What's the worst pain you've ever felt?

I have been lucky enough to not have any significant accidents in my life that I can say qualifies for bad pain. I have felt bad physical exhaustion in a few bike races though. I guess you could consider being dehydrated and being sick and tired all at the same time while racing a bike a pain.

I took a pretty bad dog bite to the face in '88.
That didn't hurt at the time, and the first round of stitchery was ok (had to have scarring removed in a later surgery).
But the "swelled head" I woke up with the morning after was not to be believed. My head was twice it's size, green and purple, and would put a world of hurt on me if I tilted it even 1% of a degree.
PLUS- I had to give a days orientation to a new class of vet techs- I was the Director of the school, a full class was scheduled and no one else had a clue what I did on opening day.

So picture a classroom full of wide eyed newbies just waiting to get into the "animal game" and then a Franken'headed Director walks in and says "don't be alarmed- they very rarely bite you!!"
Yeah right.

I'd have to say back or neck pain is the worst in the way of stabbing, heartstopping pain. For the dull throbbing type I'd say a bad tooth.

My childbirth experience was a breeze.

I sort of take a perverse interest in pain and the range of tolerances that different cultures and people exhibit. When I am in pain myself I try to go with it, get the full sensation of what my body is trying to say to me, then tell my brain to turn off those receptors.

It's a field that needs much study.

I've experienced several fractures in jumping & dressage. I must say the worst hit I've experienced was when I busted my ribs. Breathing was extremely hard & I couldn't stand up straight.

I'll have to go with phosphoric acid hittinf a nerve in my tooth in the dental chair... that was excruciating but only lasted a couple seconds.

Long term pain, my bike wreck two years ago.. flew over my bike, bike flew over me, tumbled down a steep embankment, got stopped by a friendly tree stump to the skull lots of gashed and a nice big bruise on my knoee... my mountain bike didn't look so hot either.

Sorry about the pic, but it helps..

As a kid, peddling as fast as I could, I had slipped off one on the peddles. The impact on the seat was incredible.... Took several to many hours to recover.

i think i will win, one of my "things" twisted all the way around... i cant explain teh pain, but most people pass out it hurts so much, luckly i got mine back around manualy... probably the scariest experiance of my life, i had surgery on them the next month so it will never happen again, im just lucky i twisted it back the right way!!!!!!

The worst pain I've experienced(and I've been bit by dogs, ripped open by razor wire, cracked my skull, etc.) was my first and only experience with Chris Oak.

Chris Oak is that black tar stuff that saturates telephone polls to keep them from rotting. It's a carcinogenic and acidic.

I was working for my father replacing telephone polls in the oil fields for the power cables to pumping units. I had to hold one end of the poles steady while the backhoe carried it to a trailer.

It was well over a 100 degrees and the insides of my arms started burning(where I had been resting them on the poles), slowly getting more and more intense. After a while the pain was almost unbearable. My teeth were clenched and I paced around and around in a circle trying to ignore the pain of my flesh boiling away on my arms.

I asked my father if I could go home early to try and scrub it off. He looked at his watch and said, "Nope. We've still got three more hours."

Ate off all my flesh on the insides of my forearms. I had huge scabs instead of skin.

But, hey, it builds character.

hey

i think the worst pain i have had is when i was playing soccer for my middle school team. i was the goalie and really good at it. this one time there was a large girl kicking the ball and she kicked it but it didn't get to the goal line so i ran for it and got it but i fell so i was on top of it and she decided to try and kick the ball under me. well, she kicked my ribs instead and then fell right on top of me. i was so i could not get up but, once i could i went up to her and asked her "what the *!#* were you thinking?" but there was no other goalie so i had to keep playing. at least we won.(i am glad the ref didn't here me.)

Worst pain I ever felt was when I tore the cartiledge in my knee. I stepped in a hole as I was turning and running. It sounded and felt like my knee exploded. Couldn't bend it for two weeks. Turned out to be a minor injury, minor surgery and a day on crutches. Tore my ACL a year later, a worse injury, but there wasn't any pain. I kept trying to play, but I kept falling over.