I severed the ball of my femur off in sledding accident as a teenager. If getting that set by EMT's wasn't about 10/10, then I won't ever be awake long enough to feel 10/10 because that hurt badly. Bit right through whatever they gave me to bite down on.
I had a full skull dislocation once, didn't hurt one bit until the doctor reattached my head to my spine.
I've only broke fingers and my hand, nothing really terrible pain wise that way. I have had to pull trim nails and framing nails out of my fingers and hands, I think the visual is worse than the pain. I managed to knock three teeth loose while throwing a 2×8 on a saw horse, it knocked a short 2×10 up across my face, that did hurt like hell
The collision of my knee with a careless maniac’s knee that sounded like two croquet balls hitting resulting in a cracked femur, torn ACL, and shredded meniscus was some rather intense pain. It was the only time in my life I had severe enough pain to feel nauseous. But the feeling of ripped tissue in a joint is just nauseating anyway. That is the most intense pain I have ever felt. Honorable mention is gout when it hits the ankle. On peak day you just cannot walk at all. My 1 experience with shingles must have been mild. It definitely burned and took forever to ease but just not as intense
I was self treating it thinking it was poison ivy where I had been clearing a fence line. Even got to the point that I was putting rubbing alcohol on it. Finally broke down after a week and a half and went to the doctor. Doctor looked at me and laughed when I told him I couldn't get this to subside. It had crossed my body which he said is rare. I was miserable. Rotator cuff/labrum surgery in July has been rough. That wasn't fun. Compound fracturing the tibia was not fun either. Would do them all over again, in succession, before I had another 8 mm kidney stone. I wanted to die. Laid in the bathroom floor and begged my girlfriend to shoot me.
I’ve had more kidney stones than I care to admit. I nearly strangled an ER doctor once because he told me there was no way I was in that much pain and just came for the pain meds. Hope that bastard has 1 a day for the rest of his life.
I have been, knock on wood, extremely fortunate on a lot of the more serious injuries. No broken bones, no torn ACLs, rotator cuff, etc. The worst pain I can remember is tearing all the ligaments in my ankle when I landed on the foot of some dude playing baketball in low cut tennis shoes and rolling my ankle far enough where the ball of my ankle was bruised from hitting the floor. I've never seen something on my body swell up so much. I've had dozens of sprained ankles since, but none that bad. My torn meniscus was nearly as painful in the instance it happened, but not as much of a lingering pain, even if it was the one surgery I needed in my life. The fact I had so few injuries playing basketball and thousands of miles road running so much is a damn miracle. At 46, my only real issue is a lingering soreness in my left heel.
Getting flattened like a bug because I met a pulling Antonio freaking Richardson in the B gap I was attempting to plug up during a HS football scrimmage vs Ensworth is really high up there on my Mt Rushmore of un-fun painful experiences. His demolition of me had myself questioning briefly if I actually wanted to keep playing football. How he didn’t crack my sternum is a miracle. That dude was unfair to have to play football against in HS.
this is like Unbreakable, internet version. For example talking to dads at a practice recently planning where to stay, etc for upcoming tournament. 8-10 of us. Shouldn’t be in range for any stray shot but of course ball out of nowhere comes in. Nobody saw it or moved but it somehow went by 2 of them and hit me in the last rib. Like barely caught it. I just knew it broke off.
My fav was when that coach of theirs was in the postgame saying “idk I feel like we gotta find a way to play so and so more” Wow, thanks Coach Beamer. We should make sure that the SC head coach hears this feedback!
I have also gotten lucky compared to many of y’all. I think my biggest “look vs feel” disparity was mallet finger. Tears your extensor tendon so your finger dangles useless. Looks terrible. Feels like nothing. Not even as bad as a jammed finger.
I’ve seen guys that just snapped a bone in a limb in half before and not feel a thing. Had another friend whose femur broke on him in a freak basketball accident who said death would have been more preferable in the moment than the unimaginable pain he felt
I could read normal people’s stories about facing freak athletes in high school for days. First time I played with varsity basketball team was a summer scrimmage but nobody on the floor was treating it like just a scrimmage. I was a post in high school but no longer a tall guy at high school level. I go in and immediately get matched up with a future SEC point guard / shooting guard. I about started a brawl with a hard foul after he beat me, I was just trying to prevent a dunk. Coach is furious asking me wtf I was thinking. I don’t know coach if you had a choice would you pick hard foul or getting yammed on in your first 30 seconds of varsity basketball.
I had this happen but it was only the last section of my middle finger. Zero pain whatsoever but had to wear a splint for like six months without ever removing to prevent surgery.
Watching people like Mookie Betts and Bryan Reynolds sailing baseballs over my head throughout my childhood until I was 18 years old are my baseball versions of this. However as good as those then future perennial MLB all stars were growing up, Tony Kemp was the biggest pain in the ass ever to play against back then. Dude wasn’t exactly a HR threat (although he could go yard occasionally) but he always hit like .600 and every-time he got on 1st base he would be standing on 3rd base a few pitches later. Canning him on the base paths when he stole was an impossible ask for any Wilco HS catcher. Plus his defense was ungodly too.
I played against some pretty big names in Memphis HS and AAU. Played against Penny when he was playing varsity in 8th grade. Went head to head with Ronald Davis 4 times. He was a freak athlete. State champ game against Memphis Melrose was against Dwayne Bailey and Wm Bedford, 7’2 and 7’0, nicknamed the twin towers at the time. Our tallest was 6’3 and their PG Sidney Adkins was 6’5.
