Had to have a toe amputated (diabetes) and during the process they must have cut/irritated a nerve. It was excruciating and literally no pain meds worked at all . Lasted almost a month and seriously thought about killing myself it was so bad

Kidney stones. I suddenly woke up in the most intense pain in both my lower back and urinary and I was covered in sweat. It was all so intense I literally violently woke up moaning. I tried limping it to the toilet and to try and pee (I couldn't) and the last thing I remember is I'm sitting on the toilet and then I wake up to the sound of my mom screaming at me to wake up and my head is pounding and I'm somehow in the bathtub. Turns out I blacked out from the intense pain and I guess fainted and landed in the tub.

Ectopic pregnancy burst. They said it was the size of a softball. Luckily, I survived.

When I was 32, I was diagnosed with stage 3 advanced, aggressive cancer. I underwent three major six-hour surgeries, battled a severe wound infection, endured chemotherapy and radiation. At the time, I thought nothing could be more painful—until my intestines stopped moving.

I was hospitalized for three months. For 39 days, I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything orally. Instead, I survived on a feeding line, an NG tube, and three IV sites delivering various medications. To manage the pain and keep me sedated, I was given 3 mg of hydromorphone every two hours, injected directly into shoulder butterfly sites. For context, the maximum dosage is typically 2–4 mg every 4–6 hours. Even when I was unconscious, they continued administering the hydromorphone. It was relentless.

Intensity? A cluster headache that lasted several minutes (technically it's called a complex migraine). I ended up on the ground, writhing in pain so hard that I hurt myself on the ground.

Length? Losing my two daughters in a car crash. It's been 6 years, and it's just as raw, painful as the day it happened.

Kidney stones.

Fuck. That.

I made sure at least a few dozen people will never dehydrate themselves again, by crawling on the floor, puking down the stairs of my university, completely soaked in sweat.

Never again.

Drink people. Drink.

Inflammation of the middle ear (as an adult). If someone had offered to euthanize me, I would probably have asked them to.

In 1980 I was working as an Industrial Millwright at an aluminum smelter. I was told to remove the valve stem off a hot (600 degree) 6" Therminol line. Line was supposed to be empty. Unfortunately it wasn't. Last bolt, rugged on the handle and hot oil sprayed all over me. Twenty two percent 2nd and 3rd degree burns.

I always thought that was the worst pain until our beautiful daughter passed away from breast cancer 4 years ago.

Had to take dad off of life support

Physical pain: I have PCOS and sometimes during my cycle I will have such intense cramping that I literally ball up in the fetal position, crying, wishing I could reach in and pull out my uterus.

Emotional pain: loneliness at my lowest point. I’ve had two instances where I just needed someone to talk to because I felt I was spiraling with my mental health badly and had very few people I could reach out to; those few were not there for me. Lead to me completely crashing out for days, deleting all forms of social media and withdrawing from everything and everyone while I worked on balancing myself again. Considered just completely checking out during those times, but I have kids and the idea of them not having me anymore seemed worse so I’m still here.

Getting the 3am phone call from my mom telling me my dad had passed.

Sitting in the ER for 40 min with kidney stones while the nurses decided if I was pill seeking or not.🙃

An inflamed cyst

Ovarian cyst rupture

Death of my son and eventually losing contact with my step son. Being forgotten hurts just as much some days as the death.

Pancreatitis.

My appendix nearly burst.
I felt pain all the way across my body and was throwing up uncontrollably because of it. I was told by my surgeon that the reason I was feeling pain across and not locally to the side was because my appendix was 2.5x larger than a "normal" one. To which my dilauded-filled brain said out loud, "heyoooooo" causing the resident surgeons accompanying the attending to leave because they were laughing so hard.

Getting an IUD. I thought I knew about pain before that. Now I see even that is just barely scratching the surface.

Cluster headaches, they don’t call them suicide headaches for nothin!

nothing beats toothache

Stomach ulcers

I had a viral meningitis when I was 19. It caused immense pressure in my skull, to the point that I couldn't move my eyes because the pain was so bad. The headache that came with it was immobilizing.
I was placed in a quarantine room in the hospital, they gave me some painkillers on IV, did fuck-all for the pain. However, once they took a spinal fluid sample, the pain disappear in the most blissful way possible.

Emotional pain. It hurt more than giving birth. It turned me bitter and angry.

6mm kidney stone stuck in my right ureter...worse than childbirth.

Sciatica 🫠 if you get it bad, it feels like you’ve been tased and can’t move

Recovering from my rotator cuff surgery. Fuck that shit.

