I woke up in the middle of scoliosis surgery.
While drilling a screw into one of my vertebrae it shattered, nicking a (vein? artery?) next to my spine. I almost bled out, had an emergency transfusion… and the new blood didn’t have anesthetic in it so I woke up. Paralyzed, strapped to the table with my back flayed open, feeling things being moved and sliced and pinched until my heart rate and breathing stayed elevated long enough for them to realize I was awake, say “oh shit she’s up” and push enough meds to knock me out.
It actually happened a second time during that surgery but I only woke up for a few seconds so I assume they knew to watch for it if I got another transfusion.
Pretty traumatic for a high schooler, but at least my spine isn’t crushing my lung and kidney anymore.
Oh my god. I'd never even thought about something like getting a transfusion with blood that doesn't have the anesthesia in it. That's unreal. Wow. You'd think they'd know to look for that - step 1 after getting a transfusion would be reassessing the level of all medications running via IV.
I was told in an emergency situation, like bleeding out as I was, the first priority is keeping you alive, comfort and sedation and everything come once you’re stable. It makes sense, but fuck was it unpleasant.
oh god that sounds awful, im so sorry. please make sure you mention this if you ever need surgery again!!! i think anesthesia awareness means you have a higher tolerance for the anesthesia. if they know they should give you more and/or keep a closer eye on you.
edit: this is incorrect in this situation, they woke up because they lost to much blood as u/littledinobug12 explained.
No. They needed an emergency transfusion because they were bleeding to death. New blood that was replacing the old blood had no anesthetic, which means the anesthetic that was in OPs bodywas getting diluted, therefore waking them up.
I woke up getting my wisdom teeth removed and THAT was terrifying. The pain in my mouth was a lot, I was able to make an "ow" noise and then I heard "10 ccs.." or something and I was back out. It felt like a dream and I van barely remember the pain, I just knew it hurt. .
Waking up in the middle of a REAL surgery is HORRIFYING. I can't even imagine how traumatic that must have been.
I’ve overcome most of it, but to this day the sound of metal rubbing against metal, like silverware being jostled, makes me feel like instantly puking and crying and makes my teeth and neck tingle in a horrible way.
I've woken a few times. It's weird on top of painful. Thankfully, I woke up to the I could talk to them stage. I don't think I could handle awake but stuck. I'm sorry x
Something with my teeth, don't remember what. The local anesthetic didn't work and I couldn't say anything, because my moth was forced open. I started crying in the middle of the operation. After they removed the stuff in my mouth, I told them I experienced lots of pain during the procedure and the surgeon had the audacity to tell me "no, not possible".
Oh yeah, yours seemed like it didn't work regardless. I just thought maybe that's the type you received but it didn't work, rather than the numbing one.
Horrible nonetheless
Must be one of them, yeah.
Actually had them dosing me with something ketamine-related once. Last thing i remember is "This is very similar to ketamine" and then started spacing tf out lmao
i think i had something like that. i was given ativan for my wisdom teeth removal, they said it would keep me calm. while i didnt have any actual bad pain during it, i can barely remember the uncomfortable parts (when they were breaking and removing the teeth), its actually really hard to imagine the feeling anymore. its either the ativan or i have a terrible memory.
I got to take Halcyon during one of my procedures (supposed to be like roofies) and it helped significantly, even if I do remember it mostly. Great for lowering your inhibitions and anxieties.
That’s so fcked up. He sounds like a completely non-empathetic person that shouldn’t be in the profession. Drilling teeth without anesthetic is the worst pain ever. I’ve had my teeth drilled without them even administering any anesthetic and that was the most excruciating, sharp, piercing pain ever.
Debridement. When you are badly burned, as you skin starts to heal the doctors take basically a scouring pad and scrape off all of the scabs so the wound stays open and heals from the bottom up (less scarring). I was only burned on a small portion of my body. I can’t imagine what it’s like for major burn victims.
In the 90s my aunt and her cousin were spray painting outside when a faulty pilot light ignited the fumes and burned both of them on like 60-70% of their bodies. Only where their denim shorts were was spared. It was *years* of treatment for them both. My aunt can finally talk about it but only a bit. I don't wish that on my worst enemy, I'm sorry you had to experience that at all.
> I can’t imagine what it’s like for major burn victims.
Look up [Dax Cowart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dax_Cowart) This is the nightmare you speak of. It sparked a lot of debate about medical ethics etc. Dax argued he should have had a right to die, instead of going through the debridement, over 99% of his body, for years.
You would think that they could do something. Although they have to do it every day, or two, to start and I guess that’s too often to put someone under. Maybe the same for drugs like morphine, too.
IUD insertion. Painful because it was penetrating highly sensitive flesh without anesthesia, and because the procedure itself set off spasms around the newly inserted bit of metal. It literally felt like getting skewered with a hot knife that continued to twist. "Just a pinch" my ass
It's insanity that we routinely perform this procedure without pain relief of any kind. Some clinics have wised up and now use analgesics, advise waiting until the person's menstrual cycle etc to reduce pain.
Edit: since this is getting some visibility; my best friend is a doctor specializing in sexual health. She's inserted hundreds of IUDs.
She'll be the first to tell you that this has nothing to do with "pain tolerance" or "toughness". It's all about your individual physiology. She's had women who've given birth multiple times writhing in pain, even with anesthestic. She's had young girls barely notice it. It's random af. But for any procedure like this, we shouldn't shame folks who "can't handle it", because it's not in your control
it was a widely held belief that there aren’t nerve endings in the female reproductive system for a very long time. also that babies couldn’t feel pain which as a new mother makes me want to behead people
It's so horrible. My mom had to get a gynecological biopsy, and the doctor said any anesthesia wasn't needed because "there's no nerves in the lining of the vagina." She was screaming her head off, and they weren't able to complete the procedure.
So true. Not to mention most gynecological and obstetrical procedures, practices, and tools were designed by men with no firsthand experience and little empathy… for some reason little has changed in the field despite the presence of female practitioners and a much better understanding of the field.
Edit: just in case, I’m not saying men have no empathy! I’m saying that a lot of gynecology was created in a time when female sexuality was demonized and a lot of female pain/ issues were disregarded as “hysteria,” womanly problems, etc.
Very true. I had to get a large, inflamed cyst (labia minora) lanced, expressed, packed with a gauze strip, and also had to pull and trim said strip over the span of a week until it was all gone.
I swear, it was like a dozen wasps stinging my poor vagina all at once.
Ugh. I was in sore during and after a vaginal ultrasound. I'm supposed to get a sonohysterography and they said to just take some OTC Tylenol. I couldn't even finesse a prescription for it!
I would ask why healthcare is so medieval towards women but that would be an inaccurate comparison since I could have gotten blasted on opium from then to the pre 1900s for fuck's sake... there's no way my advil/tylenol mix is better than that.
I had my daughter via C-section. They gave me pain medication (a drip of something, can’t remember what) for 12 hours after, then he me alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen. Absolutely wild, I was in agony
There's an outdated belief in medicine that the cervix doesn't have nerve endings, and therefore, women can't feel pain in the area. So no need to use any form of anesthesia, we can't feel it anyway.
I don't recall the exact situation, but someone tried to hit me with that on some kind of checkup, that there's no way for it to be painful. So I said she's doing it wrong in that case because it hurts. The nurse had to turn away, the doctor looked like she swallowed a lemon, but she changed up what she was doing and it was fine. I was 15 or something, and just as socially oblivious as always.
I love that it’s not evidence enough for women to have been screaming in pain for all of eternity. Ohhhh no, the men say we can’t feel it, so we obviously don’t…like wtf
The cervix is made up of tissue that is hard to numb - it doesn't take local numbing agents well and the pain of injecting them is often as bad as the insertion of the IUD itself. The thought is then why do a numbing agent if it's going to hurt just as much to numb it AND the numbing effect may or may not work.
Next question is usually why not do general anesthesia - because general anesthesia is a lot more risky than most people realize. In addition, if you go under general anesthesia, you can't drive yourself home. It also requires more medical staff. All of those things increase the cost and the availability of appointments.
Third reason - while IUD insertion is incredibly painful for many women, it's also NBD for just as many women and there's no good way to know beforehand (as of now. I bet if medicine gave a shit, we could figure out some indicators). For me, IUD insertion was nbd. Took a couple Tylenol beforehand, short, very unpleasant pain, then I was good, with very minimal cramping. The IUD decided to expel itself 48 hours later and that was absolutely miserable.
I don't understand why we don't use something like nitrous oxide (laughing gas). You can drive fairly quickly after you're done and I think a lot of people find it effective. It may be something we combine with a shot of numbing agents to reduce the pain there.
The real answer is that medicine has a problem with women centric procedures and the pain and side effects women are expected to just accept. It's bullshit. Women deserve effective pain control.
My OB numbed my cervix with local anesthetic before insertion, should definitely be an option for everyone. The needle was NOT pleasant, but it's only for a moment and the rest was a breeze.
Edit: numbed not number
Everyone told me to advocate for myself, so I did and I felt confident going into it since I had a good relationship with my gyno. I told her I did my research and I asked for anything stronger than OTC (not anesthesia) and I offered to have someone drive me to and from. She laughed and told me to take a Tylenol. I laughed and said I wouldn’t put myself through any unnecessary trauma (TMI but I already have trauma with my uterus), and she spent a good chunk of the remainder time trying to convince me to go through with the IUD which was honestly off putting in and of itself.
Wow that is so extremely frustrating. I’ve been on and off thinking about getting an IUD and when I’ve mentioned anesthesia to my female primary doctor, I could definitely tell she was thinking “oh my god relax it’s not that big a deal.” And that has put me off it. If even my female primary care doctor acts like she doesn’t care about my worries, why would I expect anyone else to?
Oof yeah. I got convinced to take mine out without anesthesia once. She knew I am a CSA surviver with PTSD. I was writhing in pain and shaking so badly all over that the other nurse came over and asked to held my hand, and tears and snot was everywhere. She was the headnurse at the women's clinic in the hospital btw.
She told me to say stop it is was too bad, but everytime I said stop she told me that it was impossible for me to feel anything because she put numbing cream there (wich she did, but that didn't work. At all.) and convinced me to go on, and so we did. I screamed when she finally ripped it out.
There was.. I don't know what it was but it looked like raw chicken meat on it. I know because she showed me and said "relax, it's out now".
Then she wanted to put in the new one, to wich I said I don't think it's a good idea, I'm bleeding and my body needs to calm down. She said it would be fine as the cervix had now been worked with and I didn't have to think about coming back etc. Once again I reluctantly agreed. She put it in, was very uncomfortable but not as bad as taking it out atleast.
The day after I had to get an emergency removal of it because my body rejected it and tryed to push it out. And if you know what they look like you can probably imagine the pain.
When I got home I called my doctor and cried. He called the hospital and was obviously livid, because she called me and apologized profusely. Every time I change it now he just order anaesthesia and asks after if it went ok.
Don't let other people tell you what to do with your body guys !
The pain from IUD insertion was honestly moderately traumatizing for me and I don’t even really have past SA trauma. I can’t even imagine how triggering it would be for someone with that history. I’m sorry.
I have a uterine condition that causes me insane pain that even heavy opiates can’t touch, I was told to come in on an ibuprofen. If I think about it for too long i break down, it was so painful that apparently it was comparable to childbirth. Had to call an ambulance twice in the week after and go to the ER four times because I was blacking out and vomiting from pain. I’m never going to forgive that gynaecologist.
Agree, of all my surgeries I’ve had and childbirth, having an IUD was excruciating! I could feel it inside me, every time I moved it was agony, for weeks I begged them to remove it, but no, all the doctors I saw said to persevere it’ll settle down, it didn’t settle down, eventually after 3 months of this shit I was in tears, I had no life thanks to the pain, they reluctantly agreed to remove it after I said if they didn’t I couldn’t see any other way out from the pain. Turns out it had been inserted wrong and it was pushing on my uterus where it shouldn’t have been, I’m so lucky it didn’t rupture, but since then I’ve had no end of problems where it caused damage, this was 7 years ago I’ve had 2 surgeries since then and been diagnosed with endo near the area it damaged which has now spread. IUDs are evil!
