What's your most physically painful experience?

Catheter is pretty hard to top.... :shock:

I instinctively winced and crossed my legs reading that one word..... My brain had nearly forgotten that experience, but the appendage that had the catheter shoved up it will NEVER forget!!

Had a "ladder moment" like Nils. Long farm ladder. Had to hang a chain block and tackle from the roof of a barn. Ladder not quite long enough to reach the beam. Stood ladder on bale of straw (DOH!).

Almost at the beam, holding the chain and block, when the ladder came off the straw bale. The ladder got to the concrete floor first, then the chains and metal block, then me. Amazingly, no major damage done.

Of course, my wife would just say "Wimps! Try childbirth!"

Oh, and I did run my thumb into my circular saw bench once. It felt more like being hit with a lump of wood, but the end of the thumb opened up like the end of an exploding cigar in a cartoon movie. :(

I wrapped the bits up hastily, bandaged it all together and pretended it hadn't happened for a few days! Amazingly it slowly healed up and now you can't tell which thumb was hurt. Never did go to the doctor. For students of gore, here's the half way stage:

Cheers, Chris

i was wondering when the "thumb" photo would make it's appearance :shock:

Let's see: My nose is plastic from the bridge up, both jaws have been broken twice, both hands twice. I've shattered at least every knuckle once, all my ribs have been broken twice, Dislocated my right collar bone at the neck joint, fractured a hip, broken a foot, been stabbed 3 times, cut once, and had my face and head split open more times than I care to count. I've been knocked out, tossed through a plate glass window, broke both shoulder blades with the edge of a table, and wrapped my knee around a tree parachuting.

I walked around for the better part of 7 months or so with 3 cracked ribs and no pain killer. I spent time in places like Iraq and Somalia, amongst others, and it's just pure luck that I didn't bring home any extra holes from that. Although I did get a concussion in each of those. One from a helicopter crash, and another from being slammed into a wall by an explosion.

But all that above is minimal pain when I really think about it. I think truly, the greatest pain I've ever felt, was having the woman I worshipped, and loved with all my heart tell me I wasn't good enough for her......Bones heal. That still hurts. :shock:

The missing pinky is even scarier. :wink:

Damn, TF, that's good subject material for a country or blues song.....

Been there, felt the pain....

:D :D :D

Vic

Geez TF that's quite a list. :shock:

Obviously, you have a more eventful line of work than many of us.

Accountancy?

Good point about the emotional pain though. I've smashed a few bits and pieces over the years, but I have trouble really bringing the feeling of pain back to mind. But some of the emotional scars can take a huge amount of time to heal, if ever.

Geez TF that's quite a list. :shock:

Obviously, you have a more eventful line of work than many of us.

Accountancy?

Good point about the emotional pain though. I've smashed a few bits and pieces over the years, but I have trouble really bringing the feeling of pain back to mind. But some of the emotional scars can take a huge amount of time to heal, if ever.

Lol Chris, Let's just say I "played rough" for a few years. :wink:

5 1/2 years ago I was riding my Harley up to work in a little rural clinic in Southwest Virginia. (A few miles down the road from the Carter Family Fold. Johnny Cash dropped in to see us there one morning, and a few times since.) It had rained the night before, then turned sunny and clear for the morning. There were wet spots on the road, and I was being reasonably cautious I thought, not speeding. I was heading down a twisty descent to a river valley, with steep ridges on both sides. The trees blocked the direct sun from ever hitting the pavement there. I started to slow down for a curve to the left, and my front wheel started sliding just like it was on ice. I knew I had to let go of the front brake to steer, and also knew I'd have to try to slow down with the rear brake because if I was already sliding there I'd surely spin out on the curve. That meant sailing off through the trees and landing in a creek below full of jagged rocks, to have my skeletal remains found by hunters the next fall. The back wheel locked up, too, and it went right out, putting me down sliding on the left side. "Got to keep the wheels sliding," I thought, "else I'll high-side." All of a sudden, the Harley snapped over forward onto its right side, just like the bail of a mousetrap snapping, and I was high-sided. "This isn't supposed to happen," I thought, as I saw the bike drop away from between my legs, strangely reminding me of the first stage separating from a Saturn V rocket. That propelled me about twice as fast as I had been going on the bike, and when I landed I went tumbling and flipping on the pavement. Heard a terrible cracking, crunching noise and thought "Man, the fiberglass on the bike's really taking a beating!" (I'm SO happy I thought that!) I didn't realize that my right arm had hit the pavement and been jacked up behind my head, then wrapped around my back as I tumbled. Kept flipping and tumbling, thinking, "Man, I'm going to be glad when this is all over!" I remember thinking "That bike's still back there somewhere behind me, coming this way, and that big dropoff into the rocky creek's not far ahead." I stopped on the grassy shoulder, about 2 feet wide, on the edge. I came to rest on my left side, and momentarily saw my right arm extended straight up against the beautiful blue sky. Then, instead of flopping over, it telescoped and slumped just like a beanbag.

