I had a pilonidal cyst get infected deeply in my right butt cheek. They went in with a deep incision to take out all the infected tissue, then packed it full of saline saturated gauze to let it heal from the inside out. The first day after the surgery, the nurse changed the surface dressing, but never removed and repacked the gauze. The 2nd day, when they were getting ready to discharge me, the nurse was going to show my wife how to repack the gauze daily. She figured out pretty quickly that the gauze had not been replaced since the surgery and there was about 12-18" of gauze all scabbed up and connected to the inside of the wound. They gave me some IV codeine, had me lay on my stomach, and as my wife called, played the magic handkerchief trick dragging all that gauze out of my butt cheek. It literally felt like they were extracting my spine by pulling on the end of it before I kind of passed out briefly due to the pain. It hurt even worse than the botched spinal tap I had when I was getting diagnosed with MS.

spike427 said:

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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.

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I've got this going on right now too. The stones are still building, but they're getting worse. The doctor's only recommendation so far has be to eat a lot of lemon drops and to lower my sodium intake.

txags92 said:

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I had a pilonidal cyst get infected deeply in my right butt cheek. They went in with a deep incision to take out all the infected tissue, then packed it full of saline saturated gauze to let it heal from the inside out. The first day after the surgery, the nurse changed the surface dressing, but never removed and repacked the gauze. The 2nd day, when they were getting ready to discharge me, the nurse was going to show my wife how to repack the gauze daily. She figured out pretty quickly that the gauze had not been replaced since the surgery and there was about 12-18" of gauze all scabbed up and connected to the inside of the wound. They gave me some IV codeine, had me lay on my stomach, and as my wife called, played the magic handkerchief trick dragging all that gauze out of my butt cheek. It literally felt like they were extracting my spine by pulling on the end of it before I kind of passed out briefly due to the pain. It hurt even worse than the botched spinal tap I had when I was getting diagnosed with MS.

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I had them pull the gauze out of a cysts removal hole in my back. This was 20+ years ago and I don't remember how long it had been in there but I believe it was days. It wasn't very painful, but man that was a weird feeling to have something like that pulled out of your body.

I had an infected one last year cut out of my jaw line by a PA at an urgent care place, that was nowhere near as experienced as the dermatologist. After she cut it out she was mustering all of her strength to squeeze it as hard as she could to get everything out. That was really painful. My 11 year old daughter witnessed the entire ordeal.

Also had a dentist one time drill out the entire inside of one of my molars and then put the ceramic filling in with zero painkillers or local anesthetic. That was not pleasant either.

1. Kidney Stones
2. Shattered face
3. Pancreatitis

I've had a few other maladies, broken bones, etc.
Those were the three that had me begging God to strike me down.

ErnestEndeavor said:

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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.

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Conservative therapies (increased fluid intake, NSAIDS, etc.) are the first line treatment in hopes that it will resolve without a blood patch and this does work sometimes. There is a small but >0% chance of a complication with a blood patch so hence the delay.

Interesting, thanks!

Gallstone attack and acute pancreatitis. At the same time.

Yeah, unfortunately they made me wait a few days and it was unbearable. Sitting upright put so much pressure on my head that it felt like it was in a vice and the dizziness was nauseating. What's weird is as soon as I laid back down on my back all the symptoms went away.

My primary care physician had hospital privileges and insisted on doing the spinal tap in the ER instead of the ER doc. He tried twice and couldn't get it before the ER doctor got it on one stick. This was over 20 years ago so it wouldn't work like that now.

When I went back and forth to the ER after the leak I had to lay down in the backseat of the car and laid on the ER waiting room floor until they could get me back there.

I'm sorry that you had to deal with that. I've seen quite a few spinal (post-dural puncture) headaches following an epidural anesthetic for labor and performed the blood patches when indicated. it's obviously a miserable experience. Blood patches are really satisfying because you can literally see the instant it takes effect. Patient goes from misery to normal in seconds.

The irony is that the brain itself doesn't have any sensory nerves and can't feel pain. The pain is from the brain sagging inside the skull and pulling on the meninges that cover the brain. The brain is normally floating in the cerebrospinal fluid and when enough of it leaks out with a dural puncture then it pulls down on the meninges and produces the headache. That's why the symptoms improve when you're lying down - the brain isn't pulling as much on the meninges in that position. The volume of the blood patch refloats the brain and the symptoms go away immediately thereafter.

My entry in the worst pain discussion was the post-operative shivering I had following a total lumbar fusion. Imagine having two 11 inch incisions both front & back and then somebody putting you on a vibrating table set to high. Probably lasted maybe 5 minutes before they got it stopped but it seemed like a month.

ErnestEndeavor said:

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Yeah, unfortunately they made me wait a few days and it was unbearable. Sitting upright put so much pressure on my head that it felt like it was in a vice and the dizziness was nauseating. What's weird is as soon as I laid back down on my back all the symptoms went away.

