Very few of us can say we’ve never felt pain in some form—whether it’s a splitting headache, a throbbing stubbed toe, or something a lot more excruciating. How much pain we can tolerate before it becomes too much seems to vary wildly from person to person. Sometimes we can suck it up and keep moving; other times, even the smallest twinge can feel utterly unbearable.
ER doctors and nurses see it all. So when someone on Reddit asked them, “Have any of your patients surprised you with their amount (or lack) of pain tolerance?” the responses did not disappoint. People chimed in with story after story. Some described unbreakable “little old ladies” whose fortitude held strong even when their bones didn’t. Others recalled patients who seemed to feel absolutely everything. We’ve gathered some of the most memorable stories below. They’re a fascinating reminder that pain is a deeply personal experience—and that the person you’d least expect might just have the highest (or lowest) pain tolerance in the room.
#1
A friend told me an old boy came in with a large laceration on his arm. Suturing it up took over an hour, but can be quite fun as you can chat to the patients. My friend was engrossed talking to him about his experiences in the Second World War and really enjoyed treating him. The old chap was in good spirits throughout and told him lots of interesting stories about his time behind enemy lines or in trenches in Flanders.
After he put the last stitch in, my friend started clearing up and found the local anaesthetic bottle, unopened. He realised he’d not put any local in at all and yet the guy didn’t once flinch leave aside complain. When asked why he didn’t say anything, he just said “oh I thought that’s how it’s supposed to feel. I didn’t mind. Lovely chatting to you”, then walked out.
Don’t make ’em how they used to.
Lignocaine edit: Spoke to my friend last night. I totally didn’t do this story justice! The laceration was sustained in a machete attack. Two guys tried to break in to the man’s house and one slashed at him but he fought them off long enough until a neighbor started to run over and they scarpered. Such a relevant detail, how could I have forgotten? He had to clean the wound out thoroughly which is even more painful than suturing. And to those of you pointing out the Flanders inaccuracy, that’s purely my incorrect paraphrasing. It was WW2, so ignore the trench comment. I’ll refrain from the obvious “I’m a doctor Jim, not a historian” line. Or perhaps I won’t.
Image source: MedlifeCrisis, namii9 / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#2
I had a patient with an open tibfib fracture (the bones in the lower leg sticking out and below that it looks like jelly) trying to walk away apparently unaware of how bad his leg was. Of course he was incredibly drunk at the time.
Image source: anon
#3
I was chatting with my physiotherapist one day about pain tolerance & she said that she once had a co***ne ad**ct as a patient who’s tolerance was absolute zero. She couldn’t even touch him without him perceiving it as painful, let alone stretch or manipulate his body. She said he was a very challenging case.
Image source: ausgekugelt, Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Unfortunately, pain is a pretty inevitable part of being human—and as unpleasant as it can be, it’s an important one, too. As registered nurse Angela Morrow writes for Verywell Health, “Pain signals that something is wrong in your body. When injury or disease affects a part of your body, nerve signals travel to and from your brain, creating the sensation of pain.” This can trigger protective reflexes—like quickly pulling our hand away from something hot, seemingly without even thinking about it.
#4
Probably late to the party, but this is about my dad. When he was a kid, he got in a really serious bike wreck that tore up his knee. The only doctor in his tiny town at the time was a quack, and just sent him home with a few stitches. Here’s the fun part: his knee was completely shattered, and he walked on it for 6 months. He didn’t say anything, he just sucked it up and dealt with it because he hated whining, and limped around without crutches or anything. He’s a hero, because just imagining that makes me cringe…
Image source: Animated341, magnific / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#5
ER doctor here. My intern year in residency, I saw a 17 year old kid who, when while playing hockey, tried to stop a puck with a gloved hand. It struck his finger tip, injuring the base of his nail, causing a significant deformity. His nail bed needed repair, which requires first removing the nail. That is done by “bluntly dissecting” (read: separating) the nail from the tissue below it. If your stomach didn’t turn reading that and imagining it, congratulations, you have no soul.
