What's the most painful experience you've had?

Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Fun Run Race For The Cure.

Childbirth. It wasn't easy squeezing through that small opening. It must have been traumatic as I seem to have blocked out the memory.

It was worth it though. It's nice to have the option to move out of mom's basement when eventually I am ready to do so.

Wow, many of the posts here sound like they already beat my worst pain by a long shot, but:

Was late for work one morning, mid-January in New England. So I literally ran out the front door. My feet hit the front step and kept going. The steps were wooden and we'd had a freezing rain overnight; they were slippery like glass. I flew over all 7 or 8 steps and landed on the sidewalk, squarely on my tailbone. Shattered it. Worst fvcking pain of my life. Wanted to die. Went to the ER, and they left me sitting there for like 3 hours. God awful day and the weeks that followed were no fun either.

Probably tearing my hamstring 150 meters into a 400 and then sitting on a bus for 5 hours driving back to school and not being able to use crutches because I had also fractured my elbow on the same side 2 weeks earlier.

3rd degree separation of my right shoulder. I think I could've passed out.

Was hit by a drunk driver who was going 40 mph while walking. It shattered my leg, fractured my arm, put my head through the windshield (stapled back together). After doctors repaired the leg, the swelling was almost unbearable. I would crawl on the ground to the toilet and shower, puke from the morphine withdrawals, generally loathe life. Additionally, I was saddled with hospital bills since the driver had no insurance ($250,000).

After healing back to some normal semblance of life, my grandmother who raised me died. It was the most painful year of my life I've ever had.

I look at where I came from then and I am glad I chose not to kill myself during that period. Mental pain during that time hurt more than anything. I have since lived one of the most spectacular lives one could ask for and have appreciation for the fact I get to wake up and walk every day.

I watched video of Charles Barkley swinging a golf club. I don't even golf, yet my head almost exploded.

I have experienced the death of both parents and my brother. I have twice lost jobs in my career through company bankruptcy and the great recession. I'm currently in the middle of my second divorce after 15 years - 10 for the first.

None of those losses even compared to the death of my first born in infancy. Worst thing that ever happened to me in life.

Broke the ring toe on my left foot. Compared to what most people here are bringing to the table I feel lucky.

I broke my radius and ulna in the middle of my forearm. It flopped about and looked like I had a second elbow.

ouch......... wrote:

Wow, many of the posts here sound like they already beat my worst pain by a long shot, but:

Was late for work one morning, mid-January in New England. So I literally ran out the front door. My feet hit the front step and kept going. The steps were wooden and we'd had a freezing rain overnight; they were slippery like glass. I flew over all 7 or 8 steps and landed on the sidewalk, squarely on my tailbone. Shattered it. Worst fvcking pain of my life. Wanted to die. Went to the ER, and they left me sitting there for like 3 hours. God awful day and the weeks that followed were no fun either.

No kidding, that sounds horrific.

da bern wrote:

1. Kidney Stones. Mother of God, that hurt - even morphine didn't cut the pain.

2. Run over by a car (both legs) when I was 13.

3. Falling down the stairs and breaking my back, bones in my feet and fingers.

4. Prostate biopsy without anesthesia because the f-ing insurance company wouldn't pay for it.

5. (5 weeks ago) Retina detachment surgery. Done while you are awake and they stick needles and an ice-cold cryoprobe in your eye. The local anesthetic does very little.

6. Dragged the wrong way over a small bridge by a horse (i.e. across the width of the bridge; not the length) Broken ankle and fingers and dislocated shoulder.

you are extremely unlucky....

that is a crazy bad list.

I imagine for someone it will be having to finish a race bearfoot when their streak 6 ripped open.

da bern wrote:

1. Kidney Stones. Mother of God, that hurt - even morphine didn't cut the pain.

2. Run over by a car (both legs) when I was 13.

3. Falling down the stairs and breaking my back, bones in my feet and fingers.

4. Prostate biopsy without anesthesia because the f-ing insurance company wouldn't pay for it.

5. (5 weeks ago) Retina detachment surgery. Done while you are awake and they stick needles and an ice-cold cryoprobe in your eye. The local anesthetic does very little.

6. Dragged the wrong way over a small bridge by a horse (i.e. across the width of the bridge; not the length) Broken ankle and fingers and dislocated shoulder.

Reading this is like watching the three stooges. How the heck did you get yourself into 6?

ouch......... wrote:

..squarely on my tailbone. Shattered it. Worst fvcking pain of my life. Wanted to die. Went to the ER, and they left me sitting there for like 3 hours.

3/10

You can't sit with a shattered tailbone, but at least you got someone to reply.

After reading the thread I'm feeling lucky.

Broken/Dislocated ring toe on my left foot doing Ashtanga Yoga. Seems to have healed fully, feels kinda funky in cleats. Pulled hamstring wasn't great but more of a dull pain.

Joel Przybilla wrote:

Compared to what most people here are bringing to the table I feel lucky.

No kidding.

My worst accident (in 24 years...I'm sure life has more in store) happened this February. I work as a cook at a diner in the midwest, and this particular morning it was slow so I decided to get ahead of the game and clean/swap out the fryers. This is a task I'd performed hundreds of times before, so I didn't think much of it. I was carrying a large pot of hot oil out the back door and to our grease trap, and when I turned a corner I slipped on the ice and knew immediately what would happen: the pot of oil felt hard to the ground and oil splashed out of it while I fell over the pot of oil.

From there I was extremely lucky. I was up on my feet with my shirt off wiping the oil from my face in about 3 seconds flat, and the nearest ER happens to be down the alley from the restaurant. I know the pain I felt while pacing around in the ER lobby while my friend and coworker gave the receptionist my information was terrible, but it's been largely forgotten in the fear and adrenaline, and the doctor got an IV of dilaudid in me very quickly. I had a 2nd-degree burn covering ~60% of my face and surrounding my left eye, but my vision was unaffected. I looked pretty gruesome for a week or two, but 7 months later my face is healed save for maybe a rosy left cheek.

Moral of the story: let your oil cool before carrying it on ice.

RUMAN wrote:

and to our grease trap, and when I turned a corner I slipped on the ice and knew immediately what would happen: the pot of oil felt hard to the ground and oil splashed out of it while I fell over the pot of oil.

Winner. Baptism in hot oil has got to be one of the most painful things ever.

Working in a diner, though, I'd expect lots of run ins with knives and the flat top.

Shoulder dislocation hurt more than broken bones. Arm hanging out is of socket, nerves, tendons, muscles all stretched and disfigured out of place. No relief until they pop it back in.