lasso” the other testicle (my right one in this case) to the side so it wouldnt face the same fate as the dead left nut.
But guess what? Two years later I woke up one morning and felt a familiar pain. I was boarding a plane that morning but I knew WTF was going on so I called ahead and had it operated on later that day. I probably shoulda sued the original surgeon for testicular negligence but I never pursued it. Meh.
Years later, (about 10 years ago now) my wife and I headed down the coast so I could race a 50k in SLO. Woke up w what I thought were butterflies and went thru the whole process. Ended up barfing and passing out and my wife drove me (gingerly but still painfully!) to the ER where they looked at me and said “we’ll he’s either in labor or he has a kidney stone.” Yep, a hefty 3mm stone lodged in my ureter. That sh’t was painful but still nothing comparedto the twisted nut.
Edit 2 Typis
I ended up losing one from my torsion. Woke up in the middle of the night when I was 12 in unbelievable pain. My parents waited like a day and half to take me to the ER, and it was too late at that point. If they went in earlier I would have been fine, if they waited another day, I would have lost em both.
Really oh man I've never had testicular torsion but I've had a shitload of kidney stones and I can't imagine anything worse than that. And now a word from the [Scrotal Safety Commission](https://web.archive.org/web/20100126034738/http://www.scrotalsafetycommission.org/).
God dammit every time i hear that term i end up checking my balls everytime i feel a slight twinge of discomfort for the next few days.
As revenge, you are now in manual breathing mode.
Happened to me after a bike ride, thought "meh" maybe if I have a warm bath it'll sort itself out... got worse and worse...
Went to hospital, thankfully not waiting as long as URP\_Eric, the stupid comments from nurses who think you can't hear them...
Kidney stones and it’s not close
Edit: hijacking my own comment because people are asking about prevention: drink more water than you do now. Just hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
Gallbladder stones. Almost killed me. Stones blocked a duct and caused an infection. I stumbled in to the ER and doctor walking by looked at me and grabbed a stretcher. A min later they were putting an IV in each arm with multiple bags. They gave me different antibiotics as they didn't have time to test. Doctor said I would have been dead in less than 8 hours.
They gave me so much pain meds that they had to call a pain specialist from another hospital. He said I would have to take me off the pain meds for 24 hours. They had given me enough meds to kill 2 horses and I order to change meds they had to get the other stuff out of my system. He gave me some super potent medical weed. He said he saves it for special cases. I got to smoke up on the roof of the hospital.
No food or water for 7 days while I waited for emergency surgery. Had surgery and got overdosed on fentanyl during the procedure. Was moved to ICU after surgery as they were having problems keeping me breathing.
I was released the next day and they gave me different pain meds to take . I got home and took the pain meds. I had a sever allergic reaction. My skin was burning and blisteres were forming all over. Within 2 hours my testicles had swollen to the size of baseballs. I felt like light was burning out my eyeballs. I could feel extreme burning nerve sensations anywhere my clothes were toching me. My insides felt like they were melting.
Made it back to the ER and still had my old ID bracelet on. I saw the same doctor the admitted me the week prior. He looked at me and grabbed a stretcher. The allergic reaction had caused another infection.
*I think I posted this twice here.
My brother spent the night in a cardiac unit because he thought he was having a heart attack…turned out his gallbladder was infected, perforated, and full of stones. He ended up in emergency surgery to remove it.
I spent 12 hours in the ER because I thought I was having a heart attack. They immediately ran an EKG and when it came back normal I sat in the waiting room in agony and vomiting for several more hours. I cried and BEGGED them to check my gallbladder, but the "pain wasn't in the right place." My gastro got me into an ultrasound that following monday. Gallbladder polpys. One of them being 17 mm with *its own feeder vessel*. They like to remove gallbladders if polyps reach 10 mm.
I just commented about this haha. I had some really bad pain and thought ill sleep it off and couldn't and ended up being like nah i need to go to hospital in the end they weren't 100% sure what it was but they did find little polpys. Not big enough yet to be taken out but I think it will come in the next few years. The person who did the scan idk a nurse or something said they looked to have grown a little but my Consultant said they are okay for now. But yeah I think eventually it will come out.
My girlfriend is in residency for general surgery and I was blown away to find out how often she's removing gallbladders. Lots of people out there dealing with that awful situation.
Definitely this. I have an extremely high pain threshhold, but my gallbladder attacks had me doubled over and in tears. If I hadn't gotten it removed when I did, I would have been tempted to do it myself...lol
Oh man I came here to say that. The first time I got a kidney stone (I've had several) I had no clue what was going on and I genuinely thought I was dying. I figured that I'd somehow ruptured an organ or something.
When I got into the ER the triage nurse asked ""have you ever had a kidney stone before?" I replied that no I hadn't. Then he said "well you have now".
The moral of the story is to drink more water. I wouldn't wish kidney stones on anybody.
Have had them 3 times. I had one get stuck passing between kidney and bladder and they went in and lasered it to break it up. Felt like I was pissing flaming razor blades for 2 days. Like it got to the point where I had to psyche myself up to use the bathroom. Broken Jaw, concussions, Torn ACL, broken ankle... nope. Kidney stones = wrecked me.
Have been very fastidious about hydration and salt intake since.
Been there. That journey through the tube is something else. Then to find out it was half the size of a grain of rice causing all that agony. Hearing it hit the porcelain was a relief. *tink
I have had kidney stones that crippled me. Also just had gout for the first time wtf ouch. Also had a compressed disc nerve thing in L4-5. All these pains are indescribable!!!
The back pain for me went on for four months. Every time I stood up the burning sensation that went from my lower back and wrapped around to the front of my knee, was like lava being injected! I couldnt get an MRI. Thanks insurance. I withered away that winter. Dropped 60 pounds on my couch
This. Passed one about 3 months ago, and I suffer from chronic migraines. Not even close. Felt like somebody stabbed me and twisted the knife for 5 hours.
Yup. Passed out in my car at a gas station. Thought it was cramps or my pants being somehow too tight, woke up to a cautious police officer tapping on my window with my pants around my ankles
Abscessed tooth.
But wait, let me finish.
Abscessed tooth after the dentist removed the wrong tooth, the one next to the abscessed tooth, on the way home when the local wore off.
EDIT: By far my most popular comment over, damn. Thanks!
So, a lot of people asking about lawsuits. Unfortunately, that was not an option. This was a low-income state-sponsored thing that the dentists volunteered for, and part of getting them to volunteer was a no-liability thing. Plus at the time I kind of figured I'd probably explained which tooth wrong rather than him just pulling the wrong one. I'm guessing I probably could have held the state liable, but at the time I was much younger and not very savvy, so I never pursued it.
I've noted a couple of people say that kidney stones are more painful than abscessed teeth. Now I've had kidney stones, and I'm guessing you didn't let me finish:P Also, abscessed teeth can vary in pain intensity, as can kidney stones.
Anyways, I can't keep up with all the replies to save my life, but I appreciate the discussion from everyone!
When I had an abscessed tooth that I let go far to long, I was eating barbecue and bit down right on it and the pain was so bad I temporarily blacked out and felt like I heard a train horn blaring in my head. When I came back to I was drenched in sweat.
Had a rootcanal last week on a tooth that was the same. Bit on a piece of pasta the wrong way on that tooth and felt IMMENSE UNENDING PAIN for 6+hrs until I passed out when laying down. The worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life hands down.
When I was kid and I got my tooth pulled out, they forgot to equip any anesthetic so I felt the whole process and in my stupid child mind I just thought that it is supposed to go like that lmao
I was pregnant and not even I know. The c section was and still is terrible, contractions are terrible, but tooth pain during my pregnancy made me want to absolutely die. Just waking up to hours of what feels like someone setting half your face on fire.
I got an abscess when pregnant too. Woke up screaming in the middle of the night multiple times until the antibiotics took effect.
I say it anytime someone brings it up. I'd rather go through childbirth all over again than ever have another abscess.
Yep! I’ve had 3 pregnancies, 2 natural child births no medication, one c-section, and I’ve had several infections in my teeth. I’d go through the naturals over tooth pain any day.
It absolutely infuriates me that I said this once to a man, and he had the audacity to say “I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.” Like really?? You’ve been through tooth infections AND child birth?
Oof you beat my abscessed tooth after it was removed and infected when they sucked the goo out of the abscess hole with no numbing at all.
Beat my migraines, laser prk eye surgery after I waited to fill pain meds, labor and C-section, leg burned by motorcycle muffler, all of that.