Typically, we use a numbing agent to eliminate sensation to the entire finger using something called a “digital block.” I put it in. After ten minutes, he still felt me touching his finger tip. I tried putting some around the nail. He still felt everything. His mother said his father actually had a similar thing – lidocaine didn’t work on him. I offered him a different numbing medicine (we can inject benadryl in that case) or even knocking him out. He looked at me in the eyes and said “doc, just take it off.”
“Without anything??” “Yeah, it’s fine. They fix our cuts without numbing medicine.”
“But it’s gonna hurt a lot. I have to scrape…” “I know”
So I went at it. He grabbed a towel with his other hand and I went to work. 45 minutes later, the nail was off, he was repaired, and I replaced the nail in its rightful place. The kid didn’t even make a noise.
Image source: Smeeee, Ron Lach / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#6
Fire/Medic here. Farmers seem to be tough. One time a guy pulled into the front ramp. Got out of his truck and walked up HOLDING HIS SEVERED FOREARM, in his other arm! Get him in the truck, take off. Along the way he states he lived down the road and wanted to get to us quickly. When asked why he didn’t call 9-1-1 he replied “I just cut my arm, I ain’t dying”. Also had a battle of the bulge vet tell me he didn’t need a blanket.. It was -7 with windchill.
Image source: BuckeyesP17, jes2ufoto / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Morrow explains that pain can be classified in several ways, including by duration (acute, subacute, or chronic), location (localized, generalized, or diffuse), and source (such as tissue damage, nerve damage, or problems affecting the internal organs or musculoskeletal system). There are also more specific types, including pain caused by normally non-painful stimuli (allodynia), exaggerated pain responses (hyperalgesia), pain felt in an amputated limb (phantom pain), and pain that returns despite treatment (breakthrough pain).
#7
ER doc.
* ~50 year old guy with a massive heart attack just lying there chillin’. Ask him his pain level. Deadpan – “just a little.”
* 5 year old boy with both forearm bones fractured and dislocated. Playing on iPad with other arm.
* 60 year old lady slips, falls, destroys pelvic bone. Just wants one tylenol and, scootches out of bed wanting to walk home. After much convincing, she begrudgingly accepted that might not be a great idea.
There are some bad-a*s people out there.
Some edits:
1) Yes, I’m aware there are “silent” heart attacks.
2) There are two bones in the forearm!! He broke both bones in the same arm. Unfortunately, he does not have a third arm.
Image source: fofolala, Markus Spiske / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#8
EMT here-
I once took a kid (about 18, 19) to the ER screaming all the way… for sunburn. SUNBURN. I mean, yeah, sunburn isn’t fun, but this kid was claiming 9/10 pain and whimpering. I was astounded. Charge nurse and I giggled about it for weeks.
Edit: a lot of you have suffered from some horrendous sunburn it seems. Ouch! That does sound like some squirm-inducing pain. This guy was barely pink and hadn’t tried anything on his own yet.
Image source: placenta_jerky, vkmoraesPH / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#9
I was a tech in the ER when the EMTs brought in an elderly woman with what they said was a sprained ankle. She had slipped while mopping a floor at work and her coworker had called it in. Turned out she had broken both of the bones in the lower part of her leg, but was sweetly chatting with us. I was impressed as soon as I saw the xrays. EMTs had no idea and had splinted her ankle over where her bones were broken.
Image source: Purple_soup, ufabizphoto / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Despite these classifications, pain can be notoriously hard to describe, measure, and treat. Part of the reason is that although almost everyone has experienced some version of pain, it is deeply subjective, and each person has their own threshold and tolerance for it.
#10
Not a doctor, but my goddaughter was born very prematurely, requiring a major open heart surgery at two weeks old. We were told by her docs that since she’d gone through so much surgical trauma the first few weeks of her life, as a neonate, her pain receptors/nerve endings would not develop normally. They gave us the example that if she put her hand on a hot stove as a kid, she would have sustained a severe burn before feeling any pain whatsoever. She never cried as a kid when she got shots/fell down/banged into things, even when it was enough to draw blood – I suspect her medical history was the cause.