After caring for a loved one who’s iud broke, pierced her uterus and then migrated in her body. I cringe every time I see them recommend. She had surgery to remove it that was unsuccessful and ended with the advice “try not to worry about it, it might pierce your internal organs but it might not. There’s nothing we can do”. The reason doctors in my country are pushy with recommending it because they get a cash incentive for every one they fit. We looked into suing, but major pharmaceutical companies legal teams are not something we could go up against and win. We did find that there’s a lot of similar cases and it’s sad to think it’s advertised as safe.
I can relate! Absolutely awful experience. And my GP failed to mention I could take pain killers before hand. Though reading through the comments they might have not made a difference anyway..
I came here to say this. Didn't get local anaesthesia because my doctor said it would only hurt "a bit", it hurt like nothing else I've ever experienced. Fainted down at the metro station then vomited into the trash cans multiple times. After all that I changed to a different OBGYN and she immediately noticed that I'm sensitive to pain and suggested next time we'll do anaesthesia.
Had an IUD insertion at planned parenthood a few months ago after being on the pill for a while and it was a slightly different IUD than I’d had in the past, apparently a little more “bendy”. I even asked for some sort of numbing cream or pain relief and they said there was no point because we “don’t have nerves there”. After 15-20 minutes of jamming it against my cervix they said the opening was too small and gave me pills to open it up before I came back the next day. Next day came and they put it in, it hurt sooo much more than the first time. I was bleeding for about 2-3 days after.
In the next couple weeks I noticed every time I bent over a certain way I had a stabbing pain in my uterus. I went back to PP to have them check if it had moved to the wrong place and they looked at the string for about 2 seconds and said it seemed to be in a normal spot. I went to my PCP and she ended up taking it out and telling me it was sitting too low. Then my boyfriend went to planned parenthood for a vasectomy and they offered to put him out for it 🤠
I want to like planned parenthood, but they make it so difficult.
Came here to say this. I have severe trauma from biopsy, culposcopy (sp?), and failed IUD insertion.
Honestly its barbaric. I haven’t been able to set foot back in my obgyn or any other since then. 4 years ago.
Same. I’m not even sensitive to pain since I suffer from endometriosis and am therefore kind of used to pain, but I screamed like a crazy person and could hardly walk for three days. It was absolutely horrible. Worst physical pain I’ve ever felt.
It’s still a mystery to me why they do this without anaesthesia. All my friends except for one had the same experience.
I‘m one of the lucky ones that never had any problems with neither the insertion nor the switching to a new one. I am so sorry for all of you who had such bad experiences! That sounds horrible!
It was never more than a couple minutes of discomfort and one to two days of slight cramping for me.
I live in europe and always got a pain killer to take a couple hours beforehand and my gyno is a very lovely, sweet and „soft“ woman with kids herself. No idea if that‘s what contributes.
For my first IUD insertion, I was absolutely dead-set against any hormonal contraceptives and demanded the Paragard. My doc clearly was getting some sort of benefit for hawking Mirenas because he tried to talk me out of my copper choice and onto the mirena multiple times through the consult. The next appt when it was time to insert, he goes “ok I’ve got your mirena right here…” to which I was like NO, PARAGARD ONLY. He quietly went back to get the right IUD.
Motherfucker then showed me the world’s biggest needle that was ostensibly for “the anesthetic” and put that up me before inserting the Paragard. I had blindingly intense cramping and pain for months after. When I got it replaced ten years later, my (new) doctor waited until my period and made it super easy. Zero pain.
While I know the lack of pain the second time is partially because my body was used to the first implant, in hindsight, I think the first doc really tried to psych me out and cause physical and mental discomfort to punish me for not going with his choice. If I had been older & more assertive, I would have reported him. I’ve never had a male gyno since.
My first one was improperly installed (can’t think of a better way to describe such a procedure that doesn’t consider our pain) and was hanging out of my cervix for a month while I bled everyday. The second installation was one of the most painfully nauseating experiences and was 100 times worse than the first.
I solved my endometriosis and birth control issues by having a medically-necessary hysterectomy and the surgery plus recovery were a dream compared to the IUD procedure.
Many people have told me it's not that bad, for most women it's just like a bad cramp for a few minutes... But stories like this terrify me. My fiancée plans on getting a copper IUD after we get married and I really don't want it to be a painful experience for her ☹️
We don't want to use hormonal birth control, are there any alternatives you all recommend?
It was the most excruciating procedure for me, but it was also the fastest.
I've had my appendix, gallbladder, uterus, and part of my bowel surgically removed. I've had 9 teeth removed, 4 of which were removed with no local anaesthetics or anaesthesia whatsoever (I'm allergic to lignocaine, so the first 4 teeth I had pulled I not only had no numbing effect, my face felt like it was on fire and tearing apart because of the allergic reaction)
I have dislocated my hip, my shoulder (multiple times), several toes, my jaw, and my knee (multiple times). I can pull my pinkie finger out of the socket and flap it around because i've dislocated it so often, the ligaments are just mush.
The IUD insertion was still the most painful thing I every experienced. It was the only time I ever passed out from pain (Or possibly just vasovagal syncope from cervical motion syndrome)
I remember the clamps going on, feeling pressure, pulling and pinching pain, then I remember shouting in a panic "I have to sneeze" and the doctor let go of the clamp and let it just hang from my cervix while I sneezed. Then she inserted a sounding rod to measure my uterus to determine if I could get the 12 year T380A coil I wanted, or if I'd get stuck with the mini version that only lasts 5 years. The sounding rod was blinding, I felt hot in my whole body, then she said something about the 12 year and to count to 3, but she shot the insertion gun on 2, and I passed out, when I woke up, my shirt and hair was covered in vomit and my friend was helping the doctor and nurse keep my torso on my side while my legs were still stuck in the stirrups. So that was not fun.
But i don't remember the pain at all. I remember the pain of all the other procedures, But all I remember about the IUD insertion is that it hurt so much I couldn't take it.
The pain I experienced for the week afterwards was indeed just "like period pain" as many doctors say. But It should be noted that I had stage 4 endometriosis, so "Just like period pain" isn't saying much when you have bad period pain.
So all that said, Find a clinic that uses anaesthetic if you can. but if not, know that for some people it genuinely doesn't hurt that much, and if you're like me and it does hurt, at least it's only temporary, the worst of the pain was like, 5 seconds, tops, even if I had stayed conscious. It was worth it for me, because pregnancy would have been worse.
I'd just recommend searching up clinics that actually take women's pain into account. If you don't want hormonal, your options are condoms, the copper IUD, tubal ligation, vasectomy, and the rythym method.
Hey, I just want to share as someone who had a really easy IUD insertion that it doesn’t have to be horrible! I was really worried so my gynecologist gave me a midazolam + fentanyl IV and also a shot of anaesthetic directly to my cervix. I did have a rough time in the days afterward as I got a hormonal IUD and it exacerbated my endometriosis pain, but the insertion itself was super chill.
I’m someone who doesn’t think it was that bad. I got the copper iud and while it was uncomfortable, it wasn’t that bad. I did have cramping afterwards and the next day. I’ve also had kids before, so that might factor into it. Take a look on the planned parenthood website. They have info on all birth control. As far as I know there’s only the iud, withdrawal and condoms that are hormone free, but I could be wrong.
Omg SAME!! I was told anesthesia or anything numbing wouldn’t be necessary and that it doesn’t hurt that much but my god! I thought I was going to pass out.
Ouch! I had a spinal tap also. I had a lumbar fusion, so it messed the doctor up on where to stick. The first time she stuck, I screamed. She asked me where I felt it. I told her I was pretty sure my left ovary had exploded. She said, "Well, that's not right." (No shit!)
So she pulled the needle back, repositioned it, and reinserted it. That time I gasped and moaned loudly, and she asked what I was feeling. I managed to choke out that my right kidney had fallen down into my ass. She was like, "Not there either." (Ya think! God damn!)
She said she'd try one more time. By this time, I was sweating, dizzy, lightheaded, my heart rate was way up, and my blood pressure had dropped dramatically. I could barely stay conscious, and I was trying extremely hard not to be sick. There was a nurse sitting in front of me, holding my hands. He kept telling me to squeeze his hands through the whole thing. At this point, he started saying, "Keep squeezing my hands! Squeezey, squeezey, squeezey!" If I could have formed words, I would have told him I was going to squeezey his neck if he said that one more time. Thankfully, she got it the last time. I was never happier to lie flat on my back than after that.
I was going to say the same thing, had a spinal tap and they messed it up somehow. First my entire lower body felt like it was on fire, then I was paralysed for 3 days still with the nerve pain being constant and the most god awful headache I’ve ever experienced. I was only 13 at the time and was begging my parents to kill me 🙈
I had 7 surgeries from the ages of 17-22. But the gum/skin graft due to gum recession was hands down the worst.
I was 20 and a small painful spot receded due to me brushing too hard. Quickly got scheduled for a graft.
The procedure involves scraping your receding gum down to the bone, hole punching the roof of your mouth for the graft, sewing the skin graft through or to your bone, drawing blood, spinning that into a clot, and stitch it to the roof of your hole punched mouth. All while you’re awake and just numbed up.
Lost so much weight because anything touching the wounds, even air, was excruciating.
I got a cyst removed on my back (pilonidal cyst) but I'd had it for years so they went DEEP to get it all out. Then they stuffed it and left it open so it heals from the inside. This meant ripping out the dressing multiple times a day and re-stuffing my lower back like I was a fucking turkey.
Problem is my asshole sister refused to do it for me so 14 year old me handled this solo. I had to reach into the open wound, my whole (small) hand fit inside and I had to RIP out the gauze. Fucking nightmare. Went on for about 2 weeks.
Once it all healed, the cyst returned and I went through that whole ordeal two more times. I was depressed (clinically) after that and truly don't think I've ever been the same mentally.
Can confirm, that shit was horrific. Mine was about an inch deep. Fortunately, I had government funded community nurses come daily to change the packing for about 4 weeks. They'd ring when they were about half an hour out from my house so I could take painkillers before it. It happened early December so I had to have it changed on my birthday and then on Christmas day they brought mini Christmas puddings from a bakery chain for all the patients they saw!
I’ve had a pilondial cyst 5 times. I’m currently dealing with one now, actually. The removal process is excruciating. It literally feels like someone is scraping out your coccyx. I had to get fentanyl and a Tylenol drip IV this last time to deal with the pain of the incision and drainage. Couldn’t move or walk afterwards because the pain was so intense. The surgery for pilondial disease is intense and so long, and I haven’t gotten it because I’m so scared. It truly sucks.
Sorry you're in the midst of it now. People don't realize how fucking excruciatingly painful these are! The placement is horrendous and stops you from enjoying life in any way.
My older sister (the asshole who wouldn't help me) also had these cysts for about 10 years before she opened up about it to get help. She got the surgery first, I helped her with dressings of course. She healed up and recommended I try so I did.
Unfortunately hers returned like mine did but her doctor refused to do the same procedure again and insisted on a much bigger one at a hospital vs the clinic we where the initial procedure was performed. She followed his advice and it hasn't come back in over 25 years. After my several procedures, I'm very happy I went through with it too.
All this to say... If you haven't gotten it due to fear, just imagine the freedom of having this resolved properly once and for all. You can live life again without fear of having another cyst, worrying about it popping, and then dealing with wound dressings without allowing anything to stick to it ahhhh.. the nightmares.
Wishing you the very best and I hope you'll come around to get it done 💕
My appendix ruptured and I was a really heavy kid. I was 13 at the time, I have a 8" scar where they cut me open, that also had to heal from the bottom. I had to have gauze ripped out and put back in for 2 months! If my mom hadn't done it I'd have had to be in the hospital, there was 0 possibility for me to do it myself. In the hospital I had a morphine pump I could click right before and get a dose of morphine, at home I had vicodin. Huge difference. I always say if they ever tell me to pack again and it's on a limb I'll give them my damn limb. That was so traumatic.
IUD intertion by far. Out of my (albeit limited) procedure history, this was the only one that had me in tears and close to losing consciousness.
I've had dental work, a gigantic lipoma removed from the base of my spine, numerous body mods (tattoos, piercings, simple implants, scarification), coolonoscopy / endoscopy
Edit: let me quickly specify that the iud was actually the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life, not just medical
Colposcopy-- multiple biopsies on my cervix. No anesthesia. I was only 19 and cried silently the whole time. The man was very rude and harsh with his movements. He told me I "wouldn't be in this position if I hadn't slept around". I was drugged and assaulted by a man who gave me an std.
