Visit brilliant.org/scishow/ to get started learning STEM for free. The first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription and a 30-day free trial.
Poor job. PAIN? Almost 40 percent of females who have had a kidney stone and given birth said the kidney stone is way worse. Kidney stones are regarded as probably the most painful thing known to people who have compared them to other conditions. I once had a gal who had 4 children and a kidney stone say exactly this: "I've given birth to 4 children and had a kidney stone, and I would much rather give birth again than have another kidney stone". So sorry women, men can experience pain worse than child birth, just depends on the size and duration of the stone.
@@thebiggianthead8364 I've always hated being asked to rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10, because I had no way to calibrate that. But when I had a kidney stone, they told me, "Now you know what a 10 is." But OMG, these other things sound pretty awful, too. Thanks SciShow, you've given me five more things to worry about, as I approach my golden years!
I had hemorrhoid surgery, which went wrong, I was in extreme pain for 4 months, painkillers didn't work. Basically whenever you go for the loo, you sweat like a pig because your mind anticipates the oncoming extreme pain. You are so scared you cry even before the pain has started. This shatters you mentally.
Ugh. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I have an anal 'fissure' which causes lots of pain and blood and when it's at its worst I'm scared to use the bathroom too. The worst part is trying to get help from doctors and nurses, so many of them are reluctant to discuss the problem in detail because it's "gross" or "taboo" or whatever. Which is ridiculous. I've had nurses laugh at me when I was trying to get help with my pain. I hate people's suffering not being taken seriously.
Ive got a personal pain scale i like quite a bit. 1 is a minor nuisance, 5 is ok this friggin hurts, 7 your cursing like a sailor, 8 vasovagal onset (sweating going pale feeling like your a million degrees, and inability to speak), 9 is (usually) passing out, and 10 is shock. I have only been at a 9 once in my life. I personally think there should be something past unconscious.
@@cyruskhalvatiisn't that basically just death? Going "beyond unconscious" seems like a one way street, your neurons getting fried by the signal intensity
Chronic pain can literally change how your brain perceives pain. Confusingly, chronic pain patients can have both a much higher pain tolerance *and* have nerves that are hypersensitive to pain.
High perception/detection. Any little thing *could* be pain, so the brain wants to know about it, but sometimes it just goes "I mean, I guess that hurts?"
For sure, a friend of mine has fibro and had to go to hospital after falling down the stairs cuz the cut she got was going bad. Fortunately when she called the doctors, the person she spoke to was savvy enough to ask if there were any reasons her perception of pain might be impaired. She didnt feel the pain cuz her joints hurt all the time regardless
Exactly this, have fibromyalgia and can confirm. I’ll initially overreact to mild unexpected pain and then think, “not that bad”. I’ve also alarmed doctors doing something painful to me by telling them, “don’t worry, you can’t hurt me more than my body does at times”. It’s easier to deal with pain that I know is coming, especially from outside sources
Yup. Took me a couple days to get seen for a torn labrum in my shoulder because it didn't feel any worse than a normal dislocation does, but sometimes wearing the wrong fabric is literally painful.
@@kittycatcaoimheyes! I frequently roll my ankles (bc there’s basically zero stability in them) and they can even bruise and swell but it won’t hurt but certain fabrics hurt
I have never used "burning" or "stabbing" to refer to intensity -- it has always been about differences in kind. A burning pain feels different from a stabbing pain, not because it is more or less intense, but simply because they are different forms of pain.
And each type of pain can have its own level of intensity, within the type. A weird analogy would be dog barks. Some paint are small and yippy. Other pains are medium sized and sharp - or medium seized and low and growly and deep. Still others are large and booming. Sometimes the pain barks come close together, other times they're spread apart, still others it's all but non stop as the pain is frantic. And the the LOUDNESS of them is still its own variable, just like the intensity of the pain is its own variable. A dog barking from a block away is a lot quieter than a dog barking five feet away.
Exactly! For me shooting or hot pain is nerve pain (as in, a fault in the nerve network) whereas low pain is cramping and and higher pitch pain is acute injury
I always get so confused when doctors ask me about stuff like "burning" or "stabbing" pain. Except for when I get stabbed or burned by something, neither of those words have in any sense been descriptive of any aspect of any pain I've ever felt - but somehow I am seemingly expected to be able to talk about pain in terms that have absolutely nothing to do with my experience in order to get help, or some times even be taken seriously. What am I supposed to do, flip a coin about it?
completely, totally, 100% AGREE with you. All Pain is Real. All Pain is Valid. it's SO not about anyone else, comparison = just understanding, empathy, compassion & support. my first appointment with my Pain Clinic was in 2021 - so thanks to covid, we were back in lockdown, so just a phone conversation (& a list of books to read) my second appointment was earlier this year - where he kept insisting we'd met before and we spent the majority of our time trying to establish his burning question - how FAR could I walk. (me: confused - how is this relevant?) not only was this the focus of his letter to my doctor, he stated that I did NOT suffer from something that predates most of my other issues & is clearly documented on my medical records.
The many things I learned as a chronic pain patient from pain specialists are, "You're too young to be in pain", "You're too young for treatment", "It's all in your head", "There is nothing to be done", "Stop being so sensitive", "It's not our responsibility to treat this" and much more. I agree with all pain is real. The all pain is valid part though? According to my experience and the experience of many people I know, that is not true.
@@AkariTheImmortal Having your pain invalidated does not make it invalid. You are so right, though, that it is NOT common for people's pain to be validated, and that is so incredibly harmful! I'm so sorry that has been your experience and the experience of many others. I can't imagine how demoralizing it can be to be told your pain isn't valid.
@@AkariTheImmortal oh hun, I am so so SO sorry that has been your experience. although I'm not very happy with the level of support & help that I currently have, I am really grateful that the first doctor I saw took my pain seriously, as did the specialists she referred me to. (I REALLY lucked on for once - took me years to get other health issues taken seriously, (seriously two years here, seven years there, just fighting, battling - is disheartening & soul destroying) I know there are so many other people, like you, who have no even got that basic acknowledgment of your pain - that it is real, genuine - one of the places I visited on my journey was a place called 'the mighty' - "We make health about people by bringing together the stories and lived experiences of those who have been there. Penned by our community and curated by our editors, the collections below feature some of our best, most helpful articles on health topics that matter to you" look them up - (youtube doesn't like linking people...) sending you support, love, encouragement, strength - care, compassion, empathy, understanding - all the GOOD things. 💖
You got very lucky. In the pain clinic I was in they tried to tell me I’m imagining and making up the pain from my damaged Ehlers- Dahnlos- syndrome joints.. I didn’t even yet have trigeminal neuralgia back then, that got triggered by my hearing aids that I got at 25, they were pushing on the nerve because it’s right next to my ear canal for me.
Trigeminal Neuralgia patient here, I really can’t express how bad the pain can get during attacks, before I was diagnosed, I had been through some pretty intense injuries including a burst fracture of my L5, compound fracture of my left radius and ulna, herniated discs etc. and absolutely all of it was a walk in the park compared to TN. Legitimately I would rather go through the pain of breaking my back every single day for the rest of my if meant I didn’t have TN anymore. The condition has a rather notorious nickname and history, and it’s debated whether our not it’s worth it to continue to keep calling it that, but it’s the quickest way to get across the level of pain, and it still does happen unfortunately.
Only another suffer can truely understand. At its worst mine can literally feel like being stabbed in the ear with a soldering iron while half of your teeth are being ripped out at the same time. Non sufferers think this is an exaggeration.
@@Maverick_Mad_Moiselle It really depends on the specific case, there are a lot of treatments, from Microvascular Decompression surgery, to Gamma Knife Radiotherapy, and a plethora of medications that can be used, that being said not all patients have access to all treatments, not all Neurologists and Neurosurgeons are up to date on everything TN as it’s a relatively rare condition so often times patients have to go to pretty long lengths to find relief, and some cases can be particularly difficult to the point where a patient might have had multiple MVDs with no relief and end up getting something like a Dilaudid pump implanted, and that’s if they even have a doctor who knows it’s a possibility, because broadly Opioids are viewed as a no go for TN.
Wow, I'm so glad you included trigeminal neuralgia in this. I was born with it! Somehow... It actually manifested when I was an infant, and was deemed congenital. I just turned 32 last week, so I do persist to spite the horrors. By now, though, I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia by my neurologist. But my face still hurts the most, more often. It's the eternal bane of my existence, honestly. I also love y'all so much. I found you early on after the pandemic started, and you helped keep my mind occupied a lot. You also fed my unending need to keep learning.
First off, happy late birthday! I'm 27 with scoliosis, spina bifid occulta, a 6th lumbar vertebrae due to improper formation of the sacrum, spinal arthritic spurs only commonly found in people over 50, and finally fibromyalgia. I love the term "continue to persist to spite the horrors" as it's quite applicable for me majority of days. I'm hoping that what's going on for you is lesser than what I'm going through but it doesn't sound to be the case. Glad to hear you're still living day by day despite the pain.
@@vincenttrigg4521 Thanks! Oh, yikes. It's so 'fun' when you get disorders that people only associate with older people. I wish you the best. Glad you like it. Thanks to having trigeminal neuralgia like I do, for so long, I use spite as fuel. It triggered a lot of traumatic nonsense because it took a lot to get me diagnosed (false accusations, child protective services, and foster hell very early on). 2020 actually saw it get significantly worse, and eventually I realized it was no longer just the left side, but also the right side was getting pain. Currently I'm looking at using being a college (history) student to access research from the library database. I almost went into neurology exactly because of my face, but nursing didn't work out when I started college over a decade ago.
@@wanderingsilverrose I wish you the best as well, sounds like quite a rough upbringing so I apologize. I hope things work out in regards to your research!
Never thought that something I had would ever be on a list like this. I have Nutcracker esophagus and have had the pains to the point of losing breath and parts of my body going numb. I am honestly crying now because I finally have an answer for something I could never describe properly.
I also have this and I heard from someone else with it about a non-invasive treatment that is worth a try before you go for any of the more intense stuff: Omeprazole or Prilosec. The over the counter dosage works for me, and I have to take it daily, and you should 100% talk to your doctor about it, but it helped me immensely. The worst that happens is it doesn’t work and you have to go for something more intense.
Good to know the spasms I have when swallowing sometimes have an actual name. Just another fun thing in what is becoming a laundry list of medical issues. I’ve had to posit the theory to my cardiologist that the arrhythmias I experience are just another random muscle spasm I get since I experience them throughout my body at random. So a random throat spasm when I’m swallowing makes total sense, unfortunately
Hey! I have this also. Ended up having to self diagnose after being in the ER several times and morphine not helping. Not helping at all. I accidentally fixed my symptoms by getting an adjustable bed and sleeping with my head elevated. The adjustable bed came free with my mattress, otherwise I would not have found relief . Also when I start to have symptoms, I use hot water or tea immediately.- it doesn’t stop the symptoms, but it seems to mute them quite a bit to the point that they are tolerable. I never got an actual diagnosis because no one cared to diagnose me, I had to use my own symptoms to figure it out. I spent many nights sitting up in weird positions just trying to alleviate the pain slightly. I’m sorry you’re going through this, and I’m sorry that no one has helped you. I understand the severity of the pain. In addition, I would just follow general guidelines for GERD as there is a lot of evidence that acid reflux is a trigger for nutcracker esophagus. For instance, i’m very careful with tomato sauce. I keep it to a minimum, and under no circumstances what I eat a large amount or eat it close to bedtime.
I have it, but perhaps not to the strongest degree. Only happens when I haven't eaten/drank anything in a while and am going fast while not paying attention. I have to regulate my breathing for it to taper off and control when I swallow. It honestly reminds of when I have to reboot my dog... A pug with the "reverse sneezing". I can always help him by holding his nose when he inhales. After a few times it resets what I assume is a muscle spasm/out of sync thing by making him breath through his mouth and swallowing.
I suffer from bilateral Trigeminal Neuralgia. My support group really helps as I get to share with people that truly understand what I'm going through. There is one person involved that travels the world and for every seminar or other support group they go to they servey the women in the audience and ask them if TN is more painful than child birth. So far, one hundred percent of women have said yes.
Yes, much worse than childbirth, with no drugs. Ha! May I ask what type of support group you use? I moderate a small group on messenger, but we're pretty scattered.
@@bekahpainter8156 I live in Australia and the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association Of Australia maintains a support group in most capital cities that meet up every second month.
I can only faintly imagine what that has to be like, because the only thing I've ever experienced that I described as being like 'a lightning bolt in the face' was the time a shattered tooth peeled a half-inch strip of bone out of my jawbone but stayed technically connected and mostly under the gum line for a week before I could get surgery. If you have to deal with that kind of pain or worse on a 'could happen whenever, good luck' basis, you've got all the sympathy I can give and I'm glad you have a good support group.
I don't doubt that that's true somewhere, but I live in Oregon and I've had chronic pain for nearly 20 years of all different kinds. Out of all the doctors I've been to, only one has been like this. Everyone else takes me seriously and tries to get to the bottom of it. Just wanted to add my point of view into the whole.
Yup. I got misdiagnosed because of it and it was a very easy diagnosis had the doctor believed me. I still resent them for it but it wasn't my actual doctor, just someone I had seen at a walk in clinic.
@@timandmonica unfortunately, most doctors I've been to were dismissive and didn't believe what I was telling them, especially primary care doctors on military bases. My mom and some of my siblings have had the same experience. Only after I aged out of my parents' insurance and started more regularly going to a primary care clinic attached to a medical school near where I live now did doctors really take me seriously. I was able to get diagnosed with things and get treatment for those things. I am in poor health due primarily to bad genes, and many of the specialists at the medical center I go to that is also attached to the university actually recognize that now. Even then, it's still hit or miss.
A challenge I have is... as a runner I just have a high pain tolerance. The problem with this is I normally do not show signs of pain or weakness. When chronic pain hits and it gets exhausting or crippling, then I give into the pain to prevent further injury. The problem is... those around me have trouble believing the severity of the pain I'm feeling since I'm no drama-king about it. Human compassion is hard to find these days😢
Same. My body also does not properly respond to pain killers. I have never been numb at the dentist in my life. Also, saw a nurses face go white when she was able to measure my contractions after my pitocin was raised for labor while I was joking about traffic on the way to the hospital to be induced. Ill never forget her face when she asked if I was okay and my response was "Well it's not interrupting my sentences yet" 😅😂
Yep, those if us with high pain tolerances are that way for a reason. We've lived our lives in constant pain. Normal people can't fathom the lives we have to live, and medical folks don't believe us.
High pain tolerance experiencer here. Also have quite a few things going on in my spine, one of them being fibromyalgia. When things started taking affect, what was the worst part was because they couldn't see any major things with x-rays, my doctor just refused to believe I was actually in as much pain as I was. I had to switch to another before I started getting the tests I needed to discover other underlying problems. Part of my upbringing actually resulted in my pain tolerance. Growing up I had constant pain in my legs, got x-rays, they saw nothing of the legs, said I was doing it for attention and faking it... that was fun. Turns out I have spina bifid occulta, which causes lots of leg pain, especially in minors. If they looked at my back instead of my legs then they might have discovered it sooner. So I built tolerance to that pain over the years but it compounded with other pain. So I got called lots of things like wimp, wuss, and weak. So I decided to stop showing it to others whenever I was hurting which took so much willpower and effort. I developed in such a way that I started showing nearly nothing to any physical distress that I had. I could mention it bothering me but I wouldn't really react. Completely remain calm if cut, burned or even had the end of my thumb shredded by a saw. I can handle lots of physical injuries without showing response so when pain started getting so bad that I had to start missing work, I was concerned... doctor? Not so much. Pain increased to the point that all I could do to get around the house most times was crawl. Swapped doctors, finally got proper tests. Full physical diagnosis is: spina bifid occulta, scoliosis, a 6th lumbar vertebrae due to improper formation of the sacrum, spinal arthritic spurs only commonly found in people over 50, and fibromyalgia.
