Physical Pain

[Ash]

What is the most painful physical injury you've ever sustained?

For me, it would have to be years ago when I was in my early 20's and got angry and punched a wall.  I was really ticked off about something and threw a strong right jab at the wall.  Little did I know that the spot I punched happened to have a stud behind it.

I shattered the knuckle bones above my right pinky. 
It was pain beyond the world! 

It's commonly known as a Boxer's Fracture. (only my injury was a little higher up)

I went to the doctor and they treated it by putting it in a cast.
It didn't heal properly and to this day, I still feel pain sometimes on that part of my hand.
It's really going to be a problem when I reach old age.



The second most painful injury was when I was in Jr. High school.

We were all outside for gym class and the ground was wet from the rain earlier that day.
The class was over and we were all running inside to go back to the locker room when I slipped and fell backwards on the rubber mat that was just inside the doorway.
My friend Larry was right behind me and he slammed into my back and fell over top of me.  When he did that, my right hand flew backwards...right into the door jamb.

The heavy steel door slammed shut on my right middle finger!

Technically, it was strong enough to completely sever my finger in two, but it didn't.
In an instant, the door slammed shut on it and seperated the middle knuckle.  It spread it apart at least a half inch and then the knuckle bones snapped back together.

I remember hearing a loud "SNAP!" and then pain like I'd never felt before.  I remember screaming in pain and all the other kids wanting to get a look at my finger.
We went to the doctor and miraculously, it was just a serious contusion.
They put my finger in a plastic/metal cast and for the next several weeks, I went around school looking like I was giving the middle finger to everyone.

How about you?
What's the worst pain you've ever felt?

[Mr. DS]

I had a vicious sprain (worse than a break) in Sophomore year in high school.  I was playing basketball and while going up for a rebound.  A kid cut across me and stepped on my ankle thus caving it in.  I had a cast for a few weeks and did rehab for half a year.  I've sprained it minorly about 4 or 5 times since. 

[akiratubo]

Tore my ACL in a ski accident.

[3mnkids]

Spinal headache. I had a spinal done for a c-section and it caused spinal fluid to leak out. The pain was unbearable. I had it for several days before the doctors did a blood patch.
It was much worse than the pain from the actual c section.

[Mr. DS]

Childbirth both times was painful for me to watch. 

[meQal]

For me it has to be when I had my knee replaced. The very day they did the replacement they had me standing on it. Now I have broken bones, been hit in the back of the head with a pool cue, played American football, been in numerous fights, torn my ACL, fought off severe infections, had several surgeries,  and even a couple of car accidents. But nothing even came close to the pain I felt that very moment I stood up on the knee replacement. The only thing that saved me from being in total mind destroying pain when I stood up was the morphine pump in me and even that was not enough to deal with the sheer hell I was in when they made me stand up right after that surgery.

[hellbilly]

I once had an Intervertebral disc slip back in 1991. It was the worst pain ever. I had to use a cane for two weeks and couldn't stand upright. The worst was getting out of bed in the morning though, a procedure that took up 15 minutes. I could only walk baby steps and with each step I was moaning with pain. I eventually got shots in the back from my doctor which took away most of the pain ... for the day. I also had to sleep on the floor with both my legs hoisted to straighten the back, which caused bonus soreness.

Ever since my disc slip my little finger on my left hand has been numb. I've did the physiotherapy thing many times but to no avail. Ah well.

[Jack]

I was sticking with my weightlifting routine really well, doing great workouts, muscles were nice and stressed out.  Decided to use a jackhammer to break up the concrete steps behind our house, which involved lifting the 50 lb thing up in the air a few hundred times.  Must have ripped out some muscles, running all the way from my trapezius on the right side, through my shoulder, down my right arm and all the way to my hand.  If I moved it occasionally, it was only miserably painful.  Trouble was at night, when I'd fall asleep for a half hour, the muscles would tighten up, and I'd wake up feeling like my arm was about to tear itself apart.  After moving it around for a minute or two, the muscles would loosen up and the agony would go away.  Then I'd have to try to go back to sleep again   After a few days it got a little better, and only felt like someone had smacked me over the forearm with a ballpeen hammer a bunch of times.  I still get weird muscle cramps in my back and chest if I move my arm wrong way.

[Rev. Powell]

Nothing major, a dislocated pinkie playing basketball.  Putting it back in joint was of course a lot more painful than injuring it in the first place. 

I've been lucky.  Although there was a time when the dentist accidentally hit a nerve while giving me a filling.  I could feel the pain through the novocaine, which worried me a little, so I asked her if that was normal.  She looked very concerned and gave me a prescription for narcotics and told me to get it filled immediately, before the novocaine wore off completely.  It was starting to hurt quite a bit and becoming almost intolerable before the pain medicine kicked in.  Probably would have been the worst pain I'd experienced if I hadn't spoken up.

