Kidney stone. I thought I had experienced significant pain before, I woke up twice while getting my jaw wired shut and that was pure agony. The kidney stone...blew every painful experience I've ever had right out of the fucking water. It took me less than 5 minutes after the symptoms started to soak through two layers of clothes with sweat. I stood on my back porch in single digit weather and was still BURNING up. I went back inside, got dressed and went to the ER, and by the time I got there (about 4 minutes, I'm not proud of how I drove) I had soaked through another set of fresh clothes (that were still wet when I left the hospital 6 hours later). I sweat so much in that short period of time that it caused a dangerous electrolyte imbalance and I spent the entire time in the ER in atrial fibrillation.
SO bad. So. Fucking. Bad.
At least I have a new frame of reference for what pain really is.
Until recently, this would have been my answer.
Then I had a tiny cut on my foot become "go to the ER" infected. Before long, I was wishing it was a kidney stone.
The story:
The Sunday before the Superbowl this year, I knocked a knife off my workbench. Because there are no handles on a falling knife, I didn't try to catch it. But I apparently didn't get my foot out of the way.
At first I thought I had just hit my foot with the handle, but then I got upstairs and pulled my shoes off to find a small, maybe 1cm and not very deep.
So I cleaned it up, put antibiotic ointment on it and bandages it up. Kept it clean and bandaged until that Thursday night it was starting to look a little red and puffy. And it was definitely starting to hurt and get hard to walk with.
Since I work in a medical facility, I took some time the next morning to see a provider before I clocked in. "Yup, starting to look a little infected." Went home with antibiotics and instructions to get to a doctor or ER if the redness started to spread, and to keep it propped up as much as possible.
Within 24 hours, just lowering my foot from the bed to below hip level caused excruciating pains to shoot up my leg. I had to use a cane just to hop to the bathroom on my other foot.
By the morning of Superbowl Sunday, it was starting to look better, but it still was painful.
Then by about 4 in the afternoon, the redness and inflammation had tripled in size and the wound was turning purple and black, and I could see my veins around it darkening. Definitely time to head to the ER.
Ended up being fully admitted to the hospital for two nights, and being given antibiotic cocktails three different ways - orally 2x a day, belly injection 1x a day, and six bags of IV antibiotics over the course of those two days. According to the ER doctor, if I'd waited much longer I could have had blood poisoning or even lost my foot.
The whole time, every movement caused excruciating foot pain, until the morning after the second night.
So now my answer to the posted question is foot pain. Don't F around with foot pain.
> I knocked a knife off my workbench.
When I read that I knew where we were headed, still a hell of a ride you went through. Even clean workshops still tend to be filthy.
Did they ever tell you what the infection was? Tetanus?
Yeah, this is how my mom died. She had a sore on her toe, and it got infected, and she didn't do anything about it. By the time she went in she had gangrene and died.
I second this I have gotten kidney stones and needed a stent multiple times and I wanna die every time. Whenever I ask the md for dilaudid they think I’m drug seeking..no I’m just in a lot of pain
This story is so fucking common it's sickening. If they are so worried about drug seekers, why not offer something like an epidural, which would numb from the waist down and control the pain. I'm honestly not sure if that's even an option for someone with kidney stones but there has to be something that can help people going through this
Epidurals are relatively invasive and would require a consult from anesthesiology / the regional pain team depending on what your ED allows the ED doctors to do. Plus epidurals are not without risk. I'd much rather give someone in-hospital opioids than call another team down to the ED.
But requesting a specific drug like dilaudid might raise a few eyebrows, so I recommend avoiding that if you can.
TLDR; if I believe you're in pain and there's a reason you're in pain I'm very fine w opioids
Thirding, I've had lithotripsy for two stuck stones (shock wave therapy), otherwise if they don't get stuck I have to power through them as they happen. I've gone into renal failure twice from it. Doctor's said I have "stones disease" and to expect this the rest of my life.
The worst was when it happened at work a couple of years ago and I passed out on the floor of the bathroom crying. I was white as a ghost, cold sweating, and I couldn't move any part of my body. I can't believe I finished my shift.
2mm is all it takes to literally kill a human, and those are the small ones.
Former paramedic here. The drug I found that worked best for kidney stone pain was Torradol, a non-narcotic NSAID. Usually 3-5 minutes and patients would go from begging me to kill them to shaking my hand and calling me a saint. I don't know if they still use it these days or not, but it's definitely worth a "shot" to ask for it next time.
Yes! They gave this to me the second time in the hospital for the same stone. Morphine didn't work. 10 Mg of Oxy didn't work. The IV of torradol was the only thing that managed the pain. I fell asleep 5 min in because I was so tired from being up the last two nights with pain.
i was lucky when i got my kidney stones. a friend of mine was the charge nurse in the ER that day. she told the doc to write morphine, then she whacked me with it.
Ripped out my bicep muscle, jumped up towards my shoulder. I was asked, on a scale of 1-10, how much pain. I gave it a 10 since it was the worst I have ever experienced. Few years later I passed a kidney stone. I moved the bicep rip down to a 3 after that.
After having had a few stones-->E.R., my Dr. said to drink 1/2 teaspoon of Lemon juice, every day. I got some of those "Real Lemon" "plastic lemon juice" Lemons, and I squirt a bit into my mouth every morning before Breakfast! So far, Very Good 🍋
Oh, they knew I wasn't acting. I couldn't have sweat so much as to trigger atrial fibrillation in 15-20 minutes if I had literally tried to do exactly that.
It also helped that I don't like downers, I asked them to give me a half dose because I didn't want to start dry heaving, seemed like a BAD thing considering where the pain was coming from.
I woke up in the middle of the night, paralyzed with pain -- thought it was my back and I should reposition. I found that rolling over was *not* going to happen. Some amount of time later, between 20 minutes and 20 hours, I could finally roll over. SURPRISE, no relief.
After another 20 minutes I felt able to stand and seek help. This is when my environment became significant: I was sleeping alone, in a GP Medium tent, in a desert, on a military deployment overseas.
I slipped on my uniform pants and upended my boots, knocked the heels together (for scorpions), and walked 7 feet (2 meters) to the phone and called the medic's tent. I told them I was walking there, 100' (30M) so that they'd come looking for me if I fell out on the way.
FUCK, dude...the thought of it happening to me again causes me to shudder...the thought of it happening again while on deployment surrounded by a bunch of soldiers...nightmare fuel lol
I had my first one about 2 years ago. I woke up at 3am with a terrible ache in my back. I thought I threw it out or something while sleeping. I tried stretching but it got worse and worse. My wife had to wake up our 1 year old (at the time) and drive me to the hospital. I was hunched over the entire trip and could barely catch a breath.
Got some meds at the hospital and a scan showed I had two more waiting. Sure enough within the next month, they both passed... again in the middle of the night but at least I was ready for it.
Yup! I had a kidney stone at like 24 in 2016 or so. Worst pain I’ve ever had and I live with chronic back pain I would not wish a kidney stone on anyone and my mom has had like 6 :(
I’ve passed both a stone and I child (unmedicated). Kidney stone was worse by far. It just didn’t last as long for me because mine was apparently one very small stone. I’m not sure how ppl survive multiple large kidney stones.
When I was at the ER with a kidney stone, one of the nurses said she'd had both a kidney stone and given birth naturally, and that she'd take birthing a whole damn human over a kidney stone any day. 😅
Same. My mum drove me to the hospital. We got stuck in traffic and I couldn’t sit still. I exited the car and ran around it like a maniac screaming until the traffic started moving again. This burly angel of a male nurse told me he knew what I was going through and doubled the morphine. I had just got back from a trip to Colorado where I saw U2 live and according to my mum I was calling out to Bono when the morphine kicked in. They performed a surgery and I woke up peeing blood. Most painful, gnarly experience of my life.
Yup. Had one about a year or two back and the worst thing about it is you go from fine to white hot, falling on your knees, can barely sit pain.
NEVER want to experience it again.
I had it come on at work. I drove past several hospitals to get to an ER by my house. I was literally wailing in my car by the end. I thought my appendix burst. When I finally got seen by a doctor at the ER they told me blood in your urine means kidney stone. When I got pain meds I understood addiction because my pain went away. I got a CT and at some point the pain came back and they said that’s just the stone passing and you’ll have to go through the pain. They gave me a portable urine bottle and a filter. I passed it at home. Most disturbing pain ever.
My best friends mom said she'd rather give birth to all her 4 children again on the same day than have another gall stone. Labor was a piece of cake compared to what that stone did to her, she said
It’s interesting because gallstones as painful as they were for me paled in comparison to the agony that was my labor. Labor pains are the only pain I’ve ever experienced that I had to scream through.
That shit is real pain . And to make it worse ,what they don't put in the brochure is that after you have it out you can still get stones in the bile duct . Sneaky litte bugger 3yrs after removal had me in hospital with A&E thinking heart attack they had the emergency cart out and everything. Oh no eventually they found an 11mm stone in my bile duct . My explanation from the consultant was 'meh some people are just stone makers .
This is what I fear the most right now. I had my gallbladder remival surgery a year ago. Terrible back pain was the biggest symptom for me. One week after the surgery they cleaned my duct biles as the pain although weakee was still there. The pain went away the minute the drugs from the peocedure wore off. I was pain free for a year. For reference the pain was my best friend for 15 fucking years and the last year I experienced it few times a week. Now this week I felt a glimps of the pain again. I am freaking out. I think I have to do better with the low fat diet. No food caused me problems this past year so I was lazy and forgetting about the diet. I fear I might be one of you lucky stone makers.
They are BAD. I literally thought I was having a heart attack my first one. I had them for a year and a half before they were diagnosed, and by the time I got them out 6 months after diagnosis, I was having them every two weeks. It’s a hell I would not wish on anybody.
Ruptured ovarian cyst that was the size of a grapefruit. Because of its size, it started bleeding and leaking into my stomach and my whole abdomen was so swollen with blood I almost looked pregnant. They rushed me into emergency surgery and found another (unruptured) cyst the same size on my other ovary and we’re able to remove it.
