The eye watering, eye opening and entertaining posts in the Critical, horrific, but yet hilarious medical procedures – what’s yours? thread have got me thinking. What’s the most painful thing that’s ever happened to you?
I’ve pretty much floated through life unscathed bar fracturing an elbow and breaking my nose a couple of times. No limbs needing reattaching, major organs exploding or failing in to a Gimpy Gimpy.
Being hospitalised with a particularly nasty migraine in my late teens is the worst pain I’ve ever suffered. Involved vomiting, nose bleeds, crying and feeling like something was cutting in to my brain whilst hot needles were repeatedly stabbed in to my eyeballs. All topped off with a lumber puncture followed by some great painkillers.
For years afterwards every migraine would send me in to a panic fearing a repeat episode. A weird side effect is my unending disgust and irrational hatred of people who will cheerfully sit in broad daylight, looking at a monitor whilst proclaiming they have a bit of migraine.
Very mild in the grand scheme of thing so hit me with what has hit you!
Gout, my initial chemo brought it on in both feet and it was ridiculously painful. The worst thing is everyone thinks gout is a bit of a joke... Indeed so did I till event. Lol
I've had broken wrists and scapula and they weren't near as bad 😁
With you with the migraine pain. Although toothache comes a close second. But also kidney stones as a child.
Yup. Kidney stones.
A pain that feels like you need a poo and twenty minutes later you've no idea WTF is going on, where the pain is coming from and what you can do about it.
Worse than child birth.
Despite living on the ground floor at the time, I needed to be strapped to a wheelchair to go down the three steps at the entrance. Loads of the neighbours hanging out their windows looking at the ambulance and doctor suv with flashing lights wondering what's going on then see me being carried out moaning and strapped down.
Torsion of the testicle. The pain came on slowly, quite dull at first. But then it got worse and worse and worse...
Segmented femur, smashed in many pieces, 6 ribs, hand, wrist, collar bone.
Yeah that hurt.
Femur was pinned, collar bone repair, multiple metalwork in hand and wrist.
I broke my collar bone in a gravel bike crash in the Peaks. Carried on riding (was with a mate, it was when the Canadian Lancaster bomber was over in the UK so the two of them were doing a flypast over the Ladybower dams, a sort of once in a lifetime thing really).
Got to the dams, watched the flypast then my mate said "right I need to go pick the kids up from school, you OK getting home?"
Hmm.
Rode to Edale, had some food in the cafe while waiting for the train.
Got the train home, got undressed and oh Jesus ****ing Christ, the pain as I took my base layer off. 😳 I knew if I went to hospital, they'd cut it off and I wasn't having that so I showered and got dressed and oh **** me, the pain of putting another T-shirt on hit me.
Then I got the bus to hospital.
They were somewhat surprised to find that I'd broken it 8hrs before, ridden another 25 miles then gone home to shower and change... They said they couldn't give me painkillers cos obviously I'd have had some already. Nope, was waiting til I got here, give me the morphine! That surprised them even more. Yes, I've been cycling around with a broken collarbone for 8hrs, give me painkillers!
But that pain of trying to lift my arm up. Oh dear God.
Kidney stones, although the muscle spasm in my lower back/left leg was very close.
With the kidney stone I genuinely thought my ticket was being punched and I'd have taken that gladly. Fortunately an ambulance crew turned up, morphined me and bundled me into the back of the van.
Split kidney with bar end forcing it up and against lower rib. Lower body filled with blood. Morphine couldn't touch the pain but pethedine is wonderful.
Trying to move from gurney to hospital bed with a double pelvic fracture. The pain was silly, only time I’ve screamed with pain.
Thankfully the nurses let me drag myself slowly between the two as any kind of movement of my left leg felt like a spike though my hip.
I still can’t believe I tried to walk it off.
In the past I’ve had multiple fractures of a wrist, clavicle, dislocated shoulders, trod on a 3 pin plug, damaged ligaments, smashed front teeth, bit part way through my tongue, cracked ribs, sciatica etc.
I’m torn now as the sciatica was an insidious pain, like toothache but in my leg. Made me a right miserable sod.
Probably nothing compared to kidney stones, but playing rugby back in the 1990’s I cracked a rib and pulled the muscle between the ribs, every breathe was horrendous for what felt like months while it was repairing, very little sleep during this time!
Also have frozen shoulder and quite a lot of muscle damage in my shoulder from my rugby days, had pretty much zero movement in my shoulder. Going for the MRI scan, I had to lift my shoulder up above my head while lying down on the bed thing, impossible for me to do it, so the hospital staff member yanked it above my head, the pain was horrendous, I then had to lie with my arm above my head for 10 minutes, pure agony.
