Most horrible, excruciating pain ever... - Page 2

[Greenmama2AJ]

The pain you felt sounds very much like your gall bladder and I've heard that is much worse than labour from a number of people. Kidney stones are meant to be pretty horrible too.

Look, labour pain is painful but not in a "kill me now" sort of way like you experienced - its going to be a walk in the park for you now.
I compared my labour pain to a REALLY bad leg cramp. You know how when your leg cramps up you go "OW, f$%* sh$t, that really hurts!!" But then you compose yourself and breathe and try to walk it out. Well, labour is like that. It hurts during the contraction but it goes away - and when you think its time for an epi then you're almost done!!

Either I have a huge tolerance for pain (which I dont think I do) or labour pain wasn't that bad - because I could totally do labour again. Good luck!

[leila1213]

...labor and birth are supposed to be the worst pain I will ever go through, right?

Haven't read all the replies, but wanted to say that afterpains were way worse for me than L&D. I did use hypnosis, which I highly recommend to anyone aspiring to a pain-free birth experience. (I said 'aspiring', not that it is possible for everyone or that you just have to try hard enough or whatever. Please don't flame me.)

[Turquesa]

Originally Posted by heather8

I think there's a huge difference between what you feel when your body is working the way it's supposed to, albeit it working in a pretty challenging job, versus what you feel when there is something wrong and your body is trying to tell you that.

In the first case, everything in your body is doing what it's supposed to, but it may be doing it for the first time or it may be working really hard. In the second case, something has moved in a way it wasn't supposed to, something has torn, something is blocked, and your body is sending you an alert that something is wrong. There's no way to compare the two!

: There's a psychologically complex dimension to labor and childbirth that I was unaware of until I had my baby.

A gall stone or kidney stone leaves you thinking, "OMG, what's going on with me? I'm so freaked out! This isn't normal!"

Having a baby is more, "OMG, what's going on with me! I'm so . . . Hey! My baby's coming! How exciting! I'm about to see my baby! I . . . oh, $#&! Here comes another contraction . . . "

I won't lie and say that childbirth is pleasant. But because it involves your baby, it's a lot more bearable than what you went through.

[Sioko]

I've never had a kidney stone, but I've had a gallbladder attack... well a few. The first one I had I thought was another ectopic rupturing, the pain was so similar, but in the totally wrong spot. It was up under my ribs on the right side and wrapping around to my back. I went to ER in an ambulance and everything because the only other time I'd had pain like that was when I was bleeding to death! They couldn't find anything wrong and sent me home with percocets (hate that pill!) and I had crampy pain on and off gradually getting better for the next 2months.

My most recent attack was exactly like you described. Exactly. NOT FUN. And not as bad as childbirth! And I've had two pitocen augmented unmedicated labors!

Low fat diets usually help. Pay attention to what you eat so when you have an attack you can remember not to eat that again!

Instead of asking in the ER, "On a scale of 1-10, 10 being childbirth, how bad is your pain?" It should be, "10 being a gallbladder attack..."

[2+twins]

In my experience pain from childbirth was very different from pain when something was *wrong* in my body. For me the worst pain I've had is a rupturing eardrum. That was AWFUL. It was just so different trying to cope with that pain verses when I've been in labor. I just wanted to die (I didn't in labor). My dh had a nasty kidney stone attack and while I couldn't feel his pain myself, that seemed worse on the pain scale than anything I've experienced. I've heard that gallbladder attacks are the worst there is. Try not to worry - labor is a very different sort of thing.

[Girlprof]

Just want to add to this my experience as well. I've had two unmedicated labors, back labor both times, first time transition in the car, second time induced with pitocin. Yes, this was all painful, sort of.

I had one or two really bad contractions the first time around when I lost my focus and ability to relax. Those one (maybe two?) contractions were the absolute worst part of labor. The rest of it was really fine, even the pitocin. It was a LOT of work, physically and mentally, but the pain was very manageable.

Having a really bad wart burned off hurt a lot more. A herniated disk in my back hurt more and for a longer period of time.

The chances are excellent that you've already experienced the worst pain of your life and come through it just fine. Best of luck!

[micah_mae_]

Thank you everyone for your stories and advice! I'm feeling much more confident now about what's to come. Is it weird to say that I'm excited about labor? Anyway thank you!

[memiles]

I had an unmedicated birth, then a kidney stone while 28 weeks pregnant, then a 3 day, asynclitic baby unmedicated homebirth. I've also had 5 knee surgeries, 2 of which included drilling into bone.