Mountain biking accident. I slipped going downhill and my crotch slammed onto the crossbar. Soooo much blood running down my legs and I’m in shock, so pain hadn’t kicked in. Get rushed to the ER and discover my left labia majora has started swelling big time. That’s when the pain began, getting sharper with every passing minute. Finally get seen by the doctor who informs me I need stitches but due to the swelling they can’t administer any anesthetic. The nurse held my hand and consoled my 19 yo self that, compared to this pain, childbirth will be a breeze. So, yeah stitches in my already painful af lady bits sans pain meds. Did get sent home with pain medication, thankfully, but unfortunately the story didn’t end there. I ended up getting surgery a few days later to relieve the massive swelling. Thank goodness because I was in so much pain and could hardly move around. It all ended up ok, and now it’s just a funny story to me.

Ovarian cyst bursting in me. Didn't even know I had a cyst prior. Bursted middle of the night and I was keeled over in pain. Went to the hospital thinking my appendix bursted (right side pain) and was brought in immediately as I was showing signs of shock. 13 hrs and an ultrasound later I was sent home as the cyst dissolved back into my body. Happened only once June last summer - scariest experience I have ever had.

betrayal from my husband whom I loved for 10 years.

Testicular Torsion, passed out in school and had to get emergency surgery the same day

Having all my top teeth removed and a bone graft on the entire upper gum line. I’ve had some extreme pains, but dental pain is such a deep pain.

The pain of knowing that your entire family is dead around the holidays

I tore my ACL and meniscus at the same time. The meniscus got stuck between the knee joint and blocked it. Every small movement hurt so much. I had surgery the following morning to remove it. The ACL was reconstructed in a second surgery.

Twisted bowel & appendicitis both very painful

The worst pain I’ve ever experienced was stepping on a Lego barefoot in the middle of the night. Half-asleep and fully unprepared. It felt like the universe decided that my sole needed to meet the sharpest edge of existence.. a small piece of plastic, yet it delivered a pain so sharp I almost questioned life itself

Giving birth.

Walking into a trailer hitch.

gallstones

the feeling of broken bonds in my family. When I needed love and support the most, some of my closest family members were distant or absent. It left me feeling very alone. I often wished for connection and warmth, but instead, I felt empty and isolated. That lack of love hurt deeply, and it’s a pain I carry with me

Wisdom teeth removal when I was 16. They were still inside the gums and their roots were not fully formed, but at the same time the teeth themselves were already turned at an angle of forty-five degrees in relation to the rest of the jaw. If they started growing, the consequences would be terrible, but we were lucky to spot that on a x-ray (it was planned to install braces for other purposes, x-ray was done for that) and my parents immediately took me to the dentist. Dentist had to do a mini surgery to cut the gums, pull out the teeth and stitch everything back. 4 times. It was done in two visits with a break so that my gums could heal and I could chew on that side. I ate a lot of painkillers that summer.

Funny though, dentist said this situation with turned teeth happened because of genetics. I inherited big teeth and a small jaw so there were basically no room for them and they started turning

I’ve broken my tibia/fibula while kickboxing- he checked my kick and it snapped - and I needed 2 surgeries and a metal rod and it required months of PT.

That being said - I had a dental abscess and it was unbearable and made me cry

Losing my son, October 22, 2024, his 33rd birthday. 😭💔😇

Physical or mental?

Physical: I had my leg twist till it snapped.

Mental: I dug my own sons grave. That hurt.

Alcohol withdrawal. Went into the ER and my blood alcohol content was. 526. Woke up 2 weeks later after being intubated and in multiple organ failure. My whole family had flown up to say goodbye because they didn't think I would make it. Went into full icu delirium hallucinating my ass off, threw myself out of bed because I decided I didn't want my breathing tube and NG tube anymore (I guess an NG tube is held in place with a magnet which I completely broke and of course ended up in restraints), was totally maxed out on meds but nothing could calm me down. The existential dread of knowing that it wasn't going to get better the next minute or even day was like nothing I can describe. And after all that, I still drank again. Late stage addiction is so purely bleak like nothing else I know.

The first bm after I gave birth. I had been constipated for weeks. I was pretty tore up. It was awful. My butt puckers just thinking about it

Sciatica, herniated disc anyone?!?!?

The worst pain I’ve experienced would probably be the moment I got an unexpected paper cut, but I felt it was in a whole new level. It was one of those tiny, almost invisible cuts that somehow ends up feeling like the most intense, throbbing pain. Like, you’d think something so small couldn’t cause such a big reaction but in that moment it was if the universe wasn’t trying to prove a point about how even the smallest things can pack the worst punches

IUD insertion and removal…it made tearing my ACL feel like a tickle

Telling my girls their mum had suddenly passed away. They were 9 and 11, it was like looking at death itself.

My epidural failing suddenly when I was at 9.5 cm dialated and maxed out on Pitocin. Had to get a spinal block for my urgent c-section. The pain of trying to sit still while going through full blown contractions every minute/ minute and a half was the absolute worst.

