I’ve had a few painful incidents in my life, but I consider myself pretty lucky (knock on wood) as far as escaping serious injury in my life.
Let’s hope it stays that way!
What’s the worst pain you’ve ever experienced?
AskReddit users shared their thoughts.
1. Ummm…
“I was stung directly on the end of my p**is by a rafting colony of fire ants in a hurricane that had crawled up my shorts for shelter.”
2. Take the pills!
“The day after my back surgery (l4-l5 discectomy), I tried to be tough and not take the pain pills, because pain pills make me nervous. My partner tried to help me up and grabbed my hand and pulled, but I wasn’t ready, so my spine twisted.
I. Saw. Jesus. Jesus is apparently mostly white and purple flecks of light. And then went into shock. Like full on cold sweat, 120bpm, can’t catch my breathe, nauseous, shaking, light headed shock.
Called the doctors post surgery hotline (my gf dialed for me, I was still kind of out of it), surprisingly my surgeon answered. On a Saturday. “Hey so… I have enough first aid certs to know what shock is and, I think I was in shock, did I f**k something up?”
“Did you take the Percocet?” “No…” “I just cut your spine open. I gave you the prescription for a reason. Take the pills! … are you feeling groggy or intoxicated?” “No.” “That’s because your body is in so much pain from the trauma that your adrenaline is basically counteracting the effect of the pills. Which is why you need to take them. Take the d**n pills.” (paraphrased).
Needless to say his logic checked out for me.”
3. Sounds terrible.
“Dental pain. Exposed nerve in a broken tooth – totally utterly debilitating pain.
You can’t move, can barely breathe just in case the air movement or temperature touches that nerve. The pain goes up into your ear, down your jaw into your shoulder and chest. There is no relief, no knowing how long until it fades. There will be a wave where it intensifies, and you have no way of knowing whether this new level is going to lessen, or if it’s now your new “normal”.
Unless you have been through it, you won’t understand how bad it can truly be. And if you HAVE been through it, then you know. Nothing compares.”
4. Protect your eyes.
“Corneal abrasion.
Basically I cut my eye really bad and it was the worst pain imaginable. Tried to let it fix itself before I realized that wasn’t going to happen and I went to the emergency room.
Sometimes when I wake up in the mornings and my eyes are dry, when I first open my eyes I feel the pain again as my eyelid is peeling off of my cornea. Doctor said I’ll probably feel that for a while.”
5. Bad accident.
“Broke my spine during a boat accident a few years ago.
I made a full recovery, but the night after the surgery remains the most painful experience of my life. They put six chapstick-sized screws in my back to fix me. When I woke up after the surgery I thought for a while “this isn’t so bad”….until the anesthesia started to fade.
Turns out there’s a limit to how many paink**lers they can give you without k**ling you right after you’ve been under full anesthesia.
I endured a night of complete and utter misery, to the point that I caught myself seriously considering my options to commit suicide given the tools I could reach from my hospital bed. I somehow made it through the night and the next morning they knocked me out with a proper dose of opiates.
I wouldn’t wish that experience on my worst enemy, even though I turned out fine in the end.”
6. WTF?
“I ate 7 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in one sitting. I was a poor college student at the time and sometimes “starved” during the week.
That weekend I was home at my parents and up late by myself. I don’t know what possessed me but I started making PB & J sandwiches and didn’t stop. I ate 7 sandwiches and went to sleep. Two hours later, I woke up with the worst pain in my stomach that I’ve ever had. I woke my mom up and made her pound on my back to help relieve the pain.
She did it for over an hour until I was able to go to the bathroom. I will never eat that many PB & J sandwiches again. Must have glued my intestines together or something.”
7. Car wreck.
“June this year I fainted while driving (no drugs or alcohol) and woke up at the telephone pole.
Because I was still driving when I fainted, my foot was on the accelerator when I woke up. The first thing I felt was possibly the worst pain I had ever felt in my life, I knew at that moment that I broke my ankle.
When I got to emergency room, they told me that my ankle was shattered at the talus bone and I needed reconstruction surgery.
This happened in June this year and tomorrow is October. I still can’t walk but physio is going well.
But yeah, no adrenalin effect, I woke up screaming and even screaming couldn’t relieve the pain. I was stuck in my car with my body weight on my ankle.”
8. Ugh.
“Broke my collar bone and dislocated the same shoulder where the collar bone was.
At the time we just thought it was a dislocated shoulder so laying on the ground and with a nurse friend on the phone my father and a few other friends that were there at the time help get my shoulder back in place. Trying to get it back and finally getting it back in place was the worse pain I’ve ever felt in my life.
Mind you tho I’ve broken my femur, the other collar bone, my wrist, several ribs (which breathing and just living is a pain when you do that), I’ve blacked out from hitting my head on the concrete at 45mph with a helmet on, have had severe road rash, seen my kneecap due to more road rash, and finally been st**bed with an exacto knife.”
9. Yowza!
“Delivering an 8 pound, 10 ounce, 14-inch head baby without pain meds.
Was like huge watermelon traveling through my body hitting every nerve ending.”
10. Beware of shingles.
“I had shingles when I was 10.
I remember I was thrashing in pain in my bed, it hurt to wear pants over the affected area, I couldn’t sleep with sheets on because it hurt to touch, and it felt like my nerves were exposed from my body.
It was fu**ing hell, the pain of shingles beats all the bones that I’ve broken”
11. Holy s**t.
“Multiple dressing changes on open surgery wound before skin grafts were put on.
Basically my entire groin area.”
12. Ahhhhhhh!
“While barefoot, I once got a door shut on my foot.
There was some force behind it too. My toe itself went under the door in the gap, but the nail didn’t – that went up.
I just had to wrap it up and sleep on it, and go to hospital in the morning. It wasn’t fun.”
13. Satan did this.
“Occasionally have menstrual cramps sent by Satan.
They totally incapacitate me and alternate between feeling like someone has stuck a screwdriver into me and is twisting and feeling like my uterus has grown teeth and is chewing it’s way free VERY SLOWLY.
Sometimes nausea or fevers for added fun…”
What’s the worst pain you’ve ever experienced?
Share your stories with us in the comments.
We look forward to it!