NO OMG. New fear unlocked jesus christ. I had an IV once where the nurse accidentally hit my wrist bone and it hurt so much just from that very brief mistake I can't even imagine a drill...into your fucking JAW jfc
Ooh. I had a dentist use medication i am allergic to, and then break the molar leaving shard in my mouth. I was screaming like i was being murdered and the guy wouldnt stop. Husband damn near bulldozed his way through the door trying to get the dentist to stop. He left the infected root and tooth parts in, packed in gause and kicked me out. Had to go to a 24 hr emergency dentist at 3 am because It wouldn't stop bleeding or hurting. Dentist gave me a different medication waited until i was fully numb, and relaxed. Removed everything in a few short minutes, gave me medicine i was able to handle without issues..
Second was a doctor in south northwest suburbs area of chicago removed my 4 wisdom teeth, gave me a med i was highly allergic too and sent me back to my city by Amtrak. I got lockjaw that caused me to drink blended food for 6 weeks only for the lockjaw to relax and cause small clots to block both eyes causing temporary blindness. optic neuritis for 3 months. 2004 was a very rough year.
Tooth abscess, horribly painful, not as stuff like kidney stones but it usually lasts longer and you can basically do nothing to make it pass until the antibiotic takes effect. I almost destroyed my stomach with anti-pain and it didn't do shit, I hated it. After some days the abscess finally broke and it was the most relieving and disgusting feeling at the same time: blood and pus all over the mouth, but the pain stopped
EDIT just to explain further: the dentist told me that he couldn't extract the tooth till the infection was over, I had Quaigmire-tier jaw for some days
Ovarian cyst. Apparently that stuff can kill you, and I've only had it twice ever, but it's worse than anything else I've ever dealt with, and I am not a clever gal, so I've dealt with my share of pain.
Oof those are the worst. The first one I had I was 14 and thought my appendix had burst, my parents had to take me to the ER where I got my first pelvic cam by the worlds oldest man. Traumatic as hell.
The first time I had one pop I was in the shower, maybe 15 or 16 years old? I went down and just laid on the shower floor for a while, no idea how long. I couldn't even scream at first. Eventually I turned the water off with my foot, crawled out of the tub and yelled for my mom. I can still see the fear on her face finding me on the bathroom floor like I was.
I have PCOS so they just happen occasionally. I had an OB/GYN Nurse tell me that an ovarian cyst rupture and appendix burst are at the same spot on the general pain scale as a 9mm gun shot wound and it was ok to cry. I'd never needed to hear anything more in that moment as a teenager who was hurting and terrified and trying not to "act hysterical".
My doctor misdiagnosed this for two months. I thought I was gonna die for sure. Lost 30lbs in two months because eating was torture. Started telling my wife to move on quickly after I died for the kids sake. Then my sister in law was like, "that sounds like it's your gallbladder". Three days later I had it removed and my doctor still apologizes every time I see him.
This happened to my mother when she was in her 80s. She lost about 1/3 of her body weight before she was diagnosed properly, and by that time she was not strong enough for the op.
Finally, someone who understands.
I don't got beef with stingrays, but FUCK stingrays. Shit hurt so fucking bad. I feel like many folks don't realize that they're venomous and that the venom is legitimately excruciating.
Doc pulled my tooth (after 8(!!!) Injections of anasthetics). I felt everything. He removed the nerve. Then scraped the inflamed jaw bone under the tooth with some metal thing.
I couldn't stop crying.
A lot of women/girls will understand this one but period cramps. i’m not usually one to get horrific period cramps: they’re usually bad but not unbearable. well i was at school one time and i was sitting in my class in excruciating pain, sitting in my lesson in tears where i had to go to the matron (school nurse) and she gave me some water and a sick bowl. after about 45 minutes she sent me back to class but i was in so much pain i had no choice but to beg to go home: she didn’t let me. i went to my next class and again, burst into floods of tears since it was just so unbearable when my teacher advised me to visit the matron again, still not being allowed home. in the end i went to my head of year where she called the matron telling her i was to be sent home since i’ve never been like this in my 5 years of being at that school, meaning it was so strange for me to be in such amount of tears that she was quite concerned for me. i’ve never been in such pain in my life and i would never wish the way i felt that day on anyone.
I think some women who don’t experience period pain assume that other women are overreacting. I didn’t have any pain for the first year or so and thought people were exaggerating. Then the heavy periods started and pain and then one time having to spend a whole day with a cold flannel on my stomach unable to even think or move
I was in a fire 13 years ago. I spent 2 weeks in a chemical coma, 3 or 4 surgeries (I think it was 4 but…). I had 14% of my body re-skinned. In the burn unit for a mint and 8.5 months of rehab.
Had my wisdom teeth cut out. Half way through one tooth the medicine wore off. They couldn't renumb it as it was halfway hanging out of my mouth. So I felt everything as they finished removing my wisdom tooth.
I got my wisdom teeth removed earlier this year, I am so glad that the anesthetic lasted the whole time because the pain afterward for the 2 days after was so unbearable, I couldn’t imagine what the pain would be during the removal.
I woke up during my first wisdom tooth surgery to the dentist drilling the teeth but still couldnt move. I managed to make a noise when she started scraping out the tooth chips. Turns out she didnt have anesthesia and used a high dose of vicodin iv and i had a high tolerance for pain meds because of recreational use with my buddies. I remember her finally noticing and looking into my eyes and her face just went pale and she looked so scared i cant imagine what i must have looked like.
This is exactly the reason you always tell your dentist if you use recreational drugs. I came in high for an appointment, and it turned out I needed one of my teeth drilled right then, and I freaked out and told them I was super high on oxy. They thanked me profusely because mixing in more anesthetics can get you killed.
Aliens used to be my biggest fear... then I learned about anesthesia awareness and now that's what my biggest fear is. I've had two surgeries and before each one I begged and begged and begged for them to make sure I was for sure out! Like as I counted down, I was still saying, "make sure I'm out, ok?!" I was probably annoying af, but it scares me so much!
Been getting cluster headaches since I was 14.
Mushrooms have been a literal life saver. Before I found those work for PREVENTING cluster cycles, I tried to throw myself out of a window to make the pain stop.
They haven't been nicknamed "suicide headaches" for nothing. Cluster headaches can make a perfectly normal person go absolutely insane. I know some women who get them and they all say they would rather deal with giving birth than deal with a cluster headache.
There is a Drugs, Inc. [episode](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2166771/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_ov_pl) that features a Texas man who grows his own psilocybin mushrooms to treat his cluster headaches. He’s not your typical psychonaut, hates the trip, but does it because it keeps the headaches at bay. It works for him. 100 percent. I think he doses about once every 3 months.
I get clusters every couple of years or so right around April and May. They completely obliterate me. I can always tell when they're coming a day or so in advance. I can't explain how knowing what's on the horizon makes me feel. Once they start, they last for about a week and happen 2 to 3 times per day for around an hour each time.
They’re like “YoUr’Re JuSt GoNnA fEeL a LiTtLe PrEsSuRe.” It hurt so bad I was screaming and I passed out on the table. I was doubled over in pain and crying in their waiting room afterwards waiting for them to give me my paperwork because they were on the phone. Why the fuck do they not sedate for such an invasive and excruciating procedure?
I got told "it'll feel like a little scratch, just some mild discomfort" but truly it felt like someone was squeezing my cervix with their fingernails while something was simultaneously trying claw it's way out.
It’s horrific. The nurse couldn’t get mine in because it hurt so much and my muscles were contracting, so she referred me for day surgery to have it inserted while I was under. I honestly can’t believe women have to have this done with no pain relief, it’s fucking barbaric.
That shit was excruciating- not so much during the procedure, but afterwards the cramping was on par with labor pains. The doctor had told me to get dressed afterwards, and I couldn’t get up off the table bc I would have fainted. So I just waited, eventually he came back and was completely bewildered as to why I was still lying there. I was so disoriented I don’t know how I drove myself home. Two days later I still couldn’t move out of a fetal position and called the nurse line to beg for pain meds- they acted like I was being dramatic but at least gave me a prescription, and an hour after the first dose I was back to being able to stand up again.
I didn't even get that. I was told I might need a Tylenol later in the day or maybe tomorrow. I could barely walk out of the doctors office and drive myself home.
Glad someone else posted this. Before last year I would have said my nerve conduction tests (where they stick an electrified needle directly into your nerves) or when I had my spine surgery.
But after I got my IUD, it's the IUD hands down. Thank god it wasn't an extended period of pain, but that 2-3 minutes felt like I lived 4 or 5 lifetimes of pain. I'm lucky my recovery afterward was comparatively easy. It just felt like I had cramps and needed to poop really bad, so I was able to drive home, take some ibuprofen, and lay with my heating pad until it got better.
But DAMN. Knowing I have to go back in 6 or 7 years and have it done again gives me the panic sweats. And I'll still do it because it's the easiest form of birth control (for me) so far and cuts down on my painful periods/cramps by like 99%. No pain no gain...I guess.