Image source: jmpags, megafilm / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#11
Not an ER doc or Nurse but I work side by side with an ER doctor. I saw an 8 year old boy come in with a compound fracture to his left humerous (upper arm). First thing I noticed was him strolling in, not a tear or grimace on his face, blood pooring down his arm and a bloody rag held down near his elbow. First thing I thought was he probably had a decent laceration to his arm. Pretty tough, but nothing too impressive.
I get into the room and see that the rag was removed…and holy s**t, thats a bone sticking out of his arm. How the hell is this kid not balling (and how the hell did he just walk in to the ER, barely cradling his arm?). Right then I knew this kid was tough. Little did I know that he was about to become superman.
So, I’m sitting there admiring this gruesome wound and listening to his back story. Apparently the kid was out with a friend riding a four wheeler when they accidentally drove into a ditch and flipped the vehical. Kid was thrown and the quad rolled over his arm. This was about 4 miles out in the middle of nowhere over bumpy dirt trails. So of course he just jumps on the quad and rides the 4 miles back to his house with a bone sticking from his arm. Then has his dad just leisurly drives him the 30 minutes into town to the hospital and strolls on in. Best part: when the doctor said that they needed an X-ray of the arm, he just casually asks, “before you move it, can I get a little pain medication, it sorta hurts.” Most b****s 8 year old I have ever seen.
Image source: mydullmetalas, ASphotofamily / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#12
Working in a hospital has taught me the downside of ab*sing painkillers/d***s Patients constantly come in here with long term substance a***e issues and now that they are actually hurt (mvc, broke bones, etc.) you can give them enough d***s to put down a horse and they still feel everything.
Image source: CreepingJeeping, Saelanlerez / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Pain threshold and pain tolerance are not one and the same, although both depend on complex interactions between our nerves and brain. Pain threshold refers to the point at which a stimulus becomes painful. As Jacquelyn Cafasso writes for Healthline, it basically refers to “the minimum point at which something, such as pressure or heat, causes you pain.”
#13
ER doctor here. I can’t count on two hands the number of patients I have seen that are covered in tattoos and are scared of needles / IVs. I mean, complete phobia. It makes absolutely no sense. If anyone can enlighten me as to how this phenomenon can exist, I’d appreciate it.
EDIT: Thanks guys. Seems like it’s the appearance, depth, and the associated pain when things don’t go correctly that create the aversion.
Image source: Smeeee, magnific / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#14
Radiographer here – as a student I met a patient who was a typical “little old lady”, she came in with far too many shopping bags and walked extremely slowly. She’d been sent by her GP because she’d fallen getting out of the bath a few weeks previous. So we brought her in and took the first image (AP pelvis if you were wondering) and her pelvis was absolutely ruined! Turns out she had slipped and fallen with one leg in and one leg out of the bath and taken the whole fall on her… v****a. Not wanting to cause a fuss this woman had ignored the pain and carried on her life as normal for weeks! Long enough for the fractures to be fairly healed, albeit in a strange way not really resembling a pelvis much anymore.
Image source: ttcl, Super Straho / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#15
Not ER, but actually a cashier at a fast food place.
A woman ordered 2 meals, and since she was a little older (really old actually) I offered to bring her food to the table so she wouldn’t have to wait.
I get there, and her husband had wads of paper towels stuck all over his arms with electrical tape, and his right hand and part of his face were a mix of blood and second degree burns.
Turned out he was working on his lawnmower, and the engine blew up on him. They stopped for lunch on the way to the hospital for burns, and the metal they couldn’t get out. He was acting like it was nothing.
Image source: Engvar, lucigerma / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Our pain tolerance, on the other hand, refers to how much pain we can endure before we feel the need to do something about it. That “could be in the form of pain relief medications, a heat or cold pack, relaxation techniques, acupuncture or even support from a friend or family member,” according to Cindy Jones, an associate professor of behavioral sciences. It’s basically what Cafasso describes as “the maximum amount of pain you can handle.”
#16
Not an ER nurse, but a medical technician at a couple of large events in my country.
Working at a racing track, I had both of these people come in on the same day:
Male, 54 years, Swedish, small cut on hand.