I have a similar pain tolerance problem. Especially for headaches. Mine is more of a chronic pain issue, as by the time it is noticed over my normal level issues, it's way worse than it normally would be when someone notices. A headache puts me down hard and nobody gets it but my wife. She's known me long enough she understands. The personal differences between individuals really makes it hard for us to understand the pain of others unless we have felt our own version of that exact malady, which is tough to find.
Gastroparesis here, recovering from a poop that made everything from the bottom of my ribs to my thighs hurt. Probably an 8 on my scale. I've had a few that were worse, get migraines and used to puke for 6 hours at a time, being hospitalized for it twice. That's right, my condition causes me to poop so hard my LEGS hurt.
Hey, me too! But usually I don't even realize that my guts have gone on vacation until I'm nauseated and stop to think about it and figure out that I haven't had a movement in 3 days. I have a standing prescription for reglan. I've also been thinking about the gastric stimulation implant. But it's not something that I can't control with reglan, diet, exercise, and massage, so, I probably won't go for the stimulation implant until I don't have any other choice.
@@conlon4332stoma isn't usually some that will help with gastric motility. Meds, a stimulation implant, diet, exercise, massage. Absolute worst case is IV nutrition. In non diabetic gastroparisis anyway. Diabetic gastroparisis is from nerve damage and may require a stoma if parts of the intestine have died or perforated. I'm not super up on that. Mine isn't from diabetes.
I've experienced severe chronic pain for all of my 65 years due to Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, and a variety of other painful conditions. This video has made me feel a whole lot better about them. 😅
crap, you got the whole bucket. sorry for that. the only thing i had was a septic jaw. lost one side totally and now i have a rip in it. THAT was enough for me.
When did the fibromyalgia appear? Asking as I have scoliosis, spina bifida occulta, a 6th lumbar vertebrae due to improper formation of the sacrum, spinal arthritic spurs which I'm told are only commonly found in people over 50, and of course - fibromyalgia. I'm 27 but been living with the symptoms of at least some since I was 18 after a car accident
One of the silliest questions the doctors/RNs ask, “if pain was a number from 1 to 10….”. I never know how to answer, because I don’t know what THEIR reference for each number is… Seeing the little emoji’s next to the numbers in this video should be presented EVERY time that question is asked! Thank you for the visual!
I always used to have this problem myself. I can't link to it here, but I'd recommend taking a look at the DVPRS ('Defense and Veteran Pain Rating Scale), it's still a 1-10 but the rating is based on how much the pain is impairing your ability to function and runs from '1 - barely notice' to '9 - can't bear the pain, unable to do anything' and '10 - as bad as it can be, nothing else matters'. My impression is that they're asking *mainly* to determine whether you're going to be OK without immediate relief or whether you're struggling to not just scream forever and need that fixed before you can answer questions coherently, so you don't need to be quite as rigorously precise as you might be with details like what medications you're on. (I'm autistic and trying to navigate arbitrary scales like the default pain rating scale is something a lot of us struggle with, which is how I found out about the alternates in the first place.)
@@monicawallace-jn8tl I always felt that way, too. Who knows how to calibrate that scale? (And they never showed me the little faces.) But then when I had a kidney stone, they told me, "Now you know what a 10 is."
It's not the Doctors reference that is important. It's asking about your experience with pain. Where 10 is the worst pain you have ever felt in your life
@@sharonminsukit's your personal pain reference not the Doctors. 0 is pain that is mild you can easily ignore it and 10 is the worst pain you have ever felt in your life
I have CRPS in a foot. All I did was remove my slipper with the back of my other slipper at the Achilles heel. That's it. I already have central nervous system issues with pain which is probably why my brain reacted with pain loops instead of healing properly. It also causes my nerves to not stretch anymore, they are stuck in place and so stiff so I can't put my foot flat and my calf has atrophied so much despite trying everyday with physical therapy. CRPS ends up leading to atrophy cause you can't move your muscles and nerves cause they hurt like hell. I might never walk again. But worse are my friends who have it body-wide!! They are extremely courageous.
I’ve had three separate incidents of CRPS, two (a hand and a foot) went into remission the current one (other foot)hasn’t. I’m on 15 years without walking after spraining my ankle. I’m such a classic presentation that whenever I end up at a new clinic they bring all the interns in to look at how my foot turns purple and the nail has changed texture.
I've CRPS in ¾ of my body. It's hell. I got very lucky shortly after I was diagnosed with it (initially in my wrist & lower arm) having met someone with it in her hand that had froze & atrophied I realized I'd have to fight through the pain or the same would happen to me. Everything ever done to make it better instead made it spread. Wound up in a wheelchair. I got even luckier when I met a chronic pain specialist that was willing to prescribe me enough meds to enable me to fight through the pain & learn to walk again, etc and was thriving for a while! I was walking, hiking, dancing & even training to go backpacking for the very first time (a life long dream!) Then the opioid crisis hit. Drs were forced to drastically lower meds. I've been wheelchair & bed bound the last 7-8yrs now. Just needed to share with people who get it. Thanks for your time. Gentle hugs! Things will get better again eventually, they always do
After reading these comments, I feel 'less alone' with my pain & painful health conditions. I also realized my dental pain might very well be from medial (?) branch TN, which caused me to have numerous fillings, half a dozen root canals, and at least two teeth extracted due to the extreme pain. The dentist, endodontist, and oral surgeon never even suggested this could be the issue. I've spent thousands of dollars over the past decade on dental procedures that I recently suspected I didn't need. Thank you, everyone, for sharing your experiences!!
I can't imagine what it's like for anyone who has those conditions. the worst I've had are migraines (since I was 7) and cluster migraines that last for up to a week. they're so bad I can't see, throw up from the pain and any light or smell, and when they happen i want to drill a hole in my skull or remove the neck of my spine to relieve the pressure. i can't imagine anything beyond that, but I'm taking that and adding to try and understand what's being dealt with for these conditions and it makes me wanna cry. I'm so, so sorry to anyone that has them and please know you are incredible for living your life regardless
I have had cluster headache migraines, trigeminal neuralgia and nutcracker esophagus, and honestly I’d get rid of the migraines first. I have other severe pain conditions as well (severe constant muscle spasms, like Charlie horses but in my back neck and head due to a genetic anomaly) so I guess I’m just kinda used to it, but I am the biggest wimp when it comes to nausea. Anything that makes me throw up is horrifying. So yeah. Migraine first, neuralgia second (again because of nausea) and in terms of pain the spasms because they are constant and sometimes make me pass out. We all have different tolerances. For another example, I’d rather get spinal surgery or a compound fracture than a root canal. Tooth pain is an existential threat to me for some reason. I get my teeth professionally cleaned every two to three months to avoid it.
I've had migraines for a while now, but by far the worst was a thunderclap headache. I was halfway through a sentence and just started shouting from the unexpected pain. Went to the hospital for it and they found out that I was fine and it was just an unusually extreme complex migraine. The upside, though, is that "normal" migraines don't seem to hurt too bad after that one :) (Other huge upside is that it only happened once)
I hesitated writing this because it sounds mean but... whats the problem then? If you have a high tolerance you can tolerate more pain without medication or treatment, but when it gets to be more than you can tolerate, how is describing that any different from someone with a low tolerance? "Doc I have more pain than I can tolerate, it is preventing me from performing my daily activities". Sounds more like you have either low confidence in your public speaking, or afraid you will present drug seeking behavior. Either way, practice makes perfect, when the pain lasts for days, weeks, or months on end... and repeats over the decades of your life... trust me, you'll get much better at describing it
Because pain almost always indicates something bad. If someone with extremely high pain tolerance experiences something to them "mildly painful", it could be a medical emergency, and something anyone else would be in agony for@@Billionth_Kevin
I get what you saying, I have stubbed my toe and kept on walking with barely a skip to the step.. it hurts, I feel it, I just carry on. I have cut myself, accidentally, and known it, cleaned and bandaged it.. and find the tingling of healing over the next few days more annoying than the actual getting of the wound. Then again I live with chronic pain for many years and that raises tolerance as well.
I kept waiting for that one, too. There's lots of research showing that cluster headaches are one of the most painful conditions known. I was surprised they left it out.
Yep, my husband has them. Thankfully he's had some luck with an immunotherapy drug meant to treat migraines (emgality) and it's seemed to work better each year he's taken it. He actually didn't get any headaches during his typical cluster period this year, which was such a relief, although time will tell if that was just a fluke and his body skipped it on its own for some reason. It may also have helped that he finally figured out last year that one of his favorite foods is a trigger (aged cheeses, like bleu). I assume you commented because you have cluster headaches, so I wish you luck in finding a treatment that at least reduces the pain or the length of cluster periods
My mom has trigeminal neuralgia. Starting in the 80's through the late 90's, doctors didn't believe her when she explained the pain and eventually told her to go see a psychologist. I remember hearing her scream in the middle of the night, running in and seeing her trying to sit perfectly still to avoid it triggering, blood curdling screams coming out of her partially open mouth but no facial expressions. She had cranial surgery in the late 90's where they put a teflon pillow between a blood vessel and the trigeminal nerve but it failed. The other treatments she went through were gruesome. She did gamma knife radiation and had subsequent cranial surgeries but here is the kicker: the alternative to pain is numbness. In order to stop the pain, they basically end up stopping the signals all together, and now both sides of her face, from her eyes to her throat (including her mouth) are completely numb. She can't eat, she loses medicine in her mouth, bites her tongue and cheeks. Overall her quality of life has decreased significantly but she still says she rather have the numbness than the pain. (Imagine what it's like trying to drink or eat after the dentist when you're numb. Not easy or fun, and that doesn't affect your whole mouth and throat.) Anyway, to anyone coming across this who knows someone with TN, there are resources available, even though finding a surgeon/neurologist who does good work on this is almost impossible. (Anyone who knows anything about TN sees titles about "the most painful diseases" and knows TN will be on the list.)
2001 for me. Absolutely. Exhausting. CRPS in ¾ of my body, currently on meds to stop it trying to spread to my last good limb (so far it's working 🎉) Gentle hugs & restful sleeps my friend.
My gallbladder pain was the only pain I ever passed out from. I had terrible stones that were just tearing the tissue apart. I don't want to experience anything like it ever again.
Gallbladder pain can be excruciating. I've had a lot of pain in my life, including a liver transplant, but gallbladder pain still ranks as one of the worst. I remember sitting and banging my head on the wall just to try and distract myself from the pain. It also tended to come with nausea and vomiting, which made the whole experience so much worse.
@@AlarKemmotar I had pain attacks and the only way I actually got rest was from passing out. I went to a clinic and got misdiagnosed the first time I had an attack. despite presenting all of the typical symptoms. (Doctor didn't believe how much pain I was in.) It happened again and then I went to the ER. I got scheduled for surgery the next day. Brutal. The pain radiated all of the way up my back. The only time I had nausea though was when I was given a pain med in the hospital that is hard on the stomach. They quickly switched me to another. The diagnostic ultrasound was a special kind of hell.
Yep, my gallstone attacks were worse than oddly breaking my elbow (bent the bone etc) AND childbirth (no meds). I had one giant stone filling up my whole gallbladder, but the hospital insisted they kept it for teaching purposes.
Gallbladder pain was so bad, not even hospital morphine helped. I got as much of a dose as they could give me and was still doubled over in pain. Years later when I broke my wrist, I didn't believe it in part because it didn't hurt as bad as the gallbladder pain.
I once had a near fatal brain injury that gave me the worst pain I will probably ever have, glad that a brilliant neurosurgeon just HAPPENED to be in the building when I went to the hospital. I gotta find that guy and thank him for real.
I suffered a hundred deaths worth of pain. Yet, I do love life and the pain reminds me how I shouldn't take time from granted. I got Achalasia and esophageal spasms which is similar/related to jackhammer esophagus. Best wishes to all my other chronics out there.
The spasms... haven't had a bad one for a long time but they're so terrible. The only thing that stops it in it's tracks is straight liquor lol. Seems counter-intuitive but after a few shots idk why but it just relaxes the contraction or something and it goes away. Otherwise I'm in it for the long hault that lasts several hours.
They talk here about jackhammer esophagus. I have experienced this. For some reason in my early 20's dairy products started causing inflammation in my esophagus and as a result I experience dysphagia. The pain this would cause was unbearable. During the most intense episodes I felt like my food was getting stick in my esophagus and this would cause severe spasms. Basically, imagine the worst muscle cramp you've ever had but it's in your throat/esophagus. In the most intense episodes I would end up in the fetal position on the floor. It was not pleasant! Thankfully, once I figured out that dairy was causing the problem, I adjusted my diet and I don't have this problem anymore. If you suffer from esophagus problems consider cutting out dairy as this may be the culprit for you.
Worst pain I ever had was from a rotten broken tooth. Far worse than even breaking my leg and the worst part is that the pain would come and go completely randomly. Made it hard to even see straight
I’m already a chronic illness patient and this video taught me I also have either nutcracker or jackhammer esophagus. Occasionally when I swallow food I’ll get EXTREME pain and burning in my esophagus and the food won’t go down. I’ll feel it throughout my chest, neck, sides of my face, and occasionally my upper back. It’s excruciating but lasts less than a minute at a time. Glad to add another explanation to my list of symptoms
Missed out on cluster headaches. They're named that because they come and go in clusters, being absent for a few months before coming back gradually more severe and more frequent. They're also called "ice pick headaches." The descriptions are terrifying. The majority of sufferers are men, but mothers who have them describe them as "much worse than natural childbirth." There is no treatment. They are considered benign, having no other health effects, but are treated as medical emergencies because of the extreme risk of self-harm.
I have been diagnosed with cluster, regional pain syndrome and trigeminal neuralgia in my face from shingles. I get cluster headaches genetically from my grandmother. All 3 of these make life hell.
Would you describe this as, wanting to bash your face into anything and everything to get the pain to stop? I've had absolutely horrible headaches since I had my first kid. I thought they were migraines at first but from what I've heard about migraines (from other people) I don't think that's what I have. Not to mention, my above description. Obv I'm good now, but I remember staring at the door frames in my house and wanting to inflict damage on myself in the hope that the pounding, everything, awful stops
as an headache patient my worst experience was 4 months of continuous headache. it's called cluster headache, also know under another name that i can't say here (hint, comes with a certain phonenumber if you have troubles with coping life..). at one point i had a spoon in my hand and had to reason with myself to not to scoop my eye out so i can reach the pain. i had kidneystones as an child, broken my back in several places, broken my wrists, my throat and knee and would give that a 4/10 and that still hurts 15years later... one hour of cluster headache hurts more, imagine months... no painkiller, nothing you can do
Oh! I had that from a lumbar puncture gone awry! I couldn't sit up for almost 2 weeks without screaming headaches. Genuinely one of the most traumatizing medical experiences of my life.
Me too! Botched LP and intracranial pressure dropped dangerously low. At first the doctors didn’t believe that I was in severe pain. I was screaming and retching and sobbing for two days. Once they figured out what was going on they gave me IV pain meds and it was much better.. I was flat on my back in the hospital for several weeks. Before they properly medicated me I was begging my sister to knock me out unconscious by hitting me in the head, anything to stop the pain. It was horrifying.
4 years ago I got hit with thunderclap headaches - I never, ever get headaches but all of a sudden, over about 30 seconds, I went from totally fine to literally - and I mean literally - screaming in pain. Lasted for 2 weeks _straight_ - it was brutal. NOTHING helped. Nothing - and.... it just.... stopped. Has never come back but I'm terrified it will as it was HELL.
