Are we human because we feel pain? Or do we feel pain because we are human?
Believe it or not, human beings can deal with a massive amount of pain. And if you work a job where you're constantly being asked to put yourself in situations that will cause you minor amounts of pain daily, your pain threshold goes up. But sometimes it's just too overwhelming--those stories need to be shared as well.
u/Addley1 asked:
What is the worst pain you have ever experienced?
Here were some of those answers.
Teeth Are Not Triflin'
GiphySplit tooth. Misdiagnosed for six months. Searing, insane pain. "Makes you consider suicide" pain that oxycodone and alcohol couldn't reach.
We found that Neurontin (gabapentin) could address the pain. next time I went to my dentist, I said, "you know, I wish you'd look harder at that tooth."
he was mortified to have missed it. When the tooth (now infected) came out, it was in two pieces with a live nerve root.
Not A Precious Stone
Kidney Stones. Thought I was dying.
I just had my first kidney stone a few weeks ago. I was literally in a ball the floor of my managers office crying and dizzy. I thought the alien from 'Space Balls' was about to jump out of my side. They gave me torodol at the ER and I forgot why I was there. Then the torodol wore off and I chewed percocet every six hours for a few days.
Emotional Pain
My high school sweetheart got into drugs, left me for her dealer, got pregnant and didn't want the baby because he was born with Down's syndrome so she gave him to me. She died three months later of an overdose. The worst pain is everytime my son asks me about his mom. He's 24 now, I will never tell him his mom was a druggie who didn't want to be burdened by him. It breaks my heart.
He sees my wife as his mom, my wife and I have been together for 20 years and have 3 more kids. So he does have a mom who loves him as if he was her flesh and blood like I do, it just hurts so much that he'll never know his birth mom.
Pain Is No Stranger
Physical pain? Two sources.
The first: I had severe endometriosis, and more than once I wound up in the ER for it. The pain was so bad they thought I was in labor. I found out later I basically was, I just didn't get stuck with a baby after it was over. This was the culmination of decades of severe monthly cramping, and when I finally had a hysterectomy, it was the best. F*cking. Thing. EVER.
The other was Trigeminal Neuralgia. Imagine fighting Muhammad Ali, and how much it must hurt at the moment he punches you in the jaw. Now extend that split second to last days or weeks. That's what it felt like.
We're still not sure what set it off, but I think it was maintained by a minor infection no one could seem to spot and nail. It finally went away, but while it was in full force, the tiniest of breezes could make it feel like there was no light in life, only pain, and I was cursed. It was recurring for years but it's been fine for a while.
Emotional? So many to choose from, but when I was in junior high, literally overnight, all my friends stopped talking to me. Hell, they stopped acknowledging I was even there. I'd be talking to them and it was like I was invisible. I begged and pleaded for them to talk to me, to just f*cking LOOK at me, but none of them ever had a real conversation with me again.
I never knew why, just that it was on orders of one of their mothers. Frankly, I don't want to know. F*ck all of them. (Except Scott. He was in survival mode by joining them, and I don't blame him. Sadly, he was the only one of the group to die young. He deserved better, and the rest can burn in hell.)
An Added Surprise
So picture me 7 playing Skyrim for the first time. I head into Bleakfalls Barrow or whatever its called get into the spider cave bit. As soon as i get jump-scared a huge sting travels from my foot up my leg. Turns out there was a bee in my sock for about 25 mins without me noticing.
It's A Miracle Any Of Us Survived College
'Twas college and Meatfrappe and his roommates decided to go drunken sledding in the middle of the night, and grabbed whatever objects they had lying around that could serve as improvised sleds. This included trays that had been "liberated" from the dining hall, a rubbermaid trash can lid, and Bridgette--an inflatable woman originally purchased as a gag gift that had become the dorm room, um, mascot.
The snow on the hill had been soft during the day, and those sledding pioneers who had come before us had packed it all down and constructed a formidable jump, which by midnight had, along with the rest of the hill, frozen rock solid.
Meatfrappe climbed atop Bridgette, whispered something sweet into her latex ear, and let gravity take over.
Let it be known that an inflatable woman makes an extremely fast and surprisingly stable sled.
As Meatfrappe encountered the jump at an impressive speed, the curvature of his path required an equally impressive centripetal force. The magnitude of this force was, unfortunately, much more than Bridgette's delicate Chinese-vinyl seams could withstand. She loudly popped and rapidly deflated just as Meatfrappe and a now limp Bridgette left the lip of the jump and began a parabolic path like a Ruthian home run.
Meatfrappe, knowing that his flaccid sledding partner would provide no cushioning whatsoever, attempted to maneuver into a position that might minimize the violence of the impending impact, but his efforts were futile. He landed kneecap-first, exploding his patella into a multitude of fragments--a most unpleasant feeling.
You Don't Know Better Than A Doctor.
My step mom was an RN so she had that attitude she could doctor and cure any illness the family had so my brother and I ended up with strep throat for over a month. It got so bad the only thing that could help me from nearly crying when i swallowed was a cough drop but even it caused excruciating pain. I think I lost maybe 15 pounds that month because I just couldn't eat or drink anything more than jello and lukewarm water
Backs Are So Complicated
I thought 5 years of gallstones was bad. Until I strained my back go-karting. No accident or anything, just drove fast for too long in an ill fitting seat.