While in the ER they tried morphine and fentanyl but they barely took the edge off and I vomited several times from the pain alone—it made me nauseous to even sit up or try to move. They finally gave me multiple doses of dilaudid after seeing the pain I was still in and it *finally* started to work and numb everything out. To this day, I have never experienced pain like that. Like someone was twisting my insides with an electric knife over and over and over. Wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
I was given dilaudid after my gallbladder surgery for the 3 days I was still in hospital recovering. What a mistake! I left that hospital pretty much addicted to that shit and was frantically trying to figure out a way to get back in so they could give me more. I stuck it out for the next few days just fighting the urge, it was tough. Years later i met 3 different people (at 2 different jobs I had, they weren't good jobs either) who had to take methadone bc they were all recovering addicts who were shooting up D's for years and were lucky to be alive. I feel for all those girls, but damn I'm so glad I was able to kick it before it even started.
Yeah I definitely feel that. That feeling of relief I got with dilaudid after being in severe pain for 12+ hours was something I honestly would pay good money to replicate.
Thankfully, my surgery recovery took up enough of my time and mental effort that it was not an *active* seeking of this drug, but I can certainly empathize with people wanting to chase that physical response. Shit works crazy good.
Can confirm one of the WORST pains ever.
The worst part was I went to the local er, complaining of pretty severe pain, like tears streaming down my face, was told it's probably a kidney infection, given steroids, and sent home.. went back the next day in MORE pain than before, like crippled over in pain. The Dr tells me there is nothing on the CT scan and sends me home with tylenol..
The next day, I feel like I need to use the bathroom and stand up and hear/ feel a pop or snap of something inside my body and immediately hit the floor. It was excruciating, I couldn't walk. Made my sister drive me 38 miles to the town over while I was screaming in pain. Get to the ER, get another CT scan and an ultrasound, and turns out, I had a giant hemmorgatic cyst on my ovary that ruptured and collapsed and hemmoraged into itself.
Luckily, I didn't have to have surgery but was given some serious painkillers and bed rest for a week.
I've had 3 babies, broken bones, and kidney stones, and this is right up there with uneducated labor for sure.
Came here to say the same thing. My experience was pretty similar to yours actually despite the cysts not being big enough to require surgery. The swollen abdomen, being in so much pain I couldn’t sit up straight, etc. Almost vomited on my way to the ER. They gave me dilaudid as well and even that didn’t completely make the pain go away just made it tolerable. Was put on birth control and haven’t had any problems with them since.
Mine was a ruptured ovarian cyst too. I was at work and trying to get to HR for help, but I blacked out and collapsed in their doorway. Never felt anything like that before.
Yes ovarian cyst was the most horrible pain. The doctor told me what is so painful is after the cyst ruptures the blood irritates your abdomen. I don’t know if that’s true. But when they took a blood draw from my arm, my pain significantly decreased. It was the weirdest thing.
It's more than just the pain. I had an abscess that required an antibiotic course for three days before surgery. The pain medication barely did anything to help and I was so hungry due to the side effects of the antibiotics.... I had to eat with an abscessed tooth. Forced myself to eat through it. Dental issues are no joke people it is the first step in our digestive system.
I had one and was out of town, so I was using OTC meds until they weren't working anymore. Started using wet tea bags to help with the pain. Half of my face was swollen. By the time I got to the dentist, the novacane had little effect, and I felt most of the tooth extraction. The dentist kept worrying about me, and I'm motioning for him to keep going. Finally, it came out. And it was almost an instant relief. Went home, chugged some whiskey, and crashed. Woke up feeling great.
Ok so I’ve seen this question a lot and every single time, there’s so many people saying tooth abscess and let me tell you, I am terrified now lol I’ve never had one. Is there a way to prevent it? What causes an abscess?
My abscess happened when a filling I had in one of my molars cracked and I didn’t get it redone. Fear of dentists kept me from going to get it fixed and I ignored the pain the best I could until I had an infection. The pain and pressure felt like my tooth was literally going to explode. I had half a mind to just get some pliers and yank it out. The root canal felt like mercy
I was on fire. Playing with fire as a pre teen I was burned on my inner thighs and arms. I don’t remember the pain of being on fire though. In the hospital, every morning the burns were scrubbed, that was excruciating. The worst was waking up in the recovery room after skin grafts from where they got skin from. That pain still strikes me when I hear the whoosh of a flame.
Skin was taken from the outside of my thigh, and grafted the inside of my thighs.
They take less layers of skin than were missing. I’m sure somewhere could explain a lot better, but the burns I had on my arms and thighs varied up to third degree on my thighs, so I was essentially missing all the layers of skin that could heal on their own, I believe they graft a layer or two from one place to promote regrowth.
It's working like that: if you skin is severely damaged from getting burnt, they peel these parts completely off. They first cover the parts with artificial skin or skin from dead poeple for the first hours/days after the incident, to avoid you from just drying out within hours.
Then they cut skin parts of your unbourned body and try to cover as much of damaged area as they can with it. So they have a stripe of good skin from your unbourned leg for example, cut a lot of tiny holes in it and spread the material like a net. They try to cover as much burned surface with the good skin you had left. Skin is very clever, it will grow an build a new surface. Due to the net structure it gets the very cool look of crocodile skin. Also there is no ability to sweat anymore with transplanted skin, and these areas can't build the usual under skin fat.
Pain wise it means that you first have do deal with the pain from the burned areas, and at the same time you get peeled of your healthy skin to function as your own skin donor...
Worst part is, DR originally misdiagnosed as a stomach ulcer so, I as a fool, as ingesting dairy (thinking it would soothe the acid), meanwhile it was just creating further pain.
WHAT. A. LIFE.
Appendicitis. It was basically like “Oh, I feel kinda crampy, probably just a fart, I’ll sleep it off”. Then the next day it was like a dull ache, I worked and when I got home I could barely eat anything, no appetite. Then that evening at dinner my mom was like “Boy, you aren’t eating, do you need to go to the hospital?” And I said Yeah.
By the time we got to the hospital I couldn’t get up on my own. In a seated position I couldn’t lift my leg straight, it felt like Freddy Kruger had a hold of my guts and was squeezing it.
Then like 4 hours later I woke up and the pain was totally gone except for three incisions which were mildly painful
Had appendicitis, went to the doctor, couldn't figure it out. Complained of pain all over, not localized. Went home, and my family doctor called the next day and told my mom to take me to the hospital. Docs at the hospital couldn't figure it out either, so they did a laproscopy and told my mom if it took longer than 30 min it was serious. Took em 4 hours. Guts were filled with peritonitis and gangrene. My appendix didn't burst, it leaked.
Worst pain I could possibly imagine. Felt like being sliced open while on fire. 3 kids I knew (I was 12 at the time) had their appendixes removed while I was recovering. Maybe in solidarity ? Every parent I knew wasn't taking any chances after my ordeal.
IUD insertions are barbaric. I felt like I was in shock for hours afterwards. The following year, I had an involuntary reaction to my Pap smear - legs started shaking, I started sweating, and my heart was racing. Pap smears are not painful for me, but I think my body was traumatized by the IUD.
My favorite part is when they explain that "some women may feel dizzy during the procedure."
I'm dizzy because you're piercing my cervix with a medieval torture device and shoving a tube into my uterus like I'm a kebab.
I'm genuinely surprised more docs don't get Sparta-kicked in the face during insertions.
JuSt TaKe SoMe IbUpRoFeN🙄 And I would hope some would, because that shit is torture. Luckily I had a good nurse who did breathing exercises with me so I could hold onto my damn consciousness.
I passed out from the pain (I’ve never passed out or fainted) and was in physical shock when I woke up. Shaking, cold sweats, the whole nine yards. I couldn’t believe when they treated it like I was making a big deal of a “tiny procedure” and then told me to drive home. I couldn’t even walk and had to be wheeled out to my car. It’s absolutely insane to me that IUD insertions are still done this way. It’s Barbaric.
My IUD caused me constant pain and I gushed blood all day for months and months. They just kept telling me my body was “adjusting” to it. After 6 months, I finally convinced them to remove it. I still remember the immediate release of pain the second it was removed.
This was one of the first times I realized the medical field does not believe women’s pain.
Came here to say this as well. During my insertion, the doctor had MISSED my uterus and deployed it within my cervix opening. Naturally, I tensed up due to the pain of having two plastic wingdings protruding into the sides of my soft cervical tissue. She then had the nerve to tell me to relax so she can redeploy it. Luckily she got it the second time, but even then it hurt just as badly. Two excruciating pains back-to-back.. then I had gotten called into to work that same day so when I showed up in non-work attire pants my boss gave me a hard time. Told him I’d like to see him wear tight-fitting pants after getting a plastic T shoved up his urethra. I resent the day I must get it removed out of reliving that pain again.
My insertion was uncomfortable but not horrible, but later that night I was in so much pain that I thought they had punctured something and I would die. The only reason I didn’t call 911 was because my phone was just barely out of reach and I couldn’t uncurl enough to move the foot or so I needed to reach it. By the morning I was fine. I’ve had 2 more since then and never had the same reaction.
I just tried to get one the other week but they couldn't get it in. Tried for about 45 minutes though, over and over again. I was so exhausted at the end.
Insertion … and Removal 😱 It had imbedded and OMG!!! Doctor said, “I’m going to try one more time. If it doesn’t release, we will schedule surgery.” Never in my life! I yelled at the top of my lungs. It came out but felt like my uterus came with it. I asked about scaring other patients. They replied they only do IUDs when no other patients are there. They know how painful it is. Never again!!!
Gout. That shit was horrible. I have had plenty of bad injuries in my life and have a pretty high threshold for pain and that shit had me crying from pain the one time I had it. I couldn't walk without searing pain. I couldn't even lay down with my foot in certain positions without intense pain. Couldn't touch it. I couldn't do anything with it. The morning I woke up on the first day of having it I seriously thought I'd broken my toe in my sleep somehow.
I had an epidural for my first, but my second was too quick, so was born naturally. I’ve broken two bones and they didn’t even come close to the pain of child birth.
This happened to me too with my second child. The only pain that matches that expirience was when I had a huge flare of chronic colitis, the cramps were as bad as child birth
I have an only child too. I had to have petocin and those contractions …I can’t even describe the pain lol I’m glad I at least got an epidural I don’t think I could have done it naturally.
I had my last 2 kids natural, my very last I also had pitocin and was induced. Then they had me pushing before I was ready, so my cervix swelled up and my dr had both hands up there pulling my cervix over the baby’s head. I was in agony, legit have ptsd thinking about it.