I had Lyme 2 years ago and every night i would lay down to sleep my shins would turn to LAVA. NOTHING stopped this pain. I cried myself to sleep several nights.
As someone with TN can confirm. It is literally like the nerve being flayed alive with no anesthetic. I have been shot, stabbed, tazed, beaten, and nearly drowned and it is the worst pain I have ever experienced.
I have sickle cell disease-- Sickle cell pain crises vary in pain but mine can get really really bad. It's very intense stabbing in the same spot in rhythm with the heartbeat. Lands me in the ER every other month, would not wish it on anyone. Fortunately painkillers work very well
Esophageal patient here. I've also given birth with back labor and no anesthesia, and can absolutely say that the esophageal issues have been much more painful.
I had esophageal pain when I was a teenager. It slowly faded away in my twenties and was gone by the time I was thirty-five. I never knew what it was until today.
I think I had maybe one episode of jackhammer oesophagus when I was 11-12 years old but it lasted only like a minute but felt the longest time of my life. At this, time I had often ophthalmic migraine and compared to this pain that was a piece of cake. I had the impression that I was dying of being rolled over by a car back and forth at a point a couldn't breath anymore and tought my heart was giving up. Every time I tried to take my breath I was feeling like I was being stab in every part of my thoracic cage by many dozen knive. At this point, I quit trying breathing because lacking having oxygen and loosing conciousness was preferable to the pain only until it has gone away. I'm really curious if it was that. Maybe by the feeling I wrote you can tell me ?
Esophageal pain, jackhammer esophagus… whatever they want to call it is beyond any other way to describe it… like a “chest burster” from the “Aliens” movies. I have Barrettes Esophagus, GERD, & a Hiatal Hernia. I have to have my esophagus STRETCHED a few times a year when it’s acting up. Trying to swallow even liquid can be incredibly painful! Then there’s all the spasms & wretching while all this incredibly thick & clear slime (like a hagfish) comes up at the same time! These attacks last about 20 minutes before it calms down. Trust me when I tell you that I had definitely lost my appetite for whatever I was trying to eat or drink after all that. It’s an absolute nightmare & incredibly embarrassing to top it off!!! 😖
A great thing is Congenital Insensitivity to Pain - you don't properly feel or register pain. The amount of damage you get because you can't feel pain is pretty horrible. People tell me it's great that I don't feel pain, until they start to hear the amount of physical problems I have because I didn't know I had an injury.
Thank you so much for talking about Trigeminal Neuralgia! I've suffered for 10 years now, and I've gone through all kinds of treatments and surgeries. Hopefully they'll find a cure or even just a really good treatment one day soon.
I hate the 0-10 scale, because they don't clarify by saying "and what's the worst pain you've ever felt?" If my worst pain ever is giving birth with no pain meds and someone else's worst pain ever is hitting their finger with a hammer, we're not going to have the same 5 or 6.
The Migraine Buddy app made me reframe my pain. It uses 1-10 but then describes each level in terms of how you're affected. Things like "can do most tasks," "prevented from doing most tasks," or "can't do anything." Then there's the time I got a migraine cocktail in the ER, IV Benadryl, compazine, and a bag of fluids, and that reset zero on my pain scale. I was woozy, but after I slept off the drugs I felt GREAT. Made me realize I live most days at about a 2.
Try checking out the DVPRS (defense and veteran pain rating scale), I think it's the same one that the Migraine Buddy app uses, and it scales based on how impaired by the pain you are, rather than trying to take some kind of objective measure of your pain level without the context of your personal experience or tolerance.
Necrotic gallbladder combined with a migraine was my standard for pain. That with my boss being critical in my ear at the same time (he didn't "believe in" migraines and wasn't too thrilled when anybody had a medical issue...unless it was his).
Yea i have chronic severe migraines, and since im a guy it feels like people are more judgmental of me. Like im whining about a simple headache. The time ive been at work and ignored a building migraine, i cant even walk and puke if i try or even just due to lights. In those instances they claim im on drugs or alcohol… I dont even know what to do anymore, i need some type of work from home job where i can lay down at take my meds if needed, but EVERYONE wants work from home jobs now…
@@fintan9218 Same. Oddly, migraines are about one-third men, so... I have that work at home job. I can pull the blackout curtains, dim the monitor, and work slower. What I would actually recommend is a) see a neurologist. b) If/when that neurologist is useless (so many are), go see another one. It took me several to find one who actually helped. While my cocktail is pretty complicated, it works to reduce 26 chronic and severe migraines a month to 5 that aren't all that bad. It takes my ability to do math in my head and about a third of my intellect. It can have it, the tradeoff is fair.
I have a friend who has/had trigeminal neuralgia. I felt so bad for her when she was going through it. It sounded so severe. She was put on a few medications and after a while went into remission. Like I think the possibility of it coming back is there but right now she leads a pain free life, thankfully.
Shout out to my fellow chronic pain patients. I have run of the mill EDS and neuropathy but I had a surgery last year (that I get to have again next month, yay) that resulted in several complications. The most severe being a partial lung collapse. I feel like I can’t properly describe the amount of pain that your lung collapsing causes. I legitimately thought I could be dying. Now if it’s too cold or the air pressure drops before a storm, I get to have neuropathy in my chest and I survive on gabapentin.
I’ve experienced Burning Mouth Syndrome since I was a kid. Diet is a big part of avoiding it, but every once in a while it hits, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I got this from antidepressants, more accurate to say rather the withdrawal from them, I experience the same pain and sensation in my private bits too, aka PGAD. I was hospitalised a few times due to pain and other symptoms caused by these meds. Still only partly recovered 3 years on, long way to go yet and the pain locations and type changes constatly, not one hour is the same as before, many I don't even know how to describe as they aren't familiar with any normal sensory experience. Its a kin to seeing a new primary colour that is not on the spectrum and no ones else has see it before, only you experience it all the time and can't explain it to anyone other than using random words like this pain feels like the taste of brown sugar and smell of vinegar exploding in your right forearm bone marrow.
@@nsmellowyellow1 Thanks, I appreciate it. There is some research that suggests BMS is a variant of RLS and dopamine regulation. But from my own and other's anecdotal evidence, seem more of a thing with people exposed to drugs that are both serotonigenic and norepinephrigenic at the same time, which is also what I was on, both drugs in fact were. There is also a link between all this with BMS and PGAD too and I read that people who have idiopathic PGAD find self relieve in becoming anorexic or bulimic and and these eating disorder manifesting appears to be a self medicating behaviour for the pain experienced in PGAD because starving the brain of certain nutrients seems to stop the symptoms. Very interesting and surprising links and I thought that when you mentioned using diet to control symptom.
I used to suffer with cluster headaches, which is considered the most severe form of migraine. It involves the trigeminal nerve & felt like an ice pick through the back of the eye/eyebrow. Or a brain freeze x 10. Truly debilitating. Three Botox treatments over a span of 2 years “cured” it in me after over 15 years of agony, breaking the chronic, cluster headache cycle. I highly recommend Botox treatments if you too have cluster headaches.
Thats good to hear, i have chronic severe migraines and occasionally intense head pain that is likely cluster headaches. They found out i have a brain malformation where the brain is too big and herniates down the back of spine, thankfully its not too severe but causes intense headpain if i strain. Anyway, neurologist said he will likely do botox treatments. I was skeptical but maybe it will finally let me live a normal life…
@@fintan9218 It was a Godsend. The first treatment stopped them within 4 days, & lasted 8 months until a hurricane (intense low pressure system) came through, triggering them back again. The second one worked easily half as well, & by 4 months started up again. I went in to the doctor & told him that, & he admitted to using half as much Botox. 🥺 He did it again, & that stopped them completely for several years. Every so often they want to start back up, but then the cycle fizzles out. If they ever fully come back again, I will Botox again. It’s cheaper than chasing after pain meds. Safer too. No threat of any addictions. (I will tell you the best non medicine treatment is a hot shower though. It dilates ALL your blood vessels, relieving the pressure on the problematic few in your head or neck. I will sit on the floor, so you don’t have to worry about balancing, & hold the shower massage head directly at the bad area. The nerves become so overstimulated that they cease the ability to fire (refractory period). The pain area becomes numb)
I have CRPS & severe migraines (and a very long list of other issues wrong with my body, I got a lemon) - only for me they aren't so much clusters as a steady build up of more & more frequent & severe migraines until it's nearly non-stop...that is, it was that way before starting the injections - the botox treatments are the best!!! My pain specialist Dr also gets severe migraines so she gets it (luckily for me!) I've gone in unable to open my eyes or speak & come out laughing a couple times, absolutely amazing! Now anytime they start getting bad again she gives another injection to prevent more 🎉
That's if insurance covers botox injections! Also, neurologists will charge for the entire bottle of botox and only use ⅓rd of the bottle (spreading it out amongst three patients). My former pain management doctor (he retired last year) did botox for my migraines, neck & facial pain. He used the entire bottle of botox, and it was just enough to cover everything. Both times he did it, the botox worked. Went to a neurologist, paid around the same amount as I did with the pain management specialist ($400), and the neurologist only used ⅓rd of the botox saying that it's 'standard procedure' to spread a vial across 3-4 patients. It wasn't enough botox, and of course, it didn't work. It has become frustrating to find another neurologist who will use enough botox for my head/face pain. 😔
When I was 2 I needed 5 stitches on my lip. My mom said I spent the whole time rolling like eyes at the doctor. Since then my mom has always been worried because my pain tolerance seems pretty high. When I was 19 I had a septic kidney infection and pneumonia. I remember it feeling like I had a knife in my back. In my 20s I had a really bad headache caused my sinusitis. Taking Norco was no help. In the ER I was given Percocet. I can only imagine my pain was minimal compared to the illnesses mentioned here.
I'd say sepsis ranks pretty high up on the list. I only remember it being relatively "painless" because I was on the equivalent of post-op painkillers, and I've heard that it can get even worse with shock and MOF
I once had two tattoos done on two consecutive days, one big piece on each upper arm. The day after the second one, I was completely bedridden with a high fever and such excruciating pain that I couldn't raise my arms above my heart without crying out. It felt like every inch of skin touched by that tattoo needle had been steam-burned. That day permanently changed my perception of pain. Everything else has to measure against that new standard. I hope no one else ever has to go through that. I pray that a stubbed toe or a stomachache is the worst thing people with a lower pain scale ever have to deal with, because the alternative is brutal, and no one deserves that.
I've had a tooth abscess affect the 5th cranial nerve. Of course I am lucky it was a tooth and not actual Trigeminal neuralgia. The pain was so bad I vowed to just be rid of all of my teeth forever and I have NEVER looked back. If these are worse than THAT pain - I never want a thunderclap headache either. Edit: I wrote this before seeing the rest of the video. I hit enter and then pressed play and WALLA! YOU MENTIONED TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA! Again, I'm very lucky that all I needed was a tooth removed. I was in a private ER screaming and then there's a gap in my memory and I remember sudden relief and 'coming to' with my head under the running warm water of the doctor's sink. Apparently they just let me do whatever I needed while they waited out my pain. Apparently. Also never went back to that private ER and won't lol.
I had constant esophageal spasms during the entirety of both pregnancies. Absolutely awful. Made worse by doctors thinking i was a wimp ("how are you going to manage labour?") and being unwilling to prescribe any medications because i was pregnant. I can say after the fact that my kids are worth it, but honestly can't believe i went through that twice!!
Three out of my four sisters myself included have this esophageal spasms my oldest sister was having this problem for years before we started to have the same problem no doctors helped or believed us, and said to take antacids... which did not help.
Please talk about Proctalgia Fugax! It's a rare condition causing muscle spasms in the pelvic floor and can be painful enough to make you pass out. Ask me how I know...
Man on Fire sounds like what I experienced when my doctor prescribed Tecfidera for my MS. It would set in a little while after I took the medication. My whole body would turn bright red, get hot, and it felt like somebody poured lighter fluid on me then struck a match. He said it was "flushing," but that was the most intense pain I've felt in my life. It left me in bed, writhing for over half an hour every time.
I can confidently say I once described my gallstone-induced pains as "like someone cutting me in half from the inside at every angle", because it *_REALLY WAS_* that intense and all-irradiating. Now instead of unbearably acute pains from gallstones lodging in my bile duct, I now only have annoyingly strong pains from my intestines acting up shortly after I eat any meal at all (for some reason???) which I like to describe as "like someone trying to mangle and turn my guts inside-out".
@@Brown95P I always said my gallbladder pain was like I'd swallowed a red hot steel ball. I have ulcerative colitis, so I've had the intestinal pain too, but it's under pretty good control now.
I've had something similar in experience to all of these and still continue to have weird sensations and pains that even I can't describe often. But none of them had a physical causes in the sites where I experience pains which move constantly btw. But rather mine are all been generated centrally within the brain due to abnormal function/activity, all caused by antidepressant withdrawals. Many trips to the ER, oh such fun. First one was by ambulance getting me out of the car screaming that my GF was driving me to ER in the first place but I couldn't make it due to the electrical attacks that felt like 415v 3 phase on my face and hands, yes I have been shocked by mains 240 a few times as that was nothing compared to this pain.
I have PCOS, and I had a cyst rupture. I thought I was dying. It was the worst pain-- it felt like I was being repeatedly stabbed with a knife. Horrible. Thankfully, it never happened again. I also have idiopathic peripheral neuropathy. It began about 13 years ago, and it's never gone away. The pain is in my hands and feet, and has made life more difficult. I can't get a job because of it, but they won't grant me disability. Sigh.
Regarding the esophagus issues, I'm the subject of a bunch of medical papers and research because my specialists determined I have the most severe case on record. Just wanna say that the pain is so bad, I legit didn't notice when I had a severe heart attack one day, I just kept doing yard work cuz I figured it was my esophagus. 😅 I was crazy surprised to be mowing the lawn, then suddenly I was in a copter being air lifted to Rochester, MN.😮😅
Not mentioned in this is that women generally have higher pain tolerances than men, presumably to aid in surviving childbirth. And anecdotally, I’ve seen it in action. I worked at a veterinary office that had access to an electric acupuncture stimulator. The doctors playing/experimenting around with it, hooked it up to both men & women identically, the power slowly cranked up. Invariably, the men would tap out at less than half what the women would. One of the men tapping out was an ex Navy SEAL, in case any of you are tempted to impugn his manhood.
and yet when we do finally complain that we are in pain enough to need something they just give us an ibuprofen for the same thing they’d give high-dose morphine to a man. seriously. they do this. all the freaking time.
I've seen women shrug off some gnarly injuries and just walk with a bone sticking out of a leg. My wife goes through terrible episodes without complaining. Episodes that would have me curling up and moaning.
@@joearnold6881 pfft. The equine veterinary hospital I worked at is world renown, dozens of resident doctors coming from all over the world every year to study with the doctors working there. Acupuncture isn’t flim flam. It has its merits, especially with soft tissue damage, which was in abundance with the race horses & dressage show horses that were brought to the hospital for treatment
@@joearnold6881 🙄The equine veterinary hospital is world renowned, doctors coming from all over the globe to study there, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, etc
I recently had what was eventually labelled an "esophageal spasm" out of the blue. It was a sudden onset and the worst thing I have ever experienced and I believe will ever experience. The A&E department just ignored my pain and explanations and sent me for an ECG to check for a heart attack despite that already being ruled out by the Ambulance. They then kicked me out of A&E to the emergency GP after only the single test. I had covered the floor of the department in vomit and spent 80% of my time there on the floor, sweating unable to move. Having pain ignored is almost as worse as the pain itself. The fact I had to go private to have a proper investigation done is even worse.