His reaction to me pouring water(saline) in his wound:
“OW OW OW OW OW, it hurts when you put desinfectant in there, be careful!!”
Male, 32 years, Finnish, deep cut in right forearm (his humeral bone was visible):
“No, it doesn’t hurt. Now just tape it the f**k up so I can get back on my bike.”
Edit: Yes, I mean the humerus when I say humeral bone. And yes, I mean the upper arm. Not a native english speaker – and also it’s 1AM!
Image source: stenfrys, rawpixel.com / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#17
Not an doctor or nurse but this happened to me. I completely shattered my knee and part of my leg after I was running and slipped on some ice into a stone wall. I was with a group of friends and all they saw was me slide and hit the wall, they came over and asked if I was okay. In a normal voice I said I couldn’t move my leg, no tears, screaming or anything. No one believed me but after a minute or two I convinced them to call 911, the whole time I was waiting for ambulance (about 30 minutes) I was talking to them normally and no one believed I was actually hurt until I started going in and out of consciousness, right as the paramedics got there I started to wake up. They got out and they didn’t think anything was wrong until they cut my pants off and saw my femur was almost protruding out of my leg, I had no knee cap and tops of the tibia and fibia were protruding out. They took me to hospital (no d***s in the ambulance) as I was joking around with them (i.e. asking if I’m allergic to anything I told the apparently stone walls) they got me to hospital and rushed me into ER the doctors came over and were shocked I wasn’t screaming or crying. Then about an hour after the initial injury the pain finally started in once they started moving the leg about 3 doses of morphine (because one wasn’t enough) and one of Demerol I don’t remember the next couple days besides bits and pieces. But all the nurses and doctors told me I had one of the highest pain tolerances they have seen. Although I imagine it wasn’t really my choice mostly the brain just shutting it down because I was in so much shock and had so much trauma.
Image source: Maxillium, Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#18
I’ve had a few patients in triage swear that their pain was 10/10 while eating, drinking, laughing, playing on cell phone. I’ll chart whatever number that they said and then put in the notes, “patient laughing (insert verb or emotion)”. I had one nurse that when a patient would say a certain number, she’d hand them a card that would say, “At a pain level of 7 you would be sweating, vital signs would be elevated, you would be nauseated and probably vomiting,” then she’d ask, “You sure you’re a 7?” 9/10 would change their answers.
Image source: p_i_see_you, DC Studio / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Everyone’s tolerance is different, and as Cafasso outlines, it can depend on a range of factors. These include a person’s genetics, age and gender. But one’s pain tolerance can also change with chronic illness, mental illness, and stress. Social isolation, past experiences of pain, and one’s upbringing and learned coping strategies can also influence one’s responses to pain. Nerve cells also play a part, and nerve damage can affect how we experience and tolerate pain.
#19
I’m a nurse who use to work in orthopaedics. The amount of people who would guzzle oral morphine was unbelievable. Older adults, esp little old ladies, would just take 2 paracetamol and would be totally fine!
Image source: anon, tolikoffphotography / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#20
Not an er doctor, but I went to the er with my younger brother after a ski accident. My brother fell on his back off quite a big drop, causing his sternum split open. A few runs later he said he was sure something was wrong with his chest so we eventually got to the er. The doctor was shocked that he was able to continue skiing after it, and that he wasn’t writhing in pain when it was touched. My brothers explanation was “Yeah it hurts, but I cant do anything about it.”
Image source: skieezy, Paweł Fijałkowski / Pexels (not the actual photo)
#21
5 year old child with a severed finger, half hanging off, cool as a cucumber and not even upset. Mum was in hysterics.
Image source: nebno6, user173529789 / Magnific (not the actual photo)
That’s why, as Doris Cope, MD, an anesthesiologist who leads the Pain Medicine Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, tells WebMD, “Pain is both a biochemical and neurological transmission of an unpleasant sensation and an emotional experience.” Our brains and emotions can “moderate or intensify the pain,” she explains.