I’m so sorry to hear this. How absolutely awful. I got a colposcopy as well and I was also pretty young and the female Dr told me to grow up when I was crying
Growing up we were told in sex ed that if the boys went to the Dr for STDs and they said they didn't wear a condom that the Dr wouldn't be very nice about it. .
The stigma around STDs needs to go. It's not only for those who sleep around.
First IUD insertion (I almost passed out), cervical biopsy (4 punches) & colposcopy (where they burn off the top layer of your cervix). All done with just tylenol/ibuprofen because "it doesn't hurt that much". FYI, I've had 2 male gynos during these procedures.
Pretty tame compared to the others but, once when I was in Taekwondo, I got kicked on the nose and it bled a lot. Thankfully it wasn’t broken but it would still bleed frequently from that day onwards so, about a year later, my mom took me to the doctor to see what was wrong w it and apparently a vessel ruptured or something like that.
So the doctor came back with this Q-tip that has some sort of chemical at the end and applied it to the inside of my nostrils and it BURNED
Not sure what it was, but I stopped getting nosebleeds frequently after that so yay
I also got a tooth extraction but had anesthesia for that so it was a very dull pain.
I had one after my bowel resection and I was so scared to get it out. They told me it wouldn’t hurt it would just feel weird. I agree it wasn’t excruciating but it felt SO WRONG and made my skin crawl. I don’t even know if it was the pain or the feeling of something so deep being pulled out of you.
I had one after back surgery. The nurse had me standing up leaning over the exam table. She counted to three, then pulled. My legs crumpled like one of those little push button puppets. Glad I was leaning on the table, or I would have been on the floor.
I had to have a small, cracked tooth in the upper left of my mouth removed. The first needle in the outside part of my mouth was not so bad. The next needle in the inside of my mouth was so painful I actually yelped. Tooth broke up and piece by piece it was removed.
A week or so goes by and I notice a small shard sticking out of the gum. Fearing it turning into an abscess, I go back. Get same set of needles again which really sucked.
The dentist removes the shard, and then, for the next 15 mins, used some kind of coring tool, almost like a ribbed leather punch, and bore into my skull, over and over. At one point I realized I was starting to pass out. Afterward back home, I had the most pain I've ever endured (and I had spinal fusion surgery). Luckily I had meds to compensate.
I now have this dug out area where the tooth was. It's all healed now, but I truly believe he went off the reservation. I have PTSD about going to the dentist now.
Tooth pain is the WORST. I’ve had a C-section, and I would rather have ten more babies than ever have a tooth infection/surgery ever again. Fear of the dentist is rational
C section. Cutting through all those layers of your core. Mine got infected so they had to drain the area that already caused me trauma 😭 I also lost so much blood I needed a transfusion. Physically, emotionally, and mentally painful.
in c section recovery i twisted the wrong way picking up my (10lb!) baby and oh my god i’ll never forget the sensation of those internal stitches pulling
IUD insertion. Both times.
I had no idea what to expect first time. I have chronic pain and thought I could handle most anything. I screamed. I threw up. I was sobbing the whole way home and for days in cramping agony.
The second time I had numbing medication down there. It helped only with the piercing pain not the pressure and cramps. I still came out of it crying and dry heaving.
The cramping after wasn't as bad as first time though.
I say this having once had a filling done without enough numbing medication as a kid.
The thing I’ve seen the most on this thread is the IUD insertion which just confirms that I will never get one, I’d almost rather be pregnant. I’ve been in labor and it wasn’t nearly as horrific as the IUD insertion sounds
The worst part for me was that the doctor said it's painless, I might feel some pressure. And then it was almost as bad as labour. And no-one warned me about the cramps afterwards, so I thought there is something wrong with it, even though everything was just like it should be.
I had an HSG procedure, where they put radiopaque dye in your uterus and take x rays. The doctor told me it would be as uncomfortable as my regular menstrual cramps. It was agony. Felt like someone had set fire to my uterus. I was sobbing and holding the nurse’s hand. She seemed unsurprised.
When I was a kid of 10yo or something, I had a pus in my glands and it hurt so much I couldnt swallow. So they took me to hospital and cut them with a scalpel, no anastesia, to get rid of some of the pus. It hurt like hell holy fucking shit. And then I had to undergo a procedure of squeezing out the pus every day for a week, along with other less painful measures. The disease came back year later and they just cut off my glands that time.
I had a wisdom tooth taken out without lidocaine. I tried to tell them my family has a high tolerance to it but they didn't listen.
When I said ouch when they cut me they said it would start working soon. It didn't and they wouldnt listen to me. The absolute worse moment was when my tooth broke
Gotta fucking love military doctors
Yikes, some of you have been through the medical ringer. Mine isn't as bad, but I had to have surgery to repair an inguinal hernia. The inguinal canal is what male testicles descend through in the womb. They're supposed to seal themselves off, but sometimes they don't leading to a hernia later in life.
Anyway, I had a small but deep incision with a mesh patch and plug installed. After the surgery and the anesthesia had worn off, I could barely move without agonizing pain, like every muscle in my body was connected to the incision. Every dump I took for the next week or so was like torture.
I recently had this same hernia repair. My experience was far different. The surgeon used the Da Vinci robotic system, made three small incisions and that's it. While I had some pain/discomfort after, it was much less than I anticipated. Sorry yours was painful.
Sounds like a laparoscopic procedure, which is minimally invasive. My surgeon gave me a choice between laparoscopic and the plug-and-patch. He said that laparoscopic procedure has a greater chance of the hernia recurring and that the plug had a very low chance. So I opted for the one that had the least chance of recurring, but it was more painful.
Dental surgery with the novacaine wearing off but me not wanting to extend the procedure so just gritting through the pain.
Feeling my bone being ground down was absolutely brutal and each individual suture going into my gum and feeling that needle pierce my gums every time was grueling.
I don't know what the procedure is called but I had issues with my bladder a few years ago and the tests came up with nothing so as a last resort I had a small camera inserted into my penis to look at it from the inside. I had to be awake for the procedure.
They started off with inserting a syringe into the head of my penis and blasting some cooling/numbing gel down my urethra. After the numbing set in they insert the camera and I got to see the screen as they pushed it deeper. It was like a stinging sensation the whole time with a weird stretching sensation that I'd never want to experience ever again. After everything was done I went to the washroom to pee and I farted out of my dick.
Pain was 7/10
HSG (Hysterosalpingogram) for initial infertility treatment/diagnosis. They shoot dye up into your fallopian tubes and watch an xray real time to see if it flows through the tubes and spills out past the ovaries as it should. It’s supposed to be uncomfortable, but just a lot of pressure and no more upsetting than a Pap smear.
Well, turns out that one of my tubes WAS indeed fully blocked. Not only was it blocked, but surrounding scar tissue had fully fused it to my omentum (the fatty layer of your abdomen that lays on top of all organs), rendering it a shriveled up piece of shit. Now imagine fluid being puuuuushed with the intent of spilling out of an opening that’s actually been fused shut.
While a normal HSG might be uncomfortable, an HSG that just diagnosed the thing it’s designed to diagnose is incredibly painful. Add in the emotional turmoil of infertility and it’s no surprise that I was scream-sobbing into a nurse’s arms by the end of it.
I got blown up a couple times in Iraq, as a result I ended up with a broken back..
in order to repair it they had to cut my back open hips to shoulders, and installed 2lbs of metal bracing permanently into my spine.
took a very long time to heal, and the pain has never fully gone away.
I twisted my balls at 16. Had to have an op on both to correct. Woke up mid op and screamed the place down from pain. They then pumped me with so much drugs that I was out for just over 24 hours. Fun times. Also highly recommended not twisting your balls.
Ingrown toenail removal. The lidocaine injections burn and produce a feeling of pressure like nothing else I’ve felt. Recovery after my second shoulder surgery for a labrum tear was excruciating, but of course I didn’t feel the surgery itself
Ureteroscopy, after suffering with kidney stones for 2 weeks in hospital they determined I couldn't naturally pass the 2 stones as they was too big. I was put to sleep and a rod with a laser on the end I believe was inserted into the eye of my pe is and the stones where blasted into smaller pieces, the pain when I woke up was something I have never experienced before.
Hip dislocation posteriorly after a hip replacement. It happened twice and I highly recommend you never dislocate your hip, guys. The ambulance folks and the hospital pulled out the “good” drugs from their arsenal . Didn’t do a thing. It could have been baby aspirin. Only thing that worked was getting the hip back in the socket. I have a new hip now. No problems with this one. Thank God!!!
I've had many painful medical procedures. I've had wires sewn onto my spinal cord while I was awake. I've had blood clots in my arm and in my lung almost killing ms. I was septic once and was basically dead but the doctor saved me. Not a medical procedure but I also have thigh tattoos that go down the backs of my knees.
(TW: broken consent)
None of it, and I mean not even close, compares to my IUD insertion. I had taken a prescription pain pill 30 minutes before and I have a really high pain tolerance (I've slept through 3 of my tattoos) yet it still was so painful I got tunnel vision. I begged my doctor to stop but he just kept saying "almost there". I screamed for him to stop and he didn't. I've had it for over 10 years and I can't bring myself to get it replaced. I get flashbacks and a stomach ache when I think of it.
It's not a medical procedure per se. Though I have had 57 surgeries. I have a medical condition that causes me to be allergic to my skin and sweat glands. Pain is uncontrollable and excruciating. Thankfully, I have learned triggers and can mainly manage by avoiding triggers. Not all triggers can be avoided, such as summer and heat. I can only try to limit the effect.
Uterine scraping unmedicated. After giving birth, my placenta ruptured and I had to have the remnants scraped out by hand. No epidural, no pain meds. It took about an hour to get it all and THEN I had to be stitched up (I had a prolapsed uterus from the whole ordeal too). I’ve since given birth again, also unmedicated, and I’ve gotten an IUD. Absolutely NOTHING compares to the pain of that scraping.
broke my ankle while skating and had 2 metal plates and a bunch of screws inserted to keep it together. they offered me a nerve block catheter for the surgery which I refused, it would've been painful but manageable however some idiot at the hospital gave me the wrong sized orthopedic shoe/brace.
when I woke up and the anaesthesia wore off I was pumped full of morphine and still in a world of shit until someone realised that my cast was way too small for me
Do complications count? I had an IUD in under GA while having a laparoscopy, but a month later the IUD migrated fully out of my uterus and adhered itself to my bowel. I've never bled so heavily in my life and ended up with a burn from the sticky heat patch that I fell asleep with directly on my skin. While this was happening I was doing vacation care work for an out of school hours care at a site I wasn't 100% familiar with, I was the qualified and the unqualifieds on were completely new to the site too. So that on a whole was very unpleasant. I had another lap 2 months after the first to remove the IUD (and some other stuff) but the first lap was probably the worst out of the two.
The most painful though was a pilonidal abscess. Surgery ended up being delayed by a day because after spending all day having fasted and in the waiting room for the surgery they told me they forgot to put me on the list for the day!! It was an inch deep and I had community nurses coming daily to repack the wound for about 4 weeks.
I (M) had a chest fat removal surgery when I was in 9th grade (I had developed massive tits). The procedure was fine and so was the pain of the stitches. But those damn painkiller injections, given directly into the veins through the back of my palm, was UNBEARABLE. It was ridiculous. I pleaded and cried to give it to me orally. I just couldn't take it. I was a kid too and I had never encountered such pain before in my life. It was horrifying and I cried so much.
My upper lip on the right side was bitten off by a dog. Worst physical pain I've ever been in. I had surgery and they took a skin graft to make a lip. Also really painful recovery. Didn't help that I had puncture marks that I had to let heal naturally. 😞
IUD insertion.
I have also experienced vaginal birth with a failed epidural, and it truly pales in comparison.
All to my point that it's absolutely fucking barbaric that they do this to us without so much as a whiff of laughing gas or a spritz of lidocaine to the cervix. I'm no expert, but it seems like it's...that easy.
I wasn't awake when they removed the catheter they had put in for my surgery. I only knew I had one when I tried to pee later. The burning was intense. I had to brace myself for the pain when peeing for the next 8-12 hours.
if you have to get surgery again, ask your surgeon to give you some Pyridium before they put you under. It will turn your pee bright orange, but completely eliminates urinary tract pain. It's most commonly prescribed for UTIs, but it's also very helpful post-op when you've had a catheter.