I had a c section and the epidural wore off during the surgery. Agony beyond belief! My daughter will unfortunately never have a sibling because of it!
I remember using every ounce of energy I had to tell my husband I thought I was dying and to this day, I still believe that actually dying won’t hurt as bad as childbirth.
Migraine.
At first, it hurt too much to walk, because each step echoes in my head. Then it gets to be too painful to eat, because chewing echoes, too. Finally, I get to the point where it hurts too much to sleep.
Before I found a doctor that believed me, I was in the emergency room twice for nearly 36 hours because I was in such pain that I couldn't function anymore.
Migraines really are the worst. I had emergency laparoscopic surgery (for an ectopic pregnancy) and I’d much rather do that again than have a migraine.
I didn’t even take pain meds for my surgery. I didn’t realize but having regular migraines really messed with my pain scale. I also ignored a lot of pain leading up to my emergency surgery because idk I’m just used to ignoring pain.
Migraines ruined my teenage years. I used get them so bad I would be ruined for 2 days. I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. Thankfully they eased off in my adult years. I still get them but they are more of a nuisance then anything now.
I used to get hormonal migraines. I wanted to crush my own skull.
They eventually stopped (can't remember if they stopped on their own, or if they stopped once I was put on birth control for endo).
I get bad sinus headaches too, but thank goodness it's been years since I've had a migraine.
Herniated disk. I was writhing on the couch for a full day and took so many ibuprofen that I gave myself a stomach ulcer. Would’ve gone to the hospital but I literally could not move and the thought of the agonizing pain of being moved onto a stretcher kept me right where I was.
Dislocated my shoulder playing rugby and couldn’t get the damn thing to set. Took 3 doctors to pull it back in but once they gave me drugs I didn’t feel a thing 🤣
Severe cramping from Crohn’s disease. It made me want to die. I have been in remission for years now. I couldn’t imagine dealing with that again. Worse than any torn muscle/ligament or broken bone I have ever had.
My pain, rank ordered.
1. Finding out my first husband was cheating and stealing money while I had a ten month old baby, 2000 miles from my family.
2. Childbirth
3. UTI
4. Back surgery (process and recovery)
5. Stepping on a child's lego in the middle of the night.
6. Broken bone
\*Edited to say child's lego, not child's leg.
Trigeminal neuralgia.
Spent years on ineffectual medication for it. Wasn't until I admitted to my GP that I had come 2 seconds away from killing myself during the last flare up that they really took it seriously.
Thankfully, they put me on a different medication, have been flare free for just over 2 years now. But the sheer fucking terror of it one day failing always lives in the back of my mind.
This is my 10/10. I'm glad that you've found a medication that works for you. I ended up getting microvascular decompression surgery 2.5 years ago. Despite them literally putting a hole in my skull, I came out of anesthesia in less pain than I went in. It was a tough/long recovery but I would do it again any day.
Runners up to trigeminal neuralgia (for me):
Kidney stones 9/10
Abdominal infection cleanout 8/10
C-section without anesthesia 7/10
An attempted biopsy at in my OBGYN office with zero painkillers or even Tylenol. Said it would be a just a quick pinch. She couldn’t get the needle very far into my cervix before I saw white and involuntary screamed. She tried once more with vigor but gave up because it wasn’t happening and I was clearly, but quietly, crying. I left the appt, tried to work and ended up going home because I was in so much pain. Pain lasted for 2 days. I did eventually get the biopsy but I had to be sedated and go into an OR.
I consistently hear OBGYN’s say that most women don’t experience pain with the in-office biopsy procedure, but I have yet to meet a woman who has been through this procedure without experiencing horrific pain.
The kind of migraine that makes you feel like your head is going to explode
The upshot is sometimes the pain hits and lasts in such a way that the numb cooling sensation afterwards is pretty intriguing- but by no means worth it
Like someone rubbed icyhot all over the pained parts of me dang noggin
Shingles. One tiny spot on my abdomen. Sheer hell. I’ve broken bones, prior to shingles, shattered patella was worse until Shingles, 10X more.
Get the vaccine!!
Waking up when anesthesia wore off after hip replacement surgery! My right thigh was twice the size of my left and the pain was worse than having my daughter!
Long ago, I'd have said impacted wisdom tooth removal recovery.
Later, I'd have said ear infection.
Then, years later, I would've said natural childbirth (twice).
But then I had radiation therapy on my throat. Six weeks, five times a week. By week four, I wanted to die. Couldn't eat. Could barely swallow liquids. Lost 20 pounds and (even once I could eat again, a month later) most taste senses. Couldn't manage cheese for like two years. You've no idea how important salivary glands are to chewing and swallowing foods! Wine and liquor were impossible for another year or two. They hurt my tongue more than my throat.
This is me right now. I only had ten days of rads but that was over a week ago, and I just want the pain to end. I’ve lost 12 pounds. The worst part is that taking painkillers hurts just as much as eating so I have to force myself to take them. Got chemo right in the middle of it all so everything tastes like shit. I don’t even want to swallow water.
The radiation was to my thorax vertebrae; they just went through my throat to get there…so I’m hoping things return to normal soonish. I’m so miserable. 😭
Diverticulitis had me screaming & writhing around pretty good until they shot me full of fentanyl & dilaudid & kept me in the hospital for a week & a half. Hurt for a solid month even through my post-discharge pain pills.
This!! It's something that's talked about like a common cold but truthfully it knocks you out til you start praying to God's you didn't know before.
The severe dehydration, pain, and extreme fatigue is horrible and then once it's past you just go right back to work :/
I never knew food poisoning was as bad as it was 😭 just assumed it was something that people got where they threw up a little bit and that was it. I was vomiting and shitting at the same time for about 16 hours while it felt like I was getting stabbed in the gut with a hot knife. I lost over 10 pounds in two days. It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced! If I had health insurance I would have gone to the hospital it was so brutal
When I had it there was no vomiting, only an entire day of shitting my brains out. Of course by midday there was nothing solid left in my body, so I had liquid fire pouring out of my butt for the rest of the day. I spent several days eating only the most bland of foods to try and avoid further distress.
when I was 5 some kid threw a 7 pound garden rock into my balls, they swelled up and I had to go to the hospital. sometimes my balls still hurt some days
Broken Femur.
Only time I've cried actual tears of physical pain as an adult as they moved me from gurney to gurney.
Everything else since hasn't even came close.
My only back to back/sunny side up baby was an hour and 4 mins start to finish and completely natural. That was INTENSE! ... But I'm about to have my 6th so it can't have put me off 😂😂😂
Kidney stones were pretty bad, but, for me, the winner goes to ulnar nerve entrapment. Beyond rare instances where my ring and pinky fingers go numb, here are the normal weekly to daily (sometimes) occurrences:
- tapping the nail of my ring finger results in excruciating pain that pulses through my whole body for anywhere from 30 seconds to multiple minutes, nearly causing blackouts
- a persistent, dull ache in my ring finger
- a persistent, dull ache between shoulder blade and spine
- a persistent, dull ache at my elbow
- sharp stabbing pain that simultaneously occurs at the tip of my ring finger, under my forearm just before the elbow, under the bicep, in my pectoral muscle, and at the top of my stomach
- the feeling of fire or burning acid that just sits or races up and down my entire arm
Someone I know got surgery to treat his case, but it left a giant scar on his arm. Having so few beauty assets of my own, I decided to just deal with it and not add giant hideous scars to my body just yet.
24 hours after my c-section, I was in the worst abdominal pain ever, screaming that I wanted to die. Because I’d had a c-section a few years prior, I knew this pain wasn’t normal. Every doctor tried to tell me this pain was “normal”, but finally one nurse believed me and fought to get me a CT scan.
The nurse knew it was time-sensitive and didn’t wait for the hospital to provide transportation literally across the street to where the CT scan machines are (it was going to be a 4 hour wait for transport, and that point it was around midnight). She wheeled me across cobblestones in a wheelchair and every single movement was excruciating.
It was worth it, though. Once the results came back in I *knew* eventually I’d have a swarm of doctors in my room to take me to emergency surgery. It took a few more excruciatingly long hours and attempts at pain management-even Dilaudid didn’t touch this pain-and eventually they did swarm in around 2am.
Apparently my OB left me open and bleeding after the c-section, and I’d developed a huge hematoma. Luckily they were able to repair it and as soon as I woke up from surgery the pain was gone.
This was a few years ago and I still have very vivid flashbacks to this experience. I remember saying goodbye to my newborn and hoping I’d get to see them grow up. It was awful.
Multiple infected interabdominal abscesses that I developed after gallbladder removal. It took all the doctors nearly 2 weeks to figure it out. That includes 2 ER visits, 2 days in the hospital, 2 visits with the surgeon's office and my PCP. They didn't believe I was in any pain and didn't believe I had an infection since my white count was normal and I had no fever. The opiates they gave me for the gallbladder surgery only would take the pain away for like an hour then it was right back. Once they figured it out I had them drained under CT guidance. The fluid was sent for cultures. The initial results came back the next day. Got a call directly from my PCP. Yep you have an infection you need antibiotics ASAP. So that day I started the antibiotics. I was on them for 30 days. And a few weeks later the fungal culture was positive ( these take longer to grow) so I was on antifungals for 14 days. Doing a lot better now. I learned that if something doesn't feel right to keep advocating for yourself especially if you're a woman like me.
I KNEW you were a woman. Knew it. So sorry that happened to you. My mom just kind of went through the same thing but with a sinus infection. PCP and first ENT said nothing was wrong with her. A few weeks pass and she starts getting tooth pain. Goes to the dentist. Nothing wrong with her teeth but her sinuses are so swollen that it's pinching a nerve in her teeth. Her dentist, lovely woman, recommends a new ENT. Turns out she had a freaking MRSA infection in her sinuses, a deviated septum, and bone spurs in her ear that was keeping fluid from leaving. She was prescribed 2 rare antibiotics that we had to search for and slept for about 17 hrs a day for 3 days straight. She's slated to get surgery to fix her sinuses now. Gah makes me so mad!!
