Is a kidney stone the worst pain imaginable?

[Anonymous]

I have been in a head-on collision with broken bones, birthed two children, suffered migraines, and received second-degree skin burns...
Yet nothing touches the pain of a kidney stone, IMHO.

[Anonymous]

The pain compares to a woman giving birth to a full term baby.

[Anonymous]

I have 2 comments, neither is first-hand experience (thank goodness!):

1) I have been told that pancreatitis is the worst pain imaginable, from someone who did have a kidney stone.

2) I have also been told that shingles pain was worse than anything during recovery from a major car crash which included 3 reconstructive facial surgeries.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had 10 kidney stones and birthed one child. Kidney stones are worse than childbirth.

[Anonymous]

Gallbladder was worse.
5. Un-numbed emergency dentistry when I lived abroad
4. Broken nose reset w/o anesthesia
3. Unmedicated childbirth with babies under 7 lbs
2. Kidney stone
1. Gallstone

[Anonymous]

The worse pain I ever had was an ear infection from swimming in the water in the Bahamas. I was downing Tylenol and Advil like crazy. I finally went to a clinic and the doctor said it was the worse ear infection he had ever seen.

[Anonymous]

Bone metastasis.

[Anonymous]

I had a kidney stone for a month last year. It was excruciating.

[Anonymous]

I've had many kidney stones, two children and shingles. For me childbirth was the worst, kidney stones can be pretty bad but isn't always for me, and shingles wasn't as excruciating but it lasted a lot longer and was way more annoying.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had a nasty case of pyelonephritis and also had my cervix dilate seven centimeters in twenty minutes without medication. Without doubt, the worst pain I ever had was a poorly aimed lumbar puncture. Felt like somebody set my thigh bone on fire, then tried to pull it out through my spine on a fishing line.

[Anonymous]

Pancreatitis. Full term child birth was nothing compared to that.

[Anonymous]

My two kidney stones have been not quite as bad as unmediated child births. Worst pain for me has been ear surgery where the shot to deliver the local anesthesia went through the eardrum and into the side of the middle portion of the ear. The sound of the eardrum rupture plus pain was vomit-inducing. (This would never happen in a first world country in recent times).

The worst pain I‘ve witnessed is a ruptured appendix with infection.

[Anonymous]

For me an unmedicated (not intentional) birth was worse.

[Anonymous]

I have had a manual reduction of a severely broken wrist and arm with no pain medication, during which I past out twice and my husband was forcibly and physically removed from the building.

That was worse than birthing two kids and a kidney stone.

[Anonymous]

Ruptured ear drum was the worst pain I’ve ever had. Until I got the steroids and prescription painkillers, I was starting to feel sympathy/understanding for people who commit suicide or abuse drugs to deal with chronic pain.