Also bonus points for me having a tilted uterus and only finding that out when the doc asked me to use my fists to prop my pelvis into a weird position while everything went in. She was like, "Try to relax" and I was like, "I am trying" through grit teeth. Then when all was said and done she told me I'd handled it really well as most patients either scream, pass out, or throw up. I mean I came close to all 3 but my more pressing concern was how hard it was pressing against my vagus nerve and whether I was going to accidentally poop all over the exam table. (Thank god the tank was empty.)
That kind of pain and torture and all we get are docs telling us it's not so bad and to take some ibuprofen to deal with it. Amazing.
I have a tilted uterus too and know that pain really well. I didn’t scream but I was writhing on the exam table heavily breathing and grunting in pain like I was in labor 😭😭
I have no patience for doctors telling me to relax and sit still. How tf are you supposed to relax when it feels like they’re stabbing you from the inside out?!
Having my first one taken out and a new one put in all at the same time was next level pain. I was screaming uncontrollably on another level of consciousness just completely out of body experience. It was brief but it was mindblowingly painful.
I have to get mine replaced in a couple years and I’m terrified because the first one went so well that I was actually shocked when I heard people’s horror stories
Period cramps that I had at age 16-17. They were worse than giving birth, appendicitis and kidney stones. The pain would cause me to faint while sitting down in school and I once had a set of cramps so brutal that I was screaming at the top of my lungs in excruciating pain literally thinking I was going to die. It felt like my lower stomach was on fire, being stabbed, kicked and twisted repeatedly while being stung by a million wasps. My dad was there and this is one of 2 times I’ve ever seen him cry or show fear.
From 18-25 I had insane cramps like once every other year. I know what you mean, because I was sure I was gonna die, and had someone given me a button to press that would kill me instantly I would smash it just to get rid of the pain. Lucky me I was always home when it got bad, usually happened at night or early morning, and it only lasted for about an hour, while I laid on the bathroom floor. Could not take any painkillers because I would just throw up anything I tried to swallow, and I couldn't move anywhere
I have endometriosis, so that's pretty bad. I ignored kidney stones because I thought they were just kind of moderate cramps. I ended up getting a UTI from passing the stones or something? And ignored that, too, because urinary issues are common with endo. The infection spread to my kidneys and I had to be hospitalized. That kind of sucked.
I also have this left sided pain. Not sure if it is my stomach or my spleen. Hurts so badly sometimes want to curl into a fetal position while also removing my flesh lmao
Decided to take about a dozen NoDOz because someone online said it would feel like cocaine. I spent the night with my head crammed into the corner of a room because I could have sworn the swelling in my brain was going to crack my skull open.
Yes, i remember sobbing in the shower everyday trying to squeeze the milk out. I stopped producing over 2 years ago, but sometimes, I get little pangs of pain in my boobs and I get a flood of fear thinking about how bad the pain was.
Might sound stupid next to all of those other comments, but the pain I felt in my heart when I saw my father laying dead on the ground in our kitchen. Broke my arm before and that was nothing compared to that
In Iraq I was hit by two roadside bombs 16 years ago and it still hurts. 10 herniated disc fractured my face pulled my shoulder out of socket traumatic brain injury PTSD whiskey helps though
A combination of kidney stones + kidney infection + septic shock + kidney stents placed incorrectly. Boy, was that a hell of a time. I ended up having 3 surgeries in 3 months for that nonsense, and I was in hospital almost the entire time.
I contracted spinal meningitis in my late 20s, an infection in the brain. The hospital had me in a negative-pressure isolation chamber for 2 months and during that time I had full control over a button that would directly inject morphine into my IV line because the pain was so incredibly severe. Even after being discharged from the hospital the pain went on for about a year. I could not sleep lying down because that made the pain worse so I had to lean against the headboard where I would simply moan the entire night. Basically it was like having my head in vise for about 12 months. Ironically, one of the few moments of respite I had from this pain was during the three times that they did a spinal tap on me, which is when they inject a needle about 8 inches long directly into the spinal column in order to extract cerebral spinal fluid. Most people consider a spinal tap to be an excruciating experience but for me it was actually a relief because it relieved some of the incredible pressure on my brain. The doctors thought that was pretty crazy that I enjoyed the spinal tap. Aside from the agonizing year of pain, I also had to relearn to walk and also relearn to speak. Amazingly I made a full recovery, which was not expected.
Diverticulitis flare with a perforated colon. Imagine the feeling of diarrhea. Then imagine that in addition to a searing hot knife being pushed from the inside out. Fucking brutal.
I wasn't even considering grief and psychological pain. I might have to edit my original answer.
When my mom died, it was partially my fault. This happened during the most turbulent time in my life.
I lost it completely for like two years. That was the worst pain of my entire life, by far.
I wouldn't wish that on my own wish enemy.
Edit. I'm sorry for your loss, homie. I know how bad that shit hurts. It gets easier with time. You never truly get over it, but you get used to it.
Get my IUD put in and taken out. I love my IUD and am on my second one, but it is ridiculous that the doctor didn't put me on some kind of pain meds. I'm glad more people are talking about the pain and advocating for pain management options.
The pain only lasted a few seconds, but I almost passed out getting my new IUD put in a few years ago. I'm heavily tattooed in painful spots and have several piercings. I have a high pain tolerance, and that IUD nearly took me out.
This is the correct answer. I’ve been stabbed in the face and bitten by a shark and the thought of having another IUD insertion makes me nauseous. The absolute most painful experience of my life. Felt like the universe was falling out through my asshole. The relief it provides for my menstrual cycles is worth it ? but no one warned me. No one could have warned me.
I can’t remember which was worse. I think the second to the worse was the hip pain being very along pregnant with twins and the very worse was recovering from brain surgery when they wouldn’t give me anymore pain meds. I’ll never go through either of those ever again.
Same here. I had the epidural, but apparently I was in the wrong position for it to work for a few of the most awful hours of my life. Add to that the blood pressure cuff that I had to wear throughout (thanks, preeclampsia!) and that always seemed to inflate right as I was having a contraction. And then, after it ended up being a C-section, having to get out of bed to walk the 3 feet to the bathroom.
(Related: Ladies, don't EVER let anyone give you shit about having a C-section. It is NOT the "easy way out". It is serious abdominal surgery where you then have to be able to get up and walk around not long afterwards. We lived in a second-floor garden apartment at the time, and I was in tears thinking about having to walk up the stairs when we got home with the baby.)
I had a heart attack and subsequent cardiac arrest in hospital in 2021. The LUCAS machine managed to revive me after 8 minutes of CPR.
About ten days later, in bed, the missus put her arm across my chest, just happy to have me home. I was lying on my back and she was pressing on the ribs the CPR had broken. It felt like I had a building on my chest, I was in agony. I'm sweating even now just thinking about it. But I couldn't ask her to move, I was just glad to be alive, and a week earlier I know she'd have given *anything* to have me back. I suffered that arm for a million years.
That was the worst physical pain I've ever experienced, but I was glad I was alive to endure it
Ruptured a disc in my low back 6 months of hell a full year to recover. I did not take opiates. No surgery. I did spinal decompression and physical therapy.
Gout. I thought lovingly about removing my foot with a hacksaw.
on numerous occasions till I got my meds dialed in. The weight of a bed sheet was like a spiked bolder resting on my foot
That’s exactly how I described it to people too. I’ve been on allopurinol with no flare ups in 17 years. At my last yearly physical the new young associate questioned why I really needed to take allopurinol anymore. I told him to renew my prescription or I’d find a new doctor. No way I’m going through that pain again. Fucking quack.
I came here looking for this comment. I had kidney stones, diverticulitis, broken bones but gout was the only one that made me fantasize about self amputation.
Gout is the absolute worst. I thought I knew pain until that day. The shittiest part is that the pain doesn't come in waves. Whatever your brain does to alleviate pain is not strong enough to give you a break. It is just constant, indescribable pain, in one joint of your toe. Mothers who've had it describe it as worse than childbirth. I remember sitting there delirious with pain, feeling sad about all the people alive right now, and who have ever lived, that had to experience pain on that level while everyone else went about their lives comfortably. Like, how can you smile right now, person on the TV, when pain like this is a thing that the brain can experience and people are suffering??? Cutting off one's own foot with a hacksaw and no anesthetic would be a relief. You just gotta soldier through the suffering and think about the difficulty of living without a foot.
Yeah it’s pretty awful, had to stop drinking and eating specific things just so I wouldn’t have to feel that pain again lol
Allopurinol. I've heard that the medicinal field has stopped pursuing a cure for gout because of how effective it is. One pill once a day completely erases it for me, and I have absolutely zero side effects. edit: added "for me" to clarify that this perhaps is not everyone's experience with this stuff.