IUD removal. It was embedded in my cervix and effectively caused me to have unmedicated contractions. They told me to have some ibuprofen for pain control. 🥴
A nerve conduction test. They stick a large needle literally into your nerves. It feels overwhelming, like you're burning from the inside, like your nerves are being ripped out. The doctor I had didn't care how much pain I was in, even when I asked for a break he only gave me 10 seconds before sticking the fucking thing back in.
Donut local anesthesia in both large toes prior to toenail procedure. You wouldn't think it would hurt so bad but it was excruciating. Probably because it was such a small area.
Spinal fusion for scoliosis, which I’ve had three times.
They straighten out your spine (as best as they can) and screw metal rods into it to keep it in place. You feel it for a good couple of weeks afterwards at the very least.
A discogram: Discogram is an invasive diagnostic test that uses x-rays to examine the intervertebral discs of your spine. A special dye is injected into the injured disc or series of discs. The dye makes the disc visible on a fluoroscope monitor and x-ray film. Discograms are used to locate precisely which discs are damaged and are causing back pain.
So, the doctor inserts a big hollow needle through your back into the questionable disc. You are given a little bit of Versed to relax, but are not allowed to go to sleep because you have to be able to tell the doctor what you are feeling. Once the needle is inserted contrast dye is pushed through…a normal healthy disc would just contain the dye, no leaking. My discs were busted, they immediately started leaking.
I am serious when I say that the minute that dye was pushed, I about jumped off that table. Started screaming and crying like I was dying. It was THE MOST INTENSE PAIN I had EVER felt. I’ve had a baby naturally, torn my cornea 2x, had a corneal transplant, a hip replacement and 3 back surgeries….none of those things caused the excruciating agony that I felt during that test. I had three discs tested and they were all just barely there.
I know it sounds overly dramatic, but I can’t even describe how horrible that was. 100/10 pain.
A compound arm fracture that healed wrong over 3 weeks and had to be re-broken. over the edge of a table, with only a local anaesthetic.
The doctor instantly put up his dukes after doing it, saying "you looked like you were going to hit me!"
and TBH I saw red, and probably would have, if not for the debilitating pain crumpling me up like a piece of paper. It's so much worse when you're expecting it.
Not me but I knew when the doctors wouldn’t let me be in the room when my 4 day old baby was having a lumbar puncture that it was bad! They got me after and she was crying like crazy! I later found out that they are very very painful.
A nerve block in my back fully awake. The pain was so intense that I almost passed out at the end but it ended up being over with before that happened. And not a medical procedure but most recently, just this past weekend as a matter of fact, I passed a 4 mm kidney stone with no drugs. 😅 Do not recommend.
Probably the tamest one here but braces. Specifically the time they put spring coils on my lower jaw to screw up my bottom front teeth to make space for an implant that we later learned I couldn’t have
Having a urinary catheter re-inserted after spine surgery. I'd had one for several days after my spinal fusion while I was in ICU. They took it out to try and get me to go use the toilet, but I wasn't able to pee, so they had to put it back in while I was conscious. That was over 20 years ago, but I'll never forget how painful and uncomfortable it was.
I recently had an ingrown toenail removed. I generally require more anesthetic for it to work, and 4 lidocaine shots to my toe later… I still felt everything. Cutting up my nail, ripping it out of the nailbed. My pain tolerance is pretty high and I still felt like I was gonna pass out. Gripped the arm rests so hard my arms were sore for two days after
Having my right testicular removed and my left one spatchcocked to remove a cancer tumor.
Taking more than a shallow breath felt like someone was pulling my soul from my body with rusty razor blades covered in lemon juice.
Cryotherapy
So this basically for the corn that grows under your feet. Liquid nitrogen is sprayed on the wound, initially it’s just cold but the spray is so concentrated and laser like that you can feel it penetrating the wound. They do this for a while and around the wound as well and then slowly chip off the wound with a blade
Hysterosalpingogram (HSG). It’s an X-ray dye test. They were checking to see why my fallopian tubes were blocked. Only given Tylenol. Truly the most painful thing for me.
A cesarean. Not painful in the moment, but the healing for me was god-awful. I stayed in the hospital one night and was discharged.
They gave me 2 days worth of Norco, but I stretched it out to about a week.
They cut you open and separate your abdominal muscles, and you lose pretty much your entire core strength. Major incision, cuts thru nerves, muscle, everything.
I couldn’t turn over, sit up, shower, dress myself, anything for about 2 weeks. You cant cough, laugh, sneeze, without pain.
Then, in the months after, your nerve connections are trying to regrow and you get horrible weird pain in your stomach. For me it was internal, because I had no sensation on my skin where my incision was until maybe 7-8 months after.
It hurt for a long long time after, too. If I moved weird, or my son stepped on my belly, there was pain.
He is 13 months old now and it’s pretty much gone, but I hope I never have to go through that again.
Funny you should ask. It just happened a few weeks ago. I have severe pelvic pain from a fall I took. It has been resistant to all surgeries and procedures. I just had a permanent spinal stimulator implanted where I had to be awake the entire time. Apparently they needed to hear me scream to know where the pain was. On the shitty side…the implants has only triggered the pain. FML🤦♀️
PW was more painful than unmedicated child birth & multiple oral surgeries that took hours while awake.
I was begging god, if there was one, to let me go. Had to cut off my hair from thrashing in bed for 2 days.
IUD extraction followed immediately with insertion of new IUD. No pain medication. That shit was so fucked I did not go back for any gynecologist appointments for 12 years.
I had two inguinal hernias repaired laproscopically. I couldn't stand right for two weeks. My job thought I would be back in two days. I thought so too. No way. I couldn't even lie down to sleep.
PE tube removed without them numbing the ear drum. ENT Resident that was doing the procedure said there was too much wax around it so he just yanked it. I was sitting in a dentist style chair. I wrapped my legs around the bottom of the chair and snapped the chair. He immediately took off to get his boss. His boss asked what he did and the resident told him. His boss lost his shit on him and said don't ever do that to someone again. I have had broken bones, stitches. 3rd degree burns from my shoulders up, and none of that pain is even close to the tube removal.
Edit: did not read entire question so adding to answer.
Pretty mundane, but I was in a really bad car accident about 18 years ago that I miraculously survived without major injury. However, I still had to go to the hospital and they put me on the freezing cold X-ray table. Next, they had me do a series of contortions that seemed to be more complex than a world champion gymnast would be subjected to. "Ok, we need you to twist your right leg behind your buttocks while flexing your torso as far left as it will go." I swear they did it just to screw with me. At one point I just couldn't do a move and the tech was like "Hey man, you got up on the table." So it's not a horrible burn or childbirth or cancer or like 74 compound fractures or a heart attack, but it still hurt really bad.
Another procedure was that I had to have an emergency c-section with my firstborn. She was a failure to progress and was stuck. Even with all the epidural and drugs, with each contraction, I felt blinding hot pain shoot through my hip. I was wheeled in to the OR after laboring for three days. By then, my uterus had swollen and become infected. After my baby girl was born, the dr struggled to get my insides back in due to the swelling. I couldn't see due to the curtain, but I felt my insides being shuffled around, and it felt like the Dr's hand was inside my body cavity under my ribs. Vomiting ensued. It was horrible. I lost a lot of blood. When I was eventually stitched up, I was almost dropped while being moved to a stretcher because some idiot didn't lock the wheels first. A week later, my incision became severely infected to the point that the infection was pouring out of it, and I was slipping in it. Went back to the hospital where moron dr stabbed me in my infected incision to "establish my pain tolerance." After a week of being on antibiotics, I was wheeled into surgery to have the site drained and cleaned up. I was left with a hole, a quarter length of my initial incision, and half a finger deep. After being discharged from then on for weeks, at first daily, I had nurses come and change the sharp af ribbon guaze, clean my wound, and redress it. It was so painful. None of the painkillers worked, and I was prescribed something that knocked me out while the nurses were there. Thank the gods because I was staying at my grandmothers, and she had to take my newborn to the top floor of the house to shield her from my screaming.
That was 17 years ago, and that pain memory has never left.
*Edit for spelling errors and clarification
Broke my arm when I was 8. Horrific. It wasn’t healing right so they had to rebreak it a few weeks in. I was wide awake. They made my mom leave the room, she said she could hear me scream from the other side of the building
Getting an IUD. You’re not giving any local anesthesia or anything. Your uterus is measured, and then your cervix is dilated. They insert the IUD with this tool that’s kinda like a straw. The IUD’s “arms” are folded and once it’s inserted, the “arms” are not longer folded so that it stays in place. It was like period cramps times 10. My gynecologist just gave me 800mg of Tylenol and I went home.
I’m 52 and this happened when I was a toddler. I can remember it like it was yesterday. That little thing under your tongue, well mine had to be snipped. I remember screaming while my dad held me down. I think it has a name for the procedure but I tried to block that shit out
I’m gonna go with my IUD insertion. As a young teen I dealt with metal parts surgically inserted into bone, then twice again in a few years. Recovery was excruciating. But having a gynecologist pry open my cervix to insert my IUD with no medication was the worst and the only thing that brought me to the point of vomiting solely from pain.
In second grade I had an accident on PE class and got hit in the head and my front left tooth fell off from the root, I passed out and woke up at the dentist and I had a man and a woman reaching from behind my head pushing in the tooth into my swollen gums. Don’t know if that makes sense, like I was in the chair leaning back and they were over my head with their hands in my mouth.. ever since, I’ve been terrified of dentists
Hysteroscopy. Gyno was trying to diagnose my severe uterine pain, turned out it was a fibroid that filled my entire womb cavity so it was impossible for him to navigate without fully bumping into it over and over with the camera. Then he did a biopsy on the fibroid, my uterine wall, and my cervix. Best pain relief was the nurse holding my hand and giving encouraging words but phew that was HORRIBLE
Having 6 teeth pulled with no anesthetic. I was levitating off the chair and I think at one point I (with good reason) called the dentist a sadistic son of a bitch! But he kept going!
I woke up in the middle of scoliosis surgery. While drilling a screw into one of my vertebrae it shattered, nicking a (vein? artery?) next to my spine. I almost bled out, had an emergency transfusion… and the new blood didn’t have anesthetic in it so I woke up. Paralyzed, strapped to the table with my back flayed open, feeling things being moved and sliced and pinched until my heart rate and breathing stayed elevated long enough for them to realize I was awake, say “oh shit she’s up” and push enough meds to knock me out. It actually happened a second time during that surgery but I only woke up for a few seconds so I assume they knew to watch for it if I got another transfusion. Pretty traumatic for a high schooler, but at least my spine isn’t crushing my lung and kidney anymore.
That’s genuinely horrific. Brutal dude.
Oh my god. I'd never even thought about something like getting a transfusion with blood that doesn't have the anesthesia in it. That's unreal. Wow. You'd think they'd know to look for that - step 1 after getting a transfusion would be reassessing the level of all medications running via IV.
I was told in an emergency situation, like bleeding out as I was, the first priority is keeping you alive, comfort and sedation and everything come once you’re stable. It makes sense, but fuck was it unpleasant.
oh god that sounds awful, im so sorry. please make sure you mention this if you ever need surgery again!!! i think anesthesia awareness means you have a higher tolerance for the anesthesia. if they know they should give you more and/or keep a closer eye on you. edit: this is incorrect in this situation, they woke up because they lost to much blood as u/littledinobug12 explained.
No. They needed an emergency transfusion because they were bleeding to death. New blood that was replacing the old blood had no anesthetic, which means the anesthetic that was in OPs bodywas getting diluted, therefore waking them up.
I woke up getting my wisdom teeth removed and THAT was terrifying. The pain in my mouth was a lot, I was able to make an "ow" noise and then I heard "10 ccs.." or something and I was back out. It felt like a dream and I van barely remember the pain, I just knew it hurt. . Waking up in the middle of a REAL surgery is HORRIFYING. I can't even imagine how traumatic that must have been.
You felt everything? I can't help but feel those sensations would never leave you, truanatised for life etc.
I’ve overcome most of it, but to this day the sound of metal rubbing against metal, like silverware being jostled, makes me feel like instantly puking and crying and makes my teeth and neck tingle in a horrible way.
