Well I'm sitting in urgent care and will be waiting for the next two hours. Meanwhile, I can't move my right arm at all without excruciating pain and the range of motion decreases over time because I ate shit on my bike earlier. It's bad. I'm worried I sheered a tendon or ligament, but feel like I would have known right away.
Interestingly, it's not the worst pain of my life. Back in November, as I was telling some of you at the DC meetup around the time, I used to get literally paralyzing headaches. Moving even my eyes resulted in a feeling as if a bomb went off in my skull and hammers were flying around. So I was forced to lay stiff as a rock in bed for days, until my muscles tensed up so much my arms or legs would start shaking and contorting. Don't get that kids.
Anyway, regale me in stories to take my mind off my arm.
We can also talk about how one of the kindest men I've ever met as well as the greatest actress of all time both died within 24 hours of each other and that is causing a physical void in our chests.
When I was three years old I slipped on the steps of my front porch made of concrete. I managed to land on the toe of a step with my mouth wide open - as if to take a bite. The force of my mouth hitting the concrete pushed all of my upper teeth back into the gum until they were completely out of sight. The doctor said that all I could do was wait till each tooth slowly fell back down, which they ultimately did. Apparently, I looked like a chipmunk for the next several months. Cheeks and lips swollen. I had some fairly misaligned teeth after that which went on to inform how my adult teeth grew-in. This only got corrected once I had braces in my teens. Fortunately for me, I was so young that the memory of it all - including the pain - is not something I can recall. The only thing I have as a reminder is how dad describes my blood curdling screams as he picked me up with a mouth full of shredded gums and concrete dust.
I woke up at 4am a couple months ago with the worst pain I have ever felt in my stomach. Unbearable pain. Right below my ribs. Actually I woke up annoyed and frustrated and sweaty and tangled in sheets and out of a dream about Tyrion Lannister fucking me with a ridiculous cock 5 times as big as his body and it "puncturing my ribs" and thinking. "this is hysterical...this must be where that saying comes from." I stood up to get water and wash my face and then I noticed the pain. My roommate had fallen asleep in bed with me (it's not that unusual or weird or sexual as you might imagine) and I stumbled to the bathroom. I could do nothing. I could not think. I could not move. I could not see. I was blinded by this pain. I tried to find a position that was better, but I couldn't. I remember throwing up a couple times and thinking it might be food poisoning. But I hadn't eaten anything besides Velveeta Mac n Cheese with chicken and my roommate had had the same thing. He woke up and noticed I was gone and found me in the fetal position in the bathroom "as white as a ghost". He couldn't even get my phone passcode out of me to call my mom. I literally couldn't even connect my brain to my mouth enough to say the words "1 2 3 4". I finally unlocked it with my thumb and he called my mom and asked if anything had ever happened like this. It hasn't. I don't do doctors, beyond my yearly physical. I get a cold once or twice a year. I got 4 stitches in my chin once at an urgent care after my dad butterflied them 3 separate times without success. I got to urgent care a full day after I split my chin open. My mom wasn't too concerned - initially. She came and picked me up and immediately changed her perspective. I had been naked up until this point and my roommate and forced me into a sweatshirt which was a bad idea because I was dry heaving and my temperature was fluctuating. He had pushed my phone and my bathmat and a shirt in my hand. So now I'm being half carried down the front steps with a oversized hoodie, dry heaving into a bathmat, holding a shirt, in gym shorts, with my eyes closed, white as a ghost. My mom took me to the hospital up the street. She raced up to valet and I basically fell out the car. One of the guys went to get a wheelchair but I saw the grass and wanted it so badly. It looked so cool and fresh and happy. I looked at him and just shook my head and pressed my face against the grass. If my mom hadn't trusted the information my roommate had given me, she would've 100% assumed I was on some powerful drugs. I wasn't. The next 12 hours were a complete blur. I remember them touching me. I remember the uncomfortable wheel chair. They took blood and tried to get urine but I couldn't stand up or hold the cup. They took 6 or 7 vials of blood even though I told her not to do more than 4 or else I pass out (I'm only 100lbs). I remember them giving me anti-nausea shot and warning me the side effects were "extreme drowsiness, dizziness, vertigo" and thinking that was ridiculous. I fell in and out of sleep waiting. I still couldn't speak or think or anything. The pain was too great. When I finally got