A good topic for this episode would have been hell itch. I developed it for a couple days last year after spending a large amount of time in the sun with no sunscreen. Apparently sometimes UV damage can lead to generalized nerve damage, which leads to a horrible stabbing itching feeling that causes spasms. I had to use lavender oil and extremely hot showers to alleviate the symptoms, but the pain didn't go away for almost 4 days
I injured my right arm trying to set a volleyball in gym class when I was 11. My hand bent backwards flat against my arm. I proceeded to do the EXACT same thing when I was 12 and 13. It was never the same after the first time, but by the 3rd injury I could no longer use my arm without pain. I got diagnosed with Complex regional pain syndrome at 14. Ive tried physical therapy and a ton of different pain medications. I'm now 19 and my only options for pain management are narcotics and medicinal marijuana. (Im allergic to NSAID type pain reliefs). I used to play 6 different instruments and now I only play a few times a year. CRPS is a waking nightmare, research is so desperately needed! Thanks for spreading awareness! You guys should also cover AMPS!
Omg! Me and my sister both have Jackhammer Esophagus!!!! I never knew what it was called until now but I 100% know how to trigger it, how it feels, and how yo try and avoid it. For me its when I eat a lot of warm starchy foods (like fresh French fries) in a pretty quick period and can feel like my entire chest, jaw, and throat muscles are being push from the inside out and the best thing I can do is stand up and walk around. I tried drinking water to help but it's not that simple, because it's like I can't swallow so I ended up nearly choking. Each time only allows very shallow breaths like my diaphragm is locked too. It's like being locked in a state where you've just taken a big breath but the muscles of the diaphragm and Esophagus are pounding really hard to get back to work. Sometimes it's light (about 10sec) the longest I've ever had it last was almost a minute and I was tearing up by the end!
I'm shocked fibromyalgia didn't make the list, but since some doctors don't believe it exists I can imagine that it is seriously downplayed. I have #5 in one foot and Dr's won't take it seriously either.
Using metaphor is exactly right. I recently experienced my first sinus headache and it was horrible. A nurse at the hospital asked me to describe it and the only thing I could say was "have you ever been backed up and not used the bathroom for like a week? And then you finally DO start to go and suddenly you can feel immense pressure building up inside your body? Imagine that sensation, but inside your head."
Y'all should do an episode on back pain. There may actually be enough there for several episodes. Those of us who suffer from chronic back pain, definitely know there are various causes, treatments, and other health conditions that arise from not being able to treat the pain.
I was in an ICU for 6 days a year ago. The nurses would ask me my pain level on a scale of 1-10 before and after they gave me pain meds. On the sixth day, when I was more alert, I noticed a pain scale on the wall. The ten on the scale was my 5. To me a 10 is the pain you feel right before you pass out from pain. Been there, and let me tell you, you're so grateful when you pass out. Pain scales are pointless if you don't know what someones 1-10 is. BTW what got me through the pain of recovery was THC/CBD gummies. The Oxy they prescribed me wasn't doing much. It wasn't worth being treated like a criminal when picking them up. I'm not a cannabis guy at all. Thankfully a friend gave me a couple of gummies to try. They made the Oxy seem like a placebo (one that didn't work at all). Finally I could function, pain free, and sleep through the night. I found it ironic and funny that picking up Dr. prescribed pain meds I was treated like I was the scum of the earth, but I could buy THC/CBD gummies with no judgement.
I do the same thing when my fibromyalgia gets really bad. Also, marijuana has been shown to be less addictive than opiods so if THC works then why bother with Oxy and the like? 😂
I pulled my back out and it spasmed so severely I was hospitalised. My mam had to call an ambulance, who had to call the fire brigade, because i couldn't move. I never cry/scream etc. from pain (social anxiety) but I couldn't not. 10/10 pain and i have migraines.
How about having a hematoma in your scrotum that causes it to swell until it actually rips open That was the stuff of nightmares And made me redefine my pain scale
I had a hematoma in my chest after a recent surgery. I can't even imagine how bad that would feel in the scrote, tho I guess not having one kinda lends itself to that.
I had lots of severe pain for several years, went to the ER a couple times. They gave me morphine, and it did absolutely nothing. I ended up having to have Dilaudid. I ended up self diagnosing with nutcracker esophagus. (it’s incredibly hard to get an actual diagnosis, especially if you’re a woman.). Whenever I started to feel symptoms, I started using hot water and hot tea to calm them enough that they weren’t excruciating. The thing that ended up curing it was…. an adjustable bed. It was completely accidental, got it free with my mattress. Sleeping with my head elevated relieved all of my symptoms. I’m so angry about the entire thing. No one cared about my pain, even when morphine didn’t touch it. The cure was so simple, and that makes me angry too! How many people are suffering excruciating pain because doctors just aren’t listening? Oh, I should’ve mentioned that the only reason that the ER gave me Dilaudid was because I worked in the hospital. I was an IT tech , all the doctors and nurses knew me, and they knew for a fact that I wasn’t a drug seeker. It was the worst pain I’ve ever had. I’ve had a child, been through years of childhood abuse, I’ve had migraines, and I have chronic pain. Nothing even touched the pain of the nutcracker esophagus.
I have nerve damage, and it causes the face and neck to feel like it's on fire... One time, I got an infection in my breast that caused it to swell up to 7xs the size. The air on my skin was enough to make me want to end it all. It was unbelievable, and even my shirt touching me felt like a million needles at once.
8:08 botox is surprisingly useful for esophagus stuff! ive been researching people who cant burp as an aside to looking into hernia stuff, and oftentimes they are unable to burp because it is difficult/impossible for them to relax the muscle- honestly seems really similar to jackhammer esophagus. anyways, botox treatments have helped a lot of people who couldnt burp! not for everyone, and needs redone every few months or so, but the fact that we have a treatment option for this is really cool.
I have erythromelalgia (and esophageal spasms caused by gerd, but not jackhammer esophagus. They really are the devil.) I rarely hear others talk about these conditions, so thank you!
Now that you've done a video on conditions that cause extreme pain, I think it'd be interesting to see you do a video on conditions that cause you to feel no pain at all.
I have the swallowing disorder where it feels like the food or drink gets stuck before getting to the stomach. My doctor found that esomeprazole magnesium (nexium) works (with me) to make swallowing normal again. Yes, it’s painful but is nothing compared to the kidney stones I’ve had several times during my lifetime. It is the all time worst pain I’ve ever experienced. Even having my leg amputated was nowhere as painful. I do have phantom sensations but rarely have phantom pain. Pain from something that no longer exists is mind boggling.
I don't have any of these (as far as I know, feet are currently burning), but as far as I know, my burning feeling, is from RLS, as burning can be one of the sensations. Gabapentin helps. Also dealing with a painful itch from Shingles. It's more annoying and lainful, than anything else
I had kidney stones, 2 broken legs, etc. The worst thing I had was panic attacks. You feel like you are drowning and flailing to get one gasp of air. With physical pain you can somewhat mentally cope, but a panic attack wrecks your thought process. It explodes your command and control center. But it does not fit on the pain scale.
I had steroids as an EDS patient. The pain that caused me had me passing out and going to the ER where they, not realizing it was the steroids, gave me more steroids, causing lifelong pain that just got worse when another hospital hurt me.
😮 i have EDS and was on 3 rounds of steroids last year, this is my first year in a while I was able to work at home and recover and not go to the ER at all. I thought I was nuts feeling worse every time I started steroids again, do you know the potential link?
Wait, steroids are bad if one has EDS? I believe I have EDS, though I haven't gotten anyone to test me for it yet. I am being evaluated currently for Myasthenia Gravis, though. If they decide that I have it they will put me on prednisone, which is something that I've wanted because of my widespread chronic pain. But it sounds from your experience that being on prednisone might make the pain worse?? That almost does seem likely for me, though. I've had multiple rounds of cortisone injections in both feet and both knees. The 1st shots to each location did seem to help. But soon after the 2nd injection to each location caused me to feel like the bones all of a sudden became badly dislocated. It was excruciating trying to function that way. And I am unable to walk without crutches anymore. I did feel better after a 6 day pack of prednisone. But now I'm worried about what taking more than that would do.
@@anyascelticcreations Yeah steroids break down the same collagen that our genetics means we don't make it well. It doesn't happen for everyone with EDS but the negative effects if it does go wrong are bad enough I strongly recommend against using steroids. I was originally okay with a round or two when I was younger for something, but one round for the first time in a long time and suddenly I was being treated for shock at the hospital while they struggled to figure out why my body went into shock in the first place. Gabapentin is a good alternative. And consider lidocaine instead of cortisone injections.
@@Who-en2vo It breaks down the connective tissues that are already faulty in our disorder. When they're repaired, they're repaired worse than they originally were.
When evaluating my chronic spinal pain on a scale of 1-10, I had to ask if passing out and being unconscious from pain counted as a 10. It does count as a 10, as this is the brain's way of not dealing with excruciating pain.
Ahhhhh, I have erythromelalgia. Thank you so much for mentioning it here, makes me feel seen. Mine affects my hands and feet mostly, and to a lesser extent my face and chest too. I've had it for 17 years and over time it has increased my pain tolerance as a matter of survival so that now I don't even register stimuli that are painful to most.
OMG I HAVE ERYTHROMELALGIA AS WELL. I'VE HAD IT FOR ABOUT 10 YEARS NOW AND I'M SO GLAD IT MADE THE LIST. IT'S USUALLY CRPS THAT MAKES THE LIST AND ERYTHROMELALGIA IS OFTEN MISDIAGNOSED AS CRPS. I FINALLY FEEL VALIDATED. :)
I didn't realize it but pretty sure my sis has this.... her hand always get red and hot and she just lols about it😅 it also raised her pain tolerance btw.
A friend with trigeminal neuralgia described it like an ice pick being dragged through his face. He had surgery that fixed it, which involved cutting a hole in his skull to isolate the nerve.
I was diagnosed with CRPS in 2012 and some other ways to treat it are Dorsal Root Ganglion Stimulation and Spinal Cord Stimulation. This is where a set of electrodes are placed against the nerves exiting the spinal column, these electrodes produce an electric current to 'numb' the nerve. If it works it can give good levels of pain reduction and can be used either in place of or with medication. A downside of the stimulators is that you have a small device implanted under your skin so you have to take the same precautions as people with pacemakers regarding security scans. This is just a helpful bit of info from someone with Dorsal Root and Spinal Cord stimulators implanted. Also, the affected area can either be hot or cold and have colour changes.
I have had a kidney or bladder stone pass (they never figured out which), appendicitis nearing rupture, and a horse I was riding rear up and flip over on me, ripping loose nerves, tendons, and muscles down one side of my back, as well as an unstable fracture of my humerus. I would rank them from least to worst as: appendicitis, humerus, stone and torn back muscles. The back because it was the longest lasting, and because even breathing hurt.
Having been lucky with the handful of kidney stones I've had (all small and dissolved when they hit the bladder), the pain level is awful, and had me dry heaving for ages each time. So at least I got to skip the worst part of the damn things. But it still didn't rank as the worst pain I've experienced, which was a deep jaw infection. That was so bad even after taking serious painkillers that I fantasised about just hitting myself in the face with a hammer to make it go away!
Thsnk you for including CRPS in your list!! I truly wish more people knew about it... unless you're in a flate, it's considered one of the invisible diseases. I look normal, but every single one of my chronic conditions are invisible AND incurable 😢😢
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Visit brilliant.org/scishow/ to get started learning STEM for free. The first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription and a 30-day free trial.
Poor job. PAIN? Almost 40 percent of females who have had a kidney stone and given birth said the kidney stone is way worse. Kidney stones are regarded as probably the most painful thing known to people who have compared them to other conditions. I once had a gal who had 4 children and a kidney stone say exactly this: "I've given birth to 4 children and had a kidney stone, and I would much rather give birth again than have another kidney stone". So sorry women, men can experience pain worse than child birth, just depends on the size and duration of the stone.
i once ran into a doorframe and sprained 3 bones
and it was actually relatively recently
Tired of the gaslighting in the medical industry in general and I am a nurse
@@thebiggianthead8364 I've always hated being asked to rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10, because I had no way to calibrate that. But when I had a kidney stone, they told me, "Now you know what a 10 is."
But OMG, these other things sound pretty awful, too. Thanks SciShow, you've given me five more things to worry about, as I approach my golden years!
Should be STEAM
I had hemorrhoid surgery, which went wrong, I was in extreme pain for 4 months, painkillers didn't work. Basically whenever you go for the loo, you sweat like a pig because your mind anticipates the oncoming extreme pain. You are so scared you cry even before the pain has started. This shatters you mentally.
I had tears in my sphincter, which is not the exact same thing, but the pain is comparable. The sweating is so relatable.
Hemorrhoids are horrible. They really affect the quality of your life.
A friend of mine experienced something similar years ago. I hope it's in your past.
I just thought the sweating was my body overheating bc my gut is going nuts
Ugh. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I have an anal 'fissure' which causes lots of pain and blood and when it's at its worst I'm scared to use the bathroom too. The worst part is trying to get help from doctors and nurses, so many of them are reluctant to discuss the problem in detail because it's "gross" or "taboo" or whatever. Which is ridiculous. I've had nurses laugh at me when I was trying to get help with my pain. I hate people's suffering not being taken seriously.
In place of the ‘hurts a bit hurts some hurts a lot’ scale, I like the ones that categorize ‘mildly annoying’ ‘limits physical work’ ‘unable to speak’
The mankoski scale! I like it too bc it standardizes pain levels
Ive got a personal pain scale i like quite a bit. 1 is a minor nuisance, 5 is ok this friggin hurts, 7 your cursing like a sailor, 8 vasovagal onset (sweating going pale feeling like your a million degrees, and inability to speak), 9 is (usually) passing out, and 10 is shock.
I have only been at a 9 once in my life. I personally think there should be something past unconscious.
I would still argue Schmidt's scale is the most accurate but it's hard to explain to patient quickly
@@cyruskhalvatiisn't that basically just death? Going "beyond unconscious" seems like a one way street, your neurons getting fried by the signal intensity
@@georgiykireev9678 no. Shock can be survivable. Its not just death
Chronic pain can literally change how your brain perceives pain. Confusingly, chronic pain patients can have both a much higher pain tolerance *and* have nerves that are hypersensitive to pain.
High perception/detection. Any little thing *could* be pain, so the brain wants to know about it, but sometimes it just goes "I mean, I guess that hurts?"
For sure, a friend of mine has fibro and had to go to hospital after falling down the stairs cuz the cut she got was going bad. Fortunately when she called the doctors, the person she spoke to was savvy enough to ask if there were any reasons her perception of pain might be impaired. She didnt feel the pain cuz her joints hurt all the time regardless
Exactly this, have fibromyalgia and can confirm. I’ll initially overreact to mild unexpected pain and then think, “not that bad”. I’ve also alarmed doctors doing something painful to me by telling them, “don’t worry, you can’t hurt me more than my body does at times”. It’s easier to deal with pain that I know is coming, especially from outside sources
Yup. Took me a couple days to get seen for a torn labrum in my shoulder because it didn't feel any worse than a normal dislocation does, but sometimes wearing the wrong fabric is literally painful.
@@kittycatcaoimheyes! I frequently roll my ankles (bc there’s basically zero stability in them) and they can even bruise and swell but it won’t hurt but certain fabrics hurt
I have never used "burning" or "stabbing" to refer to intensity -- it has always been about differences in kind. A burning pain feels different from a stabbing pain, not because it is more or less intense, but simply because they are different forms of pain.
And each type of pain can have its own level of intensity, within the type.