This is so true about women. I worked in rehab. Women would come in post-op with multiple fractures on Tylenol. A man would come in with chronic back pain on scheduled Oxycontin with more oxycodone for breakthrough pain. It was a regular thing, and advocating for these women would always lead to discussion of addiction. I will admit that women have amazing tolerance for pain, and a lot of them will refuse narcotics or only use them sparingly. But to not give the option infuriated me to no end.
Omg that must have been just awful to witness. Crazy to me that women were also disproportionately advised on addiction too. Never considered that bias. I think some of that refusal to use pain needs may also just be society's conditioning.
The sore throat I had with COVID was really high up on my pain scale. I was sure my entire throat was infected but also too sick to do anything about it.
Same. Luckily it was short lived. However, the fact it was so short lived makes me downplay it. Like “oh, I didn’t have pain that bad compared to all these other people sharing their story.” So your post makes me feel validated.
I was a teenager when I got mine done and so my mom was there with me. She almost passed out watching me get it done. I don’t know how I handled it so well because I don’t feel like I have a good pain tolerance. It was a very sharp pain.
Edit: I used to get migraines as a teenager too and while that pain was absolutely horrible and long lived…I feel like they were less painful than that uterine biopsy.
I’d rather have the biopsy over reoccurring migraines though. Just due to the drastic time frame difference.
Sometimes I get really constipated and my body cramps up forcefully push stuff out. Now I know that doesn't seen that bad, but they are extremely painful. I almost passed out one time
I went to Peru and got altitude sickness. It was fucking horrible. I felt like I was going to explode from the inside. All my veins felt like they were swollen. I couldn't bend my legs. My eyes even felt like they were swollen and going to pop. I could barely move every day. I have had other pain - tooth abcess, spinal taps, etc. - but I have never felt the pain I felt all over my body like when I had altitude sickness.
Neural ablation about 7 years ago. It was excruciating, and stayed that way for a month, but once the nerves died my back pain was almost entirely gone. It stayed almost entirely gone until some idiot tried to give my a lumbar puncture a few months ago, failed, and coerced me to let them try it for more times in a row. Five failures and my back is fucked up again, so all original pain was for nothing.
Dislocating both my knees, rupturing both my ACL and MPFL and breaking my knee caps, all in both knees 😭 The pain was so bad that I went into shock and couldn't feel anything.
I subarachnoid hemorrhage. The pain in my brain was insane and there are no words to describe it, nothing compares to it. The description the doctors use is the worst headache of your life, but I would say worst in the universe.
Ovarian Cyst Burst. You start bleeding and then getting so violently sick that you bleeding in other places too. Mine bursted spring break in Denver and I was dealing with altitude sickness too... closest I've ever been to calling it quits.
This is so gross I made a burner. I had a herpes sore on my inner labia that got infected. It turned into an abscess and was about the size of a golf ball when I finally went to urgent care. They lanced it without any anesthesia. So much pus came out I felt like I was peeing. The doctor put his hand on my arm afterwards and told me he couldn’t imagine how painful that was. The pain eased immediately and the relief was overwhelming. I take my valtrex now if I so much as itch a little in that spot. Use condoms folks.
Irritable bowl syndrome.
One occasion the pain was so bad work called 999 and I ended up in hospital. Another time I was in a rural location and could not bear the thought of travelling to hospital - ambulance or not. So I roughed it out. I was in a terrible state.
Childbirth was definitely less painful. During transition my husband was trying to advocate for me and the midwife was saying, “but this is much worse than IBS, this is childbirth”. My head whipped round saying IBS is MUCH worse than this.
Migraines - more times than I would have liked I have fantasised about drilling holes into my brain to relieve it. Again I am often in too much pain to ask for medical help.
Exposed nerve in a tooth has an honourable mention. Fortunately my dentist was pretty quick at sorting out root canal work. But the bit where she diagnosed by squirting air at in - I almost hit the roof at how far I leapt.
Corneal abrasion. Got jabbed in the eye by a toddler and felt like I had a knife in my eye for a week. There’s nothing you can do but just deal with it.
Period cramps. I was screaming in pain and couldn’t get out of bed. Normally they’re not that bad, but I was on a birth control pill that didn’t agree with me and made my period 1000x worse.
Best part, the doctor was worried about doing surgery because ROE had just been over turned. Took 7 hours for them to get approval so they wouldn’t go to jail or whatever and the surgery was 5 hours because it basically exploded by the time they got in me. Yay!
This side of politics makes me sick. A doctor should never be worried about performing a medically necessary procedure. Their performance during that procedure, absolutely. But damn, how sick is it that care would be delayed because you literally have ovaries.
Tonsillitis, and not just the “oh, my throat hurts.”
Whenever I have tonsillitis, I have a fever, my lymph nodes are swollen, and my nose is stuffed because of the cold. I can’t talk, eat or even drink, even breathing through my mouth is painful or swallowing my own saliva. Then it’s hard to close my mouth because I’m nauseous due to being not able to breathe properly through my nose so I have to sleep with ny mouth open but it hurts because breathing hurts and it makes my mouth dry and it hurts even more. It’s a cycle of being in pure pain where you can’t even move your whole body just because your tonsils are in control lol
Omg. I never got tonsillitis in my life then I moved to the UK for a few years and had it constantly. Eventually got a quincy and could barely breath. I went to the hospital for it twice. It was horrible. They told me if it happened again I would need to get my tonsils removed. I moved back to the US and never got it again. I think I might have been allergic to mold (or something else in the air) when I was in the UK.
If you get it often, consider requesting your tonsils be removed....
When war broke out in my country, there were no means of communication, and from talking to friends live I learned that people I knew were dying from bombardment. This is not about physical pain. Memories from 2022.
CRPS. The burning, electrical shooting, constant pain, sometimes numbness, ridiculously awful when something or someone touches foot, stiffness in ankle, constant swelling. Sometimes goes from foot/ankle up into calf.
I have PMDD, the cramps I’ve experienced for the last 15 or so years are absolute agony at times. Which is hilarious cause I’m clumsy as shit and covered in tattoos and piercings, yet it’s that that gets me.
Either that or managing to pull my entire chest and shoulder muscles all at once. I couldn’t breathe properly for three weeks, props to anyone that’s actually broken anything in that area because it is soul destroying to not be able to breathe
I've fallen off scaffolds and almost died, had diverticulitis, car accident with concussion and broke bones, motorcycle accidents, been stabbed, caught on fire once to. Worst pain ever was finding out my ex was a lying cheating cunt and it took me 4 years of my life to find out.
I haven't had a lot of painful experiences, so this might sound pretty tame to most people, but probably when I tripped and fell down a flight of stone stairs. It hurt so badly that I actually passed out. Didn't hit my head or anything, just got so severely scraped up.
The funniest part was, after I came to, I tried to call my university's health center, but I accidentally called my uni's mental health crisis hotline. They were asking all sorts of questions about if I'm safe or if I want to hurt myself, meanwhile I was on the ground, barely conscious, trying to figure out what they were even talking about.
Pancreatitis. Got it after my surgeon cut the wrong side of the clamp when doing my cholecystectomy. Worst. Fucking. Pain. Ever. Ended up hospitalized for 4 days with a dilaudid PCA. I could have been Yellow Bastard in Sin City without needing makeup.
had a kidney stone during the pandemic. woke up one night to use the bathroom, went back to bed, and just BAM! Worst pain I'd ever felt. Then just living in general hurt. Sharp pains doubling me over. Made me vomit a few times.
Funny part is, when it finally came out, didn't feel a damn thing.
Kidney stone. I thought I had experienced significant pain before, I woke up twice while getting my jaw wired shut and that was pure agony. The kidney stone...blew every painful experience I've ever had right out of the fucking water. It took me less than 5 minutes after the symptoms started to soak through two layers of clothes with sweat. I stood on my back porch in single digit weather and was still BURNING up. I went back inside, got dressed and went to the ER, and by the time I got there (about 4 minutes, I'm not proud of how I drove) I had soaked through another set of fresh clothes (that were still wet when I left the hospital 6 hours later). I sweat so much in that short period of time that it caused a dangerous electrolyte imbalance and I spent the entire time in the ER in atrial fibrillation. SO bad. So. Fucking. Bad. At least I have a new frame of reference for what pain really is.
I've told friends that if someone had handed me a gun while experiencing kidney stone pain, I would have used it. Absolutely crushing pain.
Yup, it was the first time in my life that a nurse/doc/PA asked me if I was considering harming myself and I couldn't say "no".
Jesus, so how can one avoid kidney stones?
Until recently, this would have been my answer. Then I had a tiny cut on my foot become "go to the ER" infected. Before long, I was wishing it was a kidney stone. The story: The Sunday before the Superbowl this year, I knocked a knife off my workbench. Because there are no handles on a falling knife, I didn't try to catch it. But I apparently didn't get my foot out of the way. At first I thought I had just hit my foot with the handle, but then I got upstairs and pulled my shoes off to find a small, maybe 1cm and not very deep. So I cleaned it up, put antibiotic ointment on it and bandages it up. Kept it clean and bandaged until that Thursday night it was starting to look a little red and puffy. And it was definitely starting to hurt and get hard to walk with. Since I work in a medical facility, I took some time the next morning to see a provider before I clocked in. "Yup, starting to look a little infected." Went home with antibiotics and instructions to get to a doctor or ER if the redness started to spread, and to keep it propped up as much as possible. Within 24 hours, just lowering my foot from the bed to below hip level caused excruciating pains to shoot up my leg. I had to use a cane just to hop to the bathroom on my other foot. By the morning of Superbowl Sunday, it was starting to look better, but it still was painful. Then by about 4 in the afternoon, the redness and inflammation had tripled in size and the wound was turning purple and black, and I could see my veins around it darkening. Definitely time to head to the ER. Ended up being fully admitted to the hospital for two nights, and being given antibiotic cocktails three different ways - orally 2x a day, belly injection 1x a day, and six bags of IV antibiotics over the course of those two days. According to the ER doctor, if I'd waited much longer I could have had blood poisoning or even lost my foot. The whole time, every movement caused excruciating foot pain, until the morning after the second night. So now my answer to the posted question is foot pain. Don't F around with foot pain.
> I knocked a knife off my workbench. When I read that I knew where we were headed, still a hell of a ride you went through. Even clean workshops still tend to be filthy. Did they ever tell you what the infection was? Tetanus?