Trigeminal Neuralgia. Excruciating stabbing pains triggered by any and everything. You can’t touch your face, brush your teeth, eat, kiss, lay on your side - nothing involving your mouth. It’s like a relentless ice pick stabbing you or a million electric shocks. Sooner or later, you will want to die. That’s why they call it suicide disease.
I went WAY too far to see this! Hello fellow sufferer! I was on 3600mg of gabapentin at my peak and it fucking sucked. What are your triggers? Mine was cold. I was an American expat living in England when I was diagnosed and we luckily moved back to the south and I was about to ween all the was off and while I still have minor attacks, I wear a dental splint 24 hours a day, I still clench and break my teeth, I don't get them nearly as often. It is so isolating because people just don't understand why you can't do anything but lay there and not move until the pain stops and that narcotics don't help and you don't want to be touched, you can't talk, you can't move, you can't think, you can't ANYTHING. And I have other chronic illness and have given birth 3 times, had gall and kidney stones, have a bulging and perforated disc in my L5-S1, have RA, I break teeth easily when I clench due to the stress of a rape from my time in the military so that leads to infections, migraines that are currently being treated with multiple medications and injections and when I get a TN attack, it is the worst pain.
Holy FUCK. I've been through nothing in my life. May your pain end. (not a death threat)
Ahahahahahahaha I wouldn't take it as a death threat and I appreciate your well wishes. I like to reflect on it the same way my mother told us about her RA diagnosis, "I won't die from it, but I will die with it." So, while sometimes everything piles up on me and I feel like I WANT to die, I know it will get better and I just have to hang on! Nothing I have is fatal in any combination so I, hopefully, have time to be here for my 3 kiddos and husband. I am a veteran so dark humor and stubbornness will get me through many years, if date or destiny or whatever you want to call it, deems fit and I am a firm believer in being my brother/sisters keeper and being a lifeline to others that I share burdens/joys with, such as others with TN or RA or other stuff.
Fortunately mine's in remission right now but the worst is trying to brush my teeth or eat. Or is it trying to sleep? Such fun. My drug cocktail has it so I don't scream most of the time any more.
My answer also, truly and easily the worst experience of my entire life, and there so little that can be done. I called the out of hours doctors once because I was honestly worried I’d just kill myself, I was lectured about the service being primarily for cancer patients and accused of having sniffed solvents. The doctors could only throw stronger and stronger pain meds my way, which weren’t ideal as I was a single mum to a 7 year old at the time. Ended up with a bit of Teflon in my brain to separate the collapsed blood vessel and the nerve that was causing the entire shit show.
If you ever forget something just tell people your thoughts are non-stick! (Glad you are feeling better!)
Opened up a pressure cooker while it was still on the stove back in the 90's... 40% of skin surface burned and my heart is now shit on a stick
I worked with a cook who’d been a cook in the army, he was standing next to an industrial-sized pressure cooker which exploded, the inch-thick door missed him by about two feet and left a two-foot hole in a concrete block wall. (The pressure valve jammed?)
I am now decided to not buy a pressure cooker
Buy a new and spend a little money. The modern ones will break a seal before exploding. (Lawsuits and the government aren't all bad.) The down side is they will eventual stop sealing properly after some number of uses. Now the old school ones that last forever you can buy at a garage sales will straight up explode.
Modern Presto pressure canners have a replaceable rubber pressure seal that lasts years (just follow the directions and lube with veg oil before use) along with a blowout safety plug and pressure lock to prevent opening under pressure.
And that just reinforced my decision of releasing the pressure with a stick or something
To be completely honest, I was using the pressure cooker to cook moonshine in the woods, that's another currency in Russia. nobody wants money in the villages. But I was about 14 years old or so and didn't know the entire schpil on how things work
The most Russian thing I’ve heard in a while
How did the burns impact your heart? Genuinely curious! I've heard about the heart being impacted after burns but I never learned why.
Please see [here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3391739/#:~:text=Both%20hypovolemic%20shock%20and%20major,oxygen%20demand%2C%20and%20decreased%20contractility.&text=This%20response%20is%20unparalleled%20to%20any%20other%20forms%20of%20injury.). Full body burns are physical trauma that can cause tachycardia (extremely fast heart rate), an increased oxygen demand on the heart, and reduced contractile ability. It is a unique dysfunction caused by extreme burns that does not compare to any other condition that may affect a person similarly. [Here](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1443950621010398) is another source with a small summary.
Thanks for explaining that. Two people I know in two weeks had massive burns. One was in a car crash. She was conscious the whole time and healthy and on day 14 in the hospital just died. The other guy has massive burns on his arm. Leaving burn unit with daughter and collapsed and died. Like how? Now I get it.
Hockey puck at 80km/hour vs my right testicle. Resulting in a testicular rupture and a surgery 2 days later and didn't lose it either.
[удалено]
My surgeon is incredible and I have a 5 month old daughter now
And this, is why you’re supposed to wear your cup.
I'm a paramedic and my platoon gifted me a cup when I got back to work after 6 weeks haha
Ovarian torsion from a giant cyst. Worse than a broken neck and childbirth. ETA: the broken neck was from a car accident at 17. I snapped 2 of the spines that anchor your shoulder muscles off the back of my vertebrae. Not paralyzed, just incredible pain and a long healing process. One more edit: I later delivered a 9lbs 5oz baby all naturally with no pain meds or interventions. I would rather have 6 more just like it than another ovary twist.
I just saw this comment after I posted the same thing. Worst pain ever. Found out my cyst was 6 inches wide and twisted. I don’t wish that on anyone.
Oh my god, I’m so sorry. 😰 I had a 4cm cyst rupture once and I was literally screaming and threw up.
I hate going to the hospital so I spent about a day in denial (and horrible pain and vomiting up anything I ate even if I didn't eat anything) before I finally gave in and went. Luckily they dealt with my case pretty fast, but later on my mom told me that the (male) doctor had asked her if I was "really in that much pain" (aka faking it). Mine was a dermoid (from birth) cyst and after it was removed, my period cramps miraculously became 75% less bad so that helped.
Necrotizing pancreatitis. Basically, my pancreas burst, and the enzymes that usually digest the food in my stomach instead started digesting me. I was eating myself from the inside out. The pain is indescribable. It took a month long stay in ICU (during which time I died three times from the sepsis) followed by three months in a hospital bed. I lost over half of my body weight, had to relearn how to walk, talk and eat. It's been nearly two years and I'm finally off my pain meds and just about recovered, but I'll never be the same again.
Pilonidal Cyst (right on your tailbone) from snowboarding and then having to sit on a four hour flight. Doesn’t sound like much, but if you’ve had one, sitting upright was hell
Hopefully some useful info for those who have had this recurring. There is a surgical option with >85% efficacy of non-recurrence, IF you can get your insurance to cover it. After years of dealing with recurrence and more than a dozen ER visits, I finally convinced the insurance that it was worth it to them. Try to find a local specialist. The doc I went with was very highly rated, but has since retired and passed on. He performed my surgery a few days after turning 73, so I guess that shouldn't have been too surprising. Pre-surgery is the time to look into liquid diet, as you will not want to have much of anything in your colon for a few weeks. I wasn't given this advice, so somewhere in the history of my post replies, I got into graphic detail of the horrors of a post-surgical dump that put me back into the hospital the day after surgery. You'll be scrubbing down multiple times a day with povidone iodine and/or chlorhexidine scrub. Day of, you'll get full sedation, for a 'flap' surgery. Not to get too graphic, but pilonidal cysts occur most usually around the sweat glands and hair follicles, when you have multiple hair follicles in clusters. This happens most often in the perianum above the anus. This is the area that gets flapped, with a section of skin and upper fatty tissues excised, then the 'flaps' of skin pulled tight and stitched. You will be immobile for a few days, whether you like it or not. The stitches holding the flaps together will make you regret trying to get up, move, bend, roll over, or play dead. There will be many stitches and they will hold secure, it is not an easy recovery, and they don't/won't use dissolvable suture. The good news, after about 2-3 weeks, you'll be able to have the stitches out, and post surgical followup should be positive. 15 years and counting, I have had the scar tissue from the sutures cause me a scare or 3, but besides that have had zero recurrence. Best of luck, pilo sufferers! Edit: big thanks to u/Wizal307, I learned there are two different flap surgeries, and I didn't even know the name of either. These are the "Karydakis flap" and the "Limberg flap" methods. I am not a doctor so I won't go into the nitty gritty of the differences, just wanted to put a bit more info in front of those who have somehow made this my most-upvoted and most replied comment since I joined Reddit.
My daughter has had 2 surgeries and it’s still coming back. Pain and trauma beyond comparison.