A weird analogy would be dog barks. Some paint are small and yippy. Other pains are medium sized and sharp - or medium seized and low and growly and deep. Still others are large and booming. Sometimes the pain barks come close together, other times they're spread apart, still others it's all but non stop as the pain is frantic. And the the LOUDNESS of them is still its own variable, just like the intensity of the pain is its own variable. A dog barking from a block away is a lot quieter than a dog barking five feet away.
Same here. I've also described my joint pain as acidic or electric. The adjectives describe the flavor of the pain, not the intensity.
@@katarh Perfect analogy with the dog barks!
Exactly! For me shooting or hot pain is nerve pain (as in, a fault in the nerve network) whereas low pain is cramping and and higher pitch pain is acute injury
I always get so confused when doctors ask me about stuff like "burning" or "stabbing" pain. Except for when I get stabbed or burned by something, neither of those words have in any sense been descriptive of any aspect of any pain I've ever felt - but somehow I am seemingly expected to be able to talk about pain in terms that have absolutely nothing to do with my experience in order to get help, or some times even be taken seriously. What am I supposed to do, flip a coin about it?
The first thing they taught us at the Pain Clinic’s Pain Management Programme: All Pain is Real. All Pain is Valid.
completely, totally, 100% AGREE with you. All Pain is Real. All Pain is Valid.
it's SO not about anyone else, comparison = just understanding, empathy, compassion & support.
my first appointment with my Pain Clinic was in 2021 - so thanks to covid, we were back in lockdown, so just a phone conversation (& a list of books to read)
my second appointment was earlier this year - where he kept insisting we'd met before and we spent the majority of our time trying to establish his burning question - how FAR could I walk. (me: confused - how is this relevant?)
not only was this the focus of his letter to my doctor, he stated that I did NOT suffer from something that predates most of my other issues & is clearly documented on my medical records.
The many things I learned as a chronic pain patient from pain specialists are, "You're too young to be in pain", "You're too young for treatment", "It's all in your head", "There is nothing to be done", "Stop being so sensitive", "It's not our responsibility to treat this" and much more.
I agree with all pain is real.
The all pain is valid part though? According to my experience and the experience of many people I know, that is not true.
@@AkariTheImmortal Having your pain invalidated does not make it invalid. You are so right, though, that it is NOT common for people's pain to be validated, and that is so incredibly harmful! I'm so sorry that has been your experience and the experience of many others. I can't imagine how demoralizing it can be to be told your pain isn't valid.
@@AkariTheImmortal oh hun, I am so so SO sorry that has been your experience.
although I'm not very happy with the level of support & help that I currently have, I am really grateful that the first doctor I saw took my pain seriously, as did the specialists she referred me to.
(I REALLY lucked on for once - took me years to get other health issues taken seriously, (seriously two years here, seven years there, just fighting, battling - is disheartening & soul destroying)
I know there are so many other people, like you, who have no even got that basic acknowledgment of your pain - that it is real, genuine -
one of the places I visited on my journey was a place called 'the mighty' -
"We make health about people by bringing together the stories and lived experiences of those who have been there. Penned by our community and curated by our editors, the collections below feature some of our best, most helpful articles on health topics that matter to you"
look them up - (youtube doesn't like linking people...)
sending you support, love, encouragement, strength - care, compassion, empathy, understanding - all the GOOD things. 💖
You got very lucky. In the pain clinic I was in they tried to tell me I’m imagining and making up the pain from my damaged Ehlers- Dahnlos- syndrome joints.. I didn’t even yet have trigeminal neuralgia back then, that got triggered by my hearing aids that I got at 25, they were pushing on the nerve because it’s right next to my ear canal for me.
Many (gentle) hugs to all my chronic pain friends, whether your pain is constant or intermittent! You deserve all of the love
Thank you so much!! Very much appreciated and needed today 😊😊❤
Thank you, I'll pass it on to my wife. It's painful to watch someone suffer, and not be able to do anything :/.
Thank you, have an internet hug :)
Thank you for your kindness and understanding. 💖
I don't know what's wrong with me but I've had everyday headaches for yeeeaaaars
Trigeminal Neuralgia patient here, I really can’t express how bad the pain can get during attacks, before I was diagnosed, I had been through some pretty intense injuries including a burst fracture of my L5, compound fracture of my left radius and ulna, herniated discs etc. and absolutely all of it was a walk in the park compared to TN. Legitimately I would rather go through the pain of breaking my back every single day for the rest of my if meant I didn’t have TN anymore. The condition has a rather notorious nickname and history, and it’s debated whether our not it’s worth it to continue to keep calling it that, but it’s the quickest way to get across the level of pain, and it still does happen unfortunately.
For those wondering the nickname is the " end yourself" disease
Only another suffer can truely understand. At its worst mine can literally feel like being stabbed in the ear with a soldering iron while half of your teeth are being ripped out at the same time. Non sufferers think this is an exaggeration.
@@sunshine4ndrainbows397I have personally lost two of my friends from my support group this way.
@@stephenwhite506 Is there no treatment or surgery for that?
@@Maverick_Mad_Moiselle It really depends on the specific case, there are a lot of treatments, from Microvascular Decompression surgery, to Gamma Knife Radiotherapy, and a plethora of medications that can be used, that being said not all patients have access to all treatments, not all Neurologists and Neurosurgeons are up to date on everything TN as it’s a relatively rare condition so often times patients have to go to pretty long lengths to find relief, and some cases can be particularly difficult to the point where a patient might have had multiple MVDs with no relief and end up getting something like a Dilaudid pump implanted, and that’s if they even have a doctor who knows it’s a possibility, because broadly Opioids are viewed as a no go for TN.
Wow, I'm so glad you included trigeminal neuralgia in this. I was born with it! Somehow... It actually manifested when I was an infant, and was deemed congenital. I just turned 32 last week, so I do persist to spite the horrors. By now, though, I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia by my neurologist. But my face still hurts the most, more often. It's the eternal bane of my existence, honestly.
I also love y'all so much. I found you early on after the pandemic started, and you helped keep my mind occupied a lot. You also fed my unending need to keep learning.
First off, happy late birthday!
I'm 27 with scoliosis, spina bifid occulta, a 6th lumbar vertebrae due to improper formation of the sacrum, spinal arthritic spurs only commonly found in people over 50, and finally fibromyalgia.
I love the term "continue to persist to spite the horrors" as it's quite applicable for me majority of days. I'm hoping that what's going on for you is lesser than what I'm going through but it doesn't sound to be the case. Glad to hear you're still living day by day despite the pain.
@@vincenttrigg4521 Thanks!
Oh, yikes. It's so 'fun' when you get disorders that people only associate with older people. I wish you the best.
Glad you like it. Thanks to having trigeminal neuralgia like I do, for so long, I use spite as fuel. It triggered a lot of traumatic nonsense because it took a lot to get me diagnosed (false accusations, child protective services, and foster hell very early on). 2020 actually saw it get significantly worse, and eventually I realized it was no longer just the left side, but also the right side was getting pain. Currently I'm looking at using being a college (history) student to access research from the library database. I almost went into neurology exactly because of my face, but nursing didn't work out when I started college over a decade ago.
@@wanderingsilverrose I wish you the best as well, sounds like quite a rough upbringing so I apologize. I hope things work out in regards to your research!
It must suck to have your face cause you so much pain, my face just causes pain to people who look at me
Never thought that something I had would ever be on a list like this. I have Nutcracker esophagus and have had the pains to the point of losing breath and parts of my body going numb. I am honestly crying now because I finally have an answer for something I could never describe properly.
I also have this and I heard from someone else with it about a non-invasive treatment that is worth a try before you go for any of the more intense stuff: Omeprazole or Prilosec. The over the counter dosage works for me, and I have to take it daily, and you should 100% talk to your doctor about it, but it helped me immensely. The worst that happens is it doesn’t work and you have to go for something more intense.
I have it, too, but it is intermittent and triggered by certain foods. I had never heard of it before this video, but my mom has it also.
Good to know the spasms I have when swallowing sometimes have an actual name. Just another fun thing in what is becoming a laundry list of medical issues. I’ve had to posit the theory to my cardiologist that the arrhythmias I experience are just another random muscle spasm I get since I experience them throughout my body at random. So a random throat spasm when I’m swallowing makes total sense, unfortunately
Hey! I have this also. Ended up having to self diagnose after being in the ER several times and morphine not helping. Not helping at all. I accidentally fixed my symptoms by getting an adjustable bed and sleeping with my head elevated. The adjustable bed came free with my mattress, otherwise I would not have found relief . Also when I start to have symptoms, I use hot water or tea immediately.- it doesn’t stop the symptoms, but it seems to mute them quite a bit to the point that they are tolerable. I never got an actual diagnosis because no one cared to diagnose me, I had to use my own symptoms to figure it out. I spent many nights sitting up in weird positions just trying to alleviate the pain slightly.
I’m sorry you’re going through this, and I’m sorry that no one has helped you. I understand the severity of the pain.
In addition, I would just follow general guidelines for GERD as there is a lot of evidence that acid reflux is a trigger for nutcracker esophagus. For instance, i’m very careful with tomato sauce. I keep it to a minimum, and under no circumstances what I eat a large amount or eat it close to bedtime.
I have it, but perhaps not to the strongest degree. Only happens when I haven't eaten/drank anything in a while and am going fast while not paying attention. I have to regulate my breathing for it to taper off and control when I swallow.
It honestly reminds of when I have to reboot my dog... A pug with the "reverse sneezing". I can always help him by holding his nose when he inhales. After a few times it resets what I assume is a muscle spasm/out of sync thing by making him breath through his mouth and swallowing.
I can say something really hurts bad when you get dizzy and cold chills and hot sweats and vomiting all from the pain just to hurt so much
I had this with my worst migraine crisis ever. I had never felt chills from pain before in my life. It was awful.
Welcome to life
Sometimes it skips past all those stages and you start going into shock,as I did when my endometriosis reached its worst.
Weak
Yes, experienced most of this with DI Endometriosis. My jaw would start chattering with pain and shock.
I suffer from bilateral Trigeminal Neuralgia. My support group really helps as I get to share with people that truly understand what I'm going through. There is one person involved that travels the world and for every seminar or other support group they go to they servey the women in the audience and ask them if TN is more painful than child birth. So far, one hundred percent of women have said yes.
Yes, much worse than childbirth, with no drugs. Ha! May I ask what type of support group you use? I moderate a small group on messenger, but we're pretty scattered.
@@bekahpainter8156 I live in Australia and the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association Of Australia maintains a support group in most capital cities that meet up every second month.
I can only faintly imagine what that has to be like, because the only thing I've ever experienced that I described as being like 'a lightning bolt in the face' was the time a shattered tooth peeled a half-inch strip of bone out of my jawbone but stayed technically connected and mostly under the gum line for a week before I could get surgery. If you have to deal with that kind of pain or worse on a 'could happen whenever, good luck' basis, you've got all the sympathy I can give and I'm glad you have a good support group.
Gosh, I can’t imagine
Doctors not believing their patients is a huge problem in health care at this time. Either they don't believe, or, they just don't care.
I don't doubt that that's true somewhere, but I live in Oregon and I've had chronic pain for nearly 20 years of all different kinds. Out of all the doctors I've been to, only one has been like this. Everyone else takes me seriously and tries to get to the bottom of it. Just wanted to add my point of view into the whole.
Sometimes they believe you but they do nothing about it. Like, not even recommending that you get it checked with a specialist or anything.
Yup. I got misdiagnosed because of it and it was a very easy diagnosis had the doctor believed me. I still resent them for it but it wasn't my actual doctor, just someone I had seen at a walk in clinic.
@@timandmonica unfortunately, most doctors I've been to were dismissive and didn't believe what I was telling them, especially primary care doctors on military bases. My mom and some of my siblings have had the same experience. Only after I aged out of my parents' insurance and started more regularly going to a primary care clinic attached to a medical school near where I live now did doctors really take me seriously. I was able to get diagnosed with things and get treatment for those things. I am in poor health due primarily to bad genes, and many of the specialists at the medical center I go to that is also attached to the university actually recognize that now. Even then, it's still hit or miss.
when u got crackheads going in faking pain to get pills I get them being leary which screws it up for the rest of us
A challenge I have is... as a runner I just have a high pain tolerance. The problem with this is I normally do not show signs of pain or weakness. When chronic pain hits and it gets exhausting or crippling, then I give into the pain to prevent further injury. The problem is... those around me have trouble believing the severity of the pain I'm feeling since I'm no drama-king about it. Human compassion is hard to find these days😢
Same. My body also does not properly respond to pain killers. I have never been numb at the dentist in my life. Also, saw a nurses face go white when she was able to measure my contractions after my pitocin was raised for labor while I was joking about traffic on the way to the hospital to be induced. Ill never forget her face when she asked if I was okay and my response was "Well it's not interrupting my sentences yet" 😅😂
Yep, those if us with high pain tolerances are that way for a reason. We've lived our lives in constant pain. Normal people can't fathom the lives we have to live, and medical folks don't believe us.
High pain tolerance experiencer here. Also have quite a few things going on in my spine, one of them being fibromyalgia. When things started taking affect, what was the worst part was because they couldn't see any major things with x-rays, my doctor just refused to believe I was actually in as much pain as I was. I had to switch to another before I started getting the tests I needed to discover other underlying problems.
Part of my upbringing actually resulted in my pain tolerance. Growing up I had constant pain in my legs, got x-rays, they saw nothing of the legs, said I was doing it for attention and faking it... that was fun. Turns out I have spina bifid occulta, which causes lots of leg pain, especially in minors. If they looked at my back instead of my legs then they might have discovered it sooner. So I built tolerance to that pain over the years but it compounded with other pain. So I got called lots of things like wimp, wuss, and weak. So I decided to stop showing it to others whenever I was hurting which took so much willpower and effort. I developed in such a way that I started showing nearly nothing to any physical distress that I had. I could mention it bothering me but I wouldn't really react. Completely remain calm if cut, burned or even had the end of my thumb shredded by a saw. I can handle lots of physical injuries without showing response so when pain started getting so bad that I had to start missing work, I was concerned... doctor? Not so much. Pain increased to the point that all I could do to get around the house most times was crawl. Swapped doctors, finally got proper tests.
Full physical diagnosis is: spina bifid occulta, scoliosis, a 6th lumbar vertebrae due to improper formation of the sacrum, spinal arthritic spurs only commonly found in people over 50, and fibromyalgia.
I have a similar pain tolerance problem. Especially for headaches.
Mine is more of a chronic pain issue, as by the time it is noticed over my normal level issues, it's way worse than it normally would be when someone notices. A headache puts me down hard and nobody gets it but my wife. She's known me long enough she understands. The personal differences between individuals really makes it hard for us to understand the pain of others unless we have felt our own version of that exact malady, which is tough to find.
''as a runner' lmao
Gastroparesis here, recovering from a poop that made everything from the bottom of my ribs to my thighs hurt. Probably an 8 on my scale. I've had a few that were worse, get migraines and used to puke for 6 hours at a time, being hospitalized for it twice.
That's right, my condition causes me to poop so hard my LEGS hurt.
I would have thought if it's that bad it would make sense to get a stoma?
Hey, me too! But usually I don't even realize that my guts have gone on vacation until I'm nauseated and stop to think about it and figure out that I haven't had a movement in 3 days. I have a standing prescription for reglan. I've also been thinking about the gastric stimulation implant. But it's not something that I can't control with reglan, diet, exercise, and massage, so, I probably won't go for the stimulation implant until I don't have any other choice.
@@conlon4332stoma isn't usually some that will help with gastric motility. Meds, a stimulation implant, diet, exercise, massage.
Absolute worst case is IV nutrition. In non diabetic gastroparisis anyway.
Diabetic gastroparisis is from nerve damage and may require a stoma if parts of the intestine have died or perforated. I'm not super up on that. Mine isn't from diabetes.
