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AIBU?

To think there are worse pains than labour?

345 replies

coraltoes · 07/02/2013 15:37

Having recently badly broken a bone WIBU to say actually, it hurt a fuckload more than giving birth? I honestly thought nothing could hurt more than labour, but lo and behold something did! (for less hours admittedly but nothing amazing to cuddle at the end). The bone had to be pulled back into place with gas and air and a local block, which made me nearly vomit.

Come and share with me your injury horrors and tell me whether they trumped your labour pains. please do not thik i am trying to undermine ladies with horrendous labours, i am sure some of you would put me to great shame :D

OP posts:
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KD0706 · 07/02/2013 16:50

My labours with my DDs each lasted a few days. I think the tiredness was what made the pain seem worse. I wonder if that's the case for lots of women, so the actual pain isn't as bad as, say, kidney stones, but the fact you have the pain go on and on for days and you are tired etc makes it feel worse?

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minouminou · 07/02/2013 16:51

Bone surgery at the age of 14. I only got poxy paracetamol as pain relief after. I remember asking for morphine and the nurses refusing.
Worst of all, I was in a hospital miles from home and the village my mum lived in was snowed in at the time, so I was all on my own....
Sob sob...

Still, that's nothing compared to the suffering of poor CabbageVan's DH

That poor guy.

PipRabbit, though.....your account had me punching the back of the sofa once or twice.......zoiks, lady.

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expatinscotland · 07/02/2013 16:52

YABU.

Have broken bones, had surgery, blah blah blah.

Labour was worse.

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catladycourtney1 · 07/02/2013 16:55

I quite like this thread Smile I'm due in about three weeks and have been starting to fret about giving birth, but I've had tooth abscesses and terrible cystitis (like others have mentioned) which were awful. But I got through them, so I'm feeling more confident now that I can get through labour, especially since I get to meet my baby at the end of that!

Now, I'd appreciate it if no-one would burst my bubble... Grin

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drjohnsonscat · 07/02/2013 16:57

I had a nasty bout of tonsillitis once Blush

2 ELCS and a sore throat. Not sure what I am doing on this thread.

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BabyRoger · 07/02/2013 16:57

Well, it depends because some labours are easier and a lot less sore than others.

I broke my sternum in a car accident - that was very sore.

The pain was nothing compared to a 52 hour back to back labour - and that was nothing compared to the 'internal manoeuvre' then forceps - with zero pain relief. I thought they were killing me by torture.

I then had another baby the pain from that was no worse than toothache.

I don't think you can compare people's labours. My two were very different.

So YABU.

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minouminou · 07/02/2013 16:59

Whenever I try to describe labour to someone, I say the pain is a "working pain" - a muscle working really hard. At first, at least.
With my first labour, the dying off of the contractions was awful, as DS' arm was over his head, so my cervix was closing back over something that wasn't meant to be there.

That wasn't pleasant.

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worriedmum100 · 07/02/2013 17:01

Slipped disc and resulting surgical removal and recovery was very very painful....but labour was worse. Ds was back to back and I was one of those people in agony at 2cm. I got little comfort from the breaks inbetween contractions. Because my labour progressed sooooo slowly I just couldn't consider carrying on like that for hours and hours more so had an epidural. Didn't progress though so they hooked me up to syntocin right at the moment the epidural fell out. That was the most pain I've ever been in. Vomit inducing pain. Ick.

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LynetteScavo · 07/02/2013 17:04

3 births, one tooth abscess and a kidney infection.

Birth 1 was the most hideous of them all.

Birth three was the least painful.

Stubbing your toe can really really hurt for a bit...or is that just me? Grin

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NameGotLostInCyberspace · 07/02/2013 17:06

This thread is making me wince.

4th degree tear, now that smarted abit. -Howled like a fucking lion-

Oh had a few terrible bouts of constipation. Think feeling dizzy/sick with pain wanting to crack my head on the sink to knock myself out.

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NameGotLostInCyberspace · 07/02/2013 17:07

strike out fail Blush

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Isildur · 07/02/2013 17:12

Raging toothache was absolutely the worst pain of my life, and I have a very high tolerance for pain.