a bed, they asked me 1000 times if I could be pregnant. Then they filled me up with morphine and the pain went away. I was still disconnected as far as my mind / body / soul. I remember one of my mom's friends, who is a nurse at the hospital, stopping by and I remember attempting to act natural and be polite. I remember asking her about her son and soccer. I remember falling asleep mid conversation. I would wake up whenever the pain got to great and she would snap her fingers and more morphine would arrive. I remember it getting late. I texted my roommate a couple times and my boss. They were all complete gibberish and no matter what I did I couldn't line my fingers up to the keypad. My roommate was laughing at me and asking me to save him some drugs. My mouth was disgusting but they wouldn't give me water. I asked for a toothbrush instead. They didn't have toothbrushes. I regretted not bringing my backpack which has everything I could ever need - hand sanitizer, lotion, toothbrush, phone charger. They did two MRIs and two ultrasounds over 12 hours and nothing showed anywhere. The blood tests were all normal except for my slightly-off thyroid. My thyroids been slightly off since my blood draw in 2004. The nurse in the MRI room was amazing. She told me that the iodine they shoot in me makes me hot. I told her that temperature fluctuations usually result in vomit. She held my hand and stroked my head and make sure I was okay before the machine started yelling at me. I remember it being the most unsettling feeling ever. It wasn't hot, it was like I could feel my blood moving through me. I remember in one of the ultrasounds I asked the nurse if it was a boy or a girl. My mom found this absolutely hysterical. The nurse seemed confused and not amused. I thought I was clever. Eventually I asked them to stop giving me morphine because I was sick of not being able to think. They gave me something else for a bit. The specialists came and went and nothing could be found. Eventually my mom requested to sign me out and I went home. They gave me norcos, which I occasionally do recreationally, and I tried to figure out a way to tell my mother than my stomach gets upset if I don't take them with food without convincing her I was a drug addict. I slept about 12 hours and woke up severely weakened but not in terrible pain. I went to work around 3pm and stayed until 7, when I realized I was hungry. I slept for a bit at my parents after a light meal and then went home and found my roommate asleep in his bed. I slept with him all night and let him rub my head and tell me how worried he was. Then I woke up and went to the gym and went to work and that was that. I didn't eat too heavily for a while - not like I ever eat heavy meals. We never figured out what it was.
My hypothesis is that it was Alien, but it decided it would be a bad idea to fuck with me.
It was pretty ridiculous and I still can't believe that it took me down so hard. I was walking about a mile from my house in the city and I needed to take a dump. Then I needed to take a dump super bad. I was just hobbling down the sidewalk no restroom in site, walking half hunched over in pretty bad pain but not the worst pain I've ever experienced. Pain suddenly went from a 7 to a 10. It's not that I lost a battle of wills to stay on my feet, I didn't even get to fight. My legs turned to jelly and I hit the pavement hard. It was a warm day but not terrible, might have a few beads of sweat on your brow from walking normally but I had sweat pretty much flowing off my body, it must have been pooling around me. I'm lying there on my side, not even thinking about getting up, looking at the street in front of me when all of a sudden my vision started to bend, ripple (kind of like what I'd imagin a terrible earth quake might look like) and then go black. I remember it being black and feeling like I had a lance going through my midsection and that a big guy was wrenching it back and forth. I don't know if I passed out, might have, didn't shit myself and don't think I even could. Must have left a big man sized wet mark when I got up. Not one person stopped to see if I was alright, I was lying on busy street right near a mall. I'm sure people walked by me on the sidewalk and I didn't notice them. Got to a mall bathroom and spent a good hour in there before things worked out, I was weak as a kitten. What a fucked up gross worst pain ever.
I find this... Absolutely fascinating. I'd want to write an unrelated book but sell it on one small anecdote about that time a shit almost killed me and/or gave me a near psychedelic vision. Did you have to shit in the end? I've had pains that felt like it and then nothing happened. Was it otherwise normal? Is it odd that I am asking specific questions about your BM? Probably, but percoset doesn't mind much.
I shat, yes, but to tell you the truth I don't remember what it was like, was too focused on getting home, less than a mile walk but it seemed like a daunting task. You might like the novel "The Popes Rhinoceros" won't go into it but it relates to my story.