I'll skip a lot of the story from there, but all the orthopedic surgeons in Bristol looked at my films before it was repaired and every one said it was the worst fractured humerus they'd ever seen. The ball end was splintered, and the shaft was twisted apart into two long, jagged, spiral pieces. They were wired together, and miraculously the radial nerve survived mostly intact. The ball end was replaced by a metal prosthesis with the tendons (with eggshell-like bone fragments attached) wired to it. I couldn't start Physical Therapy for a month, because my surgeon wanted the tendon attachments to have some time to adhere better.

Although I was on some high-powered narcotics for a time after the surgery, stretching that shoulder in PT was by far the most intense pain I've ever experienced, and I think it was as intense as I could experience without passing out. The narcotics didn't prevent the pain, just let me get stretched a little farther before it was unbearable, for which I'm grateful. Helped me regain use of my arm. But whenever it was stretched, I'd clench my teeth, clutch the edge of the table with my left hand, raise my left leg into the air to try to distract myself, and it'd just take my breath away. I often prayed fervently to pass out and be relieved (and had a religious revelation during one of those experiences, which is off topic by the rules of the forum.) But I know what true 10/10 pain is.

I'm very grateful for that therapy, and was at the time, knowing that my therapist was inflicting the pain only in order to help me. I got back pretty good use of the arm, and started learning guitar almost a year after the accident. I'm very thankful that it turned out so well.
8)

I have a number of possible contributions.

Number one is probably my arm . ..

went through a plate glass window, but didn't have enough momentum to carry me the whole way through, so I fell through, and down . .. the glass split the bones on my forearm, as it tore all the tissue off of my arm from my wrist to my elbow.

I was litterally left with two bones and a wad of tissue.

While I managed to not bleed to death, I was told I'd never use my arm again. Luckily they were wrong . . .

The painfull part wasn't when it happened, though, it was in all the things that go on as the follow-up to that sort of experience . . . but that was a few years of agony.

I have a number of broken bones, motorcycle accidents, a poorly behaved grenade, and an accident with an 8" artillery shell to contend with the arm . . but I'll stick with it as the number one painful experience. Total of 1,525 stitches, 2 follow-up surgeries, and 2 years of physical therapy.

Passing a kidney stone.

Spinal tap

Amen TF
scratched my cornea with a piece of sand or something when I was tearing out a wine cellar. That hurts more than you might expect it to.

So true! I was younger, and my brother and I decided to make a bomb. You know those little rocket engines? We decided to cut them open, and take the gunpowder (I think), put it in a can and light it. Lots of fun, let me tell you! I lit the match, backed away 10 feet...Nothing. I go back to see what the deal is, throw another match in and before I can move, BOOM. Right in my face. The burning ash got stuck in my skin, as well as burning off my eyebrows and eyelashes, and most of my hair. That's not too bad though, although the face part was pretty painful. The worst part was that some of the burning ash went into my eye, scaring the cornea. Very painful, and I couldn't open my eye, which was just annoying!