My primary care physician had hospital privileges and insisted on doing the spinal tap in the ER instead of the ER doc. He tried twice and couldn't get it before the ER doctor got it on one stick. This was over 20 years ago so it wouldn't work like that now.

When I went back and forth to the ER after the leak I had to lay down in the backseat of the car and laid on the ER waiting room floor until they could get me back there.

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I got sent to a separate clinic for my spinal tap and the guy who normally did them was off that day. The lady who tried it tore up my lumbar muscles on both sides trying to get through, but every time she would get most of the way through, my muscles would spasm and she couldn't move the needle. Finally after about 30 mins of trying she gave up and I had to come back the next day so the other guy could try. He was in on the first stick, no problem. I felt ok the next day and overdid it down at the beach playing with my nephews in the surf instead of laying around doing nothing. My blood patch failed and I spent the next week with miserable headaches, nausea, and dizziness. To this day (22 years later), I still periodically get lumbar muscle spasms in the places where the first doc tore me up trying to get the tap done.

The worst pain I ever experienced was an allergic reaction I had after applying some expired aloe vera on my very, very sunburned torso about 15 or so years ago. I went from having sore and painful skin to an unscratchably itchy situation that felt like I was being bitten by hundreds of ants, and I couldn't get rid of it. I even tried to take an oat bath, but that failed. My wife finally took me to the emergency room where they applied a cortisone cream that helped tremendously.

What's worse was my wife's reaction. I was apparently so frantic while trying to scratch my itches that I sounded like a banshee and wriggled all over trying to get every one of them. She'd go from utter horror to laughing hysterically, on repeat. My bruised ego hurt almost as bad. LOL

I had an abscessed front tooth from damage that had happened years prior in an accident. My gum/lip swelled up to the size of a large grape. They gave me antibiotics to attack the infection and some pain meds that didn't help but had to do a root canal to clean it up fully.

Endodontist gives me the gas and numbs up what felt like everything from my neck up. He gets started and all was ok at first. Then as he's cleaning out the inside of the tooth with that metal brush I can feel the most intense shot of pain as it feels like he's got that tool up in my nose. He stops and says "I have some of the deepest roots he's seen" and that he can either keep going or we stop the whole thing to do it again another day with anasthesia since he's maxxed on gas/numbing. I tell him to proceed at which point I have several nurses holding me down and holding my head still. The next 15 minutes until he was done felt like I was being tortured. I almost passed out and threw up a few times.

Needless to say, sitting in a dentist chair is not my favorite and any future endodontist work will be under anesthesia. Period.

One of several hundred migraines I've had since 1981. Sometimes feels like a nail is pushing its way out of my eyeball or temple or from between my eyes. So bad I've resorted to banging my head on the solid wood headboard or on a wall corner to feel pain somewhere else on my head. Other times it feels like my eyeballs are too large to fit in the sockets and every movement of my eyes makes my entire head ache. Once those symptoms stop, I have to stick my fingers down my throat to induce vomiting 2-3 times to fight the nausea. The first doctor told me how unusual it was that a man had migraines that bad and that I'd probably out grow them in my 40's. I'm 68 and have already had 30 this year.

I had kidney stones once, and I can't say I remember it being really painful because (as the doctor explained) my body was working so hard to suppress the pain that I just passed out. I felt extremely nauseous so I went home from work, and as soon as I walked in the front door everything tunnel visioned into blackness and I went straight into the floor.

9mm FMJ in my leg

AstroAggie15 said:

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9mm FMJ in my leg

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Glock leg?

Ryan the Temp said:

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AstroAggie15 said:

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9mm FMJ in my leg

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Glock leg?

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More likely P320 leg.

Ryan the Temp said:

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AstroAggie15 said:

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9mm FMJ in my leg

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Glock leg?

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yup

a glancing blow to the nards is far more painful than a direct kick to the nards. Discuss.

War stories?

A .50 cal coming out of the mount, to hit you in the mouth on its way down and waking up with a forearm contusion on an IED blast

Herniated disc. Regular pain pills couldn't touch it. Biofreeze did nothing.

A solid 6 hours straight of the very worst pain of my life. Would have shot myself in the head if I could have then.

Around 3 am, my wife found some old muscle relaxer elephant pills. That got me through till 8 am when urgent care opened.

The most intense pain I think I have ever felt was when I busted my chin open for the second time in high school and had a fairly extensive repair under local anesthetic. The plastic surgeon numbing up the area was digging in deep with the needle and banging up against the periosteum. That hurt like holy hell, but it was not that emotionally bothersome since I knew exactly what was happening and that it would end pretty soon. Some dental procedures with inadequate local would be second in terms of intensity.

I have had shingles twice and a kidney stone obstructing a ureter for 6 weeks, and honestly I didn't think any of them were that terrible. (The stent they put in after removing the stone hurt worse than the stone itself. That week sucked.) I also walked a good half mile on a broken fibula once (not a stress fracture, clean break). 1/10, do not recommend.