Pain is about control. If you continue to be a victim to the pain, the pain will own you. It will terrorize you. It will kick you when you're down then let you get back up just to kick you again. You are in massive pain right now because the situation is entirely beyond your control. You are reliant on others for status, you are reliant on others for palliation, you are reliant on others for diagnosis. There is just you and the pain and you have relinquished all else to others. Find something you can control. Focus on that. Focus on the things within your sphere that you have influence on, and influence them. Focus on the sensations of every part of your body that isn't in pain. Touch your thumb to your fingers (on the other hand) one by one. Touch them hard. Be aware of everything that is going on except the pain - the pain is your body screaming at you to do something about its injury and it does you no good to listen to it right now. The worst pain I've ever been in was as a child. I was climbing a two-step stepladder. It collapsed and trapped me in it. however I moved it just pinched me harder. I was probably only trapped there for 30 seconds before my screams brought my father to pick up the whole apparatus and extract me from it but it was a formative experience. I'm still not cool with ladders. It didn't help that I put a leg of a 10 foot ladder in a snake hole on a 6 foot stage and went over at the top; I managed to break my fall by destroying the ladder as it went over sideways. But it hurt a lot less. Because all the pain I felt was there because I put it there. I hurt that way by design rather than hurting some other way. I have a high pain tolerance. I used to think that was badass. I was one of those guys who put cigarettes out on his palm. I once walked a quarter mile barefoot in subzero weather to prove I could. I weld; I've got some burns. As I age, though, i recognize that pain is a useful signal that something is wrong. I have a scar on my back from where I was reclining against the wall in a sauna. There was something hot - a nail. I lied against it because it wasn't that bad and I figured it'd cool down eventually. It didn't. It scarred. My grandfather died of diabetes. More specifically, my grandfather died of blood poisoning when he failed to notice the capsaiacin creme on his legs to promote sensation so it gave him a chemical burn. He rotted away over the course of months. If he had a lower pain tolerance he probably would have lived. Do not let pain master you, but do not be pain's total master. Listen to what it says but listen to the rest of your body when you can't do what it asks. And feel better.
That's the way I am as well. High pain tolerance to an absolute fault. I have massive scars that I know are recent and never noticed them. I seared my leg last night on my bike's red hot disk brake, three times, and it was a minor annoyance. You're absolutely right about trying to limit pain to one location too. That's how I make myself aware of it so often. Hilariously, it's what I did today too by putting all my head over handlebars body weight onto my left arm realizing I'd rip the shit out of it... And my right elbow got fractured anyway (that's the current theory, btw everyone. Round two of scans coming up.) C'est la vie.
This sounds awful. Keep the updates coming. Are you right-handed?
If so, it's amazing that you are typing at all. A call for pain stories - to make you feel better? I hope it works. I don't want to get into pain stories - I'm just grateful to not be in pain at the moment. I hope your pain ends soon. It's a sad night. All the TV stations are talking about depression and Robin Williams and heart surgery and whether heart surgery causes depression.
Right handed, yes, but left-hand dominant (thanks, elementary school teachers!). I'm on my phone and my Dvorak keyboard makes it even easier with the one hand, plus SwiftKey knowing everything.
Can't say (not because nothing has happened, but because too much has--broken bones, stitches, staples, separated shoulder, too many contusions to count, on and on), but in recent times, I'd say getting my nose reset. Breaking it didn't really hurt that bad. However, when I showed up at the ER to get it fixed, I was expecting the doc (who happens to be a close friend of mine) to just snap it back into place. That's not how it works. What they actually do is to push with all their strength against the cartilage, sculpting until it looks good. It took about a minute, more or less. Being in an exam room with my brother and my good friend, I had to keep up appearances, so I didn't flinch, move a muscle or make a sound during this minute. But about halfway through my friend kind of laughed and said, "You can pretend this doesn't hurt all day, but if you don't breath you're going to pass out."
Surgery on an infected tissue in my lung. Woulda killed me if I hadn't gone in for an x-ray after an asthma attack a few months prior to that. I was four at the time and still have a scar on my upper-right shoulder blade. Getting my wisdom teeth pulled was also pretty bad.