Result? 1 displaced disc and 1 torn disc. The tear leaked some matter that pressed on my nerves around the L5/S1 disc. The pain was utterly excruciating. Full on 11/10 for hours. I passed out from the pain on the toilet at 2am, had a huge drop in blood pressure and heart rate. Wife thought I'd done an Elvis as apparently I did a sort of death rattle... (She was wrong)
I was given gas and air, which helped, but also made me feel like time was altering speed as I was talking. Weird stuff.
From Bad To Worse
Oh, I've got this one. It's the stuff of nightmares.
Imagine getting a haircut, and getting a staph infection from the electric shavers on the back of your neck, at the base of your hairline.
Now imagine a day later, that staph infection is a baseball-sized, infected abscess that has to be operated on.
Now imagine when the nurse is cleaning/dressing this wound every couple of hours, dunking a bunch of gauze in saline, and packing it into this massive infected hole. Just feeling the air of somebody walking past is enough to make your eyes roll back in your head, and they are packing it with saline-soaked gauze.
Now imagine instead of saline, they accidentally used alcohol.
Now you can imagine the adrenaline dump that can cause a normal person to actually rip the metal arms off a hospital bed.
Playing Hooky
My cousin, uncle and I went fishing. We caught some small fish and started packing to go home. My uncle gave me the fishing rods to put them into his car. As I was putting them in, I moved my hand rather quickly downwards the rod.
For a moment, I was lost, as if I had lost consciousness. When I recollected my self, I was still standing. Confused, I looked over to my hand and the f*cking hook was deep in my finger (like 1,5 centimetres deep).
My cousin quickly called my uncle and he told me to sit down and stay calm. Alright, it didn't hurt at all at this point. Then, my uncle started to pull the hook out. It hurt like LITERAL HELL. Mostly due to the way the hook was shaped, it's not meant to let things go that easily. I almost passed out due to the pain (it was like when you stand up quickly and your brain loses oxygen and everything becomes blurry, hard to see the edges of your vision).
Goo Goo Gout
Gout, The very first flare up I had was misdiagnosed as Cellulitis a painful and potentially life threatening bacterial infection, spent 2 days in excruciating pain while they filled me full of I.V. antibiotics. While laying on a cot in the Hospital hallway a passing Doctor stopped looked at my foot pressed on my toe causing me to nearly pass out from the pain and asked "did that hurt?" I said yes, he said I think you have gout, one blood test later confirms it and I'm prescribed meds. 3 days later still in horrible pain go to the local walk in clinic where I am informed I was given the wrong medication, it was for preventing a Gout flare up, if taken during a flare up it makes it worse.
Finally given the right medication pain starts to go away in a few hours. Flare ups still occur and have landed me in the ER on a number of occasions. Every injury since when the Doctor asks what my pain is I have to say "well I have gout so this is like a 2 or 3 compared to the worse pain I've ever felt." And those injuries have included broken bones and a hand that was crushed bad enough I was off work for 4 months and almost a year later still doesn't work right.
You'll Shudder In Pain
Having my toenail ripped off. Accidentally.
My horse trod on my toe - no big deal, happens all the time if you have horses and I was wearing solid leather riding boots. But it must have done something to the nail, because later that day I was playing with friends, barefoot, and a friend accidentally stood on my toe and the action of putting down her heel ripped the nail clean off. It was absolute agony.
Oof, No Thanks
Dual ear infections and one with severe pressure on my ear drum.. I could only lay on my face and cry for 4 days.. My father almost punched the doctor in the face when he was swabbing my ears with those over sized q tips.. I was screaming in pain, my whole body was trembling. My dad knew this and couldn't take seeing.the doc causing this pain to me.. They doc was a nice man and my dad apologized after.. But that's the worst pain I've ever had in 30 years of life.
Bum Bum
GiphyI wrote on another question about pulmonary embolisms that I had.
When you have those you get this really bad sharp pains around your chest area. This on top of bearly being able to breathe sucked. They weren't able to drug me until I got to the ICU, it took maybe 40 minutes to an hour get me there, pain the whole way.
Other than that, I got a paper cut the other day.
Nerves Are A Kicker
My cluster headaches. The pain feels deadly. "I can't possibly be in this much pain and not die soon" pain. I am in awe of the level of pain humans can endure and still live because of this condition. I didn't know it was possible. It is so absolutely visceral and debilitating. The kicker is that they disappear for years at a time so I almost forget that I am afflicted with them until they kick in for a month, out of nowhere, every day around bed time. Easily the worst pain I have endured and will again and I have been stung by a Man o' War jellyfish. The fact that they are clinically called "Cluster Headaches" makes explaining their severity to non-sufferers infuriating.
Take Care Of Yourselves, Folks
Rupturing ovarian cysts. It's such an instant, blinding, sickening pain that my brain literally had no idea how to process it. Do you scream, nope that doesn't describe it. Cry? Nope still not right. Wish for death? Yep, going for that one. The second time I had one was in the middle of the night, right as my boyfriend was coming home from work. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to crawl out of the bathroom, in the dark, all "the ring" like and just grabbed him. I couldn't even gasp out words, just mouth open silent scream. Scared the bejesus out of him.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.