People have varying pain tolerances, so there’s a good chance that what you find to be unbearable, someone down the street could handle with barely a wince.
That said, there are some experiences that rock the human body no matter who is in charge of it and how tough they are when it comes to pain – the kind of physical pain that’s impossible to forget.
These 14 people are explaining those moments in their lives, and so maybe take some notes so you know what to avoid in the future.
14. Give the people their drugs.
I recently went through two major surgeries back to back including a C-section. After it was over the hospital didn’t give me any good pain medication because they’re worried about addiction apparently.
My spine was hurting terribly, my stomach, and my neck. I was pretty much only able to move my arms without pain and had to deal with that having only maximum strength Ibuprofen. Recovery was painful.
13. That sounds highly unpleasant.
I’m highly tolerant of anesthesia (numbing shots), and that diagnosis did not reach my Urologist when I got a vasectomy.
I felt the whole thing. Everything. All of it.
The nurse took me aside afterwards and asked me how I was doing and she said, “I’ve done 5,000 of these, and I’ve never seen a patient feel that much of the procedure.”
12. Pain everywhere.
Sepsis. I was feeling awful. Pain everywhere. Nausea. Back pain. I went to the doctor, he said I had the flu. The flu test came back negative, but, he still thought it was the flu. (It was New Years day, I think the doc just wanted to go home.)
Three days later, I felt like I was dying. Went to the ER.
I woke up four days later in the ICU. Doctors and nurses looked really surprised when I was talking and asking questions.
Turns out, I had had full blown septic shock. I had 105 fever for days. They really didnt think I would make it.
It’s a great story to break the ice with.
11. Time for a new dentist.
I was getting a cavity drilled out and told the dentist I could still feel everything. He said it had been long enough and it must be working and went ahead with it. Hurt pretty bad.
Whole mouth went numb 10 minutes after I left the office.
10. Sounds like a nightmare.
Been there too. I was 17 and in the hospital ICU for 9 days total. It was only the third time I went to ER because I puked up not just undigested food, but actual rotten food that had been sitting in my stomach for days.
My intestines had completely stopped working, I had barely been walking for days, I looked pregnant but no one believed me. They told my mom if I hadn’t been admitted there was a good chance I would have died in the next 24 hours.
I had a pic line in for a month and a half after I left the hospital. 3 surgeries total for it. I weighed 107lbs when I left the hospital, I looked so sick for a very long time, I felt so sick for a long time.
I had to see specialist after I left. They could never figure out WHY I went septic.
9. A fluke, for sure.
Going off a bouncy castle slide wrong and getting a friction burn that took off most of the slim on my knee cap. (wasn’t the most painful but it’s a bit more memorable than what actually was).
8. Stop it. I don’t want to hear more.
Toss up. I had my hand covered in 700 degree hot asphalt. It was horrible. Took four hours I’m the ER and two pain killer shots to make it through. They basically had to chisel it off in sections because they couldn’t tell what was still living tissue and dead tissue.
Also had my GF of the time poke me in the eye with her long finger nails. It went straight through the pupil slicing it exactly in the center. It starting squirting liquid and good out. Went to the hospital three days later because my dad said it wasn’t that bad. Excruciating.
7. It’s the worst when you don’t know what it was.
I’ve had Epididymitis(Inflammation of the tube at the back of the testicle that stores and carries sperm.) It constant pain that lasts for a couple weeks usually and feels like you got kicked in the balls.
Also, not sure what it was, but I had a sore throat that felt like I’d just swallowed a baseball with razor blades in it that was sprinkled with salt and some lemon juice thrown on it for some extra kick. My throat still doesnt feel right and its been years since that happened.
6. A shocking moment.
I was helping my dad to replace the windows at our house when I was in high school. I went to carry a rotten frame to the trash pile. The window glass slid through the frame and hit me in the shin, slicing a piece of my shin bone out.
It hurt so bad that I went into shock, fell down, and vomited on myself. It was a 105 degree day in Texas and I managed to burn myself on the asphalt I fell on.
My dad didn’t realize I’d been hurt for about ten minutes and had to help me get up and get inside because of blood loss and being in shock. It was the worst.
I kept the piece of bone that came off my shin.
5. It’s the worst.
Labour after they gave me pitocin (oxytocin).
I had the easiest labour, but it was moving slowly so they gave me pitocin, and then it just felt like death. It was basically one constant contraction after that point.
4. Most people feel this way.
Toothache. I have given birth without pain meds three times but I would rather do that every single night of my live than feel one second of tooth pain.
3. Ear stuff wigs me out.
Worst overall: Endometriosis. Shit sucks.
Honourable mention: involuntary ear lancing. I had an ear infection and we went to A&E. While looking in my ear with the torch on a stick thing they use the nurse pushed a little too far, I heard a snap noise in my head, and then an apocalyptic pain in my ear.
I started screaming (which really worried my mum because I was usually a silent sufferer as a child) and the nurse basically told us nothing was wrong and sent us home. Blood and pus came out of my ear for days, I had to sleep with an old towel on my pillow.
Funnily enough, purposefully bursting the eardrum is a thing, to relieve pressure from fluid built up behind it. Only it’s usually done with anaesthesia :’)
2. More than uncomfortable.
The insertion of a Radiologically Inserted Gastrostomy (RIG) tube into my stomach.
I was told that it would be “uncomfortable” by the ward consultant and junior doctors but that I would be fine. I was awake for the procedure but sedated and given a strong painkiller before it got underway (Midazolam for the sedative, Fentanyl for the painkiller).
During the procedure I felt nothing, being essentially stabbed by a medical professional in the stomach wasn’t painful when these drugs were still in my system. But a few hours after my last dose of the medications and the pain was… out of this world INSANE.
It felt like the equivalent of being relentlessly punched by a bodybuilder continuously in the same spot if you can imagine that. They administered morphine every hour or so on the first day but it did little to reduce the pain and to make things worse, because I also had pneumonia at the time, any time I would cough my abdominal muscles would contract and it would be unbearable but I couldn’t help it. It took probably a week for the pain to go away completely(ish) and that was with daily opiod administration in the hospital Wars.
1. Probably afraid he was paralyzed.
Stupid move doing a belly flop on a trampoline. Did a human scorpion something fierce and felt every bone in my vertebrae pop, even up and through my shoulder blades.
Took me about 10 mins to catch my breath and move from the spot.
I’m going to do my best never to find myself a victim of these things, y’all.
What’s the worst physical pain you’ve experienced? We want to hear about it in the comments!