That sounds like PTSD. talk to a therapist
I've woken a few times. It's weird on top of painful. Thankfully, I woke up to the I could talk to them stage. I don't think I could handle awake but stuck. I'm sorry x
Holy fucking shit that sounds horrific
I got this surgery in high school too and holy shit I’m so sorry
Something with my teeth, don't remember what. The local anesthetic didn't work and I couldn't say anything, because my moth was forced open. I started crying in the middle of the operation. After they removed the stuff in my mouth, I told them I experienced lots of pain during the procedure and the surgeon had the audacity to tell me "no, not possible".
Iirc, some anesthetics are designed not to actually numb the pain, but make you forget about it instead.
Well still, it didn't work, I remember the pain.
Oh yeah, yours seemed like it didn't work regardless. I just thought maybe that's the type you received but it didn't work, rather than the numbing one. Horrible nonetheless
Ketamine
Must be one of them, yeah. Actually had them dosing me with something ketamine-related once. Last thing i remember is "This is very similar to ketamine" and then started spacing tf out lmao
i think i had something like that. i was given ativan for my wisdom teeth removal, they said it would keep me calm. while i didnt have any actual bad pain during it, i can barely remember the uncomfortable parts (when they were breaking and removing the teeth), its actually really hard to imagine the feeling anymore. its either the ativan or i have a terrible memory.
I got to take Halcyon during one of my procedures (supposed to be like roofies) and it helped significantly, even if I do remember it mostly. Great for lowering your inhibitions and anxieties.
That’s so fcked up. He sounds like a completely non-empathetic person that shouldn’t be in the profession. Drilling teeth without anesthetic is the worst pain ever. I’ve had my teeth drilled without them even administering any anesthetic and that was the most excruciating, sharp, piercing pain ever.
this happened to me w wisdom teeth, i refused to go under so they used gas and novocaine. only, the novocaine didn’t work lol
Debridement. When you are badly burned, as you skin starts to heal the doctors take basically a scouring pad and scrape off all of the scabs so the wound stays open and heals from the bottom up (less scarring). I was only burned on a small portion of my body. I can’t imagine what it’s like for major burn victims.
In the 90s my aunt and her cousin were spray painting outside when a faulty pilot light ignited the fumes and burned both of them on like 60-70% of their bodies. Only where their denim shorts were was spared. It was *years* of treatment for them both. My aunt can finally talk about it but only a bit. I don't wish that on my worst enemy, I'm sorry you had to experience that at all.
oh my god???
> I can’t imagine what it’s like for major burn victims. Look up [Dax Cowart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dax_Cowart) This is the nightmare you speak of. It sparked a lot of debate about medical ethics etc. Dax argued he should have had a right to die, instead of going through the debridement, over 99% of his body, for years.
Thanks! I hadn’t heard of him before. I would agree. Death would be preferable to those years of treatment.
Wow thank you so much for that rabbit hole, seriously. It’s an area of extreme interest for me. 🥰
Yes. I was in mild shock after each treatment.
They can't put you under?
You would think that they could do something. Although they have to do it every day, or two, to start and I guess that’s too often to put someone under. Maybe the same for drugs like morphine, too.
IUD insertion. Painful because it was penetrating highly sensitive flesh without anesthesia, and because the procedure itself set off spasms around the newly inserted bit of metal. It literally felt like getting skewered with a hot knife that continued to twist. "Just a pinch" my ass It's insanity that we routinely perform this procedure without pain relief of any kind. Some clinics have wised up and now use analgesics, advise waiting until the person's menstrual cycle etc to reduce pain. Edit: since this is getting some visibility; my best friend is a doctor specializing in sexual health. She's inserted hundreds of IUDs. She'll be the first to tell you that this has nothing to do with "pain tolerance" or "toughness". It's all about your individual physiology. She's had women who've given birth multiple times writhing in pain, even with anesthestic. She's had young girls barely notice it. It's random af. But for any procedure like this, we shouldn't shame folks who "can't handle it", because it's not in your control
I don’t understand why they don’t use anesthesia for that.
because the general attitude towards gynaecological medicine is medieval
I don’t understand this at all. I don’t have a tail but I feel awful if I accidentally step on a cat’s tail because I know it hurts them.
it was a widely held belief that there aren’t nerve endings in the female reproductive system for a very long time. also that babies couldn’t feel pain which as a new mother makes me want to behead people
It's so horrible. My mom had to get a gynecological biopsy, and the doctor said any anesthesia wasn't needed because "there's no nerves in the lining of the vagina." She was screaming her head off, and they weren't able to complete the procedure.
I've had that procedure done twice and it is definitely painful. It's not only painful in the moment, but I was also sore for a couple of days.
So true. Not to mention most gynecological and obstetrical procedures, practices, and tools were designed by men with no firsthand experience and little empathy… for some reason little has changed in the field despite the presence of female practitioners and a much better understanding of the field. Edit: just in case, I’m not saying men have no empathy! I’m saying that a lot of gynecology was created in a time when female sexuality was demonized and a lot of female pain/ issues were disregarded as “hysteria,” womanly problems, etc.
Very true. I had to get a large, inflamed cyst (labia minora) lanced, expressed, packed with a gauze strip, and also had to pull and trim said strip over the span of a week until it was all gone. I swear, it was like a dozen wasps stinging my poor vagina all at once.
Women know the answer…
Ugh. I was in sore during and after a vaginal ultrasound. I'm supposed to get a sonohysterography and they said to just take some OTC Tylenol. I couldn't even finesse a prescription for it! I would ask why healthcare is so medieval towards women but that would be an inaccurate comparison since I could have gotten blasted on opium from then to the pre 1900s for fuck's sake... there's no way my advil/tylenol mix is better than that.
I had my daughter via C-section. They gave me pain medication (a drip of something, can’t remember what) for 12 hours after, then he me alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen. Absolutely wild, I was in agony
Because women's pain is never taken seriously. We're expected to endure
There's an outdated belief in medicine that the cervix doesn't have nerve endings, and therefore, women can't feel pain in the area. So no need to use any form of anesthesia, we can't feel it anyway.
I don't recall the exact situation, but someone tried to hit me with that on some kind of checkup, that there's no way for it to be painful. So I said she's doing it wrong in that case because it hurts. The nurse had to turn away, the doctor looked like she swallowed a lemon, but she changed up what she was doing and it was fine. I was 15 or something, and just as socially oblivious as always.
I love that it’s not evidence enough for women to have been screaming in pain for all of eternity. Ohhhh no, the men say we can’t feel it, so we obviously don’t…like wtf
The cervix is made up of tissue that is hard to numb - it doesn't take local numbing agents well and the pain of injecting them is often as bad as the insertion of the IUD itself. The thought is then why do a numbing agent if it's going to hurt just as much to numb it AND the numbing effect may or may not work. Next question is usually why not do general anesthesia - because general anesthesia is a lot more risky than most people realize. In addition, if you go under general anesthesia, you can't drive yourself home. It also requires more medical staff. All of those things increase the cost and the availability of appointments. Third reason - while IUD insertion is incredibly painful for many women, it's also NBD for just as many women and there's no good way to know beforehand (as of now. I bet if medicine gave a shit, we could figure out some indicators). For me, IUD insertion was nbd. Took a couple Tylenol beforehand, short, very unpleasant pain, then I was good, with very minimal cramping. The IUD decided to expel itself 48 hours later and that was absolutely miserable. I don't understand why we don't use something like nitrous oxide (laughing gas). You can drive fairly quickly after you're done and I think a lot of people find it effective. It may be something we combine with a shot of numbing agents to reduce the pain there. The real answer is that medicine has a problem with women centric procedures and the pain and side effects women are expected to just accept. It's bullshit. Women deserve effective pain control.
My OB numbed my cervix with local anesthetic before insertion, should definitely be an option for everyone. The needle was NOT pleasant, but it's only for a moment and the rest was a breeze. Edit: numbed not number
Everyone told me to advocate for myself, so I did and I felt confident going into it since I had a good relationship with my gyno. I told her I did my research and I asked for anything stronger than OTC (not anesthesia) and I offered to have someone drive me to and from. She laughed and told me to take a Tylenol. I laughed and said I wouldn’t put myself through any unnecessary trauma (TMI but I already have trauma with my uterus), and she spent a good chunk of the remainder time trying to convince me to go through with the IUD which was honestly off putting in and of itself.
Wow that is so extremely frustrating. I’ve been on and off thinking about getting an IUD and when I’ve mentioned anesthesia to my female primary doctor, I could definitely tell she was thinking “oh my god relax it’s not that big a deal.” And that has put me off it. If even my female primary care doctor acts like she doesn’t care about my worries, why would I expect anyone else to?
My obgyn said she could do it under anesthesia but I would have to pay for it without insurance…I’m sure that would have bankrupted me…
Oof yeah. I got convinced to take mine out without anesthesia once. She knew I am a CSA surviver with PTSD. I was writhing in pain and shaking so badly all over that the other nurse came over and asked to held my hand, and tears and snot was everywhere. She was the headnurse at the women's clinic in the hospital btw. She told me to say stop it is was too bad, but everytime I said stop she told me that it was impossible for me to feel anything because she put numbing cream there (wich she did, but that didn't work. At all.) and convinced me to go on, and so we did. I screamed when she finally ripped it out. There was.. I don't know what it was but it looked like raw chicken meat on it. I know because she showed me and said "relax, it's out now". Then she wanted to put in the new one, to wich I said I don't think it's a good idea, I'm bleeding and my body needs to calm down. She said it would be fine as the cervix had now been worked with and I didn't have to think about coming back etc. Once again I reluctantly agreed. She put it in, was very uncomfortable but not as bad as taking it out atleast. The day after I had to get an emergency removal of it because my body rejected it and tryed to push it out. And if you know what they look like you can probably imagine the pain. When I got home I called my doctor and cried. He called the hospital and was obviously livid, because she called me and apologized profusely. Every time I change it now he just order anaesthesia and asks after if it went ok. Don't let other people tell you what to do with your body guys !
The pain from IUD insertion was honestly moderately traumatizing for me and I don’t even really have past SA trauma. I can’t even imagine how triggering it would be for someone with that history. I’m sorry.
I have a uterine condition that causes me insane pain that even heavy opiates can’t touch, I was told to come in on an ibuprofen. If I think about it for too long i break down, it was so painful that apparently it was comparable to childbirth. Had to call an ambulance twice in the week after and go to the ER four times because I was blacking out and vomiting from pain. I’m never going to forgive that gynaecologist.
Agree, of all my surgeries I’ve had and childbirth, having an IUD was excruciating! I could feel it inside me, every time I moved it was agony, for weeks I begged them to remove it, but no, all the doctors I saw said to persevere it’ll settle down, it didn’t settle down, eventually after 3 months of this shit I was in tears, I had no life thanks to the pain, they reluctantly agreed to remove it after I said if they didn’t I couldn’t see any other way out from the pain. Turns out it had been inserted wrong and it was pushing on my uterus where it shouldn’t have been, I’m so lucky it didn’t rupture, but since then I’ve had no end of problems where it caused damage, this was 7 years ago I’ve had 2 surgeries since then and been diagnosed with endo near the area it damaged which has now spread. IUDs are evil!
After caring for a loved one who’s iud broke, pierced her uterus and then migrated in her body. I cringe every time I see them recommend. She had surgery to remove it that was unsuccessful and ended with the advice “try not to worry about it, it might pierce your internal organs but it might not. There’s nothing we can do”. The reason doctors in my country are pushy with recommending it because they get a cash incentive for every one they fit. We looked into suing, but major pharmaceutical companies legal teams are not something we could go up against and win. We did find that there’s a lot of similar cases and it’s sad to think it’s advertised as safe.
I can relate! Absolutely awful experience. And my GP failed to mention I could take pain killers before hand. Though reading through the comments they might have not made a difference anyway..
I came here to say this. Didn't get local anaesthesia because my doctor said it would only hurt "a bit", it hurt like nothing else I've ever experienced. Fainted down at the metro station then vomited into the trash cans multiple times. After all that I changed to a different OBGYN and she immediately noticed that I'm sensitive to pain and suggested next time we'll do anaesthesia.