#22
Nurse here: while in school, I had a 7 year old girl who had broke her hip by getting ‘bounced’ off a trampoline. They lived a few hours out of town and when it happened, they knew she was hurt, but not how bad, so her parents put her in the back of the truck and hauled her, for 45+ minutes to their local hospital. She got there, they did x-rays and found it was waaaay too bad for them to treat and that she needed to come to us. They rushed the family out, without anything for pain for this little one, for another hour plus ride to our ER. This girl didn’t shed a tear!!! She was hands down the toughest patient I’ve ever had!
Had a 19 year old do the same while skateboarding and I had to pull him out of the car while another nurse held his leg in place. Some people will amaze you with their strength and braveness!
Image source: RNRobert, Kiwistocks / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#23
I broke my wrist when I was 12, after a bad bike crash. I flipped the handle bars and landed on my neck and slid a couple dozen feet. The impact shattered my helmet.
Anyway, in the ER, nurses are setting up an IV in the arm that wasn’t injured when I explained I landed on my neck and it was hurting. They asked where so I instinctively used my broken wristed hand to point. Every single person in the room goes “ooooh” and just kind stops and looked at me, and I guess I was in shock because I kinda just looked around like “w*f happened…”.
Image source: carputt, seribustd / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#24
When I was studying Nursing I saw a man who had broken his knee in a motorcycle accident 3 days before. The knee was at least 3 times it’s normal size. The Doctor ask him about the pain and he told him it wasn’t that bad. He was mostly annoyed at his family who had taken him to the Emergency room.
Image source: sonia72quebec, magnific / Magnific (not the actual photo)
Ultimately, there’s no universal way to experience or respond to pain. What leaves one person writhing in agony might barely faze another—and you can’t always tell who’s who until the moment arrives. After all, as these stories show, a serious injury doesn’t necessarily mean a dramatic reaction, and a seemingly minor injury doesn’t always come with a brave face.
Chances are, you have a few stories of your own. Let us know about the most painful injury you’ve ever experienced—or the one you expected to hurt a lot more than it actually did—in the comments.
#25
My grandmother wouldn’t take pain medicine. Not sure why, but even getting dental work done, she didn’t want numbing agents. The ONLY time I know that she took pain meds was some Aspirin after getting T-boned while driving and hurting her shoulder.
She passed away last year from ALS a few weeks before her 80th birthday. She was the most independent person I’ve ever known and even having to rely on her kids for help, she didn’t complain.
Image source: anon, prostooleh / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#26
Patients in a sickle cell crisis. I’ve pushed up to 14 mg of Dilaudid, one-two milligrams at a time, into these patients without a resulting change in vital signs or mentation.
However, I’ve also seen young men competing in rodeos who have been stomped by a bull a few times come in with broken ribs and a pneumothorax saying, “It’s just a scratch” and declining pain medications.
Image source: maniac_rn, toni-1 / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#27
I am a radiographer in an ER. We frequently have to move patients with broken bones to get our pictures.
The elderly have a surprisingly high pain tolerance. I’ve seen elderly patients move limbs with obvious breaks to accommodate our needs without a peep.
People with the least pain tolerance seem to be the younger crowd, ranging from 15-30. They whine and wail from the slightest touch. And more often than not, the ones with no breaks whine and scream the most.
Image source: alt0ids, Drazen Zigic / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#28
Not a doctor, but my doctor seemed kind of surprised when I went back for a post-surgery appointment and told him that I had not taken any of the (prescribed) pain medication after getting my tonsils out.
I had what I thought was a good reason at the time, though. At the pre-op appointment, he said that the pain is usually worst on the second day. Therefore, he suggested that I take a partial dose of the painkillers on the first day, then take the full dose on the second day, and use as prescribed until I recover.
For some reason, I decided that it was a better idea to not take anything at all on the first day, and just wait to take the painkillers when the pain got unbearable.
I kept waiting for it to get worse, and eventually it got better. Oops?
Image source: timeywimeystuff1701, The Yuri Arcurs Collection / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
#29
Not a doctor but, I recently broke my femur.
