Pain is relative.

Ever notice how you can have so many different types of experiences of pain, and that the most recent one that you have experienced seems to be the most painful one you've had to date?  I wonder if we were to experience those events one after another in a sequence of misery, so to speak, which one would win out?  This is of course assuming that you were able to remove the inhibitor known as shock on your system which essentially will dull out the sensations of pain.  This is merely a receptor in the brain processing information and translating it into a feeling or emotion. 

What is the most painful experience you have had thus far in your life?  Let's stick with physical pain for this little exercise as well.  We do not want to confuse emotional pain this time, and will strictly deal with the physical side.

Two specific instances come to mind for me.  The first experience was having a 60 gallon vertical air compressor dropped onto my left hand.  While lifting this air compressor off of the bolt that was keeping it's feet secure to 2 stacked pallets, the air compressor slipped and landed directly on the palm of my hand, thus sending one of the 3 feet nearly all the way through the palm of my hand.  Literally.  We're talking about a blunt object crushing and then impaling your hand, and nearly coming out the opposite side.  It put a nice big hole nearly all the way through my hand.  What I learned that day is that your hand is full of a LOT of little nerve endings, and that you can't really numb that pain out.  That pain brought me to my knees.  I couldn't do anything except sit there and bleed and take it. 

The next experience would be a toss up between my first kidney stone, and the one I had this last year which required a surgical procedure to remove it.  The first one was probably worse, because that also included me not being able to pee a single drop for nearly 5 days.  My bladder was literally tearing at the seams because it was so full and backed up.  That was a pretty terrible feeling.  The day that I went to the hospital, I was throwing up blood, and could barely move without having this excrutiating pain tearing my insides apart.  I remember wanting to die.  Sure, that sounds dramatic, but at the time, I wanted it.  If I had had a gun, I would have done it.  Hands down.  No contest. 

I've experienced a lot of different pains in my life at this point, and find that with each new pain, I am comparing the experience to a previous marker of pain.  I have found that each time we are in pain, and feel like we can't possibly take any more, that somehow we still make it through.  Somehow we are just setting the bar a little higher for what we can tolerate for the next experience that will inevitably set new limits. 

What is the single most painful experience you have endured thus far?