Had all sorts of bone breaks playing rugby but the frozen shoulder and the yanking of the arm was way worse than most of my injuries.
Snapping my spine in two. That stung.
Knew it wasn't good as the pain hit before I hit the ground whilst still airbourn. The tarmac just added to it.
The pain was so bad I couldn't breath. That was a scary few moments until I could catch my breath. Morphine helped a while later.
Burst appendix, as said on the other thread... I've no idea how I managed to reamain concious, it was so bad I couldn't speak and I must have lost half a kilo in sweat off my forehead, it was litterly running off me.
Morphine took the edge off it a little bit when my mate drove me to A&E after waiting more than 2 hours for an ambulance, I firmly belive I'd be dead if I'd have just waited for an ambulance.
funkmasterp
Full Member
@poopscoop the gout was worse than the penis?
Sort of. The penis pain was a lower intensity but constant and after 2 and a half days I finally decided that doing to A & E was worth the embarrassment. I tried frozen peas on it and almost tried heat rub at one point out of desperation but luckily didn't.
The gout wasnt constant but absolutely debilitating/excruciating if I needed to move. Even a bed sheet touching my toes was agony. Lol
Snapped collar bone in a roadie crash 5 years ago was a bastard.
Ruptured Achilles at a gig 10 years ago wasn’t great either - now paying for not doing my physio properly at he time too.
I walked into a and e with a ruptured cyst on my appendix which was pretty uncomfortable.
I am completely impervious to morphine. Like it does nothing whatsoever, chat away like normal and absolutely no pain relief. So lacking in effect they kept giving me more and looking at my chart confused. I explained I don't know how many times my mum is the same and it all culminated in the anaesthetist saying "oh don't worry we'll just up the dose"
No groggy floating back into consciousness for me. I went from out of it to snapped back into ful consciousness with a huge cut across me. The pain was unbelievable, I was screaming and shouting and thrashing about. And what did they give me to help? Big old dose of morphine.
I remember none of the following hours but apparently was just talking totally normally but obviously in pain. Completely blanked it out.
Oddly enough trying to Zwift with a hip flexor tear puts shame on a root canal. Happened last week and now I have an expensive clothes horse.
Pulling an ‘L’-shaped desk out of an office, which had a glass divider with a door separating it from the main office. I suddenly realised I was trapped in the space behind the door, so as I was pulling the desk I twisted sideways. Not, I can assure you, a smart move. I felt something go in my lower right back just above my hip, and the pain was beyond anything I’d ever experienced; my colleague who was pulling the other end of the desk, looked at me lying flat on my back on the floor, and said “Christ, Ade, you’re a horrible colour!”
Thanks! I’d gone a horrible shade of gray, and it was at least thirty minutes before I could even think about moving. It still causes me problems from time to time.
The time I broke my collarbone coming down the Herepath towards Avebury, though painful, was nothing like as bad - I carried on riding into the village, had a pint, put the bike in the car and drove home. I only realised what I’d done a couple of months ago, about 15-20 years later… 🤷🏼
Fairly minor compared to that lot up there but either fractured kneecap or a trapped nerve in my neck triggering the sciatic nerve and various other lower back bits.
Most surprisingly painful was being bitten on the eyeball by a midge
Appendicitis 2
5 broken ribs into multiple pieces 5
Ankle dislocation and smashed into pieces 7
Dead portion of bowel due to adhesions from appendix op ..beyond numbers
I've broken my thumb and also dislocated my elbow and whilst both were fairly painful it was nothing compared to the leg pain I had with sciatica. Indescribable pain from my left arse cheek, all the way down the back of my leg and into my foot. No pain killers would touch it, after a week of about 1.5hrs sleep a night I was prescribed amitriptyline which helped. The worst of it lasted a few weeks, then a few months with lower level pain and tightness, that was two years ago and it's thankfully not returned!
Compression fracture of L1 vertebrae as a result of inadvertently falling off a cliff on my snowboard and landing on my head.
Ended up lying in the snow for about 20 minutes before patrollers got me out on a sledge by which time I was shivering uncontrollably which added to the back spasms and pain. Anyone who now complains of a “bad back” is given some degree of sympathy depending on how bad it is.