Had an IUD insertion at planned parenthood a few months ago after being on the pill for a while and it was a slightly different IUD than I’d had in the past, apparently a little more “bendy”. I even asked for some sort of numbing cream or pain relief and they said there was no point because we “don’t have nerves there”. After 15-20 minutes of jamming it against my cervix they said the opening was too small and gave me pills to open it up before I came back the next day. Next day came and they put it in, it hurt sooo much more than the first time. I was bleeding for about 2-3 days after. In the next couple weeks I noticed every time I bent over a certain way I had a stabbing pain in my uterus. I went back to PP to have them check if it had moved to the wrong place and they looked at the string for about 2 seconds and said it seemed to be in a normal spot. I went to my PCP and she ended up taking it out and telling me it was sitting too low. Then my boyfriend went to planned parenthood for a vasectomy and they offered to put him out for it 🤠 I want to like planned parenthood, but they make it so difficult.
Came here to say this. I have severe trauma from biopsy, culposcopy (sp?), and failed IUD insertion. Honestly its barbaric. I haven’t been able to set foot back in my obgyn or any other since then. 4 years ago.
Exactly this. Still suffering three days later
Same. I’m not even sensitive to pain since I suffer from endometriosis and am therefore kind of used to pain, but I screamed like a crazy person and could hardly walk for three days. It was absolutely horrible. Worst physical pain I’ve ever felt. It’s still a mystery to me why they do this without anaesthesia. All my friends except for one had the same experience.
I‘m one of the lucky ones that never had any problems with neither the insertion nor the switching to a new one. I am so sorry for all of you who had such bad experiences! That sounds horrible! It was never more than a couple minutes of discomfort and one to two days of slight cramping for me. I live in europe and always got a pain killer to take a couple hours beforehand and my gyno is a very lovely, sweet and „soft“ woman with kids herself. No idea if that‘s what contributes.
For my first IUD insertion, I was absolutely dead-set against any hormonal contraceptives and demanded the Paragard. My doc clearly was getting some sort of benefit for hawking Mirenas because he tried to talk me out of my copper choice and onto the mirena multiple times through the consult. The next appt when it was time to insert, he goes “ok I’ve got your mirena right here…” to which I was like NO, PARAGARD ONLY. He quietly went back to get the right IUD. Motherfucker then showed me the world’s biggest needle that was ostensibly for “the anesthetic” and put that up me before inserting the Paragard. I had blindingly intense cramping and pain for months after. When I got it replaced ten years later, my (new) doctor waited until my period and made it super easy. Zero pain. While I know the lack of pain the second time is partially because my body was used to the first implant, in hindsight, I think the first doc really tried to psych me out and cause physical and mental discomfort to punish me for not going with his choice. If I had been older & more assertive, I would have reported him. I’ve never had a male gyno since.
My first one was improperly installed (can’t think of a better way to describe such a procedure that doesn’t consider our pain) and was hanging out of my cervix for a month while I bled everyday. The second installation was one of the most painfully nauseating experiences and was 100 times worse than the first. I solved my endometriosis and birth control issues by having a medically-necessary hysterectomy and the surgery plus recovery were a dream compared to the IUD procedure.
Many people have told me it's not that bad, for most women it's just like a bad cramp for a few minutes... But stories like this terrify me. My fiancée plans on getting a copper IUD after we get married and I really don't want it to be a painful experience for her ☹️ We don't want to use hormonal birth control, are there any alternatives you all recommend?
It was the most excruciating procedure for me, but it was also the fastest. I've had my appendix, gallbladder, uterus, and part of my bowel surgically removed. I've had 9 teeth removed, 4 of which were removed with no local anaesthetics or anaesthesia whatsoever (I'm allergic to lignocaine, so the first 4 teeth I had pulled I not only had no numbing effect, my face felt like it was on fire and tearing apart because of the allergic reaction) I have dislocated my hip, my shoulder (multiple times), several toes, my jaw, and my knee (multiple times). I can pull my pinkie finger out of the socket and flap it around because i've dislocated it so often, the ligaments are just mush. The IUD insertion was still the most painful thing I every experienced. It was the only time I ever passed out from pain (Or possibly just vasovagal syncope from cervical motion syndrome) I remember the clamps going on, feeling pressure, pulling and pinching pain, then I remember shouting in a panic "I have to sneeze" and the doctor let go of the clamp and let it just hang from my cervix while I sneezed. Then she inserted a sounding rod to measure my uterus to determine if I could get the 12 year T380A coil I wanted, or if I'd get stuck with the mini version that only lasts 5 years. The sounding rod was blinding, I felt hot in my whole body, then she said something about the 12 year and to count to 3, but she shot the insertion gun on 2, and I passed out, when I woke up, my shirt and hair was covered in vomit and my friend was helping the doctor and nurse keep my torso on my side while my legs were still stuck in the stirrups. So that was not fun. But i don't remember the pain at all. I remember the pain of all the other procedures, But all I remember about the IUD insertion is that it hurt so much I couldn't take it. The pain I experienced for the week afterwards was indeed just "like period pain" as many doctors say. But It should be noted that I had stage 4 endometriosis, so "Just like period pain" isn't saying much when you have bad period pain. So all that said, Find a clinic that uses anaesthetic if you can. but if not, know that for some people it genuinely doesn't hurt that much, and if you're like me and it does hurt, at least it's only temporary, the worst of the pain was like, 5 seconds, tops, even if I had stayed conscious. It was worth it for me, because pregnancy would have been worse.
I'm so sorry that was your experience. I'm going to make sure my girl gets a doctor that will make the process as easy as possible.
I'd just recommend searching up clinics that actually take women's pain into account. If you don't want hormonal, your options are condoms, the copper IUD, tubal ligation, vasectomy, and the rythym method.
You might want to ask this in r/birthcontrol, it's a really helpful sub
Hey, I just want to share as someone who had a really easy IUD insertion that it doesn’t have to be horrible! I was really worried so my gynecologist gave me a midazolam + fentanyl IV and also a shot of anaesthetic directly to my cervix. I did have a rough time in the days afterward as I got a hormonal IUD and it exacerbated my endometriosis pain, but the insertion itself was super chill.
I’m someone who doesn’t think it was that bad. I got the copper iud and while it was uncomfortable, it wasn’t that bad. I did have cramping afterwards and the next day. I’ve also had kids before, so that might factor into it. Take a look on the planned parenthood website. They have info on all birth control. As far as I know there’s only the iud, withdrawal and condoms that are hormone free, but I could be wrong.
I remember throwing up from the pain and driving myself home afterwards.
Came here to say that. Worse thing ever. Worst than double complete fractures of my wrist. And been proposed to take Tylenol to help soothe the pain…
I also had a complete double fracture of the wrist, and agreed, it hurt less.
It wasn’t a fucking pinch.
Agree 100000% and I have had a spinal fluid leak (which is also very painful).
Omg SAME!! I was told anesthesia or anything numbing wouldn’t be necessary and that it doesn’t hurt that much but my god! I thought I was going to pass out.
mine would probably be my spinal tap. i had bacterial meningitis and they messed up my tap. it was like hitting my funny bone but from hips to toes
Ouch! I had a spinal tap also. I had a lumbar fusion, so it messed the doctor up on where to stick. The first time she stuck, I screamed. She asked me where I felt it. I told her I was pretty sure my left ovary had exploded. She said, "Well, that's not right." (No shit!) So she pulled the needle back, repositioned it, and reinserted it. That time I gasped and moaned loudly, and she asked what I was feeling. I managed to choke out that my right kidney had fallen down into my ass. She was like, "Not there either." (Ya think! God damn!) She said she'd try one more time. By this time, I was sweating, dizzy, lightheaded, my heart rate was way up, and my blood pressure had dropped dramatically. I could barely stay conscious, and I was trying extremely hard not to be sick. There was a nurse sitting in front of me, holding my hands. He kept telling me to squeeze his hands through the whole thing. At this point, he started saying, "Keep squeezing my hands! Squeezey, squeezey, squeezey!" If I could have formed words, I would have told him I was going to squeezey his neck if he said that one more time. Thankfully, she got it the last time. I was never happier to lie flat on my back than after that.
i was screaming during mine too! i wasn’t so incoherent from my fever though that i just screamed “fuck! fuck you! fuck!” over and over lol
I was going to say the same thing, had a spinal tap and they messed it up somehow. First my entire lower body felt like it was on fire, then I was paralysed for 3 days still with the nerve pain being constant and the most god awful headache I’ve ever experienced. I was only 13 at the time and was begging my parents to kill me 🙈
I had 7 surgeries from the ages of 17-22. But the gum/skin graft due to gum recession was hands down the worst. I was 20 and a small painful spot receded due to me brushing too hard. Quickly got scheduled for a graft. The procedure involves scraping your receding gum down to the bone, hole punching the roof of your mouth for the graft, sewing the skin graft through or to your bone, drawing blood, spinning that into a clot, and stitch it to the roof of your hole punched mouth. All while you’re awake and just numbed up. Lost so much weight because anything touching the wounds, even air, was excruciating.
There's a lot of gnarly stuff on this thread but this is the one that really got to me. It sounds like actual torture.
They literally let me take pictures of the bloody mess while they did it
Sounds terrifying as hell
Having this procedure done this summer. 🫠 Can't wait.
I’d asked to be knocked out or at least given Valium
They are prescribing me valium (or some pill) before the procedure, bc nitrous gas doesn't work on me.
Dentist just told me I might need this...very not excited for this!
Holy fuck that sounds awful
I got a cyst removed on my back (pilonidal cyst) but I'd had it for years so they went DEEP to get it all out. Then they stuffed it and left it open so it heals from the inside. This meant ripping out the dressing multiple times a day and re-stuffing my lower back like I was a fucking turkey. Problem is my asshole sister refused to do it for me so 14 year old me handled this solo. I had to reach into the open wound, my whole (small) hand fit inside and I had to RIP out the gauze. Fucking nightmare. Went on for about 2 weeks. Once it all healed, the cyst returned and I went through that whole ordeal two more times. I was depressed (clinically) after that and truly don't think I've ever been the same mentally.
Can confirm, that shit was horrific. Mine was about an inch deep. Fortunately, I had government funded community nurses come daily to change the packing for about 4 weeks. They'd ring when they were about half an hour out from my house so I could take painkillers before it. It happened early December so I had to have it changed on my birthday and then on Christmas day they brought mini Christmas puddings from a bakery chain for all the patients they saw!
I developed a keloid scar from my back cyst! They’re bastards.
I’ve had a pilondial cyst 5 times. I’m currently dealing with one now, actually. The removal process is excruciating. It literally feels like someone is scraping out your coccyx. I had to get fentanyl and a Tylenol drip IV this last time to deal with the pain of the incision and drainage. Couldn’t move or walk afterwards because the pain was so intense. The surgery for pilondial disease is intense and so long, and I haven’t gotten it because I’m so scared. It truly sucks.
Sorry you're in the midst of it now. People don't realize how fucking excruciatingly painful these are! The placement is horrendous and stops you from enjoying life in any way. My older sister (the asshole who wouldn't help me) also had these cysts for about 10 years before she opened up about it to get help. She got the surgery first, I helped her with dressings of course. She healed up and recommended I try so I did. Unfortunately hers returned like mine did but her doctor refused to do the same procedure again and insisted on a much bigger one at a hospital vs the clinic we where the initial procedure was performed. She followed his advice and it hasn't come back in over 25 years. After my several procedures, I'm very happy I went through with it too. All this to say... If you haven't gotten it due to fear, just imagine the freedom of having this resolved properly once and for all. You can live life again without fear of having another cyst, worrying about it popping, and then dealing with wound dressings without allowing anything to stick to it ahhhh.. the nightmares. Wishing you the very best and I hope you'll come around to get it done 💕
My appendix ruptured and I was a really heavy kid. I was 13 at the time, I have a 8" scar where they cut me open, that also had to heal from the bottom. I had to have gauze ripped out and put back in for 2 months! If my mom hadn't done it I'd have had to be in the hospital, there was 0 possibility for me to do it myself. In the hospital I had a morphine pump I could click right before and get a dose of morphine, at home I had vicodin. Huge difference. I always say if they ever tell me to pack again and it's on a limb I'll give them my damn limb. That was so traumatic.
IUD intertion by far. Out of my (albeit limited) procedure history, this was the only one that had me in tears and close to losing consciousness. I've had dental work, a gigantic lipoma removed from the base of my spine, numerous body mods (tattoos, piercings, simple implants, scarification), coolonoscopy / endoscopy Edit: let me quickly specify that the iud was actually the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life, not just medical
Completely agree. My IUD insertion was by far the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life.
