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What is the worst physical pain you have experienced?

Drake

Member
Cut a good chunk of my thumb off with a dull knife when I worked in a restaurant back in college. There was nothing to stitch, but they had to stop the bleeding, so the doctor jammed gauze into the wound to stop it. This was after I was given something for the pain too, but what I experienced when that doctor put the gauze into that open wound cannot be explained. I did not know it was possible to feel pain that intense. Luckily it was only for a few seconds and once she had the wound wrapped it basically just turned into a light throbbing pain. Maybe the worst 5 seconds of my life though.
 

West Texas CEO

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
Were you punched or kicked in the balls? We're talkin' physical pain here.

Maybe it's a consequence of someone at work calling you out on your laziness (Yes I remember your thread) 😆
I was trying to crack a joke, but I'll just let myself out. :)
 

Nok Su Kow

Member
Had a toothache (that was obviously NOT a normal ache) on a Saturday and I elected to go the "wait and see" route and by Sunday was serious pain. The Covid shutdowns were in full swing and I couldn't get seen until Monday. So for a good 30+ hours I got to enjoy this growing pain in my teeth that never subsided, didn't respond to any meds I had access to and I couldn't even fall asleep to get away from it for even a little while. Wound up being an abscessed tooth that spread it's infection to a neighboring tooth and probably up into my cheeks causing most of my face to swell up. Got home with proper medication (antibiotics and painkillers) and passed out for a good couple days only waking up to swallow some apple sauce, water and go to the bathroom. Also lived alone so I had to take care of everything myself.

The pain itself was pretty bad but the complete helplessness to deal with it for so long was another level of awful.
I had an infection in my gum during Covid lockdowns here in the UK and no Dentist's would take new patients so I phoned the non-emergency medical line and they told me to let the infection get so bad that it blocked an airway or my vision then the hospital would have to do something........
 

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
Bad inner ear infection. I have very narrow eustachian tubes, so when I got this infection and it got quite bad, I was basically incoherent. Couldn't think. Just pure, blinding pain until I got to an emergency room.
I had an ear infection like that last year. Christ it sucked. Lasted like 2 weeks too
 

dave_d

Member
Other extra I'll add would be after a prostate issue caused me to have unmentionable issues. I was about 15 at the time and had to go to a urologist. They recommended a 'closer look' catheters with cameras and all. They warned post that I'd have pain not unlike kidney stones with 'a little blood for maybe a day.' The pain was bad enough I tried not to pee for more than once a day and the blood was there for 4-days. Few times have I had to yell from pain but I sure did then.
You mean a cystoscope. My dad had to go through that when he was dying of cancer. Yeah he thought it wasn't very pleasant.
 

dave_d

Member
As for me? Well I had a crippling fear of the dentist. (Well and I was also a trypanophobe. Yeah I don't have those fears anymore.) So I had this hole in my tooth. Every once in awhile when I'd bite down on some food the pressure would go straight down that hole into the root of my teeth. It was for only a moment but that pain was so bad it would completely freeze me up and take my breath away. (Way worse than the time I drove my knee very hard into a length of steel pipe. Come to think of it my knee still bothers me a little because of that. Not sure if anybody wants to hear about that.)
 

nightmare-slain

Gold Member
Migraines/cluster headache.

last time I had one it lasted for about a week and I was in my bed for most of it not moving and avoiding any kind of light. I remember I had to go somewhere one day and could hardly see anything. It was like looking through the wrong end of binoculars and even then the light was hurting my eyes. i was struggling to walk because I was so dizzy and felt like I was going to vomit.

The pain was 10/10 and I remember thinking how much I wanted to smash my skull open or just kill myself. I would’ve gladly welcomed death. At that point I knew I had to do something and it just didn’t seem like it was clearing up so I went to the hospital and they did some scans and gave me injections.

Luckily I don’t get them much anymore and I’ve learned what to avoid so that I don’t trigger them. Any kind of headache I can’t stand! Give me any other pain.
 

PanzerAzel

Member
When I was a kid, my mom accidentally opened a door I was on the opposite side of towards me. The very bottom of the door hit the top edge of my big toenail at force, ripping it up and right off the nail bed. Went to the doc, who told me the numbing shots would be more painful than just yanking it off what was still attached to the cuticle. Being so young and stupid, I agreed.

I remember that I literally saw stars from the pain. I always thought that was just an exaggeration, but my vision was literally filled with large, white, cartoony like stars for a few seconds.

Then years later a skimboard at full speed did the same thing. I eventually had them burn the cuticle cells off with acid as my nail would grown in deformed, looking like an oyster shell. so now I have no big nail.
 