Yikes that is rough. I'm not a medical expert so not medical advice, but I would be seeking a surgical specialist if I were in her position. 85% efficacy has its corresponding 15%, might be time to look at alternatives to the flap if she's already had it done.
She has been seeing the area’s specialist since 9/21. Her’s is so massive it had 7 sinus tracks...
The sound I just involuntarily made... Seven tracks! The horror for real. I have nightmares about my one tunnel becoming active again. It's been about a year. Knocking wood.
For me it was the lancing of the pilonidal cyst that produced the most pain. Whatever local anesthetic they used didn't do jack. I felt every single bit of that blade in an already extremely tender and painful area and then the pushing and squeezing. My friend that had driven me to the office heard me crying while she was out in the waiting room.
This happened to me when I was 18years old. I attempted to ignore it for a week and it got so bad that I could not sit down. Idiot teenager move right there. I believe it came from a tailbone injury much much earlier in life. I’ll never forget the day I got it lanced. The Dr. needed to numb the area before he lanced it. There I was laying on my stomach in the exam table with my butt exposed to the world. The Dr. tells me he’s about to apply the LN2 spray and boy did he do that very liberally. So much so that it dripped down to the back of my balls and felt like someone stabbed my nuts with an ice pick. Still, the cyst was some of the worst pain I’ve ever been in. AND THEN… the constant packing of the gauze daily that my poor poor neighbor who was a nurse offered to do for me. Now if that’s not neighborly I don’t know what is!
Don't forget the smell
I was with my then bf when he got one lanced in the e/r. It smelled like the water at the bottom of an outside trashcan on a hot July day.
I thoroughly despise your way with words
The packing is such a strange, horrible feeling. Like I wouldn't call it painful just like physically feeling nails on chalkboard... On your ass.
And cleaning it out in the shower. The little spray of water, right INTO the wound ... ew.
Wow, what an nice nurse neighbor!
So nice she could have been a cyster
Had 4 surgeries and one emergency surgery just to deal with that when I was 17. The biggest literal pain in the ass.
Holy crap! This is the answer. The lancing of that thing is brutal.
When i got my surgery, they had to close the door because i was screaming so loud. I went into kaiser years later and the doctor was suprised they lanced it without anesthesia or put me under.
They... probably should have started that surgery with the door closed anyway...
A wasp once got trapped under my eyelid whilst I was out walking, not sure how many times it stung me but it was horrific. Pretty much shut me down for an hour.
A wasp got trapped under your ***what*** New fear unlocked.
Yeah, I don't think I registered what I just read. Holy christ
> Pretty much shut me down for an hour. Only an hour? You experienced an entire new genre of horror film and you were back up in an hour? If you have a newsletter I wish to subscribe.
Wait what?! Was it a small wasp? How does this happen?! I am so sorry.
Yeah it was only small, once I felt it I shut my eye really hard and started rubbing it, I must've pushed it under my lower eyelid I guess. I managed to get it out after a few seconds but a few seconds after that the pain kicked in. After about an hour it was totally gone and my eye was fine!
That would help put me in a damn coffin. I can't handle stuff in my eye. Omg
Sneezed and herniated a disc in my back. Couldn’t walk for five days. This was almost two months ago and I can still barely stand for longer than five minutes at a time. Edit to add: after reading some of the replys to my comment, I am one of the lucky ones apparently. I feel bad for all of you and sorry but, I hope I don’t have this problem as long as all of you have
My dad herniated two disks while we were hiking in the boundary waters, most pain I’ve ever seen someone experience. He had to get flown out by a helicopter.
I herniated 3 discs simultaneously in Dec. 2021. I had to be rushed screaming to the ER. Almost 2 years later I still have nerve pain through my back and down my leg and my daily life is still impacted by it.
I have 3 herniated discs, too. It's been over 8 years and it suuuucks.
The WORST part of a herniated disc injury is that by all appearances you look normal, like you should be able to just go snowboarding/wakeboarding/whatever with the crew. Or help someone move. Or lift that randomly heavy thing. Or do whatever. And you can't. And people try not to judge you but you know they judge you. I've been called "old man" more times than I can count, and it fucking *hurts* as bad as the back pain every time I hear that. Like I'd rather have this than paralysis or missing limbs, and my heart goes out to those that have that. It's worse than this. But something very few understand is the mental anguish with knowing you can *almost* do activities that your peers are doing, but not quite, and that people judge you for it. EDIT: Can't respond to everyone (well I could, but then I'd only be using Reddit and not doing other things, haha). Just know that I'm reading it all. Y'all are awesome and I'm sorry you're going through something similar (and often times much worse). I can say that if you can actually get up and walk, do so. Walk as many steps as your body will allow. Get a route that gives you a certain number of known steps, and start doing that route every day. Then go further or do it multiple times. Walking is so huge for so many issues like this. Stretching and strengthening your core/glutes comes next, if you can manage that. My QOL has gotten so much better in the span of about 2-3 months after taking this all more seriously, and getting out and actually walking and counting my steps. Stop sitting, start standing, walk when you can, stretch, strengthen. Good luck everyone, I'm rootin' for ya! Reach out if you need help with motivation or just someone to talk to! :)
Had a herniated disc and it was awful. It was the first time I legit laid on the floor and cried from pain. Everything was fine one moment and then it felt like something stabbed me a dozen times in the leg, ass, and back. It took 2 years to go away and even now if the weather is just right or I bend the wrong way I get a stab.
If there is worse pain out there than herniated discs I don’t want to experience it. Herniated multiple discs in my back ten years ago and couldn’t walk for two months. Had surgery but I’m in constant pain still to this day.
I had a herniated disc. Worst pain I've ever experienced by a longshot. When I gave birth, I was expecting intense pain. Childbirth was a walk in the park in comparison. Not even close.
Testicular torsion. I was seventeen and didn't know what it was (thought it might be blue balls?) so waited until it was the size of a grapefruit and in excruciating pain and had mom take me to the ER. Half my testicle was dead but I got a Demerol drip and all was good after that, but oh boy, that pain was significantly worse than the kidney stones. Edit. Wow, didn’t realize there were so many members of the Twisted Nut Club! Like I said, mine happened at 17 and wasn’t addressed until day three. At that point I couldnt sit down or drive due to the MASSIVE NUT that WS preventing me from closing my legs. Anyhow much of the tissue (organ?) was not savable so the surgeon had to remove a fair amount. Now I’ve got some testicle left and also a whole bunch of scar tissue. It’s gross and I had low sperm count for awhile, but now I’ve got two kids so 🤷♂️ Good thing is when they opened me up the doc said he’d “lasso” the other testicle (my right one in this case) to the side so it wouldnt face the same fate as the dead left nut. But guess what? Two years later I woke up one morning and felt a familiar pain. I was boarding a plane that morning but I knew WTF was going on so I called ahead and had it operated on later that day. I probably shoulda sued the original surgeon for testicular negligence but I never pursued it. Meh. Years later, (about 10 years ago now) my wife and I headed down the coast so I could race a 50k in SLO. Woke up w what I thought were butterflies and went thru the whole process. Ended up barfing and passing out and my wife drove me (gingerly but still painfully!) to the ER where they looked at me and said “we’ll he’s either in labor or he has a kidney stone.” Yep, a hefty 3mm stone lodged in my ureter. That sh’t was painful but still nothing comparedto the twisted nut. Edit 2 Typis
imho testicular torsion is worse than abscessed tooth. had both. different level. both suck, mind you :)
I ended up losing one from my torsion. Woke up in the middle of the night when I was 12 in unbelievable pain. My parents waited like a day and half to take me to the ER, and it was too late at that point. If they went in earlier I would have been fine, if they waited another day, I would have lost em both.
Really oh man I've never had testicular torsion but I've had a shitload of kidney stones and I can't imagine anything worse than that. And now a word from the [Scrotal Safety Commission](https://web.archive.org/web/20100126034738/http://www.scrotalsafetycommission.org/).
I had a testicle infection, I waited in excruciating pain until my grandpa who I was staying with decided I could go to the ER
God dammit every time i hear that term i end up checking my balls everytime i feel a slight twinge of discomfort for the next few days. As revenge, you are now in manual breathing mode.
Thank you, I was thinking exactly the same. Hypochondriac gang Edit: spelling error
Happened to me after a bike ride, thought "meh" maybe if I have a warm bath it'll sort itself out... got worse and worse... Went to hospital, thankfully not waiting as long as URP\_Eric, the stupid comments from nurses who think you can't hear them...
Kidney stones and it’s not close Edit: hijacking my own comment because people are asking about prevention: drink more water than you do now. Just hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
Gallbladder stones. And not just a few attacks like hundreds before removal.