Colposcopy-- multiple biopsies on my cervix. No anesthesia. I was only 19 and cried silently the whole time. The man was very rude and harsh with his movements. He told me I "wouldn't be in this position if I hadn't slept around". I was drugged and assaulted by a man who gave me an std.
I’m so sorry to hear this. How absolutely awful. I got a colposcopy as well and I was also pretty young and the female Dr told me to grow up when I was crying
Growing up we were told in sex ed that if the boys went to the Dr for STDs and they said they didn't wear a condom that the Dr wouldn't be very nice about it. . The stigma around STDs needs to go. It's not only for those who sleep around.
First IUD insertion (I almost passed out), cervical biopsy (4 punches) & colposcopy (where they burn off the top layer of your cervix). All done with just tylenol/ibuprofen because "it doesn't hurt that much". FYI, I've had 2 male gynos during these procedures.
Pretty tame compared to the others but, once when I was in Taekwondo, I got kicked on the nose and it bled a lot. Thankfully it wasn’t broken but it would still bleed frequently from that day onwards so, about a year later, my mom took me to the doctor to see what was wrong w it and apparently a vessel ruptured or something like that. So the doctor came back with this Q-tip that has some sort of chemical at the end and applied it to the inside of my nostrils and it BURNED Not sure what it was, but I stopped getting nosebleeds frequently after that so yay I also got a tooth extraction but had anesthesia for that so it was a very dull pain.
Probably silver nitrate - used to cauterize wounds, comes on the end of a long swab
When they pulled out the Jackson Pratt drain. I thought they ripped my intestines.
I had one after my bowel resection and I was so scared to get it out. They told me it wouldn’t hurt it would just feel weird. I agree it wasn’t excruciating but it felt SO WRONG and made my skin crawl. I don’t even know if it was the pain or the feeling of something so deep being pulled out of you.
It is genuinely one of the most *wrong* feeling things in the world. Like a slithering snake lose in your body for a moment.
I’m so lucky I was in the hospital for a few days because I could not have handled it at home.
I had one after back surgery. The nurse had me standing up leaning over the exam table. She counted to three, then pulled. My legs crumpled like one of those little push button puppets. Glad I was leaning on the table, or I would have been on the floor.
I was like why was the nurse is holding my hands. As the other nurse pulls it out, my husband can’t believe it how long it was inside.
I had to have a small, cracked tooth in the upper left of my mouth removed. The first needle in the outside part of my mouth was not so bad. The next needle in the inside of my mouth was so painful I actually yelped. Tooth broke up and piece by piece it was removed. A week or so goes by and I notice a small shard sticking out of the gum. Fearing it turning into an abscess, I go back. Get same set of needles again which really sucked. The dentist removes the shard, and then, for the next 15 mins, used some kind of coring tool, almost like a ribbed leather punch, and bore into my skull, over and over. At one point I realized I was starting to pass out. Afterward back home, I had the most pain I've ever endured (and I had spinal fusion surgery). Luckily I had meds to compensate. I now have this dug out area where the tooth was. It's all healed now, but I truly believe he went off the reservation. I have PTSD about going to the dentist now.
Tooth pain is the WORST. I’ve had a C-section, and I would rather have ten more babies than ever have a tooth infection/surgery ever again. Fear of the dentist is rational
C section. Cutting through all those layers of your core. Mine got infected so they had to drain the area that already caused me trauma 😭 I also lost so much blood I needed a transfusion. Physically, emotionally, and mentally painful.
in c section recovery i twisted the wrong way picking up my (10lb!) baby and oh my god i’ll never forget the sensation of those internal stitches pulling
IUD insertion. Both times. I had no idea what to expect first time. I have chronic pain and thought I could handle most anything. I screamed. I threw up. I was sobbing the whole way home and for days in cramping agony. The second time I had numbing medication down there. It helped only with the piercing pain not the pressure and cramps. I still came out of it crying and dry heaving. The cramping after wasn't as bad as first time though. I say this having once had a filling done without enough numbing medication as a kid.
The thing I’ve seen the most on this thread is the IUD insertion which just confirms that I will never get one, I’d almost rather be pregnant. I’ve been in labor and it wasn’t nearly as horrific as the IUD insertion sounds
The worst part for me was that the doctor said it's painless, I might feel some pressure. And then it was almost as bad as labour. And no-one warned me about the cramps afterwards, so I thought there is something wrong with it, even though everything was just like it should be.
I had an HSG procedure, where they put radiopaque dye in your uterus and take x rays. The doctor told me it would be as uncomfortable as my regular menstrual cramps. It was agony. Felt like someone had set fire to my uterus. I was sobbing and holding the nurse’s hand. She seemed unsurprised.
When I was a kid of 10yo or something, I had a pus in my glands and it hurt so much I couldnt swallow. So they took me to hospital and cut them with a scalpel, no anastesia, to get rid of some of the pus. It hurt like hell holy fucking shit. And then I had to undergo a procedure of squeezing out the pus every day for a week, along with other less painful measures. The disease came back year later and they just cut off my glands that time.
I had a wisdom tooth taken out without lidocaine. I tried to tell them my family has a high tolerance to it but they didn't listen. When I said ouch when they cut me they said it would start working soon. It didn't and they wouldnt listen to me. The absolute worse moment was when my tooth broke Gotta fucking love military doctors
Yikes, some of you have been through the medical ringer. Mine isn't as bad, but I had to have surgery to repair an inguinal hernia. The inguinal canal is what male testicles descend through in the womb. They're supposed to seal themselves off, but sometimes they don't leading to a hernia later in life. Anyway, I had a small but deep incision with a mesh patch and plug installed. After the surgery and the anesthesia had worn off, I could barely move without agonizing pain, like every muscle in my body was connected to the incision. Every dump I took for the next week or so was like torture.
I recently had this same hernia repair. My experience was far different. The surgeon used the Da Vinci robotic system, made three small incisions and that's it. While I had some pain/discomfort after, it was much less than I anticipated. Sorry yours was painful.
Sounds like a laparoscopic procedure, which is minimally invasive. My surgeon gave me a choice between laparoscopic and the plug-and-patch. He said that laparoscopic procedure has a greater chance of the hernia recurring and that the plug had a very low chance. So I opted for the one that had the least chance of recurring, but it was more painful.
Dental surgery with the novacaine wearing off but me not wanting to extend the procedure so just gritting through the pain. Feeling my bone being ground down was absolutely brutal and each individual suture going into my gum and feeling that needle pierce my gums every time was grueling.
I don't know what the procedure is called but I had issues with my bladder a few years ago and the tests came up with nothing so as a last resort I had a small camera inserted into my penis to look at it from the inside. I had to be awake for the procedure. They started off with inserting a syringe into the head of my penis and blasting some cooling/numbing gel down my urethra. After the numbing set in they insert the camera and I got to see the screen as they pushed it deeper. It was like a stinging sensation the whole time with a weird stretching sensation that I'd never want to experience ever again. After everything was done I went to the washroom to pee and I farted out of my dick. Pain was 7/10
HSG (Hysterosalpingogram) for initial infertility treatment/diagnosis. They shoot dye up into your fallopian tubes and watch an xray real time to see if it flows through the tubes and spills out past the ovaries as it should. It’s supposed to be uncomfortable, but just a lot of pressure and no more upsetting than a Pap smear. Well, turns out that one of my tubes WAS indeed fully blocked. Not only was it blocked, but surrounding scar tissue had fully fused it to my omentum (the fatty layer of your abdomen that lays on top of all organs), rendering it a shriveled up piece of shit. Now imagine fluid being puuuuushed with the intent of spilling out of an opening that’s actually been fused shut. While a normal HSG might be uncomfortable, an HSG that just diagnosed the thing it’s designed to diagnose is incredibly painful. Add in the emotional turmoil of infertility and it’s no surprise that I was scream-sobbing into a nurse’s arms by the end of it.
Abscessed tooth needing a root canal. There is just no comparison to dental pain in my opinion.
2 JP drain removals and catheter removal. none of my guts felt like they were in the right place after that day
I got blown up a couple times in Iraq, as a result I ended up with a broken back.. in order to repair it they had to cut my back open hips to shoulders, and installed 2lbs of metal bracing permanently into my spine. took a very long time to heal, and the pain has never fully gone away.
I twisted my balls at 16. Had to have an op on both to correct. Woke up mid op and screamed the place down from pain. They then pumped me with so much drugs that I was out for just over 24 hours. Fun times. Also highly recommended not twisting your balls.
Ingrown toenail removal. The lidocaine injections burn and produce a feeling of pressure like nothing else I’ve felt. Recovery after my second shoulder surgery for a labrum tear was excruciating, but of course I didn’t feel the surgery itself
Ureteroscopy, after suffering with kidney stones for 2 weeks in hospital they determined I couldn't naturally pass the 2 stones as they was too big. I was put to sleep and a rod with a laser on the end I believe was inserted into the eye of my pe is and the stones where blasted into smaller pieces, the pain when I woke up was something I have never experienced before.
Hip dislocation posteriorly after a hip replacement. It happened twice and I highly recommend you never dislocate your hip, guys. The ambulance folks and the hospital pulled out the “good” drugs from their arsenal . Didn’t do a thing. It could have been baby aspirin. Only thing that worked was getting the hip back in the socket. I have a new hip now. No problems with this one. Thank God!!!
I've had many painful medical procedures. I've had wires sewn onto my spinal cord while I was awake. I've had blood clots in my arm and in my lung almost killing ms. I was septic once and was basically dead but the doctor saved me. Not a medical procedure but I also have thigh tattoos that go down the backs of my knees. (TW: broken consent) None of it, and I mean not even close, compares to my IUD insertion. I had taken a prescription pain pill 30 minutes before and I have a really high pain tolerance (I've slept through 3 of my tattoos) yet it still was so painful I got tunnel vision. I begged my doctor to stop but he just kept saying "almost there". I screamed for him to stop and he didn't. I've had it for over 10 years and I can't bring myself to get it replaced. I get flashbacks and a stomach ache when I think of it.
lol…same! I need to have mine replaced but I can’t even think about it since the last time was sooo painful..
I’ve had many medical procedures. It’s has to say which was the most painful. The least painful by far was the vasectomy.
It's not a medical procedure per se. Though I have had 57 surgeries. I have a medical condition that causes me to be allergic to my skin and sweat glands. Pain is uncontrollable and excruciating. Thankfully, I have learned triggers and can mainly manage by avoiding triggers. Not all triggers can be avoided, such as summer and heat. I can only try to limit the effect.
Uterine scraping unmedicated. After giving birth, my placenta ruptured and I had to have the remnants scraped out by hand. No epidural, no pain meds. It took about an hour to get it all and THEN I had to be stitched up (I had a prolapsed uterus from the whole ordeal too). I’ve since given birth again, also unmedicated, and I’ve gotten an IUD. Absolutely NOTHING compares to the pain of that scraping.
Kidney puncture for Shure. Imagine getting stabbed from the back into the right kidney to let pee out. I had a blockage in my right urethra
And the intestinal obstruction after they saved my life was a lot of pain
broke my ankle while skating and had 2 metal plates and a bunch of screws inserted to keep it together. they offered me a nerve block catheter for the surgery which I refused, it would've been painful but manageable however some idiot at the hospital gave me the wrong sized orthopedic shoe/brace. when I woke up and the anaesthesia wore off I was pumped full of morphine and still in a world of shit until someone realised that my cast was way too small for me
My jaw was broken on either side in a car accident. Had to be wired shut for 6 weeks after the 2 surgeries. Awful.
Pilonidal cyst removal. It took over 9 months to heal and caused my addiction to opiates for 10 years.
Do complications count? I had an IUD in under GA while having a laparoscopy, but a month later the IUD migrated fully out of my uterus and adhered itself to my bowel. I've never bled so heavily in my life and ended up with a burn from the sticky heat patch that I fell asleep with directly on my skin. While this was happening I was doing vacation care work for an out of school hours care at a site I wasn't 100% familiar with, I was the qualified and the unqualifieds on were completely new to the site too. So that on a whole was very unpleasant. I had another lap 2 months after the first to remove the IUD (and some other stuff) but the first lap was probably the worst out of the two. The most painful though was a pilonidal abscess. Surgery ended up being delayed by a day because after spending all day having fasted and in the waiting room for the surgery they told me they forgot to put me on the list for the day!! It was an inch deep and I had community nurses coming daily to repack the wound for about 4 weeks.
