The 21 Most Painful Things I've Ever Experienced

Things in life are painful! Childbirth, broken bones, dental work, etc. OUCH! Here's 21 things that have happened to me that were the most painful experiences of my life. 

These aren't in any particular order, but here they are! 

Blood draw from my wrist: I was at my yearly checkup with my doctor concerning my medications and PCOS followup, and we needed to get blood serum levels of various things such as Vitamin D, Iodine, Thyroid, CBC, insulin, etc. Now, for some reason, I'm considered a "tough stick," but this nurse at our local office is AMAZING and can nearly always get me every time. However, this time, she couldn't do it! It was COLD and I was a little dehydrated, so she sent me home and told me to eat a low carb meal (since I had my fasting insulin) and drink a gallon of water and come back in 6 hours. I did so, and she STILL couldn't get a good enough stick. They had another nurse come in to draw my blood. She poked and prepped in variuos places and said the best chance was in my wrist, but it was going to HURT... 

... good LORD she wasn't kidding! I growled and swore and yelled for the whole TWO MINUTES they had to take blood. The poor nurse had to hold my arm down because my brain kept subconsciously telling me to ESCAPE! My wrist was HORRIBLY bruised for weeks and I had to explain to everyone that no, I wasn't trying to take my life... just had blood taken. 

Stepping on a nail: I was helping Honey Graham out in the garage and I tripped and stumbled forward, right onto a board with a nail. OUCH OUCH OUCH. I screamed and Honey Graham came right over and got me all cleaned up. I got a tetanus shot the next day and it healed just fine, but man, that pain was BAD. 

Stepping on broken glass: When I was in college, I was getting a bedtime snack (at my parents' house) and accidentally dropped a glass on the kitchen floor. I jumped backwards to avoid it but still managed to step on some glass shards. It didn't so much hurt right away, but it HURT for DAYS afterward (looking back, I wonder if I didn't get all the glass out). I'll tell you what, too... the kitchen looked like a murder scene! Feet have a lot of blood vessels and bleed a LOT! 

Ring of fire: of course, I had to put childbirth on here, but I was so out of it both times, that I don't remember much about it. And yes, I had natural, at-home births with both boys. 

Burn from Creepy Crawler Machine: I seriously don't know why these things are still allowed. I severely burned my finger while using a Creepy Crawler machine when I was like, 7 or 8. I remember the initial shock, and then feeling ice cold, and then the pain... my mom wasn't too happy and I wasn't a happy camper either. 

Breastfeeding lesions: Looking back, I'm pretty sure Froot Loop had a lip tie and also sensory issues. He had a very rough start breastfeeding, but I refused to give up. Poor baby kept trying, and poor mama kept trying, and since his latch wasn't right, he TORE ME UP. I showed my midwife at one of our follow ups and SHE even winced! I still shudder thinking about it.  

Fire ant stampede: Ever stepped in a fire ant pile? No further explanation needed. I'm lucky I didn't go into shock, actually. Fortunately, I was at home, so I immediately dumped a bottle of Windex on it and then took a long bath. That was bad enough, but the AFTERMATH of those hundreds of bites... that's when I discovered the magic of tea tree oil.

Gallbladder attack: Okay, so I didn't have gallstones, and I've heard those attacks are BAD... like WORST PAIN EVER. But, my gallbladder was failing me and I'd often have "attacks" where I was doubled over, couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't breathe. I ended up having it removed eventually, but those weeks between my ER visit and CT scan, my MRI, my HIDA scan were the WORST. 

Accidentally stabbed myself in the hand: I don't remember how or why this happened, or what I was doing, but yeah, I accidentally stabbed my own hand! Fortunately I didn't need stitches (although the SMART thing to do would have been getting stitches), but some prescription painkillers wouldn't have been turned down. 

Having stomach bug while 7 months pregnant: There's a whole other type of pain... when you're 7 months pregnant, having already gotten over some sort of weird cold/sinus thing, and then getting norovirus (Froot Loop and Honey Graham had it too at the same time). I was already sooo tired, having panic attacks, and a total mess.... but then when you can't keep from puking every hour on the hour... man, I just wanted to DIE. 