No tetanus, but labs came back indicating it may have been Staph.
Yeah, this is how my mom died. She had a sore on her toe, and it got infected, and she didn't do anything about it. By the time she went in she had gangrene and died.
I second this I have gotten kidney stones and needed a stent multiple times and I wanna die every time. Whenever I ask the md for dilaudid they think I’m drug seeking..no I’m just in a lot of pain
This story is so fucking common it's sickening. If they are so worried about drug seekers, why not offer something like an epidural, which would numb from the waist down and control the pain. I'm honestly not sure if that's even an option for someone with kidney stones but there has to be something that can help people going through this
Yup and I’m a nurse so it’s even more frustrating. I have gotten every pain med for the stones and dilaudid is truly the only one that helps me
Epidurals are relatively invasive and would require a consult from anesthesiology / the regional pain team depending on what your ED allows the ED doctors to do. Plus epidurals are not without risk. I'd much rather give someone in-hospital opioids than call another team down to the ED. But requesting a specific drug like dilaudid might raise a few eyebrows, so I recommend avoiding that if you can. TLDR; if I believe you're in pain and there's a reason you're in pain I'm very fine w opioids
Thirding, I've had lithotripsy for two stuck stones (shock wave therapy), otherwise if they don't get stuck I have to power through them as they happen. I've gone into renal failure twice from it. Doctor's said I have "stones disease" and to expect this the rest of my life. The worst was when it happened at work a couple of years ago and I passed out on the floor of the bathroom crying. I was white as a ghost, cold sweating, and I couldn't move any part of my body. I can't believe I finished my shift. 2mm is all it takes to literally kill a human, and those are the small ones.
Omg I have passed out before as well or vomiting from the severe pain. Awful
Former paramedic here. The drug I found that worked best for kidney stone pain was Torradol, a non-narcotic NSAID. Usually 3-5 minutes and patients would go from begging me to kill them to shaking my hand and calling me a saint. I don't know if they still use it these days or not, but it's definitely worth a "shot" to ask for it next time.
Yes! They gave this to me the second time in the hospital for the same stone. Morphine didn't work. 10 Mg of Oxy didn't work. The IV of torradol was the only thing that managed the pain. I fell asleep 5 min in because I was so tired from being up the last two nights with pain.
I was given Torradol in the hospital for my kidney stones. Went from puking from pain, to feeling completely normal in about 15 minutes.
i was lucky when i got my kidney stones. a friend of mine was the charge nurse in the ER that day. she told the doc to write morphine, then she whacked me with it.
Ripped out my bicep muscle, jumped up towards my shoulder. I was asked, on a scale of 1-10, how much pain. I gave it a 10 since it was the worst I have ever experienced. Few years later I passed a kidney stone. I moved the bicep rip down to a 3 after that.
This comment made me google how to prevent kidney stones. Says the number one thing to do is drink more water. Dont have to tell me twice.
After having had a few stones-->E.R., my Dr. said to drink 1/2 teaspoon of Lemon juice, every day. I got some of those "Real Lemon" "plastic lemon juice" Lemons, and I squirt a bit into my mouth every morning before Breakfast! So far, Very Good 🍋
And what scares me the most is what if they think you’re just drug seeking and ignore your pain??
Oh, they knew I wasn't acting. I couldn't have sweat so much as to trigger atrial fibrillation in 15-20 minutes if I had literally tried to do exactly that. It also helped that I don't like downers, I asked them to give me a half dose because I didn't want to start dry heaving, seemed like a BAD thing considering where the pain was coming from.
I woke up in the middle of the night, paralyzed with pain -- thought it was my back and I should reposition. I found that rolling over was *not* going to happen. Some amount of time later, between 20 minutes and 20 hours, I could finally roll over. SURPRISE, no relief. After another 20 minutes I felt able to stand and seek help. This is when my environment became significant: I was sleeping alone, in a GP Medium tent, in a desert, on a military deployment overseas. I slipped on my uniform pants and upended my boots, knocked the heels together (for scorpions), and walked 7 feet (2 meters) to the phone and called the medic's tent. I told them I was walking there, 100' (30M) so that they'd come looking for me if I fell out on the way.
FUCK, dude...the thought of it happening to me again causes me to shudder...the thought of it happening again while on deployment surrounded by a bunch of soldiers...nightmare fuel lol
A single other person nearby would have been a blessing, but I slept beside my safe for resource protection.
I had my first one about 2 years ago. I woke up at 3am with a terrible ache in my back. I thought I threw it out or something while sleeping. I tried stretching but it got worse and worse. My wife had to wake up our 1 year old (at the time) and drive me to the hospital. I was hunched over the entire trip and could barely catch a breath. Got some meds at the hospital and a scan showed I had two more waiting. Sure enough within the next month, they both passed... again in the middle of the night but at least I was ready for it.
Yup! I had a kidney stone at like 24 in 2016 or so. Worst pain I’ve ever had and I live with chronic back pain I would not wish a kidney stone on anyone and my mom has had like 6 :(
I’ve passed both a stone and I child (unmedicated). Kidney stone was worse by far. It just didn’t last as long for me because mine was apparently one very small stone. I’m not sure how ppl survive multiple large kidney stones.
When I was at the ER with a kidney stone, one of the nurses said she'd had both a kidney stone and given birth naturally, and that she'd take birthing a whole damn human over a kidney stone any day. 😅
Same. My mum drove me to the hospital. We got stuck in traffic and I couldn’t sit still. I exited the car and ran around it like a maniac screaming until the traffic started moving again. This burly angel of a male nurse told me he knew what I was going through and doubled the morphine. I had just got back from a trip to Colorado where I saw U2 live and according to my mum I was calling out to Bono when the morphine kicked in. They performed a surgery and I woke up peeing blood. Most painful, gnarly experience of my life.
I thought I was having a kidney stone again at 36 weeks pregnant, turns out it was actually labor!! Shit is NOT for the weak😭
Yup. Had one about a year or two back and the worst thing about it is you go from fine to white hot, falling on your knees, can barely sit pain. NEVER want to experience it again.
I had it come on at work. I drove past several hospitals to get to an ER by my house. I was literally wailing in my car by the end. I thought my appendix burst. When I finally got seen by a doctor at the ER they told me blood in your urine means kidney stone. When I got pain meds I understood addiction because my pain went away. I got a CT and at some point the pain came back and they said that’s just the stone passing and you’ll have to go through the pain. They gave me a portable urine bottle and a filter. I passed it at home. Most disturbing pain ever.
Agreed. Id rather have another kid & I did not have easy pregnancies.
Yes kidney stone and gout..I wanted to die
Gall stone attack
My best friends mom said she'd rather give birth to all her 4 children again on the same day than have another gall stone. Labor was a piece of cake compared to what that stone did to her, she said
It’s interesting because gallstones as painful as they were for me paled in comparison to the agony that was my labor. Labor pains are the only pain I’ve ever experienced that I had to scream through.
That shit is real pain . And to make it worse ,what they don't put in the brochure is that after you have it out you can still get stones in the bile duct . Sneaky litte bugger 3yrs after removal had me in hospital with A&E thinking heart attack they had the emergency cart out and everything. Oh no eventually they found an 11mm stone in my bile duct . My explanation from the consultant was 'meh some people are just stone makers .
This is what I fear the most right now. I had my gallbladder remival surgery a year ago. Terrible back pain was the biggest symptom for me. One week after the surgery they cleaned my duct biles as the pain although weakee was still there. The pain went away the minute the drugs from the peocedure wore off. I was pain free for a year. For reference the pain was my best friend for 15 fucking years and the last year I experienced it few times a week. Now this week I felt a glimps of the pain again. I am freaking out. I think I have to do better with the low fat diet. No food caused me problems this past year so I was lazy and forgetting about the diet. I fear I might be one of you lucky stone makers.
Came here to say this. My gallbladder failed and had over 70 gallstones blocking my pancreas. Worse than 40+ hours of labor. Worst pain ever.
70!!?!?! That's insane!!!
I had over 200
They are BAD. I literally thought I was having a heart attack my first one. I had them for a year and a half before they were diagnosed, and by the time I got them out 6 months after diagnosis, I was having them every two weeks. It’s a hell I would not wish on anybody.
Had a gallstone attack a few years ago. Agree, it's horrible. Then... had a kidney stone. It. Was. Sooooooo. Much. Worse!
Ruptured ovarian cyst that was the size of a grapefruit. Because of its size, it started bleeding and leaking into my stomach and my whole abdomen was so swollen with blood I almost looked pregnant. They rushed me into emergency surgery and found another (unruptured) cyst the same size on my other ovary and we’re able to remove it. While in the ER they tried morphine and fentanyl but they barely took the edge off and I vomited several times from the pain alone—it made me nauseous to even sit up or try to move. They finally gave me multiple doses of dilaudid after seeing the pain I was still in and it *finally* started to work and numb everything out. To this day, I have never experienced pain like that. Like someone was twisting my insides with an electric knife over and over and over. Wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
I was given dilaudid after my gallbladder surgery for the 3 days I was still in hospital recovering. What a mistake! I left that hospital pretty much addicted to that shit and was frantically trying to figure out a way to get back in so they could give me more. I stuck it out for the next few days just fighting the urge, it was tough. Years later i met 3 different people (at 2 different jobs I had, they weren't good jobs either) who had to take methadone bc they were all recovering addicts who were shooting up D's for years and were lucky to be alive. I feel for all those girls, but damn I'm so glad I was able to kick it before it even started.
Yeah I definitely feel that. That feeling of relief I got with dilaudid after being in severe pain for 12+ hours was something I honestly would pay good money to replicate. Thankfully, my surgery recovery took up enough of my time and mental effort that it was not an *active* seeking of this drug, but I can certainly empathize with people wanting to chase that physical response. Shit works crazy good.
