Pain

[Pootle]

What is the strongest pain a human can feel? For instance, is being burnt more painful that a broken bone? Would being stabbed in the stomach be more painful than having your hand chopped off with an axe?

[Bluemukka]

In my experience, giving birth and tooth ache are right up there.
Once pain reaches a certain level, you pass out; so I guess it would be difficult to "measure" it. Good question though.

[pixi]

Hi pootle (great name), I think it depends on the person.  I have fibromyalgia which can cause excruciating pain all over my body, but somehow I manage to handle it yet when I get migraine I just wanna curl up and die cos that is one pain I cant handle

[Impret-Sir]

I believe the most unbearable pain comes from superficial burns over a large area. These are more painful than deep tissue burns, as in that case the nerve endings themselves are burned off and desensitised, in superficial burns all the nerve endings are transmitting the pain simultaniously. I have been with lots of patients in this condition, and their pain is almost impossible to control, even with powerful painkillers.

[Loosehead]

You don't know what pain is until you've had a full blown attack of gout!

[smudge]

Apart from childbirth - the worst pain I''ve ever experienced was passing a kidney stone - absolutely excrutiating!

[johntheplamf]

Believe me Pootle, man flu is the worst, these women don't know they're born, i tell thee

[Buddy]

I am with smudge.

It has been proven (dont ask how) that childbirth then kidney stones are the severest form of pain any human can endure.

I can vouch for the childbirth -why is the world overpopulated?

Mind you in saying that if a man stubs his toe that is meant to exceed all pain barriers.!!

[spudqueen]

I'm with smudge - childbirth and kidney stones. One nurse told me that they tell men with kidney stones that that's the nearest they'll get to the pain of childbirth.

[mullein2]

periphal nerve damage is the worst pain you will ever endure..worse than child birth..i had nerve damage because of the doctor being useless..and it use to make me sweat and vomit..to walk on a damaged foot..and my back was so severe i couldnt even sit...i am a lot better now..thank goodness as i dont fancy it coming back...toothache has got to be up their also...

[shaneystar]

I would say childbirth,toothache and this bl**dy osteoarthritis and spondylitis I suffer from.
Plus I had the mumps a few months ago ...They say childhood ailments are worse when you are older..how right they are!!
I actually cried from the pain of it.

[andy hughes]

I would imagine that amputation would cause the body to shut down with shock, so pain would be minimal.Adrenaline can cause the pain receptors to shut down as well, so people in battle can be badly wounded, but carry on, not 'feeling' the pain.

Personally, my worst pains have been -

infected tooth cavity,

tonselectemy wtih soft palatte removal,

gout,

and the kind of them all -

neuralgia, which literally made me cry with pain.

[andy hughes]

Sorry - that's 'king' of them all - my eyesight  was starting to blur with memories!

[loobyloo]

Why do you want to know that?  Are you planning on inflicting pain on someone?  Pain's totally subjective, so while someone might find a broken bone absolutely horrendously sore, another person might experience the same degree of discomfort from a paper-cut.  There is no absolute. 

[Scarlett]

It is interesting that some awful things are not "felt" at the time- such as an arm or leg being bitten off by a shark. You apparently feel a "thud" and that is all. I would imagine, if your hand was chopped off with an axe it would be similar- not the sort of pain your brain can instantly recognise or interpret. Hence people still being able to "feel" their missing limbs.The body tried really hard to sheild us from this immense type of pain- like drowning apparently is the "best" way to die!! (I read). Since it is kind of peaceful and like entering another land.

That aside, I read that childbirth and migraines are the worst. Why on earth is childbirth so painful? It hardly encourages one to do it..

[dove]

I would rather give birth again than to ever suffer earache. Earache is the worst worst pain ever (According to me)

[dove]

love the question!!!!

[Chessman]

I read Pootles question out loud, and my wife says definately chilbirth, but I can vouch that the worst pain a man can experience, is in the head, when he's being nagged.

[Buenchico]

Sometimes it's difficult to say exactly what is and isn't pain. Like another contributor, I've had problems with ear infections (I got them every year as a child). The pain was certainly intense but the sickening feeling (like sea-sickness) from the associated balance problems seemed to make it 10 times worse.

The women following this thread will, no doubt, say that us mere males can never expect to understand the pain of childbirth but I can suggest one type of pain which only us men can really relate to:
About 30 years ago I contracted a viral infection which led to orchitis. For those who don't know what this is, I'll simply say that it meant that one particularly delicate part of the male anatomy swelled up to become 5 or 6 times that of its neighbouring partner! So, gentlemen, imagine that you've had this particular appendage pinned to the ground by a red hot poker solely for the purpose of allowing someone to repeatedly beat it continuously with an iron bar - then you're getting somewhere near to understanding what it feels like! I'm no hypochondriac - I haven't visited a doctor for over 20 years - but this was bad enough to make me call a doctor out on Boxing Day.

I used to lead the first aid team in a large comprehensive school and I was often amazed at what could be done to the human body without causing really intense pain e.g. the design teacher who had just choppped off a couple of fingers on a circular saw hardly seemed bothered at all and the 13-year-old girl who managed to get the bones in her forearm to form a letter 'Z' was chatting away happily!

I agree with the contributor who suggests that superficial burns can be particularly painful although hospitals have now found that the simple application of clingfilm can greatly reduce the patient's suffering. (It stops the flow of air across the nerve ends).

Chris

[ellis bell]

i remember the pain when i was a child and i had soap foam on my eye :) and um, i really wouldn't like to be cut slowly, SLOWLY with a knife.. ew!! i make myself sick!! but stomach ache, a bad one, is on the top of my list..

[dove]

I have given birth to 2 beautiful girls...  and I presume Beunchico  has encountered earache.  I would rather go through contractions than ear ache ... anytime.

BUT ,     then theres always toothache?