What is the WORST pain you've ever had?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Personally, toothache (constant background throb with searing white hot stabs that made me feel like I was being electrocuted in my skull every few seconds) gets the award for absolute worst ever. Two frozen shoulders, and adenomyosis that used to regularly have me puking and fainting and almost hallucinating on the bathroom floor are strong contenders - but miles behind. There is just something about vicious toothache that makes it the worst.

Contemplating this as just back from the dentist, where at least for now, things were ok this time

What about you?

Ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and torn meniscus in knee when foot planted going over an obstacle on a 5k run (had only run 100 yards). Thought I had fractured my femur. Was in absolute agony. Experienced same pain for months when knee gave way while waiting for repair. Have gone through childbirth and honestly, on reflection - that was a breeze compared to the knee pain!

Sciatica - honestly have memories of it being more painful than child birth !!!!

Migraine & lumbar puncture!

I had an extremely painful birth with my son. My body went into shock and the artificial contractions from the syntocin drip were horrific and relentless. Almost 10 years on, I am still pretty traumatised and remember the pain and awful loss of control as though it were yesterday.

A few years ago I had a kidney stone and that was hell on earth. I was utterly convulsed with pain and almost passing out. It was definitely on a par with childbirth.

Wisdom tooth pain was also far from fun...

In order....

Gall bladder
Spinal headache after an epidural
Birth - 1st epidural paralysed me then stopped working completely.
Toothache - I now carry oralgel with me at all times - wonderful stuff as just numbs the painful area (oh and wherever you put it so use it wisely)
Migraines
Knee pain

I am not good with pain, I have a very low threshold compared to most people I seem to know - yes I am a wuss. Even playful punch on the arm seems to really hurt me .

Gallstones. They make childbirth feel like a walk in the park.

For me it was a womb infection due to retained placenta.. the days following the birth the pain got worse and worse. No one seemed to listen. Then out of nowhere I could only curl in a ball, sick, sweating, fainting.. I have never felt pain like it, childbirth was much much easier than that.

When the dr examined me in hospital he pressed my stomach and I projectile vomited and immediately passed out.

Worst pain of my life. I really did think I was going to die

Water injections in my lower back during labour with a back to back baby. Apparently its saline water to ease pain. Worst god damn thing I've experienced. I have a high pain threshold but screamed like banshee. Contractions had nothing on that IME. And the injections didn't bloody work either (I was told it would be 95% effective)

Back to back labour was bad.

Fry socket after tooth extraction. I spent days weeping in pain and exhaustion, having it cleaned and repacked. Hideous.

Being made to push a transverse oblique baby with a large cervical lip trumps everything. Incoherently begging DH and the horrible M/W to just kill me. The doctor who manually manoeuvred his head, pushed my cervix back and guided him out was called Helen, and I will remember her as an angel sent to save me forever more. When she stopped the pain it was just unreal.

Severe bowel infection and stage 4 endometriosis.
Both are indescribable pain to the point I faint. I wouldn't wish endometriosis on anyone.

Being sprayed with mace!
Kidney infection
The drugs they give you to stop haemorrhage after childbirth.
Sciatica.
Chemo.
Bloody hell we are strong.

Ear ache for me, it feels impossible to zone out or ignore it and is really really sharp. I use self-hypnosis for pain but can not do it for earache, I think it is because the pain is right next to the brain.

Birth worst in the moment but the hours/days/weeks/months long pain of breastfeeding a tongue tied baby was infinitely more traumatic. (yes I know I could have quit, but I didn't want to, I wanted help to breastfeed successfully (hoolow laugh)).

Degenerating / ruptured fibroid. Worse than childbirth.

@CigarsofthePharoahs

A mysterious chest pain. It woke me up in the middle of the night and I thought I was having a heart attack it was that bad. Got to A&E and it stopped and they thought costochondritis. I've had attacks regularly since, always feel like someone is trying to saw through my sternum and gut me. GP thinks digestive issue so I'm on omeprazole and so far no attacks. I've never felt pain like it. Labour was awful, but it came in waves. This was non stop "please shoot me" kind of pain.

Haven't rtft so someone else might have said this already, but that sounds like gallstones. I had attacks sporadically, out of nowhere in the middle of the night for over 15 years. Was told it was heart burn and I had a low pain threshold by multiple doctors. Eventually some one scanned my gallbladder, hugely inflamed and full of stones 🙃

I've broken bones, had impacted wisdom teeth and given birth twice (C- sections, both) but nothing has compared to the night of agony which resulted from, what transpired to be a trapped nerve in my neck. It was made so much worse by my husband's attempts to massage 'the ache' away earlier in the evening. By bedtime I was crying with the pain, paracetamol wouldn't touch it.
I managed 30 seconds of sporadic relief by wrapping my right arm around the back of my head before it kicked in afresh.
DH was racked with guilt and didn't know how to help me.
Thank goodness for early opening pharmacies and over the counter codeine.
(It transpired that I don't tolerate codeine - worst constipation ever!)

I developed the worst headache within minutes of giving birth. I actually thought I was going to die from the pain. My husband said he could see veins pulsating through my forehead. I was given an injection, and within a few moments, the pain went, but at the time was the worst thing I’d ever felt.

It sounds ridiculous but it would be neck pain for me. One morning I woke up in agony having slept in a funny position. I couldn't move my neck and the pain was excruciating. It lasted 5 days before it gradually eased up and I was in tears daily.
This is closely followed by acute kidney infection, which I've had twice.

Receiving internal stitches after birth of DC3 - I swear they didn’t use anything to numb the skin. I cried and kept begging them to stop. Far worse than labour and baby’s head crowning.

Migraine - not being able to lift head from pillow

Sinusitis - wanted to bash my cheekbones on something hard

The birth of dc3 specifically (the other two the pain was manageable.) Dc3 I felt like was being ripped in two.

Having a drain removed following gall bladder surgery was awful. The worst ever! Closely followed by migraine.

[quote Libraryghost]@AbsentmindedWoman Jesus! A blood test straight from your artery? That sounds like a medieval form of torture. I have just googled it and nearly made myself puke. Why do they have to do that? Why won’t a normal blood test do the job?[/quote]
DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) is an urgent situation that can become life threatening very quickly - your blood starts to become too acidic, so they need to measure arterial blood pH levels to see how much shit you're in.

It's no fun at all, 100% would not recommend

I have had dry socket, burst eardrum, root canal.
None of these would even register on the childbirth pain scale. My 1st was back-to-back and took 24 hours. I wanted to die.
My 2nd the pain of crowning shocked me but at least it was fast. She was not back-to-back and the rest of the labour was a walk in the park compared the the back-to-backs.
3rd one was back-to-back again, but fast, 3rd degree tear. It was the stuff if nightmares.
I could never ever put myself through that again.

Not sure which is top of the list but
Lisfranc fracture
Tooth abscess
Appendicitis
Renal colic

All sucked.

Just remembered after reading above -
I woke up in the night with the most horrendously sharp back pain the I literally couldn’t move or breath or shout for help.
Never had it before or since