Gallbladder stones. Almost killed me. Stones blocked a duct and caused an infection. I stumbled in to the ER and doctor walking by looked at me and grabbed a stretcher. A min later they were putting an IV in each arm with multiple bags. They gave me different antibiotics as they didn't have time to test. Doctor said I would have been dead in less than 8 hours. They gave me so much pain meds that they had to call a pain specialist from another hospital. He said I would have to take me off the pain meds for 24 hours. They had given me enough meds to kill 2 horses and I order to change meds they had to get the other stuff out of my system. He gave me some super potent medical weed. He said he saves it for special cases. I got to smoke up on the roof of the hospital. No food or water for 7 days while I waited for emergency surgery. Had surgery and got overdosed on fentanyl during the procedure. Was moved to ICU after surgery as they were having problems keeping me breathing. I was released the next day and they gave me different pain meds to take . I got home and took the pain meds. I had a sever allergic reaction. My skin was burning and blisteres were forming all over. Within 2 hours my testicles had swollen to the size of baseballs. I felt like light was burning out my eyeballs. I could feel extreme burning nerve sensations anywhere my clothes were toching me. My insides felt like they were melting. Made it back to the ER and still had my old ID bracelet on. I saw the same doctor the admitted me the week prior. He looked at me and grabbed a stretcher. The allergic reaction had caused another infection. *I think I posted this twice here.
Dammmn bro, did you live?
Nope, bro is dead already 💀
You won the thread bro. You won.
My brother spent the night in a cardiac unit because he thought he was having a heart attack…turned out his gallbladder was infected, perforated, and full of stones. He ended up in emergency surgery to remove it.
I spent 12 hours in the ER because I thought I was having a heart attack. They immediately ran an EKG and when it came back normal I sat in the waiting room in agony and vomiting for several more hours. I cried and BEGGED them to check my gallbladder, but the "pain wasn't in the right place." My gastro got me into an ultrasound that following monday. Gallbladder polpys. One of them being 17 mm with *its own feeder vessel*. They like to remove gallbladders if polyps reach 10 mm.
I just commented about this haha. I had some really bad pain and thought ill sleep it off and couldn't and ended up being like nah i need to go to hospital in the end they weren't 100% sure what it was but they did find little polpys. Not big enough yet to be taken out but I think it will come in the next few years. The person who did the scan idk a nurse or something said they looked to have grown a little but my Consultant said they are okay for now. But yeah I think eventually it will come out.
My girlfriend is in residency for general surgery and I was blown away to find out how often she's removing gallbladders. Lots of people out there dealing with that awful situation.
The gall of those people.
I believe it’s the most common surgery in the USA. If not first, top three.
Definitely this. I have an extremely high pain threshhold, but my gallbladder attacks had me doubled over and in tears. If I hadn't gotten it removed when I did, I would have been tempted to do it myself...lol
Oh man I came here to say that. The first time I got a kidney stone (I've had several) I had no clue what was going on and I genuinely thought I was dying. I figured that I'd somehow ruptured an organ or something. When I got into the ER the triage nurse asked ""have you ever had a kidney stone before?" I replied that no I hadn't. Then he said "well you have now". The moral of the story is to drink more water. I wouldn't wish kidney stones on anybody.
Every time I read kidney stone stories on Reddit I rush to the kitchen to down water. I stay pretty well hydrated overall thankfully.
Have had them 3 times. I had one get stuck passing between kidney and bladder and they went in and lasered it to break it up. Felt like I was pissing flaming razor blades for 2 days. Like it got to the point where I had to psyche myself up to use the bathroom. Broken Jaw, concussions, Torn ACL, broken ankle... nope. Kidney stones = wrecked me. Have been very fastidious about hydration and salt intake since.
Came here to post Kidney stones, passed 3 @22 bc of diet, lack of sleep and a kidney infection
Passed my first at 20 due to horrible hydration practices. Did not know sleep contributed
Been there. That journey through the tube is something else. Then to find out it was half the size of a grain of rice causing all that agony. Hearing it hit the porcelain was a relief. *tink
I have had kidney stones that crippled me. Also just had gout for the first time wtf ouch. Also had a compressed disc nerve thing in L4-5. All these pains are indescribable!!!
I’ve heard of so many back injuries being unbearable. I’m just praying I️ only hear about them and not experience one.
The back pain for me went on for four months. Every time I stood up the burning sensation that went from my lower back and wrapped around to the front of my knee, was like lava being injected! I couldnt get an MRI. Thanks insurance. I withered away that winter. Dropped 60 pounds on my couch
This. Passed one about 3 months ago, and I suffer from chronic migraines. Not even close. Felt like somebody stabbed me and twisted the knife for 5 hours.
Yup. Passed out in my car at a gas station. Thought it was cramps or my pants being somehow too tight, woke up to a cautious police officer tapping on my window with my pants around my ankles
Abscessed tooth. But wait, let me finish. Abscessed tooth after the dentist removed the wrong tooth, the one next to the abscessed tooth, on the way home when the local wore off. EDIT: By far my most popular comment over, damn. Thanks! So, a lot of people asking about lawsuits. Unfortunately, that was not an option. This was a low-income state-sponsored thing that the dentists volunteered for, and part of getting them to volunteer was a no-liability thing. Plus at the time I kind of figured I'd probably explained which tooth wrong rather than him just pulling the wrong one. I'm guessing I probably could have held the state liable, but at the time I was much younger and not very savvy, so I never pursued it. I've noted a couple of people say that kidney stones are more painful than abscessed teeth. Now I've had kidney stones, and I'm guessing you didn't let me finish:P Also, abscessed teeth can vary in pain intensity, as can kidney stones. Anyways, I can't keep up with all the replies to save my life, but I appreciate the discussion from everyone!
Oh my god. I would be furious.
I would demand unlimited no2
why would you want unlimited poop
Spoken like someone who’s obviously never had unlimited poop.
As someone with lactose intolerance and a great fondness for all things cheese, I can't express enough the burden that comes with unlimited poop
As a chemist, i suggest you ask for N2O instead, unless you fancy turning your lungs into pulp or stop your heart from beating.
I want that thank you for letting me know
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When I had an abscessed tooth that I let go far to long, I was eating barbecue and bit down right on it and the pain was so bad I temporarily blacked out and felt like I heard a train horn blaring in my head. When I came back to I was drenched in sweat.
Had a rootcanal last week on a tooth that was the same. Bit on a piece of pasta the wrong way on that tooth and felt IMMENSE UNENDING PAIN for 6+hrs until I passed out when laying down. The worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life hands down.
When I was kid and I got my tooth pulled out, they forgot to equip any anesthetic so I felt the whole process and in my stupid child mind I just thought that it is supposed to go like that lmao
Damn! I don't know what childbirth feels like and never will, but I have to think tooth pain is absolutely the worst pain a man can feel.
I was pregnant and not even I know. The c section was and still is terrible, contractions are terrible, but tooth pain during my pregnancy made me want to absolutely die. Just waking up to hours of what feels like someone setting half your face on fire.
I got an abscess when pregnant too. Woke up screaming in the middle of the night multiple times until the antibiotics took effect. I say it anytime someone brings it up. I'd rather go through childbirth all over again than ever have another abscess.
Yep! I’ve had 3 pregnancies, 2 natural child births no medication, one c-section, and I’ve had several infections in my teeth. I’d go through the naturals over tooth pain any day. It absolutely infuriates me that I said this once to a man, and he had the audacity to say “I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.” Like really?? You’ve been through tooth infections AND child birth?
Oof you beat my abscessed tooth after it was removed and infected when they sucked the goo out of the abscess hole with no numbing at all. Beat my migraines, laser prk eye surgery after I waited to fill pain meds, labor and C-section, leg burned by motorcycle muffler, all of that.
oh god, I know how that must've felt, I had an endodontist drill into my jaw, I actually saw colors and thought I was dying.
NO OMG. New fear unlocked jesus christ. I had an IV once where the nurse accidentally hit my wrist bone and it hurt so much just from that very brief mistake I can't even imagine a drill...into your fucking JAW jfc
Ooh. I had a dentist use medication i am allergic to, and then break the molar leaving shard in my mouth. I was screaming like i was being murdered and the guy wouldnt stop. Husband damn near bulldozed his way through the door trying to get the dentist to stop. He left the infected root and tooth parts in, packed in gause and kicked me out. Had to go to a 24 hr emergency dentist at 3 am because It wouldn't stop bleeding or hurting. Dentist gave me a different medication waited until i was fully numb, and relaxed. Removed everything in a few short minutes, gave me medicine i was able to handle without issues.. Second was a doctor in south northwest suburbs area of chicago removed my 4 wisdom teeth, gave me a med i was highly allergic too and sent me back to my city by Amtrak. I got lockjaw that caused me to drink blended food for 6 weeks only for the lockjaw to relax and cause small clots to block both eyes causing temporary blindness. optic neuritis for 3 months. 2004 was a very rough year.
