After my daughter was born in 1999, I took off a few years from the noontime basketball game that I'd been part of for years. Decided to make a comeback in 2003 and blew my knee out: tore the patella tendon off my left knee cap and the kneecap itself broke into three pieces.
Passing a kidney stone was by far the worst. I was 10 years old and 18 years later it's still the most painful experience I've endured. Distant second would be hairline fracture sprain on my ankle. I remember trying to tough it out and trying to walk on it only to collapse straight down with all my weight on it making it worse.
I've been lucky.... Had an operation for Pyloric Stenosis when i was a baby. Cricket bat to head for a few stitches. And one of my mates stabbed me in the leg with a chisel during woodwork class.... Long story.
I tore my MCL + ACL + 2 cracks in knee cap + partially torn meniscus, all at the same time during football/soccer, on a knee that had already been operated on and rehabbed. When I fell, I thought to myself "I've been through this before, the pain is in your mind". When I looked at my knee and saw that it was 3-4 times bigger than my other knee, I put my head down, said "Oh ****" and it was lights out.
Broke my right hand playing football with friends, but the worst was kidney stone. Friends were freaking the eff out given that I was constantly throwing up and screaming in pain.
Capsule laceration in my right index finger was one of the most hurtful, happened while playing soccer, someone shot pretty hard and the ball hit my finger. Was like 10 years old so it was very painful for me. When I was ~14 and playing some kind of rugby someone tackled me to the ground and I landed on my elbow, causing parts of the bone to splinter. Hurt like hell and I had to walk with a arm sling for some weeks. Guess that's pretty lame compared to some of your stories, but hey.
Fairly lucky with injuries... My worst was a fractured bone in my left foot. Stepped in a hole that was covered with grass while running.
Two days ago (my last morning in Italy after a week vacation), I woke up with a stiff neck. I turned my head both ways to explore the range in motion. When I turned right, OH MY ****ING GOD HOLY ****! Horrible back/neck pain that I had never felt to this extent in my life. 30 minutes later, I had to hobble my way onto a plane to take 13+ hours worth of flights back to the US. OF COURSE the forecast calls for mild to moderate turbulence during the whole trip. EXCRUCIATING jostling and jolting the whole entire way. Not to mention I had to carry luggage through 3 airports when I could barely even move. I went to the doctor yesterday, and she fears I may have a herniated disc between my shoulder blades. I still can hardly move, even leaning over this keyboard is epic pain.
Rhad, let's just say that having titanium rods fusing two of your vertebrae together in a failed attempt to stop chronic severe pain has your balls beat all hollow, OK?
I'm not keen on giving out a lot details but apparently I'm 1 in 500,000 or so. That being said...I'm more or less ok now, so I'll rescind my previous boasting. Anyone here dealing with truly chronic pain...man...that's no fun.
From years of martial arts I've injured every major joint in body and several multiple times but the worst injury I've ever had was the last time I rode a motorcycle. I was 17 at the time and hit a rock that catapulted me off of the bike. I flipped over the in air so luckily didn't land head first but shattered my left femur right below the joint. It took 5 surgeries and about two years on crutches. I wasn't fully healed until I was 20. That though wasn't the scariest injury I've ever had. One time I was sparring with a guy who was about 50 lbs heavier than me but I was much more skilled. He got frustrated that I kept on throwing him and put an illegal move on me. He put me in a head lock and yanked me down. My head went one way and my body the other. I came down feeling this sharp pain along the base of my neck and my extremities tingling. My coach ran up and told me not to move and they call the ambulance. The paramedics put me on a board and weigh me down with sand bangs. I am getting really scared and am thinking that here I am at 23 and I am paralyzed. Luckily when I get to the hospital they find out that my neck isn't broken but the muscles all along the base of my neck have been strained and torn.
A lot of injuries happen because people don't know how to fall right and this is one of the most valuable things that throwing arts like Judo can teach. Since doing Judo I have taken many powerful falls biking, skiing and snowboarding and have walked away fine. When I had been doing Judo for only two years I got in a collision with a car while biking and even though my bike was totaled I walked away without a scratch. What happened was I did a roll fall over my bike and the hood of the car so rather than trying to stop myself I went with the force of the collision and protected myself. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rizlP_I0E6c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Broken nose from car wreck....*******......cracked the bone, not cartiledge. Never healed right, if bumped it makes a crunching noise and I get a terrible headache.
Lucky with injuries. Worst was a cut that required 8 stitches. Now let me tell you about my Grand Mal Seizure back in 2006.....
Two separate, but equally painful injuries (both resulting from skateboarding): Shattered femur - The injury itself was nothing compared to the reconstruction/healing/physical therapy. Torn ACL - Partially torn and never repaired. Still bothersome over 20 years later.
