To ask What’s the worst pain you’ve ever been in and how you got through it. (Not childbirth)

[Bamechage]

I’ve turned to drink as the painkillers aren’t working but there must be something else I can do?

@mdh2020 I'm going through this at the moment. Both hips are needing to be replaced, I can't move around the house without 2 sticks now. The pain is horrific. I'm on tramadol but that doesn't even touch it now and I'm scared to ask for anything else.

An incarcerated umbilical hernia was the worst pain that I've ever experienced. It happened 9 years ago,and I didn't know what it was at the time causing me to be in so much pain,as I was completely unaware that I even had a hernia.

After a night of constant vomiting and agonising stomach pain,I called 111,who sent an ambulance for me as they said it sounded like acute appendicitis. After being examined in A and E,the doctor said it wasn't appendicitis,I was severely constipated! I was like WTAF?! It was only when I passed out from the pain,just after getting dressed and told to be on my way that another doctor examined me,and found the problem. I had an operation to correct it within 6 hours and the relief was instant,thank goodness.

Gallstone last week. I actually didnt even know I had gallstones but apparently it had been developing for a while and then Last week it shifted and completely blocked the bile duct. Absolute unrelenting agony, nothing would touch the pain at all and no position relieved it so it was just constant, like having a fence post jammed through my right side from back to front.

Went into A&E with agony and vomiting, gallbladder was infected and inflamed, 3 days of IV antibiotics to see if they could resolve the infection before they decided it just needed to come out, then another 2 days in hospital on more IV antibiotics, with a drain fitted to let all the infected goop drain out. Yuck!

Only one stone but it was a monster, they let me keep it 😁

Only good thing I can say about hospital in Covid times, given that no visitors are allowed and the little shops, cafes, restaurants etc are all closed, so confined to bed 24/7, they were very generous with the drugs!

Lovely nurses with the little trolley would come round every 4 hrs, 'what would you like Halfshrunk, we've got oramorph, tramadol, codeine, paracetamol. How about some oramorph and paracetamol this time, then we can try you with oramorph and tramadol before bed so you can get a few hours sleep'. I really liked the pill-pushers!

Ear infection I cried when talking to the gp on the phone

Ear drum burst and it was certainly less painful (didn’t feel it burst happened when I eventually got to sleep)

It’s an awful pain so raw. My poor ds has this a number of times then had grommets fitted was the best thing no infections after

Awful aches and pains when I had dengue fever (and produced an incredible amount of snot, where it all came from I don’t know)

Dislocated kneecap. Breathtaking pain for me.

Give me childbirth any day of the week!

Gallbladder, peritonitis. Back pain and dental pain bad too, really horrible, but not as bad as the first two.

Gall stones by far and outweighed labour and birth.

Codine, paracetamol, buscopan and hot water bottles but I can't say it all worked well. I was too ill to drink but when I broke my hand Vodka worked better than the paracetamol

Broken wrist. My hand was hanging off the wrong way round. Vomited from the pain and wept like a baby on the poor lady doing my x ray when I had to turn it over! Worse than childbirth (I had twins. Naturally. 15 mins apart. Yes, worse than that )

Genital herpes

One particular migraine, where I literally thought I was going to die.

Twisted my ankle l, fell down the gutter right next to the drain on the heat of summer, the stench turned my stomach. I was 1 minute from home but it took 15 cos I couldn’t walk and I had to hobble and every step was agonising

Vaginal Atrophy - like having a vulva full of razor blades.
Medication takes up to six weeks to become effective, cream to "relieve" makes my skin drop off, worse at night so haven't slept in weeks.
Record is three hours in a bath of E45 bath oil, which sort of eases it.

Dry....sockets.....

I thought having an induction via drip was painful, well I would have done that every day I was suffering from dry sockets.

I broke my knee. Gas and air was the only thing that got me through it, that and consistent very very very high painkillers!

Bowels problems after tramadol. Made childbirth feel like a walk in the park. I just had to get though it because they ran out of painkiller options.

Endometriosis.

Some months I’m convinced I’m going to die in my bathroom covered in shit and blood.

Dry socket I think was the worst. Had awful wisdom tooth pain for weeks and was looking forward to the ache leaving once I got them out. Strangely enough the pain didn't go and to my horror it got worse and worse. Went back to the dentist who put a soaked dressing in the hole and instant relief!

Headache/migraines from TMD. Probably sounds like nothing but it’s the only pain that made me want to kill myself.

I was in active labour for 90 hours (yep, 90), have stage 4 endometriosis to which I have lost an ovary, both tubes and part of my small bowel. I’ve had 13 surgeries in 15 years. I’m in daily pain from endo and fibromyalgia but can honestly say those headaches were the worst pain I’ve ever been in.

I was on 5mg morphine at the time for something else. I was so desperate once I took 100mg of it to take the pain away (which it did). I went from 5mg to 100mg, honestly not sure how I survived jumping to such a huge dose.

Neck sprain. Horrendous pain and couldn’t move.

@Bamechage sorry to hear you are in agony- I’d say yes go back to A&E- sounds daft but it will be closer to relief than doing nothing so yes I would go. Sending you a hug xxxxxx

Worst for me has been before I had a root canal. Lord I was in agony. 48hours I did nothing but pace up and down. Went to A & E with it as I literally could not function & there was no respite I couldn’t eat/sleep/talk. I am now fanatical about dental care.

This thread makes me desperately not want gallstones; I take my hat off to all of you!! xxxxxx

@LuluJakey1 I came here to say the same thing! Never felt anything so painful and it was seven weeks after an emergency C-section. I woke up one morning and couldn't stop vomiting. Left the baby with my partner and went to hospital in a taxi. I later collapsed. I also had the morphine drip and was in tears waiting for the next dose. I had the gb removed but spent about three weeks in hospital.

I know your pain well, in the last few years I’ve had recurring ear problems, both at once, when the ear drums do perforate, I am deaf and get auditory hallucinations, but no longer in pain. Heat/cold alternate helps, I’d drink a cup of tea and then hold the mug to my ear. But I also got the really strong paracetamol and ibuprofen and took them intermittently.

Blow your nose regularly, it helps, and is so underrated.

My other worst pain was piriformis syndrome.

Gallbladder pain pretty much blows. Thankfully I had it out last week.

I impaled my foot once and that was excruciating.

Also a splinter in the eye and one under the thumb nail was horrendous.

Worst pain though was probably breaking a toe. I split the bone right down the middle and was on crutches for months. Makes me sick just thinking about it.

Headache from meningitis, nothing touched it (and they gave me every pain killing drug under the sun - was very disappointed with morphine).

Kidney stones. Never experienced pain like it. Vomited because pain was too bad. Diclofenic (not sure if I spelt that right) liquid paracetamol, morphine and Trematoda (not altogether tho) turned out it was stuck in a tube scraping its way down. Ended up having surgery