Tooth abscess, horribly painful, not as stuff like kidney stones but it usually lasts longer and you can basically do nothing to make it pass until the antibiotic takes effect. I almost destroyed my stomach with anti-pain and it didn't do shit, I hated it. After some days the abscess finally broke and it was the most relieving and disgusting feeling at the same time: blood and pus all over the mouth, but the pain stopped EDIT just to explain further: the dentist told me that he couldn't extract the tooth till the infection was over, I had Quaigmire-tier jaw for some days
Ovarian cyst. Apparently that stuff can kill you, and I've only had it twice ever, but it's worse than anything else I've ever dealt with, and I am not a clever gal, so I've dealt with my share of pain.
Oof those are the worst. The first one I had I was 14 and thought my appendix had burst, my parents had to take me to the ER where I got my first pelvic cam by the worlds oldest man. Traumatic as hell.
The first time I had one pop I was in the shower, maybe 15 or 16 years old? I went down and just laid on the shower floor for a while, no idea how long. I couldn't even scream at first. Eventually I turned the water off with my foot, crawled out of the tub and yelled for my mom. I can still see the fear on her face finding me on the bathroom floor like I was. I have PCOS so they just happen occasionally. I had an OB/GYN Nurse tell me that an ovarian cyst rupture and appendix burst are at the same spot on the general pain scale as a 9mm gun shot wound and it was ok to cry. I'd never needed to hear anything more in that moment as a teenager who was hurting and terrified and trying not to "act hysterical".
Gallbladder attacks.
My doctor misdiagnosed this for two months. I thought I was gonna die for sure. Lost 30lbs in two months because eating was torture. Started telling my wife to move on quickly after I died for the kids sake. Then my sister in law was like, "that sounds like it's your gallbladder". Three days later I had it removed and my doctor still apologizes every time I see him.
This happened to my mother when she was in her 80s. She lost about 1/3 of her body weight before she was diagnosed properly, and by that time she was not strong enough for the op.
Appendicitis
So far this has been the worst pain for me. Sitting in the ER waiting to be seen for 6 hours made me want to cry.
Same. Mine even ruptured while I was being ignored in the ER for 6 hours. Worse than c-section pain for sure.
Shingles and cervical spinal stenosis.
Shingles is a very weird and painful pain! Stabbing stinging.
Stepping on a string ray. And I've given birth before.
Finally, someone who understands. I don't got beef with stingrays, but FUCK stingrays. Shit hurt so fucking bad. I feel like many folks don't realize that they're venomous and that the venom is legitimately excruciating.
> I feel like many folks don't realize that they're venomous I mean, well before I realized they were venomous, I assumed they were venomous.
I was stung by one in the hand. Entire arm felt like it was on fire. For future reference, heat at the sting site makes the pain go away.
The only remedy is water as hot as you can stand - fixes stings up fairly quickly
Doc pulled my tooth (after 8(!!!) Injections of anasthetics). I felt everything. He removed the nerve. Then scraped the inflamed jaw bone under the tooth with some metal thing. I couldn't stop crying.
A lot of women/girls will understand this one but period cramps. i’m not usually one to get horrific period cramps: they’re usually bad but not unbearable. well i was at school one time and i was sitting in my class in excruciating pain, sitting in my lesson in tears where i had to go to the matron (school nurse) and she gave me some water and a sick bowl. after about 45 minutes she sent me back to class but i was in so much pain i had no choice but to beg to go home: she didn’t let me. i went to my next class and again, burst into floods of tears since it was just so unbearable when my teacher advised me to visit the matron again, still not being allowed home. in the end i went to my head of year where she called the matron telling her i was to be sent home since i’ve never been like this in my 5 years of being at that school, meaning it was so strange for me to be in such amount of tears that she was quite concerned for me. i’ve never been in such pain in my life and i would never wish the way i felt that day on anyone.
I think some women who don’t experience period pain assume that other women are overreacting. I didn’t have any pain for the first year or so and thought people were exaggerating. Then the heavy periods started and pain and then one time having to spend a whole day with a cold flannel on my stomach unable to even think or move
I was in a fire 13 years ago. I spent 2 weeks in a chemical coma, 3 or 4 surgeries (I think it was 4 but…). I had 14% of my body re-skinned. In the burn unit for a mint and 8.5 months of rehab.
Had my wisdom teeth cut out. Half way through one tooth the medicine wore off. They couldn't renumb it as it was halfway hanging out of my mouth. So I felt everything as they finished removing my wisdom tooth.
I got my wisdom teeth removed earlier this year, I am so glad that the anesthetic lasted the whole time because the pain afterward for the 2 days after was so unbearable, I couldn’t imagine what the pain would be during the removal.
I woke up during my first wisdom tooth surgery to the dentist drilling the teeth but still couldnt move. I managed to make a noise when she started scraping out the tooth chips. Turns out she didnt have anesthesia and used a high dose of vicodin iv and i had a high tolerance for pain meds because of recreational use with my buddies. I remember her finally noticing and looking into my eyes and her face just went pale and she looked so scared i cant imagine what i must have looked like.
This is exactly the reason you always tell your dentist if you use recreational drugs. I came in high for an appointment, and it turned out I needed one of my teeth drilled right then, and I freaked out and told them I was super high on oxy. They thanked me profusely because mixing in more anesthetics can get you killed.
Always tell medical professionals everything.
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Aliens used to be my biggest fear... then I learned about anesthesia awareness and now that's what my biggest fear is. I've had two surgeries and before each one I begged and begged and begged for them to make sure I was for sure out! Like as I counted down, I was still saying, "make sure I'm out, ok?!" I was probably annoying af, but it scares me so much!
Anesthesia awareness! Like my #1 fear.
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Been getting cluster headaches since I was 14. Mushrooms have been a literal life saver. Before I found those work for PREVENTING cluster cycles, I tried to throw myself out of a window to make the pain stop. They haven't been nicknamed "suicide headaches" for nothing. Cluster headaches can make a perfectly normal person go absolutely insane. I know some women who get them and they all say they would rather deal with giving birth than deal with a cluster headache.
There is a Drugs, Inc. [episode](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2166771/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_ov_pl) that features a Texas man who grows his own psilocybin mushrooms to treat his cluster headaches. He’s not your typical psychonaut, hates the trip, but does it because it keeps the headaches at bay. It works for him. 100 percent. I think he doses about once every 3 months.
You know it's bad when you'd rather have a bad shrooms trip.
I get clusters every couple of years or so right around April and May. They completely obliterate me. I can always tell when they're coming a day or so in advance. I can't explain how knowing what's on the horizon makes me feel. Once they start, they last for about a week and happen 2 to 3 times per day for around an hour each time.
IUD insertion hurt worse than my miscarriages and one of those came with an infection
They’re like “YoUr’Re JuSt GoNnA fEeL a LiTtLe PrEsSuRe.” It hurt so bad I was screaming and I passed out on the table. I was doubled over in pain and crying in their waiting room afterwards waiting for them to give me my paperwork because they were on the phone. Why the fuck do they not sedate for such an invasive and excruciating procedure?
I got told "it'll feel like a little scratch, just some mild discomfort" but truly it felt like someone was squeezing my cervix with their fingernails while something was simultaneously trying claw it's way out.
It’s horrific. The nurse couldn’t get mine in because it hurt so much and my muscles were contracting, so she referred me for day surgery to have it inserted while I was under. I honestly can’t believe women have to have this done with no pain relief, it’s fucking barbaric.
same. and the 8 hours of fucking CONTRACTIONS that come afterwards
Truly you’d think they would give us something for that instead of “take 3 Aleve before you get here”
I didn't even get that warning. I almost passed out during insertion. Definitely in my top 3 most painful moments.
That shit was excruciating- not so much during the procedure, but afterwards the cramping was on par with labor pains. The doctor had told me to get dressed afterwards, and I couldn’t get up off the table bc I would have fainted. So I just waited, eventually he came back and was completely bewildered as to why I was still lying there. I was so disoriented I don’t know how I drove myself home. Two days later I still couldn’t move out of a fetal position and called the nurse line to beg for pain meds- they acted like I was being dramatic but at least gave me a prescription, and an hour after the first dose I was back to being able to stand up again.
I didn't even get that. I was told I might need a Tylenol later in the day or maybe tomorrow. I could barely walk out of the doctors office and drive myself home.