Broken foot: So I dropped a bookshelf on my (bare) foot. I was home alone and couldn't walk. My foot swelled up so bad immediately, I couldn't move, even to get ice or pain killers or anything. I somehow dragged myself to the freezer and got ice on it, but most of the damage had already been done. Good thing I knew basic first aid and had supplies on hand

Concussion from garage door: When I was working at the vet's office that one summer in college, I was helping with an intake of a cow who was getting surgery. They had to close the garage door quickly, so we pulled it down, but I hadn't gone back enough, and it hit me right in the middle of the top of my head. I was woozy for DAYS and I even had my mom wake me up every 3 hours the first two nights. I lived on ibuprofen for a week... 

Pimple inside my ear canal: I don't even want to remember this one. UGHHHHHH. But, if you've had one, you know what I mean. 

Mono sore throat: This was a whole other type of sore throat.... I couldn't escape it. I was in grad school, so I had to get through class, but then I went to the medic on campus, got all sorts of blood tests (didn't even care because I was so miserable)... got a smoothie, passed out at home. Turns out I had mono, and I was put on all sorts of meds, which helped eventually, but man, until that sore throat abated, all I could do was sleep thanks to massive sleep meds because I was in too much pain to do anything else... couldn't eat, sleep, breathe... 

Passed out and landed on my jaw: In high school, I had had blood taken for a checkup, and I took the bandaid off while my mom and I were waiting at the pharmacy. Next thing I knew, I was sitting on the floor with a Sprite in my hand. Apparently I had passed out and my jaw landed first on the bottom of an office chair. Dental Xrays showed my jaw wasn't broken, but I had bruised my BONE! My face was swollen for a month... not ideal in high school! 

Impacted wisdom teeth: I remember being in school, not able to concentrate because my tooth hurt so bad. Thankfully, we got it diagnosed quickly and that first impacted tooth was removed fairly quickly. The other three were done a month later before they became problematic. 

Broken hand: So, I was carrying a bunch of radio equipment through a doorway, and by some freak thing, I hit my hand just right on the door frame and broke some metacarpals in my hand. I didn't think anything of it at first until my hand swelled to twice its normal size. I went to the campus clinic and they immediately sent me to the ER for Xrays. Well, it was HOURS until I got my Xrays and by that time, it HURT like CRAP. Yep, broken hand. 2 months in a cast. Good times. Had to take prescription pain killers for 3 days just to sleep. 

After half marathon: I ran two half marathons while pregnant with Cocoa Puff. The first one was when I was 15 weeks pregnant, so it wasn't that huge of a deal to me since I felt GREAT at the time. I did great at the race, and took it easy and didn't push myself too hard due to BABY ON BOARD! Well, the PAIN later that day was pretty crazy, even though it was a "good pain" in that I had accomplished quite an amazing thing... running 13.1 miles while pregnant! I had burned out my hamstring pretty good, but it healed quickly, and I was back to running a little bit within a week. My foam roller was a huge help!

Knee Bursitis: I was in high school. I was on the track and cross country teams and for some reason, I developed bursitis in my knee. I had to stop running until it healed, and the doctors never really did tell me how to fix it or deal with it... grrrr... I missed half a track season! 

Coughing with cracked rib: I had bronchitis so severely last year that I ended up cracking a rib, and bruising a couple others. And yet, I was STILL COUGHING.... the doctor couldnt' do much for me except try to cure the bronchitis, which was caused by allergies. I ended up buying a compression vest, which helped somewhat, but still, every time I'd cough, I'd see spots before my eyes and want to pass out. Not fun. 

Dentist with no novocaine: UGH! I can't even remember this without having pain flashbacks! I had a teeny tiny cavity so the dentist asked if we could try to fix it without novocaine. I trusted him, so fine, let's do this. I SCREAMED soooooooo loud. This was the summer I got married, but I was living with my parents until the wedding, so my mom was there. Freaked her out.... and the dentist too. He felt SOOOO bad and he said that he had ALMOST gotten it all but could I handle one more two second burst? I cried and cried and said, okay fine, and braced myself. It was BAD, but he got it, and then I got all patched up. 

Related to that last one, a few weeks ago, I was at my dental cleaning, and I had a little bit of a sensitive spot. The dentist came in to look at it and poked around and got it JUST RIGHT, and I immediately screamed, which freaked out my kid, so he screamed, and everyone jumped! I was embarrassed, but it was actually a good thing to happen, because then we were able to determine it wasn't a cavity at all, but a bit of exposed root. Easily fixed, but very painful to diagnose! 

Ugh. Unpleasant memories! What are some of YOUR most painful moments?