Related to my posts in other thread,
Car accident (forced off road by another car) when I was 19 back in 91, shattered T6 + T9 (ultimately removed and rebuilt with ti frame) multiple fractures of other vertebrae, 6/7 broken ribs, one poking out chest, seperated shoulder muscles/ligaments, punctured left lung, internal organs a bit messed up, paralysed from nipples down, still had limited movement of fingers. As it happened on a rural road in Galloway at night I had to keep myself awake/from closing my eyes till the postman found me 8 hours later. Hurt a fair bit and my breathing was really shallow due to my lung, bringing up foamy blood with every breath was quite an experience. Honestly thought I was going to die and was quite accepting at one point but when the sun came up I could see a rabbit in the field and it stared at me for ages which cheered me up, had a visit from a robin as well which stood on the dash for ages looking at me. Thought of mum, dad, bro and how sad it would make them so held on. Docs say that my muscle/physique probably saved me as I had raced moto-x since 7/8 and was built like a tank which held everything together.
Broke my left elbow with bone poking way out whilst out on bike in Galloway hills 14 years later than above so thought “I’ve coped with worse, get yourself out of here”, made a sling with riding jersey and managed to cycle 9 miles back to car, got bike in car somehow (benefits of a VW scirocco with huge boot) and drove to A&E dfs hospital where I hit the bollard outside and pressed the horn till someone came out and took me inside, gave me nice drugs and repaired me.
PS : I learned/was taught Transcendental Meditation back in mid 90s so was able to sorta detach myself from the situation
18 months after big crash above I broke my back again in an mtb crash into a tree and that hurt like an absolute ****er, broke the ti frame around vertebrae as well which needed to be removed leaving me with a 90' bend in upper spine which is why I have a pronounced hump in spine.
Tooth abscess for me. Mind alteringly painful.
Sinusitis in the frontal sinus that went into the roots of my front teeth. Sinus pain and tooth pain at the same time. Far worse than a broken collarbone or dental abscesses or even the arse abscess I have had. 480mg daily of dihydrocodine kept the pain to bearable and me completely useless
- I've broken a few bones and also have had people break bones for me but nothing hurt like toothache. Shutting my old man in my zipper smarted somewhat
Every so often I get a mid back spasm seems to spasm my diaphragm too chuffing sore and the inability to breath. A lie down flat usually sorts it but have doms for a while after.
Had a small otb and ended up with the same pain but able to breath took a couple of weeks and a doc/physio appointment to figure out I'd popped a rib lying flat would pop it back. Ended up with all the junior physios and seemed like anyone else who was interested having hands on my back to feel it pop in and out.
Kidney stones, closely followed by impacted & separated AC joint.
22yrs ago, first one up the chairlift to Pic Negre, Arinsal, I confidently rolled off the lift and parked my arse and the board in a nice little drift to put my gloves and shades on and clip into my board. I did a cool rollover to go goofy down the slope only the board stuck into the snow and my left foot did something it wasn't designed to. I had that flash of white light and excruciating pain that I still remember vividly today. I sat there for a couple of hours until the pain subsided (until my foot froze) and rode all the way back down. I couldn't take my boot off until late that evening. I got a cortisone injection in the the arch of my foot the next afternoon. Christ that stung. I boarded the rest of that week. Every now and then, usually coming downstairs, it still reminds me that I should've got it sorted. They say you remember the sensation of pleasure but not pain? Bollocks says I.
Er did t12 and right scapula in a car crash. Wrote it off so badly the ambulance crew was amazed i was a alive and b walking. Once the adrenaline wore off **** it was sore. Spinal bord and a brace for a while.
Did my pelvis and right femur on a mtb. Tried to walk it off and then just collapsed in a wave of pain. Then had 6yrs of cronic pain.
But 2 smaller things i remember i dropped a volvo onto my finger ripped the nail off. And i also stabbed a finger with a blade.... both occasions i got that hot cold sweat.
Appendicitis 2
If that's a pain rating out of ten, it's important to draw a distinction between Appendicitis, which is just like the worst trapped wind you've ever had, and a cake-walk compared a ruptrured Appendix, which I can only really describe with a quote from Hellraiser:
I thought I'd gone to the limits. I hadn't. The Cenobites gave me an experience beyond limits...
Oh and i came home from hospital and got epyditius an infection in your spunk tube.
That was bloody sore as i couldn't sit down but was nursing a pelvis held together by mechano
Burst appendix, as said on the other thread… I’ve no idea how I managed to reamain concious
I've twice had a strange, apparently post viral thing, which manifests very much like appendicitis - once as a kid when I was in hospital ready to go under the knife confounding the docs as I had no temperature and bloods not showing any infection and it eventually subsided.