I've been lucky that my births were more a case of extreme discomfort, rather than outright pain.

I had the last baby without any pain relief at all, and just gas & air for the others, and that was fine.

Toothache though, that had me rocking on the floor, and chomping through towels, and popping painkillers with very little regard for safe limits. Agony.

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CarlingBlackMabel · 07/02/2013 17:13

The couple of times I have had a tooth abcess have been far worse than labour.

I felt as if I was doing something in labour, keeping moving, and breathing and everything. Not as horrible as a terrible throbbing, right in-your-face tooth abcess at all.

And when it got too bad - for me when they made me lie down for Oxytocin and therefore monitoring followed by assisted delivery - I had an epidural.

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MadHairDay · 07/02/2013 17:14

Ouch at all these. Piprabbit, I had a similar experience with an inexperienced doctor trying to draw excess fluid from my lungs with pneumonia (this was only a few weeks ago so toooo fresh in my mind) - he could not get it in the right place/at the right angle and it was excrutiating - after about half an hour the other doctor came in and did it straight away. I had nearly passed out with pain and couldn't breathe anyway. Hideous. I've had pneumonia several times, and would say the pain was sometimes worse than labour in that there was no end result, it is so unrelenting and hopeless.

Mind you, I had pleurisy in labour with dd, then ventouse delivery, and then a pph needing surgery after the birth, and that was pretty close to the worse pain I've ever experienced.

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landofsoapandglory · 07/02/2013 17:15

I had surgery to remove the pins, plates and screws that had been used to fuse my symphysis pubis. The bone had grown over the edges of the plates so it had to be chiseled away, the surgeon needed to use lots and lots of force to dig them out. He, also, manipulated my pelvis under great force to make sure it could cope with smaller plates without becoming unstable again.

They gave me Tramadol through a PDA machine, but it broke after 3 hours and they wouldn't give me anything else until the anaesthetist came to fix it, but he never came! It was absolute agony all through the fecking night!

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LargeGlassofRed · 07/02/2013 17:16

Have done twin viginal birth au natural,
But by far the worse pain I've ever had is after a Thoracotomy I really wanted to die, then had to have another one 3 weeks later.

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Theicingontop · 07/02/2013 17:16

Tooth abscess and exposed dental nerve. For two weeks. Unending, face-throbbing, literally blinding agony.

My induced 17-hour labour without pain relief was peanuts compared to it.

Though I wouldn't wish either on anyone.

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LengLogs · 07/02/2013 17:19

Ectopic Pregnancy - Ruptured fallopian tube.

I thought my stomach was about to explode and begged the doctors to put me to sleep.

Far worse than labour IMO.

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Marlinspike · 07/02/2013 17:22

Suffering with a pulled muscle at the base of my spine at the moment. When I move in a certain way the muscles go into spasm, which reminds me very much of labour.

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littleomar · 07/02/2013 17:22

Corneal ulcer - definitely worse than unmedicated labour and birth

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CecyHall · 07/02/2013 17:27

Ear infection- I cannot cope with ear infections (well I do as I'm still here).

Plus I think the hormones in labour make me look back and think it was quite fun in a twisted sort of way and I love gas and air.

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Peka · 07/02/2013 17:30

Spasm of sub scapular muscle was the worst pain ever. Much worse than labour. But diazepam is the bomb. I saved some for future emergencies.

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suzyrut · 07/02/2013 17:30

Big difference for me is the kind of pain relief you know you can get in labour,
about 10 years ago I had viral menengitis, felt like someone swinging a hammer inside my head with even the slightest movement, was throwing up constantly with the pain which didn't help with the head balancing! As they needed to keep me responsive I wasn't able to have any decent pain relief for 48 hours (paracetamol and codeine only) where as I had an epidural during both my induced labours when the pains got really bad.

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Thisisaeuphemism · 07/02/2013 17:31

Abscess in tooth was terrible.

Dh had abscess in testicle - when they offered him gas n air I thought he was going to give birth.

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suzyrut · 07/02/2013 17:32

BTW I doff my cap to you theicingontop for doing an induced labour pain relief free!

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