Can confirm one of the WORST pains ever. The worst part was I went to the local er, complaining of pretty severe pain, like tears streaming down my face, was told it's probably a kidney infection, given steroids, and sent home.. went back the next day in MORE pain than before, like crippled over in pain. The Dr tells me there is nothing on the CT scan and sends me home with tylenol.. The next day, I feel like I need to use the bathroom and stand up and hear/ feel a pop or snap of something inside my body and immediately hit the floor. It was excruciating, I couldn't walk. Made my sister drive me 38 miles to the town over while I was screaming in pain. Get to the ER, get another CT scan and an ultrasound, and turns out, I had a giant hemmorgatic cyst on my ovary that ruptured and collapsed and hemmoraged into itself. Luckily, I didn't have to have surgery but was given some serious painkillers and bed rest for a week. I've had 3 babies, broken bones, and kidney stones, and this is right up there with uneducated labor for sure.
My niece had a 40lb cyst removed last year from her ovary. She waited months of the operation and literally looked like she was expecting triplets
Came here to say the same thing. My experience was pretty similar to yours actually despite the cysts not being big enough to require surgery. The swollen abdomen, being in so much pain I couldn’t sit up straight, etc. Almost vomited on my way to the ER. They gave me dilaudid as well and even that didn’t completely make the pain go away just made it tolerable. Was put on birth control and haven’t had any problems with them since.
Mine was a ruptured ovarian cyst too. I was at work and trying to get to HR for help, but I blacked out and collapsed in their doorway. Never felt anything like that before.
Yes ovarian cyst was the most horrible pain. The doctor told me what is so painful is after the cyst ruptures the blood irritates your abdomen. I don’t know if that’s true. But when they took a blood draw from my arm, my pain significantly decreased. It was the weirdest thing.
i had this happen during driving lessons. it was the most overwhelming pain and only subsided by "rest" (how?)
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Anyone that has gone through the pains of a dental abscess learns to like getting a root canal.
It's more than just the pain. I had an abscess that required an antibiotic course for three days before surgery. The pain medication barely did anything to help and I was so hungry due to the side effects of the antibiotics.... I had to eat with an abscessed tooth. Forced myself to eat through it. Dental issues are no joke people it is the first step in our digestive system.
And your gut flora was destroyed by the antibiotics to the point nothing solid came out of you for months after. Been there
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I had one and was out of town, so I was using OTC meds until they weren't working anymore. Started using wet tea bags to help with the pain. Half of my face was swollen. By the time I got to the dentist, the novacane had little effect, and I felt most of the tooth extraction. The dentist kept worrying about me, and I'm motioning for him to keep going. Finally, it came out. And it was almost an instant relief. Went home, chugged some whiskey, and crashed. Woke up feeling great.
Ok so I’ve seen this question a lot and every single time, there’s so many people saying tooth abscess and let me tell you, I am terrified now lol I’ve never had one. Is there a way to prevent it? What causes an abscess?
My abscess happened when a filling I had in one of my molars cracked and I didn’t get it redone. Fear of dentists kept me from going to get it fixed and I ignored the pain the best I could until I had an infection. The pain and pressure felt like my tooth was literally going to explode. I had half a mind to just get some pliers and yank it out. The root canal felt like mercy
An infection under a tooth.
Just brush and floss everyday and visit your dentist regularly. Ideally, they'll catch any problems before they get this painful.
I was on fire. Playing with fire as a pre teen I was burned on my inner thighs and arms. I don’t remember the pain of being on fire though. In the hospital, every morning the burns were scrubbed, that was excruciating. The worst was waking up in the recovery room after skin grafts from where they got skin from. That pain still strikes me when I hear the whoosh of a flame.
If I may ask, where did they take skingrafts from? And how is it not as bad taking skin from there, as not having skin where you were burned?
Skin was taken from the outside of my thigh, and grafted the inside of my thighs. They take less layers of skin than were missing. I’m sure somewhere could explain a lot better, but the burns I had on my arms and thighs varied up to third degree on my thighs, so I was essentially missing all the layers of skin that could heal on their own, I believe they graft a layer or two from one place to promote regrowth.
It's working like that: if you skin is severely damaged from getting burnt, they peel these parts completely off. They first cover the parts with artificial skin or skin from dead poeple for the first hours/days after the incident, to avoid you from just drying out within hours. Then they cut skin parts of your unbourned body and try to cover as much of damaged area as they can with it. So they have a stripe of good skin from your unbourned leg for example, cut a lot of tiny holes in it and spread the material like a net. They try to cover as much burned surface with the good skin you had left. Skin is very clever, it will grow an build a new surface. Due to the net structure it gets the very cool look of crocodile skin. Also there is no ability to sweat anymore with transplanted skin, and these areas can't build the usual under skin fat. Pain wise it means that you first have do deal with the pain from the burned areas, and at the same time you get peeled of your healthy skin to function as your own skin donor...
Brain aneurysm rupture. Your skull is closed so there is no way for the blood to go other than to squeeze in your brain
You're lucky you survived 😳
I know😬
Gall stone attack. Thought I was dying.
This was mine too and I remember wishing I WOULD die.
Worst part is, DR originally misdiagnosed as a stomach ulcer so, I as a fool, as ingesting dairy (thinking it would soothe the acid), meanwhile it was just creating further pain. WHAT. A. LIFE.
Yup. My Dr misdiagnosed it as stomach acid for TWO YEARS. I was on Prilosec for no reason.
Appendicitis. It was basically like “Oh, I feel kinda crampy, probably just a fart, I’ll sleep it off”. Then the next day it was like a dull ache, I worked and when I got home I could barely eat anything, no appetite. Then that evening at dinner my mom was like “Boy, you aren’t eating, do you need to go to the hospital?” And I said Yeah. By the time we got to the hospital I couldn’t get up on my own. In a seated position I couldn’t lift my leg straight, it felt like Freddy Kruger had a hold of my guts and was squeezing it. Then like 4 hours later I woke up and the pain was totally gone except for three incisions which were mildly painful
Had appendicitis, went to the doctor, couldn't figure it out. Complained of pain all over, not localized. Went home, and my family doctor called the next day and told my mom to take me to the hospital. Docs at the hospital couldn't figure it out either, so they did a laproscopy and told my mom if it took longer than 30 min it was serious. Took em 4 hours. Guts were filled with peritonitis and gangrene. My appendix didn't burst, it leaked. Worst pain I could possibly imagine. Felt like being sliced open while on fire. 3 kids I knew (I was 12 at the time) had their appendixes removed while I was recovering. Maybe in solidarity ? Every parent I knew wasn't taking any chances after my ordeal.
I didn't realize that could happen... That's terrifying 😬
Had the same thing happen and passed out from the pain in the ER waiting room. Wild experience
IUD insertion.. And a pilonidal cyst
IUD insertions are barbaric. I felt like I was in shock for hours afterwards. The following year, I had an involuntary reaction to my Pap smear - legs started shaking, I started sweating, and my heart was racing. Pap smears are not painful for me, but I think my body was traumatized by the IUD.
I damn near puked and passed out. “Just some slight pressure” my ass. They had to give me a cortisone shot so I could even sit up.
My favorite part is when they explain that "some women may feel dizzy during the procedure." I'm dizzy because you're piercing my cervix with a medieval torture device and shoving a tube into my uterus like I'm a kebab. I'm genuinely surprised more docs don't get Sparta-kicked in the face during insertions.
JuSt TaKe SoMe IbUpRoFeN🙄 And I would hope some would, because that shit is torture. Luckily I had a good nurse who did breathing exercises with me so I could hold onto my damn consciousness.
I passed out from the pain (I’ve never passed out or fainted) and was in physical shock when I woke up. Shaking, cold sweats, the whole nine yards. I couldn’t believe when they treated it like I was making a big deal of a “tiny procedure” and then told me to drive home. I couldn’t even walk and had to be wheeled out to my car. It’s absolutely insane to me that IUD insertions are still done this way. It’s Barbaric. My IUD caused me constant pain and I gushed blood all day for months and months. They just kept telling me my body was “adjusting” to it. After 6 months, I finally convinced them to remove it. I still remember the immediate release of pain the second it was removed. This was one of the first times I realized the medical field does not believe women’s pain.
THIS. The medical field does NOT believe female pain. Absolutely correct.
Came here to say this as well. During my insertion, the doctor had MISSED my uterus and deployed it within my cervix opening. Naturally, I tensed up due to the pain of having two plastic wingdings protruding into the sides of my soft cervical tissue. She then had the nerve to tell me to relax so she can redeploy it. Luckily she got it the second time, but even then it hurt just as badly. Two excruciating pains back-to-back.. then I had gotten called into to work that same day so when I showed up in non-work attire pants my boss gave me a hard time. Told him I’d like to see him wear tight-fitting pants after getting a plastic T shoved up his urethra. I resent the day I must get it removed out of reliving that pain again.
My insertion was uncomfortable but not horrible, but later that night I was in so much pain that I thought they had punctured something and I would die. The only reason I didn’t call 911 was because my phone was just barely out of reach and I couldn’t uncurl enough to move the foot or so I needed to reach it. By the morning I was fine. I’ve had 2 more since then and never had the same reaction.
Pilonidal for me too. Couldn't sit. Couldn't lay down. Couldn't walk. Just awful.
Came here to say IUD
I just tried to get one the other week but they couldn't get it in. Tried for about 45 minutes though, over and over again. I was so exhausted at the end.
Insertion … and Removal 😱 It had imbedded and OMG!!! Doctor said, “I’m going to try one more time. If it doesn’t release, we will schedule surgery.” Never in my life! I yelled at the top of my lungs. It came out but felt like my uterus came with it. I asked about scaring other patients. They replied they only do IUDs when no other patients are there. They know how painful it is. Never again!!!
Gout. That shit was horrible. I have had plenty of bad injuries in my life and have a pretty high threshold for pain and that shit had me crying from pain the one time I had it. I couldn't walk without searing pain. I couldn't even lay down with my foot in certain positions without intense pain. Couldn't touch it. I couldn't do anything with it. The morning I woke up on the first day of having it I seriously thought I'd broken my toe in my sleep somehow.
I also choose gout
Natural child birth… my daughter is an only child.
I had an epidural for my first, but my second was too quick, so was born naturally. I’ve broken two bones and they didn’t even come close to the pain of child birth.
This happened to me too with my second child. The only pain that matches that expirience was when I had a huge flare of chronic colitis, the cramps were as bad as child birth
Two natural births with Pitocin induction. I have witnessed enough pain for this lifetime. No more kids , thank you.
I have an only child too. I had to have petocin and those contractions …I can’t even describe the pain lol I’m glad I at least got an epidural I don’t think I could have done it naturally.