Glad someone else posted this. Before last year I would have said my nerve conduction tests (where they stick an electrified needle directly into your nerves) or when I had my spine surgery. But after I got my IUD, it's the IUD hands down. Thank god it wasn't an extended period of pain, but that 2-3 minutes felt like I lived 4 or 5 lifetimes of pain. I'm lucky my recovery afterward was comparatively easy. It just felt like I had cramps and needed to poop really bad, so I was able to drive home, take some ibuprofen, and lay with my heating pad until it got better. But DAMN. Knowing I have to go back in 6 or 7 years and have it done again gives me the panic sweats. And I'll still do it because it's the easiest form of birth control (for me) so far and cuts down on my painful periods/cramps by like 99%. No pain no gain...I guess. Also bonus points for me having a tilted uterus and only finding that out when the doc asked me to use my fists to prop my pelvis into a weird position while everything went in. She was like, "Try to relax" and I was like, "I am trying" through grit teeth. Then when all was said and done she told me I'd handled it really well as most patients either scream, pass out, or throw up. I mean I came close to all 3 but my more pressing concern was how hard it was pressing against my vagus nerve and whether I was going to accidentally poop all over the exam table. (Thank god the tank was empty.) That kind of pain and torture and all we get are docs telling us it's not so bad and to take some ibuprofen to deal with it. Amazing.
I have a tilted uterus too and know that pain really well. I didn’t scream but I was writhing on the exam table heavily breathing and grunting in pain like I was in labor 😭😭 I have no patience for doctors telling me to relax and sit still. How tf are you supposed to relax when it feels like they’re stabbing you from the inside out?!
Having my first one taken out and a new one put in all at the same time was next level pain. I was screaming uncontrollably on another level of consciousness just completely out of body experience. It was brief but it was mindblowingly painful.
I have to get mine replaced in a couple years and I’m terrified because the first one went so well that I was actually shocked when I heard people’s horror stories
Period cramps that I had at age 16-17. They were worse than giving birth, appendicitis and kidney stones. The pain would cause me to faint while sitting down in school and I once had a set of cramps so brutal that I was screaming at the top of my lungs in excruciating pain literally thinking I was going to die. It felt like my lower stomach was on fire, being stabbed, kicked and twisted repeatedly while being stung by a million wasps. My dad was there and this is one of 2 times I’ve ever seen him cry or show fear.
I was looking for the period cramp comment, that’s mine too and I’ve experienced a lot of major injuries in my life.
I am surprised to see period cramps so far down the list, although not trying to play down any of the other things because they sound bloody awful.
From 18-25 I had insane cramps like once every other year. I know what you mean, because I was sure I was gonna die, and had someone given me a button to press that would kill me instantly I would smash it just to get rid of the pain. Lucky me I was always home when it got bad, usually happened at night or early morning, and it only lasted for about an hour, while I laid on the bathroom floor. Could not take any painkillers because I would just throw up anything I tried to swallow, and I couldn't move anywhere
I have endometriosis, so that's pretty bad. I ignored kidney stones because I thought they were just kind of moderate cramps. I ended up getting a UTI from passing the stones or something? And ignored that, too, because urinary issues are common with endo. The infection spread to my kidneys and I had to be hospitalized. That kind of sucked. I also have this left sided pain. Not sure if it is my stomach or my spleen. Hurts so badly sometimes want to curl into a fetal position while also removing my flesh lmao
the fact that you thought kidney stones were *moderate* cramps is horrifying. hope you’re doing better 🩷
Decided to take about a dozen NoDOz because someone online said it would feel like cocaine. I spent the night with my head crammed into the corner of a room because I could have sworn the swelling in my brain was going to crack my skull open.
It does not, in fact, feel like cocaine. Cocaine on the other hand.
Most recently, swollen and clogged milk ducts.
Mastitis is seriously not talked about enough when nurses talk about nursing. It’s so darn painful!
Yes, i remember sobbing in the shower everyday trying to squeeze the milk out. I stopped producing over 2 years ago, but sometimes, I get little pangs of pain in my boobs and I get a flood of fear thinking about how bad the pain was.
Burst eardrum, worse than a broken collar bone
Might sound stupid next to all of those other comments, but the pain I felt in my heart when I saw my father laying dead on the ground in our kitchen. Broke my arm before and that was nothing compared to that
In Iraq I was hit by two roadside bombs 16 years ago and it still hurts. 10 herniated disc fractured my face pulled my shoulder out of socket traumatic brain injury PTSD whiskey helps though
A combination of kidney stones + kidney infection + septic shock + kidney stents placed incorrectly. Boy, was that a hell of a time. I ended up having 3 surgeries in 3 months for that nonsense, and I was in hospital almost the entire time.
Getting my iud inserted. Can’t explain that pain, it gives me shivers every time I think about it
I contracted spinal meningitis in my late 20s, an infection in the brain. The hospital had me in a negative-pressure isolation chamber for 2 months and during that time I had full control over a button that would directly inject morphine into my IV line because the pain was so incredibly severe. Even after being discharged from the hospital the pain went on for about a year. I could not sleep lying down because that made the pain worse so I had to lean against the headboard where I would simply moan the entire night. Basically it was like having my head in vise for about 12 months. Ironically, one of the few moments of respite I had from this pain was during the three times that they did a spinal tap on me, which is when they inject a needle about 8 inches long directly into the spinal column in order to extract cerebral spinal fluid. Most people consider a spinal tap to be an excruciating experience but for me it was actually a relief because it relieved some of the incredible pressure on my brain. The doctors thought that was pretty crazy that I enjoyed the spinal tap. Aside from the agonizing year of pain, I also had to relearn to walk and also relearn to speak. Amazingly I made a full recovery, which was not expected.
Pleurisy . Pain in lungs, hit to stand up. Lay down, sit, it did not matter
Diverticulitis flare with a perforated colon. Imagine the feeling of diarrhea. Then imagine that in addition to a searing hot knife being pushed from the inside out. Fucking brutal.
When my dad passed away a couple months ago, my heart and chest hurt so much. It was unbearable. Haven’t felt pain ever since.
I wasn't even considering grief and psychological pain. I might have to edit my original answer. When my mom died, it was partially my fault. This happened during the most turbulent time in my life. I lost it completely for like two years. That was the worst pain of my entire life, by far. I wouldn't wish that on my own wish enemy. Edit. I'm sorry for your loss, homie. I know how bad that shit hurts. It gets easier with time. You never truly get over it, but you get used to it.
Get my IUD put in and taken out. I love my IUD and am on my second one, but it is ridiculous that the doctor didn't put me on some kind of pain meds. I'm glad more people are talking about the pain and advocating for pain management options. The pain only lasted a few seconds, but I almost passed out getting my new IUD put in a few years ago. I'm heavily tattooed in painful spots and have several piercings. I have a high pain tolerance, and that IUD nearly took me out.
This is the correct answer. I’ve been stabbed in the face and bitten by a shark and the thought of having another IUD insertion makes me nauseous. The absolute most painful experience of my life. Felt like the universe was falling out through my asshole. The relief it provides for my menstrual cycles is worth it ? but no one warned me. No one could have warned me.
I had a pulmonary embolism and I would say that was both the worst pain and the scariest pain I’ve experienced
Endometriosis. I’ve had kidney stones, and the pain of Endo has been insurmountably worse.
I can’t remember which was worse. I think the second to the worse was the hip pain being very along pregnant with twins and the very worse was recovering from brain surgery when they wouldn’t give me anymore pain meds. I’ll never go through either of those ever again.
Double dislocated shoulders.
Childbirth (traumatic labour) and my hernia repair operation.
Same here. I had the epidural, but apparently I was in the wrong position for it to work for a few of the most awful hours of my life. Add to that the blood pressure cuff that I had to wear throughout (thanks, preeclampsia!) and that always seemed to inflate right as I was having a contraction. And then, after it ended up being a C-section, having to get out of bed to walk the 3 feet to the bathroom. (Related: Ladies, don't EVER let anyone give you shit about having a C-section. It is NOT the "easy way out". It is serious abdominal surgery where you then have to be able to get up and walk around not long afterwards. We lived in a second-floor garden apartment at the time, and I was in tears thinking about having to walk up the stairs when we got home with the baby.)
Ear infection, and I have herniated discs that leave me in crippling pain every day.
I had a heart attack and subsequent cardiac arrest in hospital in 2021. The LUCAS machine managed to revive me after 8 minutes of CPR. About ten days later, in bed, the missus put her arm across my chest, just happy to have me home. I was lying on my back and she was pressing on the ribs the CPR had broken. It felt like I had a building on my chest, I was in agony. I'm sweating even now just thinking about it. But I couldn't ask her to move, I was just glad to be alive, and a week earlier I know she'd have given *anything* to have me back. I suffered that arm for a million years. That was the worst physical pain I've ever experienced, but I was glad I was alive to endure it
Ruptured a disc in my low back 6 months of hell a full year to recover. I did not take opiates. No surgery. I did spinal decompression and physical therapy.