A post in another thread got me thinking about this:
What’s the most pain you’ve ever been in?
Not the poofy, girly man emotional kind; real manly physical pain.
I had appendicitis when I was 20 (I think) and that hurt like a bitch. My abdomen was swollen like 6 inches out and I couldn’t move. The worst part wasn’t the appendicitis though, it was not being able to move for like a week after the operation because my whole midsection was fucked up from being cut open.
So that’s mine, not too bad I think in the grand scheme of things. I bet some of you guys have got way worse horrible shit you’d like to share…
Blew out just about everything in my knee playing high school ball, ACL, PCL, LCL, Bursa Sac, Torn Meniscus. The list from the MRI took up about half a page… When it first happened it felt as if my knee had just been blown off. When I stood up and tried to put some weight on it my whole knee joint buckled inward and I knew I was screwed.
The whole experience was fairly miserable but what really got me was the first 3 minutes or so of shock that hit me like semi. Gave me some good perspective on what it’s like to experience a traumatic injury, can’t quite take action movies as seriously as I used to…
Broken right femur and torn MCL in a high school wrestling match at the end of my sophomore season. I attempted to back-trip my 265-pound opponent, caught my foot on the mat and his full weight came crashing down on the inside of my knee (I felt a pop and heard it; I was told that the pop was audible from several feet away according to spectators at matside). My femur broke at the base, just above the knee. Casted for 8 weeks, in a brace for another 8 weeks before I was allowed to put any weight on it.
The acute pain was blinding. I think I briefly blacked out, but I do recall involuntarily screaming and cursing for a few seconds, and then after I had started to gather myself, I remember saying something completely nonsensical to my coach about how I didn’t think I could finish this match (it was the semifinals of a tournament), but maybe I would be able to wrestle for 3rd place later that day - even though I couldn’t put a lick of weight on my broken leg. The pain subsided to a dull ache after 10 or 15 minutes, but it throbbed periodically for the next few days until I got it fully immobilized and casted.
Fortunately, I made a full recovery, and the opponent I was wrestling at the time became a friendly adversary. We wrestled again three or four times the following season; we also played football against one another. Fierce competitor but also an incredibly nice guy, he went on to play Division I football on scholarship and had a few tryouts for professional teams.
I dislocated my spine doing speed squats. That was like being struck by lightning right in the spinal chord.
A guy at a party replaced the whiskey in a bottle with drain cleaner and I took a big swig. It made all of the tissue from my lips to my stomach slough off, which I barfed up into the toilet. A couple of weeks in a drug induced coma and about six months of pain. 23 years later and I still smell everything before I put it in my mouth.
The worst for me was when something ‘moved’ in my back around the tail bone while I was doing rack pulls. I literally fell to the ground and laid there for a minute or two, then dragged myself someplace (I think to my bed, home gym and all…) to lay down while it felt like I was going to vomit from the pain, and my body was covered in a cold sweat. I don’t know if any of you guys can relate, but do you know that incredible feeling of dread when you realize you’ve fucked yourself up bad, and you stomach kind of drops/you get covered in sweat that feels cold? That is basically what happened, except feeling like I was going to vomit too.
I am very lucky that I am lifting pain free now. I do have a lasting weakness from it though, I can pull 365 from the height I was injured at if I am lucky, while I can deadlift 5 plates. I also don’t feel comfortable doing rack pulls anymore.
I broke my tibia skiing in January, the fracture was open (i.e. poking out) and comminuted (i.e. shattered rather than a clean break). At the time it was painful, but the worst bit was when the paramedic was trying to yank off my incredibly tight ski boot. That was pretty bad. I also had a lot of pain with my deep hip musculature really spasming up for the first week after my surgery, that was possibly just as bad as the ski boot lol.
Very similar to the sensation from my broken femur / torn MCL injury. Different injuries, of course, but in the same general region of the body, and I also agree that the acute pain was staggering. I had no idea something could hurt so much. And agree with the “can’t take action movies as seriously as I used to” - when you see someone get shot in the leg and then just stand up and keep running…
Well. That’s a different kind of pain, but holy ****
Welp. That would have been 1000 times worse (to me). My broken leg freaking hurt, but I can’t imagine the emotional distress I would have felt if it had been an open fracture. Seeing my own bone poking through my skin? No thanks.