@@ThisIsATireFire wait ur not supposed to poop every 3 days?
@progfox Every day, my dude. Don't worry if you hold back now and then, for a day. Three days is too many!
I've experienced severe chronic pain for all of my 65 years due to Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, and a variety of other painful conditions. This video has made me feel a whole lot better about them. 😅
crap, you got the whole bucket. sorry for that.
the only thing i had was a septic jaw. lost one side totally and now i have a rip in it. THAT was enough for me.
When did the fibromyalgia appear?
Asking as I have scoliosis, spina bifida occulta, a 6th lumbar vertebrae due to improper formation of the sacrum, spinal arthritic spurs which I'm told are only commonly found in people over 50, and of course - fibromyalgia.
I'm 27 but been living with the symptoms of at least some since I was 18 after a car accident
@Asmodis4 do you mean they removed part of the jaw bone and muscle tissues?
@@vincenttrigg4521 yes
@@Asmodis4 jeez... that sounds brutal, I'm so sorry! What did they do to replace the missing bone?
One of the silliest questions the doctors/RNs ask, “if pain was a number from 1 to 10….”.
I never know how to answer, because I don’t know what THEIR reference for each number is…
Seeing the little emoji’s next to the numbers in this video should be presented EVERY time that question is asked! Thank you for the visual!
I always used to have this problem myself. I can't link to it here, but I'd recommend taking a look at the DVPRS ('Defense and Veteran Pain Rating Scale), it's still a 1-10 but the rating is based on how much the pain is impairing your ability to function and runs from '1 - barely notice' to '9 - can't bear the pain, unable to do anything' and '10 - as bad as it can be, nothing else matters'.
My impression is that they're asking *mainly* to determine whether you're going to be OK without immediate relief or whether you're struggling to not just scream forever and need that fixed before you can answer questions coherently, so you don't need to be quite as rigorously precise as you might be with details like what medications you're on.
(I'm autistic and trying to navigate arbitrary scales like the default pain rating scale is something a lot of us struggle with, which is how I found out about the alternates in the first place.)
@@mechalith2791 Thank you!
@@monicawallace-jn8tl I always felt that way, too. Who knows how to calibrate that scale? (And they never showed me the little faces.) But then when I had a kidney stone, they told me, "Now you know what a 10 is."
It's not the Doctors reference that is important. It's asking about your experience with pain. Where 10 is the worst pain you have ever felt in your life
@@sharonminsukit's your personal pain reference not the Doctors.
0 is pain that is mild you can easily ignore it and 10 is the worst pain you have ever felt in your life
I have CRPS in a foot. All I did was remove my slipper with the back of my other slipper at the Achilles heel. That's it. I already have central nervous system issues with pain which is probably why my brain reacted with pain loops instead of healing properly.
It also causes my nerves to not stretch anymore, they are stuck in place and so stiff so I can't put my foot flat and my calf has atrophied so much despite trying everyday with physical therapy. CRPS ends up leading to atrophy cause you can't move your muscles and nerves cause they hurt like hell. I might never walk again.
But worse are my friends who have it body-wide!! They are extremely courageous.
I’ve had three separate incidents of CRPS, two (a hand and a foot) went into remission the current one (other foot)hasn’t. I’m on 15 years without walking after spraining my ankle. I’m such a classic presentation that whenever I end up at a new clinic they bring all the interns in to look at how my foot turns purple and the nail has changed texture.
I've CRPS in ¾ of my body. It's hell. I got very lucky shortly after I was diagnosed with it (initially in my wrist & lower arm) having met someone with it in her hand that had froze & atrophied I realized I'd have to fight through the pain or the same would happen to me. Everything ever done to make it better instead made it spread. Wound up in a wheelchair.
I got even luckier when I met a chronic pain specialist that was willing to prescribe me enough meds to enable me to fight through the pain & learn to walk again, etc and was thriving for a while! I was walking, hiking, dancing & even training to go backpacking for the very first time (a life long dream!)
Then the opioid crisis hit. Drs were forced to drastically lower meds. I've been wheelchair & bed bound the last 7-8yrs now.
Just needed to share with people who get it. Thanks for your time. Gentle hugs! Things will get better again eventually, they always do
What is CRPS, I have weird issues like this all the time :/
After reading these comments, I feel 'less alone' with my pain & painful health conditions.
I also realized my dental pain might very well be from medial (?) branch TN, which caused me to have numerous fillings, half a dozen root canals, and at least two teeth extracted due to the extreme pain. The dentist, endodontist, and oral surgeon never even suggested this could be the issue. I've spent thousands of dollars over the past decade on dental procedures that I recently suspected I didn't need. Thank you, everyone, for sharing your experiences!!
I can't imagine what it's like for anyone who has those conditions. the worst I've had are migraines (since I was 7) and cluster migraines that last for up to a week. they're so bad I can't see, throw up from the pain and any light or smell, and when they happen i want to drill a hole in my skull or remove the neck of my spine to relieve the pressure. i can't imagine anything beyond that, but I'm taking that and adding to try and understand what's being dealt with for these conditions and it makes me wanna cry. I'm so, so sorry to anyone that has them and please know you are incredible for living your life regardless
I have had cluster headache migraines, trigeminal neuralgia and nutcracker esophagus, and honestly I’d get rid of the migraines first. I have other severe pain conditions as well (severe constant muscle spasms, like Charlie horses but in my back neck and head due to a genetic anomaly) so I guess I’m just kinda used to it, but I am the biggest wimp when it comes to nausea. Anything that makes me throw up is horrifying. So yeah. Migraine first, neuralgia second (again because of nausea) and in terms of pain the spasms because they are constant and sometimes make me pass out. We all have different tolerances. For another example, I’d rather get spinal surgery or a compound fracture than a root canal. Tooth pain is an existential threat to me for some reason. I get my teeth professionally cleaned every two to three months to avoid it.
I've had migraines for a while now, but by far the worst was a thunderclap headache. I was halfway through a sentence and just started shouting from the unexpected pain. Went to the hospital for it and they found out that I was fine and it was just an unusually extreme complex migraine.
The upside, though, is that "normal" migraines don't seem to hurt too bad after that one :)
(Other huge upside is that it only happened once)
As someone with a very high tolerance to pain, I have a hard time explaining to doctors that when I say something hurts, it is bad.
I hesitated writing this because it sounds mean but... whats the problem then? If you have a high tolerance you can tolerate more pain without medication or treatment, but when it gets to be more than you can tolerate, how is describing that any different from someone with a low tolerance? "Doc I have more pain than I can tolerate, it is preventing me from performing my daily activities". Sounds more like you have either low confidence in your public speaking, or afraid you will present drug seeking behavior. Either way, practice makes perfect, when the pain lasts for days, weeks, or months on end... and repeats over the decades of your life... trust me, you'll get much better at describing it
@@Billionth_Kevin Oh my sweet summer child
Because pain almost always indicates something bad. If someone with extremely high pain tolerance experiences something to them "mildly painful", it could be a medical emergency, and something anyone else would be in agony for@@Billionth_Kevin
I get what you saying, I have stubbed my toe and kept on walking with barely a skip to the step.. it hurts, I feel it, I just carry on. I have cut myself, accidentally, and known it, cleaned and bandaged it.. and find the tingling of healing over the next few days more annoying than the actual getting of the wound.
Then again I live with chronic pain for many years and that raises tolerance as well.
Cluster headaches, i wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy.
Why is "Cluster headaches" blue and with a magnifying glass symbol beside it
@@AaronGeoRUclips doing what BiliBili does and automatically highlighting definitions of terms is my guess
@AaronGeo some kind of search thing to get you to click on it tiktok does the same
I kept waiting for that one, too. There's lots of research showing that cluster headaches are one of the most painful conditions known. I was surprised they left it out.
Yep, my husband has them. Thankfully he's had some luck with an immunotherapy drug meant to treat migraines (emgality) and it's seemed to work better each year he's taken it. He actually didn't get any headaches during his typical cluster period this year, which was such a relief, although time will tell if that was just a fluke and his body skipped it on its own for some reason. It may also have helped that he finally figured out last year that one of his favorite foods is a trigger (aged cheeses, like bleu). I assume you commented because you have cluster headaches, so I wish you luck in finding a treatment that at least reduces the pain or the length of cluster periods
My mom has trigeminal neuralgia. Starting in the 80's through the late 90's, doctors didn't believe her when she explained the pain and eventually told her to go see a psychologist. I remember hearing her scream in the middle of the night, running in and seeing her trying to sit perfectly still to avoid it triggering, blood curdling screams coming out of her partially open mouth but no facial expressions.
She had cranial surgery in the late 90's where they put a teflon pillow between a blood vessel and the trigeminal nerve but it failed. The other treatments she went through were gruesome. She did gamma knife radiation and had subsequent cranial surgeries but here is the kicker: the alternative to pain is numbness. In order to stop the pain, they basically end up stopping the signals all together, and now both sides of her face, from her eyes to her throat (including her mouth) are completely numb. She can't eat, she loses medicine in her mouth, bites her tongue and cheeks. Overall her quality of life has decreased significantly but she still says she rather have the numbness than the pain. (Imagine what it's like trying to drink or eat after the dentist when you're numb. Not easy or fun, and that doesn't affect your whole mouth and throat.)
Anyway, to anyone coming across this who knows someone with TN, there are resources available, even though finding a surgeon/neurologist who does good work on this is almost impossible. (Anyone who knows anything about TN sees titles about "the most painful diseases" and knows TN will be on the list.)
I have had chronic pain since 2019 and it is exhausting
2001 for me. Absolutely. Exhausting. CRPS in ¾ of my body, currently on meds to stop it trying to spread to my last good limb (so far it's working 🎉)
Gentle hugs & restful sleeps my friend.
My gallbladder pain was the only pain I ever passed out from. I had terrible stones that were just tearing the tissue apart. I don't want to experience anything like it ever again.
Gallbladder pain can be excruciating. I've had a lot of pain in my life, including a liver transplant, but gallbladder pain still ranks as one of the worst. I remember sitting and banging my head on the wall just to try and distract myself from the pain. It also tended to come with nausea and vomiting, which made the whole experience so much worse.
@@AlarKemmotar I had pain attacks and the only way I actually got rest was from passing out. I went to a clinic and got misdiagnosed the first time I had an attack. despite presenting all of the typical symptoms. (Doctor didn't believe how much pain I was in.) It happened again and then I went to the ER. I got scheduled for surgery the next day. Brutal. The pain radiated all of the way up my back. The only time I had nausea though was when I was given a pain med in the hospital that is hard on the stomach. They quickly switched me to another. The diagnostic ultrasound was a special kind of hell.
As a woman with endometriosis and 3 children, I can attest that gallbladder attacks are my 10!
Yep, my gallstone attacks were worse than oddly breaking my elbow (bent the bone etc) AND childbirth (no meds).
I had one giant stone filling up my whole gallbladder, but the hospital insisted they kept it for teaching purposes.
Gallbladder pain was so bad, not even hospital morphine helped. I got as much of a dose as they could give me and was still doubled over in pain. Years later when I broke my wrist, I didn't believe it in part because it didn't hurt as bad as the gallbladder pain.
I once had a near fatal brain injury that gave me the worst pain I will probably ever have, glad that a brilliant neurosurgeon just HAPPENED to be in the building when I went to the hospital. I gotta find that guy and thank him for real.
I suffered a hundred deaths worth of pain. Yet, I do love life and the pain reminds me how I shouldn't take time from granted. I got Achalasia and esophageal spasms which is similar/related to jackhammer esophagus. Best wishes to all my other chronics out there.
The spasms... haven't had a bad one for a long time but they're so terrible. The only thing that stops it in it's tracks is straight liquor lol. Seems counter-intuitive but after a few shots idk why but it just relaxes the contraction or something and it goes away. Otherwise I'm in it for the long hault that lasts several hours.
i love that scishow is basically free brilliant by brilliant
They talk here about jackhammer esophagus. I have experienced this. For some reason in my early 20's dairy products started causing inflammation in my esophagus and as a result I experience dysphagia. The pain this would cause was unbearable. During the most intense episodes I felt like my food was getting stick in my esophagus and this would cause severe spasms. Basically, imagine the worst muscle cramp you've ever had but it's in your throat/esophagus. In the most intense episodes I would end up in the fetal position on the floor. It was not pleasant! Thankfully, once I figured out that dairy was causing the problem, I adjusted my diet and I don't have this problem anymore. If you suffer from esophagus problems consider cutting out dairy as this may be the culprit for you.
Worst pain I ever had was from a rotten broken tooth. Far worse than even breaking my leg and the worst part is that the pain would come and go completely randomly. Made it hard to even see straight
oh man DENTAL PAIN IS HELL
TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEETH, PPL😁
Yep .all of my teeth except for four rotted out from self neglect/drug use... Had pancreatitis aswell but at least that isn't prolonged..
Peripheral neuropathy and burning foot syndrome where the myelin sheath has been stripped away is very painful.
I’m already a chronic illness patient and this video taught me I also have either nutcracker or jackhammer esophagus. Occasionally when I swallow food I’ll get EXTREME pain and burning in my esophagus and the food won’t go down. I’ll feel it throughout my chest, neck, sides of my face, and occasionally my upper back. It’s excruciating but lasts less than a minute at a time. Glad to add another explanation to my list of symptoms
Missed out on cluster headaches. They're named that because they come and go in clusters, being absent for a few months before coming back gradually more severe and more frequent. They're also called "ice pick headaches."
The descriptions are terrifying. The majority of sufferers are men, but mothers who have them describe them as "much worse than natural childbirth."
There is no treatment. They are considered benign, having no other health effects, but are treated as medical emergencies because of the extreme risk of self-harm.
And the even worse but very rare EPH and CPH, why referred to as Su**ide Headaches.
I have been diagnosed with cluster, regional pain syndrome and trigeminal neuralgia in my face from shingles. I get cluster headaches genetically from my grandmother. All 3 of these make life hell.
@@ladybugsareviciousdefenders Cluster headaches also have that nickname. Some people get them with such frequency that it becomes the only way out.
Cluster headaches not on the list? From what I’ve heard it’s a “hold my beer” pain compared to most.
Would you describe this as, wanting to bash your face into anything and everything to get the pain to stop? I've had absolutely horrible headaches since I had my first kid. I thought they were migraines at first but from what I've heard about migraines (from other people) I don't think that's what I have.
Not to mention, my above description. Obv I'm good now, but I remember staring at the door frames in my house and wanting to inflict damage on myself in the hope that the pounding, everything, awful stops
as an headache patient my worst experience was 4 months of continuous headache.
it's called cluster headache, also know under another name that i can't say here (hint, comes with a certain phonenumber if you have troubles with coping life..).
at one point i had a spoon in my hand and had to reason with myself to not to scoop my eye out so i can reach the pain.
i had kidneystones as an child, broken my back in several places, broken my wrists, my throat and knee and would give that a 4/10 and that still hurts 15years later...
one hour of cluster headache hurts more, imagine months...
no painkiller, nothing you can do
I've had a thunderclap headache and it pales into insignificance compared to a spinal CSF leak AKA spontaneous intracranial hypotension.
Oh! I had that from a lumbar puncture gone awry! I couldn't sit up for almost 2 weeks without screaming headaches. Genuinely one of the most traumatizing medical experiences of my life.
Thunderclap headaches are a lot worse when you get them every single time you try to work out or exercise. It's not great
Had both.
Neither are fun.
Me too! Botched LP and intracranial pressure dropped dangerously low. At first the doctors didn’t believe that I was in severe pain. I was screaming and retching and sobbing for two days. Once they figured out what was going on they gave me IV pain meds and it was much better.. I was flat on my back in the hospital for several weeks. Before they properly medicated me I was begging my sister to knock me out unconscious by hitting me in the head, anything to stop the pain. It was horrifying.
