I think popping black heads is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a sublime experience, and I feel that extracting botflies would take it to the next level.
I had a kidney stone two years ago and it was terrible, but it’s hard to imagine that’s as bad as it gets. Maybe it was a relatively small/“mild” one? It wasn’t so much painful as it was excruciatingly, maddeningly, uncomfortable. That probably doesn’t make sense if you haven’t had one, or maybe even if you have. It wasn’t a sharp pain, it was an unceasing discomfort. If I was moving, I wanted to be still, if I was still, I wanted to be moving. I wouldn’t go through it again for anything, but hearing other people talk about it and how it’s the worst thing ever makes me think I must have gotten off easy, relatively speaking.
You’re either a god among men or you passed a stone of negligible size. My stone was 1/8th of an inch in diameter and I was most assuredly in agony. I wouldn’t even wish a kidney stone on brettmcd.
Never had a kidney stone, but I did get shingles. It was painful but even worse was the itching. OMFG. Luckily I had a very minor case, so I’m sure it can be worse.
I had shingles on the left side of my face a few years ago. I got what seemed to be a zit on my forehead, didn’t think much of it, flew to LA for a conference, and ended up spending five days in the hospital because my second day in LA I woke up looking like the elephant man.
I let it go waaaaay too long. I got scabs on the insides of my eyelids. Blinking could’ve scratched my cornea so I had to lie there with my eyes closed and try not to move my eyes. The only thing I could do all day was listen to audiobooks.
Oh, and it turns out that if you get a sore on the tip of your nose, then the virus is doing a dance on your optic nerve and you could go blind in that eye. So they were waiting for that to happen, but luckily my optic nerve wasn’t affected.
So now if a room is too hot, or I get stressed in odd ways the left side of my head starts to hurt. I’ve found that going outside in the cold helps a bunch, so at Christmastime when I’m visiting relatives and they keep the house hot and there are way too many screaming kids, I have to go outside. Everyone thinks I’m sneaking a cigarette (I quite smoking 10 years ago) but I’m really just cooling off my head.
I had chicken pox when I was a kid, and you guys are scaring the ever-loving shit out of me. I’ve gotten paranoid lately anyway. What’s next? Shingles or a kidney stone! W00t!
Shingles tends to disproportionately affect pregnant women. Think its 5%? My wife has had shingles during both pregnancies. Basically each time we took a week off from school/work so she could sleep in a drug-induced stupor and I could take care of everything.
As for the pain, she has a ridiculous pain tolerance (eight hours into her first labor she was still second-guessing it). The shingles knocked her into pain’s magic land for days.
Shingles suck. As for contagious, they can spread chickenpox to those who haven’t had it, by touch. If you’ve had chickenpox, you’re fine.
A buddy of mine got stung in the penis head by a scorpion a couple months ago. He said he almost vomited from the pain, but that it passed after an hour or so.
Or, if you’re lucky, Valium!
Damn! I had shingles in grad school but it was on my shoulder and chest area, I guess I should be pretty thankful. That sounds awful Dean.
I’m not sure I want to know how his penis got that close to a scorpion, but I think he needs to get a girlfriend.
Many years ago my grandmother had shingles that covered her from head to toe. It nearly killed her it was so bad. She said it was like her entire body was on fire… for weeks.
More fun facts about shingles outbreaks…
The older you are when you get them (Shingles) and/or the longer it has been since you originally had the Chicken Pox the worse they generally are.
Shingles outbreaks typically affect one side of your body or the other; not both. (In my case it was up my right thigh and, um… groin.)
I had chickenpox when I was 6 and shingles when I was 9. It was not fun and I just had a small patch on a nerve on my right side. I remember crying at night because I couldn’t sleep. My younger sisters than had them right after I did, with the youngest having the worst case on her back. She had to sleep on her stomach and she still has a scar there from them.
My grandmother was the worst though. Started on her neck and went up the left side of her face, partially blinding her in that eye.
I’ve never had shingles. I’ve had kidney stones, though, and I can tell the others in the thread who’ve posted about that being the worst pain imaginable, as bad as that is, I’d rather have chronic kidney stones than my current malady: cluster headaches. I can’t imagine anything coming close to as painful as a cluster headache attack. If you told me you had to amputate both my legs without anaesthesia but that would get rid of the cluster headache, I’d jump at the chance. No joke.
I’ve never had chicken pox.
I had a kidney stone in November 2003. It cost me $4500 from the hospital visit (uninsured at the time) and I would have welcomed death. The pain was INCREDIBLE. I have lived in fear of another one ever since.
I’ve only had one kidney stone. Unfortunately, it occurred 1 week after I had major abdominal surgery (colon resection). So, I had surgery pain in the front and ridiculously intense kidney stone pain in my back. That one rated a 10 on the pain scale for sure.
just had chicken pox. i thought i had it from 6th grade but apparently not (i have an allergy to shrimp i didn’t know about back then that kept me covered in rashes).
the doctor gave me these giant white pills, i took some baking soda baths, and didn’t feel any itching. no pain. i guess it was chicken pox since that’s what the doctor said and it was on both sides.
Ah yes, Shingles Hurt, the little-known half-brother of John and William Hurt. All of the ego, none of the talent. You have been warned.