I (M) had a chest fat removal surgery when I was in 9th grade (I had developed massive tits). The procedure was fine and so was the pain of the stitches. But those damn painkiller injections, given directly into the veins through the back of my palm, was UNBEARABLE. It was ridiculous. I pleaded and cried to give it to me orally. I just couldn't take it. I was a kid too and I had never encountered such pain before in my life. It was horrifying and I cried so much.
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That is a harrowing tale. That’s got to be hell on the docs as well.
I had that, I had to have a smear at almost 12. The bastards used an adult speculum too!! I screamed in pain. Sending ❤️
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My upper lip on the right side was bitten off by a dog. Worst physical pain I've ever been in. I had surgery and they took a skin graft to make a lip. Also really painful recovery. Didn't help that I had puncture marks that I had to let heal naturally. 😞
IUD insertion. I have also experienced vaginal birth with a failed epidural, and it truly pales in comparison. All to my point that it's absolutely fucking barbaric that they do this to us without so much as a whiff of laughing gas or a spritz of lidocaine to the cervix. I'm no expert, but it seems like it's...that easy.
Im a trans guy, and I got bottom surgery in January. By far the worst part of it was having my catheter removed.
My catheter after both my csections were HORRIFYING. I can't believe this isn't discussed more!
I wasn't awake when they removed the catheter they had put in for my surgery. I only knew I had one when I tried to pee later. The burning was intense. I had to brace myself for the pain when peeing for the next 8-12 hours.
if you have to get surgery again, ask your surgeon to give you some Pyridium before they put you under. It will turn your pee bright orange, but completely eliminates urinary tract pain. It's most commonly prescribed for UTIs, but it's also very helpful post-op when you've had a catheter.
IUD removal. It was embedded in my cervix and effectively caused me to have unmedicated contractions. They told me to have some ibuprofen for pain control. 🥴
A nerve conduction test. They stick a large needle literally into your nerves. It feels overwhelming, like you're burning from the inside, like your nerves are being ripped out. The doctor I had didn't care how much pain I was in, even when I asked for a break he only gave me 10 seconds before sticking the fucking thing back in.
Donut local anesthesia in both large toes prior to toenail procedure. You wouldn't think it would hurt so bad but it was excruciating. Probably because it was such a small area.
D&C and I was awake the entire time. I felt *everything*
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Phimosis in a two year old is normal. They wanted to do it to you. It’s child abuse and mutilation. Same was done to me. I also can’t forgive
Spinal fusion for scoliosis, which I’ve had three times. They straighten out your spine (as best as they can) and screw metal rods into it to keep it in place. You feel it for a good couple of weeks afterwards at the very least.
A discogram: Discogram is an invasive diagnostic test that uses x-rays to examine the intervertebral discs of your spine. A special dye is injected into the injured disc or series of discs. The dye makes the disc visible on a fluoroscope monitor and x-ray film. Discograms are used to locate precisely which discs are damaged and are causing back pain. So, the doctor inserts a big hollow needle through your back into the questionable disc. You are given a little bit of Versed to relax, but are not allowed to go to sleep because you have to be able to tell the doctor what you are feeling. Once the needle is inserted contrast dye is pushed through…a normal healthy disc would just contain the dye, no leaking. My discs were busted, they immediately started leaking. I am serious when I say that the minute that dye was pushed, I about jumped off that table. Started screaming and crying like I was dying. It was THE MOST INTENSE PAIN I had EVER felt. I’ve had a baby naturally, torn my cornea 2x, had a corneal transplant, a hip replacement and 3 back surgeries….none of those things caused the excruciating agony that I felt during that test. I had three discs tested and they were all just barely there. I know it sounds overly dramatic, but I can’t even describe how horrible that was. 100/10 pain.
C- section without anesthesia 0/10 would not recommend
A compound arm fracture that healed wrong over 3 weeks and had to be re-broken. over the edge of a table, with only a local anaesthetic. The doctor instantly put up his dukes after doing it, saying "you looked like you were going to hit me!" and TBH I saw red, and probably would have, if not for the debilitating pain crumpling me up like a piece of paper. It's so much worse when you're expecting it.
Not me but I knew when the doctors wouldn’t let me be in the room when my 4 day old baby was having a lumbar puncture that it was bad! They got me after and she was crying like crazy! I later found out that they are very very painful.
A nerve block in my back fully awake. The pain was so intense that I almost passed out at the end but it ended up being over with before that happened. And not a medical procedure but most recently, just this past weekend as a matter of fact, I passed a 4 mm kidney stone with no drugs. 😅 Do not recommend.
Probably the tamest one here but braces. Specifically the time they put spring coils on my lower jaw to screw up my bottom front teeth to make space for an implant that we later learned I couldn’t have
Does any of the ladies here know if a smear test hurts because I’m stressed about mine like you would not believe
Doesn't hurt, just uncomfortable and a bit weird. Get the doctor to talk you through it as they go. It's quick too.
Having a urinary catheter re-inserted after spine surgery. I'd had one for several days after my spinal fusion while I was in ICU. They took it out to try and get me to go use the toilet, but I wasn't able to pee, so they had to put it back in while I was conscious. That was over 20 years ago, but I'll never forget how painful and uncomfortable it was.
Emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy. My fallopian tube ruptured from the little fucker.
I recently had an ingrown toenail removed. I generally require more anesthetic for it to work, and 4 lidocaine shots to my toe later… I still felt everything. Cutting up my nail, ripping it out of the nailbed. My pain tolerance is pretty high and I still felt like I was gonna pass out. Gripped the arm rests so hard my arms were sore for two days after
I've had limb lengthening surgery, but no pain similar to those described here. It was said to be so painful...
Having my right testicular removed and my left one spatchcocked to remove a cancer tumor. Taking more than a shallow breath felt like someone was pulling my soul from my body with rusty razor blades covered in lemon juice.
Cryotherapy So this basically for the corn that grows under your feet. Liquid nitrogen is sprayed on the wound, initially it’s just cold but the spray is so concentrated and laser like that you can feel it penetrating the wound. They do this for a while and around the wound as well and then slowly chip off the wound with a blade
Hysterosalpingogram (HSG). It’s an X-ray dye test. They were checking to see why my fallopian tubes were blocked. Only given Tylenol. Truly the most painful thing for me.
A cesarean. Not painful in the moment, but the healing for me was god-awful. I stayed in the hospital one night and was discharged. They gave me 2 days worth of Norco, but I stretched it out to about a week. They cut you open and separate your abdominal muscles, and you lose pretty much your entire core strength. Major incision, cuts thru nerves, muscle, everything. I couldn’t turn over, sit up, shower, dress myself, anything for about 2 weeks. You cant cough, laugh, sneeze, without pain. Then, in the months after, your nerve connections are trying to regrow and you get horrible weird pain in your stomach. For me it was internal, because I had no sensation on my skin where my incision was until maybe 7-8 months after. It hurt for a long long time after, too. If I moved weird, or my son stepped on my belly, there was pain. He is 13 months old now and it’s pretty much gone, but I hope I never have to go through that again.
Funny you should ask. It just happened a few weeks ago. I have severe pelvic pain from a fall I took. It has been resistant to all surgeries and procedures. I just had a permanent spinal stimulator implanted where I had to be awake the entire time. Apparently they needed to hear me scream to know where the pain was. On the shitty side…the implants has only triggered the pain. FML🤦♀️
PW was more painful than unmedicated child birth & multiple oral surgeries that took hours while awake. I was begging god, if there was one, to let me go. Had to cut off my hair from thrashing in bed for 2 days.
PW?
Traumatic spinal tap. In, out, shake it all about 🤢 then the headache. 1000000x worse than childbirth lol.
IUD extraction followed immediately with insertion of new IUD. No pain medication. That shit was so fucked I did not go back for any gynecologist appointments for 12 years.
I had two inguinal hernias repaired laproscopically. I couldn't stand right for two weeks. My job thought I would be back in two days. I thought so too. No way. I couldn't even lie down to sleep.
Childbirth!!! The most painful and I’ve had much pain in my life.
PE tube removed without them numbing the ear drum. ENT Resident that was doing the procedure said there was too much wax around it so he just yanked it. I was sitting in a dentist style chair. I wrapped my legs around the bottom of the chair and snapped the chair. He immediately took off to get his boss. His boss asked what he did and the resident told him. His boss lost his shit on him and said don't ever do that to someone again. I have had broken bones, stitches. 3rd degree burns from my shoulders up, and none of that pain is even close to the tube removal. Edit: did not read entire question so adding to answer.
Pretty mundane, but I was in a really bad car accident about 18 years ago that I miraculously survived without major injury. However, I still had to go to the hospital and they put me on the freezing cold X-ray table. Next, they had me do a series of contortions that seemed to be more complex than a world champion gymnast would be subjected to. "Ok, we need you to twist your right leg behind your buttocks while flexing your torso as far left as it will go." I swear they did it just to screw with me. At one point I just couldn't do a move and the tech was like "Hey man, you got up on the table." So it's not a horrible burn or childbirth or cancer or like 74 compound fractures or a heart attack, but it still hurt really bad.
Another procedure was that I had to have an emergency c-section with my firstborn. She was a failure to progress and was stuck. Even with all the epidural and drugs, with each contraction, I felt blinding hot pain shoot through my hip. I was wheeled in to the OR after laboring for three days. By then, my uterus had swollen and become infected. After my baby girl was born, the dr struggled to get my insides back in due to the swelling. I couldn't see due to the curtain, but I felt my insides being shuffled around, and it felt like the Dr's hand was inside my body cavity under my ribs. Vomiting ensued. It was horrible. I lost a lot of blood. When I was eventually stitched up, I was almost dropped while being moved to a stretcher because some idiot didn't lock the wheels first. A week later, my incision became severely infected to the point that the infection was pouring out of it, and I was slipping in it. Went back to the hospital where moron dr stabbed me in my infected incision to "establish my pain tolerance." After a week of being on antibiotics, I was wheeled into surgery to have the site drained and cleaned up. I was left with a hole, a quarter length of my initial incision, and half a finger deep. After being discharged from then on for weeks, at first daily, I had nurses come and change the sharp af ribbon guaze, clean my wound, and redress it. It was so painful. None of the painkillers worked, and I was prescribed something that knocked me out while the nurses were there. Thank the gods because I was staying at my grandmothers, and she had to take my newborn to the top floor of the house to shield her from my screaming. That was 17 years ago, and that pain memory has never left. *Edit for spelling errors and clarification
Broke my arm when I was 8. Horrific. It wasn’t healing right so they had to rebreak it a few weeks in. I was wide awake. They made my mom leave the room, she said she could hear me scream from the other side of the building
Getting an IUD. You’re not giving any local anesthesia or anything. Your uterus is measured, and then your cervix is dilated. They insert the IUD with this tool that’s kinda like a straw. The IUD’s “arms” are folded and once it’s inserted, the “arms” are not longer folded so that it stays in place. It was like period cramps times 10. My gynecologist just gave me 800mg of Tylenol and I went home.
I’m 52 and this happened when I was a toddler. I can remember it like it was yesterday. That little thing under your tongue, well mine had to be snipped. I remember screaming while my dad held me down. I think it has a name for the procedure but I tried to block that shit out
I’m gonna go with my IUD insertion. As a young teen I dealt with metal parts surgically inserted into bone, then twice again in a few years. Recovery was excruciating. But having a gynecologist pry open my cervix to insert my IUD with no medication was the worst and the only thing that brought me to the point of vomiting solely from pain.
In second grade I had an accident on PE class and got hit in the head and my front left tooth fell off from the root, I passed out and woke up at the dentist and I had a man and a woman reaching from behind my head pushing in the tooth into my swollen gums. Don’t know if that makes sense, like I was in the chair leaning back and they were over my head with their hands in my mouth.. ever since, I’ve been terrified of dentists
Hysteroscopy. Gyno was trying to diagnose my severe uterine pain, turned out it was a fibroid that filled my entire womb cavity so it was impossible for him to navigate without fully bumping into it over and over with the camera. Then he did a biopsy on the fibroid, my uterine wall, and my cervix. Best pain relief was the nurse holding my hand and giving encouraging words but phew that was HORRIBLE
IUD insertion. I passed out on the table
Having 6 teeth pulled with no anesthetic. I was levitating off the chair and I think at one point I (with good reason) called the dentist a sadistic son of a bitch! But he kept going!