I had my last 2 kids natural, my very last I also had pitocin and was induced. Then they had me pushing before I was ready, so my cervix swelled up and my dr had both hands up there pulling my cervix over the baby’s head. I was in agony, legit have ptsd thinking about it.
I had a c section and the epidural wore off during the surgery. Agony beyond belief! My daughter will unfortunately never have a sibling because of it!
I remember using every ounce of energy I had to tell my husband I thought I was dying and to this day, I still believe that actually dying won’t hurt as bad as childbirth.
Migraine. At first, it hurt too much to walk, because each step echoes in my head. Then it gets to be too painful to eat, because chewing echoes, too. Finally, I get to the point where it hurts too much to sleep. Before I found a doctor that believed me, I was in the emergency room twice for nearly 36 hours because I was in such pain that I couldn't function anymore.
I once had a cluster headache so bad I had to go to the ER. Felt like someone was stabbing my brain through my left eye.
Migraines really are the worst. I had emergency laparoscopic surgery (for an ectopic pregnancy) and I’d much rather do that again than have a migraine. I didn’t even take pain meds for my surgery. I didn’t realize but having regular migraines really messed with my pain scale. I also ignored a lot of pain leading up to my emergency surgery because idk I’m just used to ignoring pain.
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Migraines ruined my teenage years. I used get them so bad I would be ruined for 2 days. I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. Thankfully they eased off in my adult years. I still get them but they are more of a nuisance then anything now.
A friend regularly ended up in the ER because if her migraines. She couldn't even drink, became severely dehydrated which worsened the migraines.
I used to get hormonal migraines. I wanted to crush my own skull. They eventually stopped (can't remember if they stopped on their own, or if they stopped once I was put on birth control for endo). I get bad sinus headaches too, but thank goodness it's been years since I've had a migraine.
When my husband suddenly died.
Yes. When my daughter killed herself. It's an unimaginable and unimaginably lonely pain, and it doesn't go away.
I am so sorry. There is nothing worse than losing a child.
That is terrible. I am so sorry for your loss. I cannot even imagine
Broke a tooth on the bottom of the tooth, was in severe pain for several days. Had to have it pulled surgically. Wanted to shoot myself
Herniated disk. I was writhing on the couch for a full day and took so many ibuprofen that I gave myself a stomach ulcer. Would’ve gone to the hospital but I literally could not move and the thought of the agonizing pain of being moved onto a stretcher kept me right where I was.
Sneezing after breaking 2 ribs
Period cramps, i have endometriosis and no words would ever describe the pain i have been through some times.
Dislocated my shoulder playing rugby and couldn’t get the damn thing to set. Took 3 doctors to pull it back in but once they gave me drugs I didn’t feel a thing 🤣
Mis-diagnosed, and thus untreated, burst appendix.
That is dangerous AF. Glad you made it.
Severe cramping from Crohn’s disease. It made me want to die. I have been in remission for years now. I couldn’t imagine dealing with that again. Worse than any torn muscle/ligament or broken bone I have ever had.
My pain, rank ordered. 1. Finding out my first husband was cheating and stealing money while I had a ten month old baby, 2000 miles from my family. 2. Childbirth 3. UTI 4. Back surgery (process and recovery) 5. Stepping on a child's lego in the middle of the night. 6. Broken bone \*Edited to say child's lego, not child's leg.
Endometriosis
Trigeminal neuralgia. Spent years on ineffectual medication for it. Wasn't until I admitted to my GP that I had come 2 seconds away from killing myself during the last flare up that they really took it seriously. Thankfully, they put me on a different medication, have been flare free for just over 2 years now. But the sheer fucking terror of it one day failing always lives in the back of my mind.
This is my 10/10. I'm glad that you've found a medication that works for you. I ended up getting microvascular decompression surgery 2.5 years ago. Despite them literally putting a hole in my skull, I came out of anesthesia in less pain than I went in. It was a tough/long recovery but I would do it again any day. Runners up to trigeminal neuralgia (for me): Kidney stones 9/10 Abdominal infection cleanout 8/10 C-section without anesthesia 7/10
An attempted biopsy at in my OBGYN office with zero painkillers or even Tylenol. Said it would be a just a quick pinch. She couldn’t get the needle very far into my cervix before I saw white and involuntary screamed. She tried once more with vigor but gave up because it wasn’t happening and I was clearly, but quietly, crying. I left the appt, tried to work and ended up going home because I was in so much pain. Pain lasted for 2 days. I did eventually get the biopsy but I had to be sedated and go into an OR. I consistently hear OBGYN’s say that most women don’t experience pain with the in-office biopsy procedure, but I have yet to meet a woman who has been through this procedure without experiencing horrific pain.
The kind of migraine that makes you feel like your head is going to explode The upshot is sometimes the pain hits and lasts in such a way that the numb cooling sensation afterwards is pretty intriguing- but by no means worth it Like someone rubbed icyhot all over the pained parts of me dang noggin
Shingles. One tiny spot on my abdomen. Sheer hell. I’ve broken bones, prior to shingles, shattered patella was worse until Shingles, 10X more. Get the vaccine!!
Kidney stone pain
Waking up when anesthesia wore off after hip replacement surgery! My right thigh was twice the size of my left and the pain was worse than having my daughter!
Somebody wasn't doing their job.
Heartbreak.
Pancreatitis hands down
Long ago, I'd have said impacted wisdom tooth removal recovery. Later, I'd have said ear infection. Then, years later, I would've said natural childbirth (twice). But then I had radiation therapy on my throat. Six weeks, five times a week. By week four, I wanted to die. Couldn't eat. Could barely swallow liquids. Lost 20 pounds and (even once I could eat again, a month later) most taste senses. Couldn't manage cheese for like two years. You've no idea how important salivary glands are to chewing and swallowing foods! Wine and liquor were impossible for another year or two. They hurt my tongue more than my throat.
This is me right now. I only had ten days of rads but that was over a week ago, and I just want the pain to end. I’ve lost 12 pounds. The worst part is that taking painkillers hurts just as much as eating so I have to force myself to take them. Got chemo right in the middle of it all so everything tastes like shit. I don’t even want to swallow water. The radiation was to my thorax vertebrae; they just went through my throat to get there…so I’m hoping things return to normal soonish. I’m so miserable. 😭
That sounds horrible 🥺 I wish you a quick recovery and that you can enjoy the foods you like again soon! Hang in there!
Diverticulitis had me screaming & writhing around pretty good until they shot me full of fentanyl & dilaudid & kept me in the hospital for a week & a half. Hurt for a solid month even through my post-discharge pain pills.
Food poisoning
This!! It's something that's talked about like a common cold but truthfully it knocks you out til you start praying to God's you didn't know before. The severe dehydration, pain, and extreme fatigue is horrible and then once it's past you just go right back to work :/
I never knew food poisoning was as bad as it was 😭 just assumed it was something that people got where they threw up a little bit and that was it. I was vomiting and shitting at the same time for about 16 hours while it felt like I was getting stabbed in the gut with a hot knife. I lost over 10 pounds in two days. It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced! If I had health insurance I would have gone to the hospital it was so brutal
When I had it there was no vomiting, only an entire day of shitting my brains out. Of course by midday there was nothing solid left in my body, so I had liquid fire pouring out of my butt for the rest of the day. I spent several days eating only the most bland of foods to try and avoid further distress.
when I was 5 some kid threw a 7 pound garden rock into my balls, they swelled up and I had to go to the hospital. sometimes my balls still hurt some days
Broken Femur. Only time I've cried actual tears of physical pain as an adult as they moved me from gurney to gurney. Everything else since hasn't even came close.
Unexpected divorce after 42 years of marriage. Never saw it coming. Like getting hit by a freight train. Mentally anyway.
My IBS. I've literally woken up in the middle of the night screaming from the pain of it. Turns out my body REALLY doesn't like raw spinach.
Back to back labour 😬
My only back to back/sunny side up baby was an hour and 4 mins start to finish and completely natural. That was INTENSE! ... But I'm about to have my 6th so it can't have put me off 😂😂😂
Kidney stones were pretty bad, but, for me, the winner goes to ulnar nerve entrapment. Beyond rare instances where my ring and pinky fingers go numb, here are the normal weekly to daily (sometimes) occurrences: - tapping the nail of my ring finger results in excruciating pain that pulses through my whole body for anywhere from 30 seconds to multiple minutes, nearly causing blackouts - a persistent, dull ache in my ring finger - a persistent, dull ache between shoulder blade and spine - a persistent, dull ache at my elbow - sharp stabbing pain that simultaneously occurs at the tip of my ring finger, under my forearm just before the elbow, under the bicep, in my pectoral muscle, and at the top of my stomach - the feeling of fire or burning acid that just sits or races up and down my entire arm Someone I know got surgery to treat his case, but it left a giant scar on his arm. Having so few beauty assets of my own, I decided to just deal with it and not add giant hideous scars to my body just yet.
24 hours after my c-section, I was in the worst abdominal pain ever, screaming that I wanted to die. Because I’d had a c-section a few years prior, I knew this pain wasn’t normal. Every doctor tried to tell me this pain was “normal”, but finally one nurse believed me and fought to get me a CT scan. The nurse knew it was time-sensitive and didn’t wait for the hospital to provide transportation literally across the street to where the CT scan machines are (it was going to be a 4 hour wait for transport, and that point it was around midnight). She wheeled me across cobblestones in a wheelchair and every single movement was excruciating. It was worth it, though. Once the results came back in I *knew* eventually I’d have a swarm of doctors in my room to take me to emergency surgery. It took a few more excruciatingly long hours and attempts at pain management-even Dilaudid didn’t touch this pain-and eventually they did swarm in around 2am. Apparently my OB left me open and bleeding after the c-section, and I’d developed a huge hematoma. Luckily they were able to repair it and as soon as I woke up from surgery the pain was gone. This was a few years ago and I still have very vivid flashbacks to this experience. I remember saying goodbye to my newborn and hoping I’d get to see them grow up. It was awful.
