Thinking back on the totality of your life, what is the most painful ordeal you've suffered through? This can be physical or emotional; or perhaps a combination of both, if one logically resulted in the other.

Oh, boy. My body has taken its share of abuse... Hands-down, I think the most painful ordeal I've been through was the time I found out I have interstitial cystitis. In short, it's a bladder disease of unknown cause which involves certain food triggers that result in severe pain. My triggers are soy, peanuts and citric acid. Any of these foods damage the lining of my bladder. Depending on the food in question - and the quantity - the pain can range from mild discomfort, (a constant feeling of having a full bladder) to a feeling like urinating shards of broken glass. (this is a very realistic comparison) I was diagnosed because I had just introduced a lot of soy products to my diet at the time, which caused major IS flare-ups. Since I didn't realize this was the culprit at the time, it became impossible to use the bathroom at some point. The pain was so great that I couldn't force myself to go and get it over with. Anytime I tried, I almost lost consciousness from the pain. I had to go to a doctor to try to improvise solutions. Now I take anesthetics whenever I eat certain foods, and there are some foods I have to avoid altogether.

I guess the runner-up would be the time my left ear-drum ruptured. I had a sinus infection that caused so much pressure to build-up in my ear that my ear-drum ultimately ruptured. It was like a sudden explosion, and then blood shot out of the side of my head. Finally, the infection started to drain into my throat, causing another infection that lacerated my esophagus and vocal chords, and left me aphonic for several months. Before I was able to see a doctor, I almost suffocated. I remember lying in bed for hours trying to draw a full breath, and thinking this was how I was going to die. I actually came to peace with the inevitability of it, and was pretty much prepared to die at that point. I was snowed-in at the time it happened. Had I been able to get to a doctor sooner, it probably wouldn't have progressed as much as it did. Still, it wasn't as physically painful as the IS ordeal.

On the bright side, the doctor gave me opiates for the pain. It was quite a euphoric experience at that point!

Whoa, that's crazily intense! I think my most intense pain would have been emotional heartbreak over a member of the opposite gender, the same member with whom I am currently in a happy relationship

First would have to be when I found out my cousin was dead. Second would have to be when I pulled 2200 pounds of dirt onto my toe using a pallet jack.

Emotional pain:

Becoming extremely close to somebody or a group of people within a short period (a week to 2 months), then having them leave before expected, knowing that you will never EVER see them again. No, I'm not talking about death (although that is horrible too).

During this summer, I was a Clemson University for about a week, and I met the best friends I've ever had. After the first day, people were asking us if we had known each other before hand, and of course no we hadn't. We acted like we were friends since birth. In addition, we made great friends with the Japanese students (they spoke English) staying there. We shared culture, food, jokes, everything. We each had like 5 different nicknames for everyone by day 3. On the final day of Clemson, everybody was gloomy, for the Japanese were leaving America for good- they weren't to come back the next year. The jokes just wouldn't make anybody laugh... We were eating breakfast together, all of us, when a man approaches us and stated the Japanese have to leave now, or they wouldn't catch their plane. Every single Japanese student was crying, all 20 of them, because they had grown so close to us. Looking back at the situation I believe it was the worst feeling ever. We said our tearful goodbyes, and they left forever. Then it was just me and my group of friends left. We were silent until we left Clemson... I keep in touch with most of them, but the feeling of 20 close friends leaving your life forever is just overbearing.


Physical pain:

As for physical pain, I don't think I've ever hit my limit. But this one time in middle school, we were throwing rocks up in the air, and a 5-pounder hit me directly on the top of my head. It knocked me out and I swear I forgot stuff for a week.


This has to be my longest post ever. Cheers to you all!

Picture of Japanese at Clemson:

For extra pixel-hunter points, spot the pedo bear.

Oh wow, sorry to hear it about both of those.

Physically, I'd say my tonsillectomy. The day after I was released from the hospital, I had to go back because I was in so much pain I couldn't swallow. I can't deny I was brought to tears from the pain.

I'm pretty sure they doped me with morphine during my second visit but it didn't do anything more than kill the pain. Codeine, on the other hand, makes me hallucinate (had some codeine after my wisdom teeth removal years earlier).