John Marston

GAF's very own treasure goblin
Migraines/cluster headache.
I also had migraines from about 1997 to 2009. And it stopped when I got glasses crazy isn't it?
I guess I was just straining my eyes but it's just a guess.

But mine never lasted a week!!

Exactly how you described. The need to be in total darkness. Being hypersensitive to sound. Like someone dropping a pen on the floor sounds like a jackhammer drilling through pavement. Puking just to feel better. Pounding my head in the wall just to feel better when I was out of meds.

And my meds were Fiorinal 1/8 codeine. It did help but made me into a drugged out dummy where I just reverted into a laughing relaxed dingbat.

Now I sometimes get "auras" where I see neon spider patterns for about 20 minutes but nothing like before.

Amen.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
I spent a total of more than 12 months of my life in a hospital room due to leukemia. At one point, I hadn’t pooped for over a full month.

When I finally pooped, THAT was the worst pain I’ve had in my life.
 

GeekyDad

Member
I've been run over by a car twice, had a large chunk of glass fly into my eye and cut near the retina, was on dialysis during kidney failure when I was 13-years old, bludgeoned by a street gang, and on and on.

But...

I think the worst (physical) pain I've ever experienced was the nausea during chemo. Thankfully, steroids alleviated it literally overnight. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to lose the weight that I put on due to the steroids. But I can't imagine having gotten through chemo without them. Terrible, terrible pain.
 

Edmund

is waiting for Starfield 7
I have severe haemophilia and get spontaneous bleeding all the time. I was studying for my Economics exam when suddenly I had an intense pain in my right kidney. I went to pee and there was so much blood. I do get spontaneous bleeding in my kidneys sometimes (about once or twice a year) and it's painful but the pain for this was next level. I have an extremely high tolerance for pain and have never shed a tear due to physical pain before, but this was so bad I actually cried. I phoned my dad and he rushed home from work to give me an injection to stop the bleeding. The pain subsided after several hours and the next day when I was in school for my exams, my friends were all commenting on how pale my face was.


I started reading up on foot reflexology and have been working on my kidney reflex on both my feet since then and have stopped getting pains/bleeds in my kidneys ever since (Last kidney bleed was more than 5 years ago)
 
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ahtlas7

Member
A tooth with a filling broke so had a root canal & cap installed. About 1 year later it got infected which led to extraction. Decided to get an implant to replace it. I think it was 4 surgeries on my mouth over about 6 months to install the stud. Ultimately about 2 years of off/on pain from 1 freaking tooth. But the real pain was in the non-insurance covered implant bill.
 
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Mr Hyde

Member
Broke my back about 10 years ago in an accident and the pain was just excruciatingly intense. Couldn't move or walk for several days, just laying in a hospital bed doped up on huge amounts of morphine. If I coughed or even sneezed, it hurt like hell. Worst time of my life.
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Constipation on the toilet >_<

Second place is when I needed rubber banding for internal hemorrhoids. They supposed to squeeze off after 24 hours. I laid in bed for 5 days in agony but the pain pills really helped. The doctor made me unable to work the last 15 years due to the damage it did to my pelvic floor.

No way it should have hurt that much. They fucked up and banded an external haemorrhoid it sounds like. It does happen. It should be painful for about 24 hours, but subside after that.
 

Lunarorbit

Gold Member
Apparently I went flying from the back seat and slammed my head into the dashboard when my mom got the brakes once. I crumpled into the passenger seat and threw up. I don't remember any of this.

I got a huge splinter under my big toe in 2nd grade. They had to put me in a velcro straitjacket cause I was squirming around so much. That sucked and I actually remember this experience.

I've been pretty lucky. I slashed open my leg, almost down to the artery, but that didn't hurt for some reason. 8 inch slash,about 1.5 inches deep, with only one drop of blood. Even after getting it stitched up it didn't hurt. It was just stiff
 

Dr. Suchong

Member
Some real horror stories on here 😬
Nothing quite so intense for me.
Probably peeing after two Cystoscopies and burning my leg with a litre of scalding water that fell on it.
I had pus filled baubles hanging from my inner thigh afterwards. Pretty gross.
 
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Rockondevil

Member
It's nowhere near what others have experienced but either when I got costochondritis which was basically a constant stabbing pain on my chest for a few weeks or when I had to get a huge boil squeezed out on my foot.

Painkillers don't really work on me sadly. For the boil I was given a double the dose they generally give of morphine and it did absolutely nothing.
 

jimmyd

Member
Infected ingrown toenail, had to get a local anaesthetic injected right into it. Hurt so much.
And cellulitis around the ankle, trying to walk made me cry like a baby. Mostly out of fear.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
Hardly comparative to anyone here it seems but iv had injuries since and they didn't even come close to the pain I had for this, no idea why but it sticks with me to this day.

