Excited to hear war stories. Here's mine.

I have a pretty high pain threshold, but do not like anything from the neck up. In 2017 I had a procedure (septoplasty) to correct a deviated septum. It began interfering with my breathing and I was sick of it. Recovery was supposed to be pretty mild from what I had researched and been told.

A few days after the procedure I came home and my nose started bleeding and wouldn't stop. It was a lot of blood, probably more than I've ever bled before at one time. No one else was home, but by the time they were it still hadn't stopped so we went to the urgent care. We had twin infants at the time so a trip to urgent care was an ordeal.

Urgent care was surprisingly not busy at all. They took me back right away. Doc monitored me for a while and then came in and said, "okay, it's not stopping. I'm going to have to pack your nose." I had never had my nose packed so didn't really know what that entailed. They definitely packed it after the procedure but I was under general anesthesia so knew/felt nothing.

Right after he said that 3 bigger guys walked in (nurses?). I asked who they were and he said verbatim, "they are here to hold you down" which immediately made me concerned. He wasn't joking. Those guys had to hold me down while he basically shoved a small tampon into my each of my nostrils. I think he hit brain. It was uncomfortable but also painful. It was awful. And my back was arching up off the bed while I had one guy holding my head still and two others on each shoulder.

Packing my nose stopped the blood from coming out my nose but then it just started going down the back of my throat. It never stopped and eventually they had to transfer me to a major hospital in town via ambulance. That ER was very busy and I was on a stretcher in the hall next to the nurse's station for a while. Eventually they moved me back to triage and while they did they got me a bucket cause I said I was going to throw up. I throw up a lot of blood.

After a couple of hours things stopped and I was discharged. I was really surprised that they contacted my doctor that did the procedure (ENT) and he actually showed up at the hospital to check on me that night. It must have been around 11pm by that time.

Anyways, I've had a distinct aversion to anything going up my nose. COVID tests brought a lot of anxiety.

Pancreatitis. Nothing else comes close.

Hospitalized for over a week and lived off of Vicodin and Dilaudid injections every 4 hours.

Crushed big toe. Dropped a pellet grill foot on it in flip flops. The bone wasn't broken, but there was a lot of trauma. I've had a broken leg, broken arm, broken tail bone, cut my leg deep with a chainsaw, been impaled by a fish tape, had road rash from a motorcycle crash, hit a tree in my truck at 55 mph, had severe food poisoning 4 times, and stepped on a piece of burning charcoal barefoot. Nothing compared to the crushed toe.

My parents didn't get me circumcised until I was three.

Heart attack..x4

Broke my leg into several pieces

In before a woman says childbirth.

I had corneal crosslinking done about 10 years ago. I had a bad reaction to the pain meds and wasn't able to take them, felt like a third degree burn on my eyes.

Can't come close to the trauma y'all have had, but...cortisone shot in the thumb was intense to a surprising degree.

Easter Sunday 2025 I had a stroke. Pain was minimal but for many days I thought I was permanently stuck in a state where I could t stand on my own.

August 10, 2025 I flip over the handle bars jumping a man hole cover. Broke my hand, fractured a condyle in my skull, pulled every muscle in my neck, and tore my face up good.

April 18, 2026 I crashed my bike doing the Ironman. Landed on my right hip and skipped across the Hardy toll road. Finished the race.

Physical pain was manageable but also each could have ended up real bad.

I must have been a junior in college. I was back home visiting family and headed back to college station for summer school. I was taking an old sleeper sofa with me that my sister no longer needed and my dad was helping me move it out to the truck.

Without any warning my dad decided to rotate the couch to get a better grip on it. The sleeper part started to fall out, it slipped from my hands, and the corner fell directly on my big toe splitting nthe nail right down the middle because I happened to be wearing flip flops at the time.

Blood started pouring out and I almost passed out from the pain, got tunnel vision and everything. When everything healed I actually had two separate toenails on that one toe. The split when from the tip straight down to the nail bed and one side overlapped the other.

It wasn't until about 3 years ago they finally rejoined into one solid toenail.

You should stop going to those places

Broken pelvis when the rad techs rotated me from my side to my back for a cat scan which was prior to the diagnosis and resulting dilaudid/hydromorphone/fentanyl

I'm 47 years old and I've never really experienced a tremendous amount of pain. No broken bones and besides wisdom teeth removal, I've never had any kind of surgery.

3 days of spinal headaches after botched spinal tap.

Why they waited to do a blood patch for 3 days still baffles me. Fixed in seconds.

NormanEH said:

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3 days of spinal headaches after botched spinal tap.

Why they waited to do a blood patch for 3 days still baffles me. Fixed in seconds.

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Same. Awful. Could not stand up because the room would spin and the pressure in my head was unbearable. When I laid down it all went away.

Sat up for the blood patch and as soon as it hit I was fine. Wild.

1. Passing a kidney stone just small enough to pass.

2. Abscessed molar started Friday night of Labor Day weekend and earliest appointment for dentist was Monday

3. Copperhead bite on foot.

Ginormus Ag said:

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In before a woman says childbirth.

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Every woman I know whines "unless you experience child birth, you don't know pain!!!". Hmm ok. Every female animal for millions of years has been birthing babies in the open and with no modern medicine. We have it for 2 maybe 3 generations. I'd give women of earlier generations more credit than modern women who have epidural to help them.

Childbirth or War Injuries?

I have experienced neither but I'd like to see a discussion on this.

Kidney stones. Some were much worse than others, but all were the worst pain I've ever experienced.

I had two saliva gland stones which prevented saliva from exiting under my tongue. I still made saliva when eating, but it could not drain. I had a lump bigger than a golf ball under my jaw.

I've given birth med-free and the stones win for most painful by far.

- viral meningitis
- dislocated elbow
- ulnar nerve relocated to front of elbow as a result of dislocation above
-tagged by an asp and a Portuguese Man-o-war (not at the same time)

Well, there was this party at a frat house at Cornell....