In my experience, burns are the worst. I once got a powder burn after playing with firecrackers when one went off in my hand. The thing about a powder burn is that the powder embeds itself in the skin, which intensifies the burning sensation. I also got a bad burn on my wrist when I was drunk and making gravy. It completely sobered me up and I could feel it shooting out to the ends of my nerves throughout my body. It only stopped feeling like it was on fire several days after the fact and growing the skin back on that shit was a bitch. I have also eaten shit on a bike and road rash is pretty awful as well. I remember I had to soak the bandages on my shoulder to get them off without tearing the scabs/new skin. Hope you'll be ok.
No real story. Was drunk, fucked up, now I have a scar. Oh! The burn, when bandaged made my co-workers briefly wonder if I had tried to kill myself, which I had not. They were relieved until I showed them the giant blister. Then, most of them wanted to throw up.
Officially now, nothing has ever compared to the pain I was just in to take the x rays. I can't move it more than 15 degrees in one direction already without pain. I just had to turn my arm over, already phenomenally painful, and then turn it all the way out and hold it over the table. I've never had "everything absolutely leave your mind" pain like that. I would ever forget that feeling now.
On the subject of road rash, I still say one of the weirdest experiences in my life was when I was probably 10-12 somewhere in there. I was riding my bike one day, and I don't know what happened but the next thing I know I'm standing on the road, a bit to the side of my bike and my bike is just crashing forward. Like the bike was sliding on it's side against the road. I don't remember anything else, just one second I was on my bike, the next I wasn't and it was on the ground. I originally thought I jumped off, but the fact I was standing straight up and staring straight at it makes me question.
Must have been, I'm sure I jumped off somehow, but it's crazy to me that I could do something like that and not even have thought about it
When I was 9 or so, I microwaved a marshmallow and picked it up. Homemade napalm. It wouldn't come off, and it kept burning. That was when I learned about the different degrees of burns. That said, if you haven't microwaved a marshmallow, I suggest trying it. Nuke it long enough to swell up, but not so long that it burns. Then put it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or so. It's delicious.
Other than migraines I've never had too much of an issue. Never even broken a bone. Well, I have had a few other things. Something that wasn't strep throat but might as well have been (so the doctor said) that caused enough pain that I had to get a codeine-based cough syrup so I could swallow. And appendicitis. But nothing tops migraines.
Yeah now that I'm (mostly) out of the shit, I still put those headaches above this experience. I also had thrush as a result of mono a number of years ago, so I know your throat pain; only, I'm allergic to codeine, so I had to have these huge, nasty dissolvable tablets to suck on for two weeks. I couldn't even talk during the time, which made it especially hard to explain to people why I had been gone for two weeks and then return 45 pounds lighter.
Oh, and what was the result of the X-ray? Even if you didn't break anything, and provided you can afford it, invest in an MRI, just to be sure you don't have tendon or ligament damage.
I have an appoitment with the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow. The theory is that it's a fractured radial head. It explains the excruciating pain and the only thing they saw on the x-ray: fat packs around that area. However, there was no swelling besides that and they couldn't see the fracture, so the plan is an MRI tomorrow. So it could go either way now: simple fracture and a cast, or there's additional tissue damage that would require something more invasive like surgery, but again, the lack of swelling is encouraging.
I fractured my right radial head at the beginning of the summer--good luck to you. Fortunately, I have a high pain tolerance and wasn't bothered too much by the break itself. That damn cast drove me crazy, though. I hit the pavement hard after flying off a pennyboard. Those things are unstable as all hell, never again will I ride one. I was healed up in a month, fortunately. I hope you recover as quickly as I did.
Ah geeze. I'm really pulling for the "simple fracture" team. I'll spare you too much elaboration via my own experiences (which mostly revolve around breaking my left wrist radius and scaphoid within exactly 1 year of each other), but when corrective surgery comes into play, I think it's over-prescribed except in obvious circumstances. Just make sure you get several professional opinions. Good luck. Just know that if you get hardware implanted, you will likely feel it for the rest of your life, especially if you ever decide to GoBro5000 and lift weights like you were training for the zombie apocalypse. What I mean to say is... keep us updated. :)So it could go either way now: simple fracture and a cast, or there's additional tissue damage that would require something more invasive like surgery, but again, the lack of swelling is encouraging.