So near 20 years ago I was helping a friend move and we where carrying a fridge, as where manoeuvring out the front door I feel this weird feeling, like something just going on the right side of my neck, going down to the middle of my back, like a slither.

We put the fridge down, no pain just this odd feeling and we continue with the move. I go to bed feeling tingly but that's it.

I wake up the next day, and I just scream, and scream, I start to cry. The pain is just there it won't relent, no matter what position my neck is in if I move or don't move constant searing deep unrelenting pain. As I'm still living at home back then my mum rushes in asking what's wrong and I'm just crying saying pain, pain in my neck. Anyway we go to accident and emergency and I'm seen fairly quickly. Got me on morphine ASAP and I can finally stop crying but even then I can still feel it. Took like a month to sort out and I was told it was just a really bad strained muscle.

But even after other injuries, that's the one I can still look back on and go "that is the most pain I have ever experienced in my life" I think it was because it was inside and unrelenting, like nothing I could do would make it soften, it was just this flat unholy constant pain inside my neck and top of my back.

I remember work at the time going off it because they thought I should be able to come in to do manual labour with a neck brace.
 
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dave_d

Member
A tooth with a filling broke so had a root canal & cap installed. About 1 year later it got infected which led to extraction. Decided to get an implant to replace it. I think it was 4 surgeries on my mouth over about 6 months to install the stud. Ultimately about 2 years of off/on pain from 1 freaking tooth. But the real pain was in the non-insurance covered implant bill.
Just so everybody knows about this, your typical dental insurance will not pay anything for a dental implant unless the teeth on both sides of the site are pristine. (IE have no cavities or fillings.) If they're not then they'll only pay for a bridge. (Which means capping the teeth on both sides of the space which means grinding them down.) Another plus to an implant is often when there's no tooth that portion of your jaw bone will atrophy and an implant can help prevent that. But yeah, implants are expensive.(I've got 3. No insurance and even if there was it would only have made a small dent.)
 

Aesius

Member
I got a sunburn at my apartment pool in college and developed "hell's itch."


Was in the pool drinking with some friends for 3-4 hours. No sunscreen. Passed out in my bed after everyone left and woke up a couple hours later in sheer agony. It was the most intense itching/burning sensation I've ever felt. Scratching it was the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a fire. I was running around my apartment screaming from the pain and because I had no idea what to do. I realized that Benadryl might help, but of course, I had none at my apartment. So I ran to my car and drove to the nearest pharmacy (while still screaming from the pain). Ran to the allergy medicine section and popped a few pills right there before even paying for the bottle.

I made it home just in time for the pills to kick in and I passed out. Woke up a few hours later and felt 100% normal again. It was such a hellish experience that I'm now super paranoid about sunburns and I always slather on sunscreen when I'm outside for long periods of time.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
Oh boy here we go

I have a chronically weak shoulder from an old football injury, basically its susceptible to dislocating at any time or wrong type of movement, at its worst I would dislocate it when putting on or removing a shirt. Excersice helped strengthen it but it still happens, I refuse surgery but probably will need it as I get older.

Ligament luxation on my right knee, twice. When this happened my knee felt like jelly and I couldn't put much weight on it as the pain was pretty bad it got swollen and had to be immobilized, the pain went away after a couple weeks but wasn't able to play sports for months. This happened because someone landed on my knee while playing football.

ACL tear + reconstructive surgery on my left knee, this one was pretty bad, also while playing football, I was a retard and used the wrong kind of cleats while playing on astroturf, lack of appropiate grip meant my feet got stuck on the turf when going in for a tackle and I landed on top of it. I knew it was bad as soon as it happened, I tried to get up and instantly fell down again, the knee was busted had to be carried out. Spent months taking medicine for the pain and swelling and over a year waiting for reconstruction surgery. The surgery was a pain in the ass as well, they took muscle tissue from my harmstring in order to reconstruct the knee. Few months in bed, the pain was horrible mostly on my harmstring, it burned with any type of movement. Its been a couple years now, knee is great harmstring still burns when I tense it lol.

Now for the main course

Broke my femur also playing football, open fracture. So.much.blood. it was a normal clash but it turns out I had a bone cyst in my leg and it was bound to break at some point anyway. Falling on the floor and then seeing your bloody bone sticking out of your leg is one of the most horrifying things that can happen to you, easily the worst pain I have ever felt was waiting for an ambulance while laying down on the ground bleeding with people scresming all around me.