The labors were like being lifted on fluffy clouds compared to the stone and the knee. The pain started and would.not.stop. The medications didn't take the pain away, but made me stoned and scared and crazed. It was AWFUL. (not to mention the evil hospital staff to kept yelling at me because I hadn't had any prenatal care.......because they refused to recognize the offer of my LM to bring over my records).

If you can live through that experience, you will actually have great perspective on labor pain!

[Romana]

Originally Posted by micah_mae_

When I say I was in pain...I mean I was on my knees beside the bed, draped over it, just about screaming. I got to a point where it hurt to breathe so I started hyperventilating. I couldn't even cry.

I'm sorry - that sounds awful. My last birth actually hurt a lot more than what you're describing; I was screaming and it would not have been possible to not scream.

My problem is...labor and birth are supposed to be the worst pain I will ever go through, right? I can not go through pain like that again, let alone worse pain. If labor is anything like that, I can't do it!

Labor and birth are not supposed to be and most likely will not be the worst pain you ever go through. In fact, the birth will probably be better than what you just experienced. There's no guarantee, though - very painful births do happen.

Despite that, the fact of the matter is that you CAN do it, if you want to (you don't have to), even if it is that bad. As I said, my last birth was much worse in terms of pain than what you're describing here, and I had an unmedicated home waterbirth. I'll never think of it as a beautiful, lovely, or heartwarming experience - it was hours of very intense physical pain and discomfort that had a good ending (healthy mother and healthy baby). While I can completely understand why anyone would choose an epidural while having a very painful birth, the fact of the matter is that even if you do get unlucky and have an extremely painful birth, you CAN still do it. It's not easy, but it can be done!

File this painful experience away as a reminder that you can handle pain. That you've been through tough physical experiences and learned from them. Hopefully and most likely, the birth will not be this hard/painful or the hard/painful part won't be of long duration. In the unlikely event that it is, know that you're prepared and that you can tough it out if you want to.

It'll be okay! Either way, you will do great no matter what challenges are presented.

[mamazee]

I had a bad gall bladder, and at least for me that was MUCH MUCH more painful than labor and childbirth. Multiples worse.

[Belle]

Originally Posted by Novella

When you hear people saying that childbirth was the worst pain they ever experienced, there could be a couple of options:

• That individual has never experienced any sort of physical pain before (aside from stubbing a toe, etc)
• Childbirth pain actually WAS worse for that individual than other things that have happened to her

I dislocated my knee late in my second pregnancy. That was far, FAR more painful than anything at any of my childbirths. Contributing to that pain, surely, was the understanding that the pain was unnecessary/accidental, couldn't be resolved in a timely fashion, was a "problem" rather than part of a process, etc.

My knee injury was far worse than anything that I went through during childbirth. I've given birth twice without drugs and I'd do that ten times over before hurting my knee.

[battymama]

dude give me childbirth over hemeroids any day. i really mean that. Ithink you will be fine, one of the reasons it hurt so much may have been because you didnt know what was happeming, fear makes pain so much worse. Childbirth was no where near the most painful thing i have experienced, and hey i got a baby out of it so it was more then worth it, all i got out of the roids was a sore butt.

[lionheart]

I'm pregnant with my first and when 23weeks pregnant I had a very similar experience as you described.
Morphine was the only thing that could take the edge off.. and only for 40 min.

After preparing me for surgery (supposing I had ruptured appendix) a young doctor at the ER said that this was so abnormal for
appendicitis and insisted on one more US.
They found out that I had/have what is called hydronephrosis, that is a blockage of the flow from the kidney.
It sometimes, but rarely, happens in pregnancy because of pressure from the uterus, causing this blockage.

I was forced to live with that pain for 6 weeks.. on and off.. and on week 29,
when I wasn't allowed to take my meds anymore, they put a plastic tube up there to ensure the flow.

I never thought that childbirth could ever be this painful. Just, the thought never occurred.
There is just a whole other mindset concerning this than the one I have towards birthing a child.
It's like someone mentioned earlier - when having a baby you know what's going on vs. when something like this happens nothing makes sense.

I am very glad to have stumble upon this thread - it just strengthened my confidence in myself and my body.
Since I survived this ordeal without knowing what was happening..
I sure am able to birth my baby.. which I was made to do!

Planning a :.. can't wait!