Been dealing with spinal CSF leak for years, it is awful
4 years ago I got hit with thunderclap headaches - I never, ever get headaches but all of a sudden, over about 30 seconds, I went from totally fine to literally - and I mean literally - screaming in pain. Lasted for 2 weeks _straight_ - it was brutal. NOTHING helped. Nothing - and.... it just.... stopped. Has never come back but I'm terrified it will as it was HELL.
Thanks!
I had Lyme 2 years ago and every night i would lay down to sleep my shins would turn to LAVA. NOTHING stopped this pain. I cried myself to sleep several nights.
As someone with TN can confirm. It is literally like the nerve being flayed alive with no anesthetic. I have been shot, stabbed, tazed, beaten, and nearly drowned and it is the worst pain I have ever experienced.
I have sickle cell disease--
Sickle cell pain crises vary in pain but mine can get really really bad. It's very intense stabbing in the same spot in rhythm with the heartbeat.
Lands me in the ER every other month, would not wish it on anyone. Fortunately painkillers work very well
Esophageal patient here. I've also given birth with back labor and no anesthesia, and can absolutely say that the esophageal issues have been much more painful.
Wow. That is some serious pain. So sorry you have been going through this.
I had esophageal pain when I was a teenager. It slowly faded away in my twenties and was gone by the time I was thirty-five. I never knew what it was until today.
I think I had maybe one episode of jackhammer oesophagus when I was 11-12 years old but it lasted only like a minute but felt the longest time of my life. At this, time I had often ophthalmic migraine and compared to this pain that was a piece of cake. I had the impression that I was dying of being rolled over by a car back and forth at a point a couldn't breath anymore and tought my heart was giving up. Every time I tried to take my breath I was feeling like I was being stab in every part of my thoracic cage by many dozen knive. At this point, I quit trying breathing because lacking having oxygen and loosing conciousness was preferable to the pain only until it has gone away. I'm really curious if it was that. Maybe by the feeling I wrote you can tell me ?
Esophageal pain, jackhammer esophagus… whatever they want to call it is beyond any other way to describe it… like a “chest burster” from the “Aliens” movies. I have Barrettes Esophagus, GERD, & a Hiatal Hernia. I have to have my esophagus STRETCHED a few times a year when it’s acting up. Trying to swallow even liquid can be incredibly painful! Then there’s all the spasms & wretching while all this incredibly thick & clear slime (like a hagfish) comes up at the same time! These attacks last about 20 minutes before it calms down. Trust me when I tell you that I had definitely lost my appetite for whatever I was trying to eat or drink after all that. It’s an absolute nightmare & incredibly embarrassing to top it off!!! 😖
& it happened again yesterday after being calm for about a year… Hooray, time to call the GI doctor again. 😢
A great thing is Congenital Insensitivity to Pain - you don't properly feel or register pain. The amount of damage you get because you can't feel pain is pretty horrible. People tell me it's great that I don't feel pain, until they start to hear the amount of physical problems I have because I didn't know I had an injury.
People only think of pain as a bad thing, they don't realize how it's useful to the body.
Thank you so much for talking about Trigeminal Neuralgia! I've suffered for 10 years now, and I've gone through all kinds of treatments and surgeries. Hopefully they'll find a cure or even just a really good treatment one day soon.
I hate the 0-10 scale, because they don't clarify by saying "and what's the worst pain you've ever felt?" If my worst pain ever is giving birth with no pain meds and someone else's worst pain ever is hitting their finger with a hammer, we're not going to have the same 5 or 6.
The Migraine Buddy app made me reframe my pain. It uses 1-10 but then describes each level in terms of how you're affected. Things like "can do most tasks," "prevented from doing most tasks," or "can't do anything."
Then there's the time I got a migraine cocktail in the ER, IV Benadryl, compazine, and a bag of fluids, and that reset zero on my pain scale. I was woozy, but after I slept off the drugs I felt GREAT. Made me realize I live most days at about a 2.
Try checking out the DVPRS (defense and veteran pain rating scale), I think it's the same one that the Migraine Buddy app uses, and it scales based on how impaired by the pain you are, rather than trying to take some kind of objective measure of your pain level without the context of your personal experience or tolerance.
Necrotic gallbladder combined with a migraine was my standard for pain. That with my boss being critical in my ear at the same time (he didn't "believe in" migraines and wasn't too thrilled when anybody had a medical issue...unless it was his).
Yea i have chronic severe migraines, and since im a guy it feels like people are more judgmental of me. Like im whining about a simple headache. The time ive been at work and ignored a building migraine, i cant even walk and puke if i try or even just due to lights. In those instances they claim im on drugs or alcohol… I dont even know what to do anymore, i need some type of work from home job where i can lay down at take my meds if needed, but EVERYONE wants work from home jobs now…
@@fintan9218 Same. Oddly, migraines are about one-third men, so...
I have that work at home job. I can pull the blackout curtains, dim the monitor, and work slower.
What I would actually recommend is a) see a neurologist. b) If/when that neurologist is useless (so many are), go see another one. It took me several to find one who actually helped.
While my cocktail is pretty complicated, it works to reduce 26 chronic and severe migraines a month to 5 that aren't all that bad. It takes my ability to do math in my head and about a third of my intellect. It can have it, the tradeoff is fair.
I have a friend who has/had trigeminal neuralgia. I felt so bad for her when she was going through it. It sounded so severe. She was put on a few medications and after a while went into remission. Like I think the possibility of it coming back is there but right now she leads a pain free life, thankfully.
Shout out to my fellow chronic pain patients. I have run of the mill EDS and neuropathy but I had a surgery last year (that I get to have again next month, yay) that resulted in several complications. The most severe being a partial lung collapse. I feel like I can’t properly describe the amount of pain that your lung collapsing causes. I legitimately thought I could be dying.
Now if it’s too cold or the air pressure drops before a storm, I get to have neuropathy in my chest and I survive on gabapentin.
I’ve experienced Burning Mouth Syndrome since I was a kid. Diet is a big part of avoiding it, but every once in a while it hits, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
What do you avoid eating?
I got this from antidepressants, more accurate to say rather the withdrawal from them, I experience the same pain and sensation in my private bits too, aka PGAD. I was hospitalised a few times due to pain and other symptoms caused by these meds. Still only partly recovered 3 years on, long way to go yet and the pain locations and type changes constatly, not one hour is the same as before, many I don't even know how to describe as they aren't familiar with any normal sensory experience. Its a kin to seeing a new primary colour that is not on the spectrum and no ones else has see it before, only you experience it all the time and can't explain it to anyone other than using random words like this pain feels like the taste of brown sugar and smell of vinegar exploding in your right forearm bone marrow.
@3800S1 there is such a lack of understanding of the differences in how individuals experience pain. So sorry for what you've been going through.
@@nsmellowyellow1 Thanks, I appreciate it.
There is some research that suggests BMS is a variant of RLS and dopamine regulation.
But from my own and other's anecdotal evidence, seem more of a thing with people exposed to drugs that are both serotonigenic and norepinephrigenic at the same time, which is also what I was on, both drugs in fact were. There is also a link between all this with BMS and PGAD too and I read that people who have idiopathic PGAD find self relieve in becoming anorexic or bulimic and and these eating disorder manifesting appears to be a self medicating behaviour for the pain experienced in PGAD because starving the brain of certain nutrients seems to stop the symptoms. Very interesting and surprising links and I thought that when you mentioned using diet to control symptom.
@3800S1 that was the original poster that mentioned diet, @samwizeganji5222 but very interesting info, thank you!
I get cluster headaches. I have had broken bones, burns that destroyed my skin to the muscle and more. Nothing compares to those cluster headaches.
I feel for you. I had cluster headaches too. I cured mine with shrooms.
Another wonderful and useful video. Bravo SciShow. I try to never miss a single episode.
I used to suffer with cluster headaches, which is considered the most severe form of migraine. It involves the trigeminal nerve & felt like an ice pick through the back of the eye/eyebrow. Or a brain freeze x 10. Truly debilitating. Three Botox treatments over a span of 2 years “cured” it in me after over 15 years of agony, breaking the chronic, cluster headache cycle. I highly recommend Botox treatments if you too have cluster headaches.
Thats good to hear, i have chronic severe migraines and occasionally intense head pain that is likely cluster headaches. They found out i have a brain malformation where the brain is too big and herniates down the back of spine, thankfully its not too severe but causes intense headpain if i strain. Anyway, neurologist said he will likely do botox treatments. I was skeptical but maybe it will finally let me live a normal life…
@@fintan9218 It was a Godsend. The first treatment stopped them within 4 days, & lasted 8 months until a hurricane (intense low pressure system) came through, triggering them back again. The second one worked easily half as well, & by 4 months started up again. I went in to the doctor & told him that, & he admitted to using half as much Botox. 🥺 He did it again, & that stopped them completely for several years. Every so often they want to start back up, but then the cycle fizzles out. If they ever fully come back again, I will Botox again. It’s cheaper than chasing after pain meds. Safer too. No threat of any addictions. (I will tell you the best non medicine treatment is a hot shower though. It dilates ALL your blood vessels, relieving the pressure on the problematic few in your head or neck. I will sit on the floor, so you don’t have to worry about balancing, & hold the shower massage head directly at the bad area. The nerves become so overstimulated that they cease the ability to fire (refractory period). The pain area becomes numb)
@@fintan9218 I wrote out a long response which the algorithm deleted. Arrgh. Yes. It was a godsend for me. I hope it helps you too.
I have CRPS & severe migraines (and a very long list of other issues wrong with my body, I got a lemon) - only for me they aren't so much clusters as a steady build up of more & more frequent & severe migraines until it's nearly non-stop...that is, it was that way before starting the injections - the botox treatments are the best!!!
My pain specialist Dr also gets severe migraines so she gets it (luckily for me!) I've gone in unable to open my eyes or speak & come out laughing a couple times, absolutely amazing!
Now anytime they start getting bad again she gives another injection to prevent more 🎉
That's if insurance covers botox injections! Also, neurologists will charge for the entire bottle of botox and only use ⅓rd of the bottle (spreading it out amongst three patients). My former pain management doctor (he retired last year) did botox for my migraines, neck & facial pain. He used the entire bottle of botox, and it was just enough to cover everything. Both times he did it, the botox worked. Went to a neurologist, paid around the same amount as I did with the pain management specialist ($400), and the neurologist only used ⅓rd of the botox saying that it's 'standard procedure' to spread a vial across 3-4 patients. It wasn't enough botox, and of course, it didn't work. It has become frustrating to find another neurologist who will use enough botox for my head/face pain. 😔
I can say that I know pain, because I've sneezed after getting surgery for my pectus excavatum (abnormally deep chest cavity)
Big ouch sorry to hear that
Oh my... that must have been a nightmare!
How old were you when you had it repaired? I was born with it but had surgery when I was five years old.
@@nsmellowyellow1 mine developed as I grew, and I was 16 when I had the surgery. So it's very much still memorable
@@arrakaarkana6281 I hope it was successful for you!
My appendix rupturing was painful. Fentanyl and hydromorphone didn’t help the extreme pain I felt.
Pain meds are a joke.
If those didnt help then thats crazy amount of pain
Pain management has caused me more damage than accepting my chronic pain.
When I was 2 I needed 5 stitches on my lip. My mom said I spent the whole time rolling like eyes at the doctor. Since then my mom has always been worried because my pain tolerance seems pretty high.
When I was 19 I had a septic kidney infection and pneumonia. I remember it feeling like I had a knife in my back. In my 20s I had a really bad headache caused my sinusitis. Taking Norco was no help. In the ER I was given Percocet. I can only imagine my pain was minimal compared to the illnesses mentioned here.
I'd say sepsis ranks pretty high up on the list. I only remember it being relatively "painless" because I was on the equivalent of post-op painkillers, and I've heard that it can get even worse with shock and MOF
I once had two tattoos done on two consecutive days, one big piece on each upper arm. The day after the second one, I was completely bedridden with a high fever and such excruciating pain that I couldn't raise my arms above my heart without crying out. It felt like every inch of skin touched by that tattoo needle had been steam-burned.
That day permanently changed my perception of pain. Everything else has to measure against that new standard. I hope no one else ever has to go through that. I pray that a stubbed toe or a stomachache is the worst thing people with a lower pain scale ever have to deal with, because the alternative is brutal, and no one deserves that.
I've had a tooth abscess affect the 5th cranial nerve. Of course I am lucky it was a tooth and not actual Trigeminal neuralgia. The pain was so bad I vowed to just be rid of all of my teeth forever and I have NEVER looked back. If these are worse than THAT pain - I never want a thunderclap headache either.
Edit: I wrote this before seeing the rest of the video. I hit enter and then pressed play and WALLA! YOU MENTIONED TRIGEMINAL NEURALGIA! Again, I'm very lucky that all I needed was a tooth removed. I was in a private ER screaming and then there's a gap in my memory and I remember sudden relief and 'coming to' with my head under the running warm water of the doctor's sink. Apparently they just let me do whatever I needed while they waited out my pain. Apparently. Also never went back to that private ER and won't lol.
Voila, not walla.
@@ArsonBeanTanks Thank you! Was hoping the 1 reply was this as I clicked it, lol.
I had constant esophageal spasms during the entirety of both pregnancies. Absolutely awful. Made worse by doctors thinking i was a wimp ("how are you going to manage labour?") and being unwilling to prescribe any medications because i was pregnant. I can say after the fact that my kids are worth it, but honestly can't believe i went through that twice!!
Three out of my four sisters myself included have this esophageal spasms my oldest sister was having this problem for years before we started to have the same problem no doctors helped or believed us, and said to take antacids... which did not help.
Please talk about Proctalgia Fugax! It's a rare condition causing muscle spasms in the pelvic floor and can be painful enough to make you pass out. Ask me how I know...
Oh yeah! I also pass out from the pain! Usually as soon as it starts I take a strong painkiller with coffee and do some stretches. Sometimes it helps.
Man on Fire sounds like what I experienced when my doctor prescribed Tecfidera for my MS. It would set in a little while after I took the medication. My whole body would turn bright red, get hot, and it felt like somebody poured lighter fluid on me then struck a match. He said it was "flushing," but that was the most intense pain I've felt in my life. It left me in bed, writhing for over half an hour every time.
I can confidently say I once described my gallstone-induced pains as "like someone cutting me in half from the inside at every angle", because it *_REALLY WAS_* that intense and all-irradiating.
Now instead of unbearably acute pains from gallstones lodging in my bile duct, I now only have annoyingly strong pains from my intestines acting up shortly after I eat any meal at all (for some reason???) which I like to describe as "like someone trying to mangle and turn my guts inside-out".
@@Brown95P I always said my gallbladder pain was like I'd swallowed a red hot steel ball. I have ulcerative colitis, so I've had the intestinal pain too, but it's under pretty good control now.
I've had something similar in experience to all of these and still continue to have weird sensations and pains that even I can't describe often. But none of them had a physical causes in the sites where I experience pains which move constantly btw. But rather mine are all been generated centrally within the brain due to abnormal function/activity, all caused by antidepressant withdrawals. Many trips to the ER, oh such fun. First one was by ambulance getting me out of the car screaming that my GF was driving me to ER in the first place but I couldn't make it due to the electrical attacks that felt like 415v 3 phase on my face and hands, yes I have been shocked by mains 240 a few times as that was nothing compared to this pain.
I have PCOS, and I had a cyst rupture. I thought I was dying. It was the worst pain-- it felt like I was being repeatedly stabbed with a knife. Horrible. Thankfully, it never happened again.