Emotionally, that's classified.

my cousin had that same thing happen while he was sleeping. it wasn't pretty.

as for me...
it's close, but probably when, my grandfather died on christmas day, followed a few months later by my uncle, a friend's mother(after which their family moved away and i never saw them again), and girl person's mother as well(they also moved). this was when i was twelve or so and was a turning point in my outlook on life.

as far as childhood trauma, however, im not that bad off. a current good friend of mine saw his best buddy of the time splattered by a van right in front of him. he threw his clothes away after running home because there was no way to clean the blood(friend's) and vomit(his) out of them. of course, no one else was at home at the time and so his family never found out.

1. friend died of cancer, now her mom is left with two bratty kids, and I am left with one last friend

2. ear infection in both ears made it impossible to sleep, so I just posted on cemetech and talked to comicIDIOT

3. I got hit on the head with a chair (dont ask)

1. Sore abdominal muscles after vomiting
2. 2 continuous ear infections in a month
3. having the swine flu for 2 weeks

"2. continuous ear infections or a month"


goodie, you know how that feels like

emotional? having my dog I had since I was 5 die, a week later my grandmother died, a week after that my grandfather died, and 2 days later we had to get our year old golden retriever put to sleep because he lost the use of his back legs completely.

physical?
biggest pain ive gotten so far in my life, is a botched spinal tap..
2nd biggest is my leg, I have a pinched nerve in my left leg...sometimes it goes numb, sometimes theres pain..but last christmas, I had so much leg pain that I had to lay down in the middle of an isle in the store cause I couldnt stand anymore..

before I finally started taking medication for the high spinal fluid & inter-cranial pressure..I was having constant migraines..
I went 4 years with head and neck pain so unbearable that I wanted to kill myself just to end the pain..I got to the point where I was overdosing myself on Tylenol and Excedrin just to make being awake bearable..thank god we finally went to a doctor that knew enough to send me to a specialist..

the most long term damage ive gotten is my liver has a hole in it, first the school system overdosed me on Ritalin(3 pills twice a day), but that stunted my growth, made me deathly ill and skinny, and lulled my senses to the point of basicly being a mindless zombie..then school system overdosed me on Cylert(I was taking 3 pills twice a day), both medications to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. after I got done in elementary school, my mother made me stop taking Cylert...2 days before summer ended, I went into convulsions..I had several seizures that night..a specialist told me that Cylert was the cause due to it severely damaging my liver..

Running on the soccer field without watching where I was going (I was very young). Collided with a goalpost and left a two-inch gash on my forehead. I got stitches, but the scar remained, henceforth referred to those who see it as my "Harry Potter scar".

Keith, Shmibs, ACagliano, Dontar, Qazz42, Souvik1997, sorry to hear it all around. Those all sound like pretty painful things.

the same thing happened to ours. it was simultaneously the saddest and most hilarious thing to happen all year(we would carry around his back half like he was part of a wheelbarrow race)

oh, and yes, those adhd meds are ridiculous(drugs should only be given to people with real diseases)

Awww, that's so sad. That seems to happen to a lot of golden retrievers; it's a chronic condition for the breed?

Emotional:
My mom's funeral. That's the hardest and most painful thing I've ever had to go through. The day I found out she died was pretty bad, too, but I was mostly just numb that whole day. This whole month has been pretty rough, really.

Physical:
I generally have pretty high pain tolerance, but one time I sprained my ankle three times in a row, meaning it was sprained, and then I did it again before it fully healed. It was so bad that the ligaments actually said "see ya" to the bone. This had me actually writhing in pain, which is no easy feat.

The absolute worst physical pain when my back suddenly developed a baseball sized knot just above one of my ribs and spine. That was quite crippling. The closest to that was probably the time I sprained both my ankles at once. That sure did suck.

The time me and Dante fought through the 9 levels of hell in order to save some girl.

That must especially have sucked for you, considering how physical your several jobs are.

@Merth: All of my sympathy on both counts.

I was at a restaurant and stumbled and fell onto a chair. I hit my funny bone. Not funny whatsoever. I was falling fairly rapidly, for I was walking quickly, and I was twisting my body to move my arms to catch myself, but in my rapid movement I slung my arm into a chair, hitting my funny bone. It wasn't pain in the traditional sense, it was just intense spasms of nerves overloading my brain, which caused me to pass out. Although it wasn't /painful/, it was the most uncomfortable moment of my life, but being so ridiculously uncomfortable my brain perceived it as pain I guess. Hard to explain.

And just for comparison, I have had a snowboard accident that the doctor said caused the same amount of damage as being hit by a car at 40mph. Several organs went splat against the inside of my abdominal wall, broke several ribs, concussion, etc. The funny bone hitting was at least 3x more painful.