I spent 2 weeks in a hospital bed waiting for surgery which was almost as bad as the break. Had to have a metal rod drilled into the bone in order to fix it. Still have it to this day. I was actually on my way towards a career in football so the emotional pain was pretty bad too since that marked the end of that dream :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Being Maiden Voyage Maiden Voyage 's sub for a long weekend. I can post pictures of the scars.

Music Video Pain GIF by Wrabel




I'll post my serious stuff ina a good minute.

Going to read to your thread John Marston John Marston to gain some perspective.

Cool thread btw.
 
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I've lately been watching on & off a series on Amazon titled "24 Hours In A&E" which is a documentary about patients being treated for emergencies in the London UK area hospitals.
I'm surprised to see it being broadcast worldwide as it's a normal television programme in Britain. I believe it takes places in St. George's Hospital in London which is one of the largest in the UK and employs around 2-3000 members of staff. As for my own personal pain experience I would say having a colonoscopy whilst awake. I was unable to take sedatives so they pumped my stomach full of air to examine it with the endoscope and I was grabbing onto the steel bar whilst attempting to control my breathing. It was akin to being stabbed in the pelvic area with a sharp knife, but fortunately it was over in around 2-3 minutes thank goodness.
 

Yerd

Member
I remember having asphalt or stones in some wounds as a child. Doctor took out what I would call a brillo pad and scrubbed that wound, not lightly. That was the most pain I think I've ever endured. That or having just broken my ankle on both sides. Friends said walk it off, so I tried. Felt like if you had severed your foot and you tried walking on the bloody stump. That's how I used to describe it.

Both childhood injuries and I'm hoping I can keep all the painful crap in the past.
 

Patrick S.

Banned
I had an abscess in a wisdom tooth that made my neck and face swell up hard that I could barely open my mouth or breathe. The dentist was a real butcher who yelled at me for crying out in pain as he was chiseling away at my teeth without anesthetics, which made the experience even worse than it was to begin with.

Passing a kidney stone was incredibly painful, like “I WANT TO DIE!” painful.

I have chronic back pain, and when I moved to Germany I was renovating my apartment, and scraping all the old wallpaper and putting in new wallpaper I must somehow damaged a nerve or something because the pain wouldn’t go away anymore. I started walking in a protective way to lessen the pain in the back, and that caused me to develop chronic pain in my leg as well. It was so bad I once broke down crying at a Chinese buffet because the pain for just standing in the queue for a few minutes was too much to handle. I got electro shock treatment, got a mrt done where they told me my vertebrae are shaped wrong and I have problems with collagen synthesis and I would have to love with it because there was nothing to be done. Ended up in palliative care, taking Tilidin, Tramadol and whatnot. I took that stuff for only a short time because I didn’t want to get addicted. After like a year and a half of being on welfare because of this because I couldn’t work and didn’t have any savings because I had just moved countries the authorities had me examined by one of their doctors to see if my not working was fraudulent and if I was faking all of it, and the doctor said it was probably psychosomatic because I had a depression after just becoming a parent with my first child after moving countries and ending up in this situation.

In the end, after about two years it got better. I still have problems with my back. Changing the tires on my car or bowing my back for washing the dishes or other stuff like that can leave me unable to walk without pain for days.
 
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ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Jesus.

I will revisit this thread if I ever feel self pity or having "a bad day".

Same here man. I've read half the thread before getting the urge to post my (worst) pain.

Slide and fell with my eyebrow on a metal corner as a child. Still have to scar.

Broke three of my toes

Broke my left pinky punching a wall.

First time applying creme on a specific sort of psoriasis. I cried due to pain.

Broke my wrist skateboarding.

Very bad case of pneunomie. Woke up and couldn't breath. Water helped.

Due to lifelong PTSS (constant stress and thus tensed/strained muscles) which really started to physically manifest around 25 year's ago. Thought I had psoriatic arthritis. I've been having over a decade of toothach metaforicly speaking.

At some point i couldn't sleep on my back anymore. Took quite some months to learn to sleep on my side. Then I couldn't sleep on all 3 sides.


Wen on a massive hospital tour to find out watch what. Some asshole surgeon thought i had some disc issue while years later turned out that was misdiagnosed.


Found a couple of awesome psychical therapists that locates the source. Imagine. Anyways with exercises, gym and benzodiazepines I'm slowy recovering. Although i (really) need to do my daily stretches. (Back pelvis small and big glute muscles) Also have a non working (left shoulder infra infraspinatus muscle)
 

John Marston

GAF's very own treasure goblin
Sun poisoning that I got at the Jersey Shore because I used expired sunblock thinking it would not be a big deal. To this day I am paranoid about wearing sunscreen and not getting sunburn.
Expired sunblock is a thing?
Wow thank you for educating me 🙂
 
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