I also have idiopathic peripheral neuropathy. It began about 13 years ago, and it's never gone away. The pain is in my hands and feet, and has made life more difficult. I can't get a job because of it, but they won't grant me disability. Sigh.
Ah did you have to see a male doctor who dismissed your pain? I hope not.. 😔
Regarding the esophagus issues, I'm the subject of a bunch of medical papers and research because my specialists determined I have the most severe case on record. Just wanna say that the pain is so bad, I legit didn't notice when I had a severe heart attack one day, I just kept doing yard work cuz I figured it was my esophagus. 😅 I was crazy surprised to be mowing the lawn, then suddenly I was in a copter being air lifted to Rochester, MN.😮😅
Not mentioned in this is that women generally have higher pain tolerances than men, presumably to aid in surviving childbirth. And anecdotally, I’ve seen it in action. I worked at a veterinary office that had access to an electric acupuncture stimulator. The doctors playing/experimenting around with it, hooked it up to both men & women identically, the power slowly cranked up. Invariably, the men would tap out at less than half what the women would. One of the men tapping out was an ex Navy SEAL, in case any of you are tempted to impugn his manhood.
and yet when we do finally complain that we are in pain enough to need something they just give us an ibuprofen for the same thing they’d give high-dose morphine to a man. seriously. they do this. all the freaking time.
I've seen women shrug off some gnarly injuries and just walk with a bone sticking out of a leg.
My wife goes through terrible episodes without complaining. Episodes that would have me curling up and moaning.
Weird that you’d have an electric flim-flam machine in a place meant to practice actual medicine….
@@joearnold6881 pfft. The equine veterinary hospital I worked at is world renown, dozens of resident doctors coming from all over the world every year to study with the doctors working there. Acupuncture isn’t flim flam. It has its merits, especially with soft tissue damage, which was in abundance with the race horses & dressage show horses that were brought to the hospital for treatment
@@joearnold6881 🙄The equine veterinary hospital is world renowned, doctors coming from all over the globe to study there, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, etc
I recently had what was eventually labelled an "esophageal spasm" out of the blue. It was a sudden onset and the worst thing I have ever experienced and I believe will ever experience. The A&E department just ignored my pain and explanations and sent me for an ECG to check for a heart attack despite that already being ruled out by the Ambulance. They then kicked me out of A&E to the emergency GP after only the single test. I had covered the floor of the department in vomit and spent 80% of my time there on the floor, sweating unable to move.
Having pain ignored is almost as worse as the pain itself. The fact I had to go private to have a proper investigation done is even worse.
Well,I have 2 of those. Lucky me. But I am still here!😊
Hell yeah you are!
And we're glad to have you here with us ❤
A good topic for this episode would have been hell itch. I developed it for a couple days last year after spending a large amount of time in the sun with no sunscreen. Apparently sometimes UV damage can lead to generalized nerve damage, which leads to a horrible stabbing itching feeling that causes spasms. I had to use lavender oil and extremely hot showers to alleviate the symptoms, but the pain didn't go away for almost 4 days
1:59 I like how mild pain still gets a happy face.
If you ever feel like you’ve been to a 7+ trust me a 2 is still smiling. 😂
@@BunnyJosuke That's why I like it.
I injured my right arm trying to set a volleyball in gym class when I was 11. My hand bent backwards flat against my arm. I proceeded to do the EXACT same thing when I was 12 and 13. It was never the same after the first time, but by the 3rd injury I could no longer use my arm without pain. I got diagnosed with Complex regional pain syndrome at 14. Ive tried physical therapy and a ton of different pain medications. I'm now 19 and my only options for pain management are narcotics and medicinal marijuana. (Im allergic to NSAID type pain reliefs). I used to play 6 different instruments and now I only play a few times a year. CRPS is a waking nightmare, research is so desperately needed! Thanks for spreading awareness! You guys should also cover AMPS!
Omg! Me and my sister both have Jackhammer Esophagus!!!! I never knew what it was called until now but I 100% know how to trigger it, how it feels, and how yo try and avoid it. For me its when I eat a lot of warm starchy foods (like fresh French fries) in a pretty quick period and can feel like my entire chest, jaw, and throat muscles are being push from the inside out and the best thing I can do is stand up and walk around. I tried drinking water to help but it's not that simple, because it's like I can't swallow so I ended up nearly choking. Each time only allows very shallow breaths like my diaphragm is locked too. It's like being locked in a state where you've just taken a big breath but the muscles of the diaphragm and Esophagus are pounding really hard to get back to work. Sometimes it's light (about 10sec) the longest I've ever had it last was almost a minute and I was tearing up by the end!
I get jackhammer esophagus several times a year and NEVER understand what was happening, im so glad i saw this!
I'm shocked fibromyalgia didn't make the list, but since some doctors don't believe it exists I can imagine that it is seriously downplayed. I have #5 in one foot and Dr's won't take it seriously either.
I have #5 as well.
Using metaphor is exactly right. I recently experienced my first sinus headache and it was horrible. A nurse at the hospital asked me to describe it and the only thing I could say was "have you ever been backed up and not used the bathroom for like a week? And then you finally DO start to go and suddenly you can feel immense pressure building up inside your body? Imagine that sensation, but inside your head."
I have CRPS. Sometimes even wind on the affected area can trigger pain
Y'all should do an episode on back pain. There may actually be enough there for several episodes. Those of us who suffer from chronic back pain, definitely know there are various causes, treatments, and other health conditions that arise from not being able to treat the pain.
I was in an ICU for 6 days a year ago. The nurses would ask me my pain level on a scale of 1-10 before and after they gave me pain meds. On the sixth day, when I was more alert, I noticed a pain scale on the wall. The ten on the scale was my 5. To me a 10 is the pain you feel right before you pass out from pain. Been there, and let me tell you, you're so grateful when you pass out. Pain scales are pointless if you don't know what someones 1-10 is.
BTW what got me through the pain of recovery was THC/CBD gummies. The Oxy they prescribed me wasn't doing much. It wasn't worth being treated like a criminal when picking them up. I'm not a cannabis guy at all. Thankfully a friend gave me a couple of gummies to try. They made the Oxy seem like a placebo (one that didn't work at all). Finally I could function, pain free, and sleep through the night. I found it ironic and funny that picking up Dr. prescribed pain meds I was treated like I was the scum of the earth, but I could buy THC/CBD gummies with no judgement.
Oxy has addiction and OD potential is why they are trying to regulate it.
I do the same thing when my fibromyalgia gets really bad. Also, marijuana has been shown to be less addictive than opiods so if THC works then why bother with Oxy and the like? 😂
I pulled my back out and it spasmed so severely I was hospitalised. My mam had to call an ambulance, who had to call the fire brigade, because i couldn't move. I never cry/scream etc. from pain (social anxiety) but I couldn't not. 10/10 pain and i have migraines.
How about having a hematoma in your scrotum that causes it to swell until it actually rips open
That was the stuff of nightmares
And made me redefine my pain scale
DAMN! Being a long term sufferer of orchitis myself, my sympathies!
Your balls ripped open from a blood clot?
@@AEVMU Clot would be a thrombus
I had a hematoma in my chest after a recent surgery. I can't even imagine how bad that would feel in the scrote, tho I guess not having one kinda lends itself to that.
@@AEVMUHema(t) = blood. Oma = tumor/mass. It's so much blood rushing into an area that it acts as a tumor or a mass.
I had lots of severe pain for several years, went to the ER a couple times. They gave me morphine, and it did absolutely nothing. I ended up having to have Dilaudid. I ended up self diagnosing with nutcracker esophagus. (it’s incredibly hard to get an actual diagnosis, especially if you’re a woman.). Whenever I started to feel symptoms, I started using hot water and hot tea to calm them enough that they weren’t excruciating. The thing that ended up curing it was…. an adjustable bed. It was completely accidental, got it free with my mattress. Sleeping with my head elevated relieved all of my symptoms. I’m so angry about the entire thing. No one cared about my pain, even when morphine didn’t touch it. The cure was so simple, and that makes me angry too! How many people are suffering excruciating pain because doctors just aren’t listening? Oh, I should’ve mentioned that the only reason that the ER gave me Dilaudid was because I worked in the hospital. I was an IT tech , all the doctors and nurses knew me, and they knew for a fact that I wasn’t a drug seeker.
It was the worst pain I’ve ever had. I’ve had a child, been through years of childhood abuse, I’ve had migraines, and I have chronic pain. Nothing even touched the pain of the nutcracker esophagus.
I have nerve damage, and it causes the face and neck to feel like it's on fire... One time, I got an infection in my breast that caused it to swell up to 7xs the size. The air on my skin was enough to make me want to end it all. It was unbelievable, and even my shirt touching me felt like a million needles at once.
Thank you. I suffer from Hemicrania (TAC headaches). Having this acknowledged was enough to make me cry
8:08 botox is surprisingly useful for esophagus stuff! ive been researching people who cant burp as an aside to looking into hernia stuff, and oftentimes they are unable to burp because it is difficult/impossible for them to relax the muscle- honestly seems really similar to jackhammer esophagus. anyways, botox treatments have helped a lot of people who couldnt burp! not for everyone, and needs redone every few months or so, but the fact that we have a treatment option for this is really cool.
i had this disorder and got the botox treatment myself it was life changing
also it doesn't usually need to be redone, i got it over two years ago
I have erythromelalgia (and esophageal spasms caused by gerd, but not jackhammer esophagus. They really are the devil.)
I rarely hear others talk about these conditions, so thank you!
I get erythromelalgia in my hands and have found that dissolvable aspirin, the kind you can put under your tongue, makes the symptoms subside rapidly.
Now that you've done a video on conditions that cause extreme pain, I think it'd be interesting to see you do a video on conditions that cause you to feel no pain at all.
I have the swallowing disorder where it feels like the food or drink gets stuck before getting to the stomach. My doctor found that esomeprazole magnesium (nexium) works (with me) to make swallowing normal again. Yes, it’s painful but is nothing compared to the kidney stones I’ve had several times during my lifetime. It is the all time worst pain I’ve ever experienced. Even having my leg amputated was nowhere as painful. I do have phantom sensations but rarely have phantom pain. Pain from something that no longer exists is mind boggling.
I don't have any of these (as far as I know, feet are currently burning), but as far as I know, my burning feeling, is from RLS, as burning can be one of the sensations. Gabapentin helps. Also dealing with a painful itch from Shingles. It's more annoying and lainful, than anything else
Hooray for gabapentin! It helps quiet my nerves so my nose and sometimes other general parts of my body don’t feel like they’re itching constantly
I had kidney stones, 2 broken legs, etc. The worst thing I had was panic attacks. You feel like you are drowning and flailing to get one gasp of air. With physical pain you can somewhat mentally cope, but a panic attack wrecks your thought process. It explodes your command and control center. But it does not fit on the pain scale.
I had steroids as an EDS patient. The pain that caused me had me passing out and going to the ER where they, not realizing it was the steroids, gave me more steroids, causing lifelong pain that just got worse when another hospital hurt me.
😮 i have EDS and was on 3 rounds of steroids last year, this is my first year in a while I was able to work at home and recover and not go to the ER at all. I thought I was nuts feeling worse every time I started steroids again, do you know the potential link?
Wait, steroids are bad if one has EDS? I believe I have EDS, though I haven't gotten anyone to test me for it yet. I am being evaluated currently for Myasthenia Gravis, though. If they decide that I have it they will put me on prednisone, which is something that I've wanted because of my widespread chronic pain. But it sounds from your experience that being on prednisone might make the pain worse??
That almost does seem likely for me, though. I've had multiple rounds of cortisone injections in both feet and both knees. The 1st shots to each location did seem to help. But soon after the 2nd injection to each location caused me to feel like the bones all of a sudden became badly dislocated. It was excruciating trying to function that way. And I am unable to walk without crutches anymore.
I did feel better after a 6 day pack of prednisone. But now I'm worried about what taking more than that would do.
@@anyascelticcreations Yeah steroids break down the same collagen that our genetics means we don't make it well. It doesn't happen for everyone with EDS but the negative effects if it does go wrong are bad enough I strongly recommend against using steroids. I was originally okay with a round or two when I was younger for something, but one round for the first time in a long time and suddenly I was being treated for shock at the hospital while they struggled to figure out why my body went into shock in the first place. Gabapentin is a good alternative. And consider lidocaine instead of cortisone injections.
@@Who-en2vo It breaks down the connective tissues that are already faulty in our disorder. When they're repaired, they're repaired worse than they originally were.
@@Jynxedlove good to know
So cool to see one of my favorite channels to mention trigeminal neuralgia...Iv been batteling it for 2 years now
When evaluating my chronic spinal pain on a scale of 1-10, I had to ask if passing out and being unconscious from pain counted as a 10. It does count as a 10, as this is the brain's way of not dealing with excruciating pain.
This is one of the most distressing videos I have ever seen. Also I'm thankful for having watched it. 😢
Ahhhhh, I have erythromelalgia. Thank you so much for mentioning it here, makes me feel seen. Mine affects my hands and feet mostly, and to a lesser extent my face and chest too. I've had it for 17 years and over time it has increased my pain tolerance as a matter of survival so that now I don't even register stimuli that are painful to most.
OMG I HAVE ERYTHROMELALGIA AS WELL. I'VE HAD IT FOR ABOUT 10 YEARS NOW AND I'M SO GLAD IT MADE THE LIST. IT'S USUALLY CRPS THAT MAKES THE LIST AND ERYTHROMELALGIA IS OFTEN MISDIAGNOSED AS CRPS. I FINALLY FEEL VALIDATED. :)
I didn't realize it but pretty sure my sis has this.... her hand always get red and hot and she just lols about it😅 it also raised her pain tolerance btw.
@@MandiMalice-y9y Oh yes it will definitely do that. :)
A friend with trigeminal neuralgia described it like an ice pick being dragged through his face. He had surgery that fixed it, which involved cutting a hole in his skull to isolate the nerve.
I had a spinal leak after a botched epidural, worst headache ever couldn’t move or
My head throbbed so hard
I was diagnosed with CRPS in 2012 and some other ways to treat it are Dorsal Root Ganglion Stimulation and Spinal Cord Stimulation. This is where a set of electrodes are placed against the nerves exiting the spinal column, these electrodes produce an electric current to 'numb' the nerve. If it works it can give good levels of pain reduction and can be used either in place of or with medication. A downside of the stimulators is that you have a small device implanted under your skin so you have to take the same precautions as people with pacemakers regarding security scans. This is just a helpful bit of info from someone with Dorsal Root and Spinal Cord stimulators implanted. Also, the affected area can either be hot or cold and have colour changes.
I have had a kidney or bladder stone pass (they never figured out which), appendicitis nearing rupture, and a horse I was riding rear up and flip over on me, ripping loose nerves, tendons, and muscles down one side of my back, as well as an unstable fracture of my humerus. I would rank them from least to worst as: appendicitis, humerus, stone and torn back muscles. The back because it was the longest lasting, and because even breathing hurt.
Cool story bro
Having been lucky with the handful of kidney stones I've had (all small and dissolved when they hit the bladder), the pain level is awful, and had me dry heaving for ages each time. So at least I got to skip the worst part of the damn things.
But it still didn't rank as the worst pain I've experienced, which was a deep jaw infection. That was so bad even after taking serious painkillers that I fantasised about just hitting myself in the face with a hammer to make it go away!
Thsnk you for including CRPS in your list!! I truly wish more people knew about it... unless you're in a flate, it's considered one of the invisible diseases. I look normal, but every single one of my chronic conditions are invisible AND incurable 😢😢
The orgasmic headache, which happens in way less than 30’seconds and it feels just like a hammer inside the head beating your brain down.
Had one. Not fun. Thought I was about to have a stroke.
It's unpleasant for certain