It happened again in the middle of the night when I was in my late thirties - writing on the floor kicking my heals against the concrete.
I've also got a strangely hyper-sensitive nerve just on the side /end of my little finger. Can prod, poke, squeeze it and it's fine - day to day it's no bother - but anything percussive - just a light tap and it feels like I've slammed it in a car door. Luckily is subsides very quickly but people who see me when it happens think I've had an electric shock. Its such a simultaneously trivial and intensely upsetting thing and I've often wondered if I could just have it amputated.
Compacted wisdom teeth - I was punching walls just to make me focus on pain somewhere else.
failing in to a Gimpy Gimpy.<br /><br />
Gympie Gympie 😉
I’ve sat on a leaf before in a river… was an odd feeling. I think I got away lightly- MIL accidentally pulled one out as a weed and had a sore hand for ages.
I don’t have much of a memory for pain, but apparently it hurt when my mum was doubling me on the bike rack as a 3year old and my ankle dangled into the spokes.
More recently I get a couple of stings from these ****ers every year. Jumping Ants. You rarely see them coming and the pain is very very intense - always on a finger or ankle. However that wears of after a minute or two and then you get rewarded with an epic endorphin rush. The site is itchy a bit like a nettle sting for a few days after.
Broke my arm, that was fine.
Went to hospital, that was fine.
Explained to the Spanish nurse that I wasn't in any pain but could we do something about the fact my arm had 3 elbows? Fractured radius and dislocated ulnar. Even managed to point to the 1 on the smiley face pain scale on her desk.
Made it about 10seconds out of her office with the poor radiologist before the pain hit, my knees buckled and I hit the floor like a non verbal sack of spuds.
It's hard to describe that sort of pain, like the absolute worst pain you can imagine, but with no way to get comfortable, it's just 'there'. Like your arm has been crushed, stabbed, burnt, rubbed in caustic, and then stabbed again.
I've had a tooth pretty much rot though over COVID, it got infected on three separate occasions, didn't sleep for days, took more codeine than is sensible. But a toothache kinda goes down a bit if you put pressure on/take pressure off/waggle it with your tongue, it's variable. The arm was just 'there' untill they gave me the whole syringe of morphine.
I've broken limbs, suffered from migraines, had a few sugeries, and had a tattoo and private piercings phase but my all time top pain score was my first pre diagnoses flare up of rheumatoid arthritis.
Felt a bit sick for a few hours, that passed but had activated my immune system into war mode, and it then just attacked my own body. All my joints sort of slowly seized up from the outside in so wrists and ankles first, then half an hour later knees and elbows, then ultimately shoulders and hips. It's hard to describe just how horrific this got, it felt as though the joints seizing had eaten up all the redundant flexibility in all my muscles and there was no position to be in where things weren't being stretched beyond what they could handle. Hips were the worst, any movement at all hurt my whole back, torso, legs, hips themselves. It opened my eyes up to new levels of pain I didn't know existed. Laying still was agony and I would say level with my previous best pain levels as a constant state, then needing to semi roll over to reposition was just out of this world on the pain scale, full on screaming, sweating and crying type stuff just to roll from my back onto my side.
This episode started in the evening on a Sunday and I was in too much pain to sleep or move until the early hours of Tuesday into Wednesday. I was eating naproxen and cocodamol like sweets almost and they didn't do a thing to help.
Since the diagnosis and treatment I've only ever had this sort of try to happen again once and I keep a stash of emergency steroids in the house or on any holiday or trip as its a sort of constant fear that I can't let this ever happen again.
Currently in hospital with an abcess behind my tonsil which requires a sort of jabby stabbing with a chunky needle through the tonsil for suction to empty the abcess out. I'd do that 20 times a day over having another RA flare up
I remember none of the following hours but apparently was just talking totally normally but obviously in pain. Completely blanked it out.
Apparently they use valium in some cases. Does nothing for the pain, but you wont remember it afterwards.
When I fell rock climbing and broke my back.
I've a habit of chewing off the little bits of skin which peel up next to my fingernails, one time I did it and my ring finger got infected.
The finger swelled up significantly, and antibiotics weren't having any effect.
I ended up in A&E.
Anaesthetic would cause the finger to swell up even more which the Dr didn't want to do with my wedding ring in place. I had the choice of having the ring cut off first or just having it lanced without anesthetic.
I chose poorly, but my wedding ring lives on.
the most pain i have ever had was recovering from open heart surgery. recovering from a midline sternotomy is pretty painful.
and the 1st time i coughed after it put me on my knees.