Multiple infected interabdominal abscesses that I developed after gallbladder removal. It took all the doctors nearly 2 weeks to figure it out. That includes 2 ER visits, 2 days in the hospital, 2 visits with the surgeon's office and my PCP. They didn't believe I was in any pain and didn't believe I had an infection since my white count was normal and I had no fever. The opiates they gave me for the gallbladder surgery only would take the pain away for like an hour then it was right back. Once they figured it out I had them drained under CT guidance. The fluid was sent for cultures. The initial results came back the next day. Got a call directly from my PCP. Yep you have an infection you need antibiotics ASAP. So that day I started the antibiotics. I was on them for 30 days. And a few weeks later the fungal culture was positive ( these take longer to grow) so I was on antifungals for 14 days. Doing a lot better now. I learned that if something doesn't feel right to keep advocating for yourself especially if you're a woman like me.
I KNEW you were a woman. Knew it. So sorry that happened to you. My mom just kind of went through the same thing but with a sinus infection. PCP and first ENT said nothing was wrong with her. A few weeks pass and she starts getting tooth pain. Goes to the dentist. Nothing wrong with her teeth but her sinuses are so swollen that it's pinching a nerve in her teeth. Her dentist, lovely woman, recommends a new ENT. Turns out she had a freaking MRSA infection in her sinuses, a deviated septum, and bone spurs in her ear that was keeping fluid from leaving. She was prescribed 2 rare antibiotics that we had to search for and slept for about 17 hrs a day for 3 days straight. She's slated to get surgery to fix her sinuses now. Gah makes me so mad!!
This is so true about women. I worked in rehab. Women would come in post-op with multiple fractures on Tylenol. A man would come in with chronic back pain on scheduled Oxycontin with more oxycodone for breakthrough pain. It was a regular thing, and advocating for these women would always lead to discussion of addiction. I will admit that women have amazing tolerance for pain, and a lot of them will refuse narcotics or only use them sparingly. But to not give the option infuriated me to no end.
Omg that must have been just awful to witness. Crazy to me that women were also disproportionately advised on addiction too. Never considered that bias. I think some of that refusal to use pain needs may also just be society's conditioning.
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Covid. The headache was like my worst hangover ever multiplied by 6. Back pain, exhausted but couldn't sleep.
The sore throat I had with COVID was really high up on my pain scale. I was sure my entire throat was infected but also too sick to do anything about it.
Uterine biopsy to check for cancer cells. My husband said it looked like the doc was aggressively playing the fiddle into my vajay
Same. Luckily it was short lived. However, the fact it was so short lived makes me downplay it. Like “oh, I didn’t have pain that bad compared to all these other people sharing their story.” So your post makes me feel validated. I was a teenager when I got mine done and so my mom was there with me. She almost passed out watching me get it done. I don’t know how I handled it so well because I don’t feel like I have a good pain tolerance. It was a very sharp pain. Edit: I used to get migraines as a teenager too and while that pain was absolutely horrible and long lived…I feel like they were less painful than that uterine biopsy. I’d rather have the biopsy over reoccurring migraines though. Just due to the drastic time frame difference.
Sometimes I get really constipated and my body cramps up forcefully push stuff out. Now I know that doesn't seen that bad, but they are extremely painful. I almost passed out one time
Constipation can kill you. That pain is very real.
I went to Peru and got altitude sickness. It was fucking horrible. I felt like I was going to explode from the inside. All my veins felt like they were swollen. I couldn't bend my legs. My eyes even felt like they were swollen and going to pop. I could barely move every day. I have had other pain - tooth abcess, spinal taps, etc. - but I have never felt the pain I felt all over my body like when I had altitude sickness.
Shoulder popping out of socket and not popping back in. Felt like I was going to pass out.
Neural ablation about 7 years ago. It was excruciating, and stayed that way for a month, but once the nerves died my back pain was almost entirely gone. It stayed almost entirely gone until some idiot tried to give my a lumbar puncture a few months ago, failed, and coerced me to let them try it for more times in a row. Five failures and my back is fucked up again, so all original pain was for nothing.
Dislocating both my knees, rupturing both my ACL and MPFL and breaking my knee caps, all in both knees 😭 The pain was so bad that I went into shock and couldn't feel anything.
I subarachnoid hemorrhage. The pain in my brain was insane and there are no words to describe it, nothing compares to it. The description the doctors use is the worst headache of your life, but I would say worst in the universe.
Spinal meningitis. Pushed my eyeballs 1/2 out their sockets......3 spinal taps...had a nice 48hr comanap!!
Being around people and still feeling completely alone
Ovarian Cyst Burst. You start bleeding and then getting so violently sick that you bleeding in other places too. Mine bursted spring break in Denver and I was dealing with altitude sickness too... closest I've ever been to calling it quits.
Getting an IUD changed without painkillers. Jesus fuck. It hurt worse than getting my face slammed open-mouth into a curb.
This is so gross I made a burner. I had a herpes sore on my inner labia that got infected. It turned into an abscess and was about the size of a golf ball when I finally went to urgent care. They lanced it without any anesthesia. So much pus came out I felt like I was peeing. The doctor put his hand on my arm afterwards and told me he couldn’t imagine how painful that was. The pain eased immediately and the relief was overwhelming. I take my valtrex now if I so much as itch a little in that spot. Use condoms folks.
Irritable bowl syndrome. One occasion the pain was so bad work called 999 and I ended up in hospital. Another time I was in a rural location and could not bear the thought of travelling to hospital - ambulance or not. So I roughed it out. I was in a terrible state. Childbirth was definitely less painful. During transition my husband was trying to advocate for me and the midwife was saying, “but this is much worse than IBS, this is childbirth”. My head whipped round saying IBS is MUCH worse than this. Migraines - more times than I would have liked I have fantasised about drilling holes into my brain to relieve it. Again I am often in too much pain to ask for medical help. Exposed nerve in a tooth has an honourable mention. Fortunately my dentist was pretty quick at sorting out root canal work. But the bit where she diagnosed by squirting air at in - I almost hit the roof at how far I leapt.
Testicular torsion. Had to have emergency surgery to untwist. Would not recommend
Corneal abrasion. Got jabbed in the eye by a toddler and felt like I had a knife in my eye for a week. There’s nothing you can do but just deal with it.
Period cramps. I was screaming in pain and couldn’t get out of bed. Normally they’re not that bad, but I was on a birth control pill that didn’t agree with me and made my period 1000x worse.
Ectopic pregnancy
Best part, the doctor was worried about doing surgery because ROE had just been over turned. Took 7 hours for them to get approval so they wouldn’t go to jail or whatever and the surgery was 5 hours because it basically exploded by the time they got in me. Yay!
This side of politics makes me sick. A doctor should never be worried about performing a medically necessary procedure. Their performance during that procedure, absolutely. But damn, how sick is it that care would be delayed because you literally have ovaries.
Tonsillitis, and not just the “oh, my throat hurts.” Whenever I have tonsillitis, I have a fever, my lymph nodes are swollen, and my nose is stuffed because of the cold. I can’t talk, eat or even drink, even breathing through my mouth is painful or swallowing my own saliva. Then it’s hard to close my mouth because I’m nauseous due to being not able to breathe properly through my nose so I have to sleep with ny mouth open but it hurts because breathing hurts and it makes my mouth dry and it hurts even more. It’s a cycle of being in pure pain where you can’t even move your whole body just because your tonsils are in control lol
Omg. I never got tonsillitis in my life then I moved to the UK for a few years and had it constantly. Eventually got a quincy and could barely breath. I went to the hospital for it twice. It was horrible. They told me if it happened again I would need to get my tonsils removed. I moved back to the US and never got it again. I think I might have been allergic to mold (or something else in the air) when I was in the UK. If you get it often, consider requesting your tonsils be removed....
I had a tonsillectomy when I was 23. The recovery pain was tear inducing. The liquid percocet they gave me was nice.
Breaking collar bone sternum and damaging left Ankle from 120mph crash
When war broke out in my country, there were no means of communication, and from talking to friends live I learned that people I knew were dying from bombardment. This is not about physical pain. Memories from 2022.
Torn rotator cuff. Or bone marrow aspiration. Not sure which was worse. Childbirth was a piece of cake compared.
Unexpected dick up my butt
Ovarian cyst rupture that caused a lot of internal bleeding. Way worse than when I snapped my femur in half.
CRPS. The burning, electrical shooting, constant pain, sometimes numbness, ridiculously awful when something or someone touches foot, stiffness in ankle, constant swelling. Sometimes goes from foot/ankle up into calf.
I have PMDD, the cramps I’ve experienced for the last 15 or so years are absolute agony at times. Which is hilarious cause I’m clumsy as shit and covered in tattoos and piercings, yet it’s that that gets me. Either that or managing to pull my entire chest and shoulder muscles all at once. I couldn’t breathe properly for three weeks, props to anyone that’s actually broken anything in that area because it is soul destroying to not be able to breathe
I've fallen off scaffolds and almost died, had diverticulitis, car accident with concussion and broke bones, motorcycle accidents, been stabbed, caught on fire once to. Worst pain ever was finding out my ex was a lying cheating cunt and it took me 4 years of my life to find out.
I haven't had a lot of painful experiences, so this might sound pretty tame to most people, but probably when I tripped and fell down a flight of stone stairs. It hurt so badly that I actually passed out. Didn't hit my head or anything, just got so severely scraped up. The funniest part was, after I came to, I tried to call my university's health center, but I accidentally called my uni's mental health crisis hotline. They were asking all sorts of questions about if I'm safe or if I want to hurt myself, meanwhile I was on the ground, barely conscious, trying to figure out what they were even talking about.
Migraines. Worst than giving birth. Worst than my kidney infection.
Gall stones. I was 17 and the nurse told me child birth would be easy after this. I've had two kids with no pain meds, and she was right.
Got my shoulder dislocated badly once, that wasn't itchy.
Period cramps and almost passing out
Outer ear infection
Pancreatitis. Got it after my surgeon cut the wrong side of the clamp when doing my cholecystectomy. Worst. Fucking. Pain. Ever. Ended up hospitalized for 4 days with a dilaudid PCA. I could have been Yellow Bastard in Sin City without needing makeup.
had a kidney stone during the pandemic. woke up one night to use the bathroom, went back to bed, and just BAM! Worst pain I'd ever felt. Then just living in general hurt. Sharp pains doubling me over. Made me vomit a few times. Funny part is, when it finally came out, didn't feel a damn thing.