That's not bad at all really. Two years ago or so, I felt this tightness in my right calf. Ignored it for a while, and then it turned into some serious pain. It felt like there was a knife in my calf muscle. Went threw lots of pain, alternating between legs, for around three months or so. Finally went to the doctors, they did lots of tests, blah blah blah. Nothing came up. I'm starting to wonder if I'm imagining this pain. The worst part, was that it was the worst when I was standing, or laying down. Standing wasn't a big deal, I don't mind sitting, but it was very, very difficult to sleep. Anyways, finally got an MRI, and it turns out I had a herniated disc, and a spinal stenosis to boot! Interesting for a 15 year old kid. Suffered with sciatica for around two years (basically up until a few months ago) when the pain really started going away. But that was two years of constant pain, I rarely ever got a break from it, just pain pain pain, it's hard to explain what that is like. I barely feel anything now, and it's a great relief. Chiropractic saved me! But sciatica ain't fun at all.

What was interesting was that two months prior to my showing symptoms, my dad was diagnosed with sciatica, and a herniated disk. He had to have surgery, was in the hospital for around 3 weeks, and maybe 5 months later, they realized they left part of the disc in, and he needed more surgery, now almost 2 years later, they think he needs more surgery.

Anywho, gotta gree with TF, the worst pain comes from the ladies.

Geez, I've had a very easy run compared to some of you guys. :shock:

Ricochet's motor bike accident story reminded me of one of several that happened to me.

I didn't get hurt. So I just offer it as a bit of light relief from the stories here. :)

I was riding a dirt bike with knobbly tyres on grass on private property. It was a fairly low bike which was missing a front brake cable when I bought it. So I put another cable on from a much taller bike. It worked OK but left a length of cable bulging forwards.

One day the inevitable happened. The cable caught in the knobbly tread of the front tyre. The wheel stopped dead in an instant due to the cable both jamming the wheel and locking the front brake full on.

The bike became an instant catapault. :shock:

One moment I was belting along on the bike, next second I was fired over the handlebars and doing the full Superman bit - flying horizontally through the air.

I then turned a neat somersault, landed on my backside, and slid for a short way. Net damage, one small grass stain on my trousers.

But it would have been a treat to watch.... if only there had been a video camera handy... :wink:

When I was a young 'un, I went to the shops to get some stuff for my mother. There was a parade of shops, which had a raised forecourt, dropping about 1ft to the pavement (sidewalk, for the US contingent). I had the shopping under one arm and was steering (very badly, I might add) with the other. I ended up going off the end of the forecourt, onto the pavement, into the gutter, across the street, up the kerb at the other side - and right into a brick wall. The bike stopped dead - I didn't and landed on the crossbar, wedding tackle first. :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

Well , let me say my story too.

When i was 3 yrs old i was just running around the house.And well , it wasn't my day after all.In the running and playing with my sister , i got struck by the washbasin tap (below it , which is made of steel :( ).It was pain and only my mom knows how she took me to the hospital about 5 kms away from our home :oops:

When i was around 7 or 8 i was climbing on a tree.That i did fine but somehow my attention was lost and i slipped and came down straight to the tiled floor on my forehead.It was a short tree and like about 8 feet tall.Well . what else i was bleeding heavily and my head was torn from the side.Luckily there was a doctor in the front of our house but.....it was darn.
The doctor did put the stitches but he was very harsh and caused a lot of pain :evil:
I was left with a big white round strip of bandage around my head for some weeks.

Then one day when i was around 10 or 11 my mom had brought a coconut for sipping.But i was too eager to cut it there and then.So when in the afternoon everybody was sleeping , I took a big knife and started cutting the coconut.It was going well until somehow i cut my thumb :( :( .I tried it hide it but stream of blood was all over the house.Oh we went to the doctor and he gave me a tetanus in the already pain i was having :x .

And then , in my 9th grade class , i got struck in the forehead by broken railings while playing a sort of rugby in my school.Again fountains of blood were all over the playground with girls making strange sounds seeing me :oops:

Anyways i got stitches again but i was kinda mature to bear with it. :evil:

This is the painful part (only physical not even diseases , that is , falling ill ,) which are the main ones.Numerous cuts and scratches and bruises and falling of the bicycles have also taken place :?

And not to speak of emotional pains which have sometimes really messed with me.Everyone i guess has got them.I only hope they come to end ......

Still , i am alive , YEAH :D :)

Rahul :P