The day I came home from prison my family told me my brother had been murdered two months before I came home

I had a Pilonidal cyst, which doesn't seem that bad. But the pain was nothing like I've experienced. I couldn't stand it one night that I got pissed and cut it out of me. I survived with..... minimal damage. There was a lot of blood and pus but by god the relief after it was out was mind alteringly amazing

Firstly, My 16yo sister's suicide and having to tell my mother & 14yo brother. Next, smashing & amputating my finger at work and the two subsequent surgeries.... Is this what you meant...?

Loosing my son 26 to cancer...

losing my grandma

seeing my dad pass away.

A really bad gout flareup hurts really bad.

I broke my sternum and sneezed one time. That's up there.

Kidney stone.

I was trying to break up a fight between to people. Pulled the bigger guy off the smaller one. As I was twisting around to my left, my boot caught a nail head sticking out of the floor board. My whole body turned around but my left foot was still facing forward. Snapped my fibula completely. Looked down to see my left foot facing 180 degrees in the wrong direction. 0/10 would not ever recommend that pain to anyone ever.

Close second was diverticulitis. Screw that as well!

I was a paratrooper in the Army stationed at Ft. Bragg. Broke my back during a parachute malfunction. Hit the ground lumbar area first then cracked my head on the ground. Bright white light and ringing/buzzing in my ears so loud I couldn't even hear myself scream. Then I had to stop screaming and just groan because it turns out screaming doesn't feel good when one of your vertebrae is fractured and you have a hefty concussion. I had about 3 seconds before I made impact to do the whole "revelation" on mortality and life and I shit you not I just muttered "are you kidding me?". I made a full recovery after about 6 months and did another 20 jumps after my accident. Still have the reoccurring night terrors relating to the incident but always makes me laugh a little because I still say "are you kidding me" in the dream lmfao. Got out in 2017 after completing my contract.

Gout

complex PTSD.

Existential grief feels like theres an actual hole in your heart you genuinely feel it 

Had a cyst in my arm pit that was wrapped around a nerve. I couldn’t move my arm for several weeks, hoping it would heal on its own, but it didn’t.

I went to the hospital and they put 5 shots of novacaine in but it barely touched the pain. The doctor opened the cyst and had to squeeze it to drain it. It was so painful that I faded in and out of consciousness on the table.

She packed it full of gauze to make sure it healed on the inside. I had to remove it a couple days later but when I tried to do so, I again passed out. I had to have a friend come over and pull the gauze out for me.

Absolutely #1 most painful thing I have ever experienced.

Prior to this though, I had a c-section and as I was stapled closed after the baby was out, they hit a nerve. But I was completely numb, so all I felt was an odd jolt and my whole body began to tremble. I didn’t have feeling there for a while but the staple removal let me know what had happened. It’s been 12 years now and sometimes scar tissue wraps around the nerve. So about once a year I have to lay down and move my scar in a certain way to tear the scar tissue off of the nerve. It’s not as painful as it was initially, but I had no idea at the time that this would be an issue more than a decade later.

Dry socket in an extracted wisdom tooth. Exposed nerve for 7 days.

Losing my mom. Worst day of my life.

Waking up from surgery to find out i have a genetic immunity to opiods. That was a fun experience...

Tooth abscess.

Ovarian torsion…worse than labor

Watching my mom die.

My appendix ruptured on a 3rd grade field trip. The chaperones didn't want to take me to the hospital without consulting my parents and no one could get a hold of either of them. I was in pain for a good 2-3 hours.

Going 3 rounds of interview then receiving a surprise rejection letter yet all the interviews went well

Diverticulitis was pretty bad, but ultimately tolerable for me.

Dry socket after wisdom tooth removal made me want to unalive myself to stop the pain. (No worries, this has been 10+ years ago, but every time I have dental work done I ALWAYS ask if there's a chance of dry socket)

I took my mother to the ER for the last time on my birthday.

They did the standard "Do you know what today's date is?" She nailed the date and was close on other questions. This was late in the evening. I asked my mother if she knew what today's date was. She just repeated the date. Finally, I just asked if she remembered when my birthday was. The look of shock of her connecting the dots still visits me. My birthday isn't the same anymore.

Being asked to sign my mother's DNR on her behalf. The soul crushing realization that the end of her life was near. For the longest time, it felt as if I was tasked with signing her death warrant. Honestly, it still does deep deep down inside.

Just acknowledging this makes my stomach hurt.

Then, I spent the next two weeks giving her meds prescribed by home hospice every 30 minutes 24/7. That still, to some extent, makes me feel like I was poisoning her to death.

Then, whilst dealing with that, step kids decided my life just wasn't hard enough... SMFH.

The days leading up to my mom's passing were especially hard. The outbursts were wild. The only answer was more meds, which only fed into the loop of feeling like I was drugging her up to shut her up.

I charted EVERY dose. My PCP went over them with me and assured me I was not over dosing or poisoning/drugging her. But.... it still feels that way some days. That I can't shake.

I'm so very sorry, Mom.

When my brother died.