I had a very severe case of pectus excavatum, and underwent the Nuss Procedure. My sympathies to you concerning your X-ray, the daily X-rays I had to endure for the first few days after the procedure were fucking hell.
I stubbed my toe real hard one time... I have somehow managed to avoid breaking anything worse than a nail, tearing anything worse than a muscle, burning any thing worse than sun burn, or bruising anything worse than a minor bump. Does a broken heart count? Other than that I got nothing that I can remember.
I'm the same. Never really had any intense pain. Never broken any bones or anything. No surgeries or anything. I once took a rather large board of wood to the head. Someone literally through it off some kind of catwalk or something and it hit me in the head. I don't know how it didn't hurt me worse than it did or knock me out, it must have hit a pretty lucky spot because all I got was a bit of a bruise. I also cut my pinky down to the bone in woodshop. I probably should have gotten stitches or something but I just let it heal naturally. After I did it the pain wasn't too bad, but the next day in the shower it was about enough to make me pass out.
I can't think of a clear winner, but I remember figuring out how a broken bone feels. When I was in third grade, my pal and I were jumping off of the swings during recess. I would always just pull in my hands before jumping, however, I noticed that my buddy reversed his grip on the last swing before the jump. I tried his technique, and on the last back swing, the seat slipped up from under me, and I sailed back and face down onto the asphalt. My wrist hurt terribly, but I went back to class. After about 20 minutes, I started to feel nauseous and had to excuse myself. It was broken. The next year, I fell off of the jungle gym and landed hard on the same arm. I got up, told my friends that I had just broken my arm, and walked to the principal's office. I was right. Just before the put on my cast, the doctor had to drain the blood that had pooled in my broken elbow. I distinctly remember that pain, which was far worse than the break itself. Injuries can hurt bad, but nothing hurts more than fucking with an injury after there's been some time for the nerves to get sensitized. Come to think of it, I also distinctly recall getting a tetanus shot into the wound of a cut finger. Instant sweats.
I had my dislocated shoulder reset without morphine or anesthetic. This was after an excruciating bumpy ski ride all the way down the mountain to reach the medical clinic. Second dislocation found me near a hospital so that went much smoother. Then there was the varicocelectomy, a procedure which (as I understand it) involves yanking (temporarily) the testicle out of the scrotum through an incision in the abdomen. As you can imagine, the bruising and discomfort for the next few weeks was intense.
I'm a lucky bitch. The worst pain I've ever experienced: well, one time I let a dude who claimed to know what he was doing light my hand on fire. He did mostly know what he was doing; I didn't. So when the flame started getting hot I panicked and waved my hand, instead of clenching it in a fist like I was supposed to. I got whatever degree burn causes blisters all over my hand, most notably on my wrist but also on the fat pads right below where your fingers connect to your palm. I remember sitting there crying afterwards as we talked. I wasn't drunk. We also didn't treat the wound properly (run under cool water, ice). I was young. Right hand - I'm left handed. I also cut the same hand badly enough to warrant stitches and frankly that was worse. I tripped going up stairs holding on to a glass bottle. The bottle broke into my hand. Anyway, i do not like needles and I remember trying to convince my mom I didn't need to be stitched up - this when I was still pursuing a career/education path in flute. The worst pain from that was not the cut but the anesthesia. As they injected me (multiple times) I sat there with tears rolling down my face. The assistant, concerned, asked me if I was alright and I responded with something along the lines of "what do you think?" He was trying to be sympathetic, but it was still a dumb question. Those are really my only two major injuries or incidents. Never broken a bone, really. Feel better, mang.
I had this procedure done when I was 16. They gave me a lot of morphine but I was in agony for at least a month afterwards.
I can't remember the worst pain I've ever had, which I take as a blessing. the most recent terrible pain I had was when I torqued my knee, specifically my MCL, in a warehouse accident. The pain is less memorable (though it certainly sucked at the time) - the biggest part of that memory is that sudden feeling of "I've made a TERRIBLE MISTAKE." I hate that feeling, that sinking feeling where whatever other emotion that had been going on - rage, happiness, sadness - falls out of your head, through your body, and out of your feet, replaced deep in your bowels with a feeling that I can only describe as the closest I've felt to sheer terror. What if this is where I die? Worse, what if this is where I am permanently disabled? (apologies to the permanently disabled, this is personal opinion of course)