[ghouck]

When my son was 2 or so, he was sitting on my lap watching TV. Something happened and he kinds threw his hands up and cheered. When he did his fingernail caught my eye and put a scratch about1/2 inch long right across the iris/pupil. I could barely stand it hurt so bad, never had anything come even close to it. Once I got a 3" x 3" second degree burn on my neck from an oxy/acetylene torch, didn't even come close to the eyeball pain.

Another time, also when he was about 2, I was asleep on the couch and he shoved his finger up my nose. It's funny, when kids are at their most curious age, their fingers are as long as they can be and still fit all the way up an adult's nostril, AND, their fingernails are really thin and sharp. It felt like he hit the back of my skull, and my nose bled for a couple days.

[Ash]

That reminds me of when my brother & I were kids.
Our mom yelled out the back window that supper was ready so we both went running in through the backdoor.
I thought my brother was right behind me but he wasn't.  He was several steps behind and when the screen door closed, his head was turned in just the right (or wrong) way and the metal latch caught him right in the eye and literally sliced part of his eyeball.
I'll never forget his screams.  I felt so bad and apologized to him several times.

---------------------

I also recently ran into an old friend that I hadn't seen in at least ten years.
He had an eyepatch on and looked like a pirate.
I asked him what happened and he told me that about a year ago, he was fighting with his girlfriend while sitting in his truck.
He was in the driver's seat with the driver's side door open and she was standing outside the truck arguing with him.  He told me that she said, "F**k you a***ole!" and slammed the door on him as he was getting out.
The corner of the door struck him in the eye and literally deflated it.  Popped it inside his head.
OUCH!!!!   

I asked him what it felt like and he said it hurt so bad that he nearly passed out from the pain.  He said that he suffered from terrible headaches for weeks after it happened and that he had a difficult time adjusting to seeing with only one eye.

He's still with that same chick.
Yes, it's true.  Love hurts.

[SPazzo]

When my son was 2 or so, he was sitting on my lap watching TV. Something happened and he kinds threw his hands up and cheered. When he did his fingernail caught my eye and put a scratch about1/2 inch long right across the iris/pupil. I could barely stand it hurt so bad, never had anything come even close to it. Once I got a 3" x 3" second degree burn on my neck from an oxy/acetylene torch, didn't even come close to the eyeball pain.

Wow, the same thing happened to my brother-in-law.  Except my nephew kicked him in the eye and his toenail scraped my brother-in-law's eye.

I've never had any really bad injuries that I can remember.  I accidentally broke a girls collarbone once.  It was during a game at summercamp that involved tackling.  I felt really bad after...   

[Paquita]

Ahh, eyeball pain.  When I was 13, I was spending the weekend with my friend in the suburbs.  We were walking in this big field and she was whacking down all the tall grass/weeds/whatever with a big stick.  We came up to a particularly large weed-tree and she said "Hey Colleen! Now you see it -" WHACK! .. and the tip of the stick hit my eyeball full force.  I was pulling splinters out of my eyeball for HOURS!  Thankfully, it didn't do any permanent damage and I didn't need an eyepatch even though I wanted one so I could look cool.  I don't remember it being very painful though, just really uncomfortable.

Back labor was probably the worst pain ever, pain meds wearing off after a C-section the second worst.  Although I did have really painful intestinal gas once after having pizza and I thought my guts were going to explode and I ended up puking from the pain, that may have been up there with back labor.  My back went out after carrying heavy books in my backpack to and from school, that was really painful. I thought I was never going to walk again, but it got better!

[venomx]

PAIN, lol. as you know Im into Mixed Martial Arts, well I had someone put a heel hook on me back in 98, snapped the ankle bone right out of skin, blood and lots pain!

Had 2 teeth knocked out. Yeah ... that hurt. (alot!)

Finger that dont work, I had it snapped years ago, never got it fixed.

28 stitches on my forearm, bike fail lol, lots of blood!

8 stitches on my finger, glass window fail. (in pain for days, still had glass in the cut!)

Had I lump on my knee the size of Texas, after I fight I had, dont know what it was tho! it was bad.

[schmendrik]

Nothing as major as what you guys are describing. Worst one I can think of is something that happened a couple of years ago moving some furniture. We were bringing a big heavy wardrobe-type thing down a flight of stairs, I was on the bottom, and it slipped, pinning my hand for a few seconds against the bannister.

I think it hurt, but the funny thing is I can't remember that part. I remember being on my hands and knees not sure if I was going to pass out. But whatever pain there was subsided pretty quick. It took a chunk out of the back of my index finger but there's not a lot of feeling there anyway. I went to the doctor mostly because I wanted to make sure there were no bones in the hand broken that I didn't know about.

Did some nerve damage, I guess, as that finger joint is still basically numb. But all in all, minor league stuff compared to you guys.

Only other thing that comes to mind is stepping on a yellow jacket nest. Again, I think my brain kind of shut down to whatever was going on painwise, and mostly what I remember is dancing and slapping at my legs while part of my brain said "what the hell is happening on the bottom half of my body?" It took me a good 5 seconds or so for the conscious brain to figure out what had happened. THEN it started to hurt.