I had awful difficulties with GERD in high school and first year of medical school and of all the pains I have had I think that is the one I would least like to experience again. The intensity was pretty bad, but what was worse was it starting up and knowing I was going to be miserable for hours and that absolutely nothing was going to make it better.

Mentioning the acid reflux reminded me of a time I was around 13. I had a green chile burrito for lunch which had flaming hot green chile. Turns out the burrito gave me food poisoning which resulted in projectile vomiting. It was terrible in the esophagus but it kept going up through my nose. The extra hot green chile making contact with the soft tissue of the nasal passages was pure torture.

Severed finger easily takes the cake for me.

A paper cut in 1982.

Childbirth, specifically the 2nd child with no anesthesia born in about an hour.

But other than that I strained my back and the protracted spasms were on par with the childbirth. Was afraid to breathe in case my back locked up.

I once got a paper cut.


Darn it Bartin

Childbirth was pretty painful and traumatic. I don't numb well. Takes several shots to get my teeth numb, woke up during colonoscopy and had a full on convo, woke up during endoscopy, etc.

Anyways they had to do an emergency c-section. During the surgery, I told them I could feel what they were doing. DIdn't believe me. Told them again, didin't believe me. All of a sudden the monitors started blaring (assuming heart rate and blood pressure shot through the roof), I broke my arm restraints, and I told them "it feels like you are doing XXXX". I don't remember was XXXX was, but it was what they were doing.

So they put me under. Recovery from that was horrible.


A month ago I dropped my 17.5" on my big toe. It hit nothing else except my big toe nail. I screamed the F word so loud I'm sure all the neighbors heard as I was in the garage. Couldn't wear closed toes shoes for 2-3 weeks. It's just now back to normal.

My doctors have told me if you have a high tolerance for pain, pain killers don't work as well, so more are needed. I have a high tolerance for pain, so any time I need them, I have to tell the dentist, doctor, etc. I will need more than the usual person. I am also larger than average - 6'1, 265#, so this adds to the problem.

I had a blood clot from an orthoscopic knee surgery go through my heart an end up in the bottom of my right lung back in 2011. It caused part of the lung to die and fill the lung cavity with blood and fluid which became loculated (turned to jello). The fix: an emergency thoracotomy where they cut me open and raked the fluid(jello) out of my lung cavity and sewed me up with chest tubes for the next 5 days to keep fluid out and lung expanded.

They put me on morphine as needed every 2 hours. It never worked. It would very slightly dull the pain, but not make it bearable and that would only last about 30 minutes. I ended up on 5mg hydrocodon every 4 hours. That lasted 5 days until my body got used to it and they had to up dose to 10mg. At 3-1/2 hours I was calling them to have it ready at the 4 hour mark as the pain was becoming unbearable.

During my 18 days in the hospital, I became so weak from the pain I could not hold anything steady enough to eat - I had to be fed. I didn't walk for 14 days. I lost 36 pounds.

When I finally went home, I stopped taking the hydrocodon as I knew it was habit forming. I took 600mg of Tylenol every 4 hours and alternated 600mg of ibuprofen every 4 hours in between for about three weeks. It didn't totally kill the pain, but made it bearable.

I couldn't twist or bend my rib cage, sneeze, cough or sleep on my right side or back for about 4 months without causing pain that would almost make me pass out.

Lessons learned: insist doctors/nurses understand you have a high tolerance for pain which causes a decreased effect of pain killers. Advocate for yourself and do what you have to so they understand your not just a wimp, it is real pain. Inform caregivers ahead of time to be prepared to administer more than usual pain killers - most don't want you in pain as it makes their job harder.

Most of all, celebrate every day you wake up and can get vertical. There may be days when you can't and those are not good. Appreciate that God has granted you another day on this earth and thank Him for it.

I'm sorry you had to go through that.

I try to explain to them that I'm a redhead, without the red hair. Pale pale skin, freckled, etc. My dad's entire side was redheads. I agree about painkillers - never understood how they knocked people out, etc. They don't do much for me.

The last endoscopy person didn't believe me when I gave them all my history, including waking up during my colonoscopy. Imagine how they felt when they had to apologize for me waking up during the prcoedure...

Nose/throat surgery in October 2005 with the following procedures:

Repaired a deviated septum
Resected turbinates
Tonsillectomy
Removal of my uvula and part of my soft palate.

Surgeon was very concerned that I had cancer because my tonsils were in very bad shape. Thankfully no cancer was found but those tonsils were full of stones.

That surgery likely saved my life.

I know the phrase "break a fingernail" is a euphemism for weakness but has anyone actually torn a fingernail? Like well up into the meat? Ridiculously painful for what it is. Just thinking about outsized pain to injury.

Damn, I've heard plenty of horror stories of tonsil removals as adults and the ensuing recoveries.

Oh wait, you had all those at once?!

nm