When it happened, the first 30 seconds was the most intense pain. After that I was calm, not in much pain, and joking and such. The only nothings that hurt that could get really any reaction was moving me from stretcher to bed, then xray table, and then the worst but relieving pain. They put a boot made out of soft stuff on my leg, and then they pulled (my bones were overlapped by three inches) infill the bones were a little more lined up. Then they put a weight on the end, but during that time the nurse lady saw my face in a grunting face I guess, and she said “you can cry and scream if you want” I just shook my head. My mom recently had a heart attack so I didn’t want to scare her.
Image source: SinisterEcho, nutbazuka550402 / Magnific (not the actual photo)
#30
Not a doctor, but heard a good one from my PCP.
He had an older Marine that came in, reason being stiff neck and nausea. Does his normal workup, rules out C spine injury, decides to test for meningitis. Tells the guy to touch his chin to his chest, turn left, turn right, look up. Nothing. Tells the guy to stand on his toes, and drop onto his heels, and the guy nearly collapses and then vomits on the floor. Doc asks:
“Didn’t it hurt when you touched your chin to your chest?”
Marine replies: “Yes it f****n’ hurt, but what does that have to do with it?”
“I’m your doctor, you’re supposed to tell me when something is wrong.”
The Marine just looked at him with a slightly blank look on his face, and said, “Oh. Sorry doc, won’t happen again.”.
Image source: GeneticCowboy, Karsten Winegeart / Unsplash (not th actual photo)
#31
I’m an oncology nurse. My patients have some of the highest pain tolerances I have ever seen. They literally have tumors taking over entire cavities in their bodies. Huge massess pressing on places that aren’t supposed to be pressed on and literally eroding through their skin and they will ask me for pain meds “when I have a second”. It amazes me.
Image source: closetwhee
#32
RN here!!! When I was working as a student in the ER, we got a call about a transient male being brought after being attacked by 3 large pit bulls. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. The poor guy was just all gorey. His nose and ears were bitten off. He had a large flap in the back of his skull that revealed what looked like his skull (probably wasn’t, but that’s what student me thought). He had skin flaps everywhere, deep wounds and was just covered in blood. I tried not to cringe when I took his blood pressure. When he was stable, the ER physician wanted to medicate him, and the guy said “No morphine for me, thanks. I’m not in any pain. Besides, that stuff is ad***ting”
I’ll never forget him.
Image source: Vonlenska
#33
When i was about 12 i fell on black ice and hurt my ankle. i knew it was bad so i asked someone to call me an ambulance. i wasnt crying or anything when they put me in the ambulance. paramedics told me “its probably just a sprain”.
I get my x-rays and bam…ankle broken in 3 places and foot dislocated. i saw the paramedic as i was leaving the hospital and he told me he thought it was nothing because i dint make a peep.
i did shed a tear about a week late because my leg was hurting. i get to the hospital and the doc says “we’ll cut your cast off but i dont think we’re gonna find anything”… he leaves, the nurses take the cast off and my entire leg is green,black,purple,blue and im pretty sure some new colors that no one has ever seen before. also had a bunch of pressure blisters. so the doc walks in looks like hes in shock when he sees my leg and then leaves without saying a word. then a new doc comes in and gave me a cool cast that i could take off to air out and look at my leg.
my pain tolerance tends to f**k me over. also f**k that doctor.
Image source: anon
#34
I had a patient who was on his motorcycle with his child and was hit in an intersection by a drunk driver running a red light. Fortunately, it was right in front of the ER. The guy and kid get thrown off the bike. The guy got up, ran to his kid and picked him up, and walked in the front door of the ER, maybe a block away. He got sent to me (xray) pretty quick and no pain meds had set in yet. He was taking the minor positioning I had to do like a champ and didn’t really do more than flinch. I quickly saw he had a mid shaft femur fracture in one leg and the other legs tibia and fibula were completely shattered right above the ankle. And he had a calcaneous fracture and dislocated AC joint as well. Adrenaline can give you balls of steel.
Also, just last night, I had a cop with BOTH shoulders dislocated during an altercation… Yet he managed to get up, relocate his right shoulder, and taze the guy twice before his shoulder dislocated again. He was in pain but not anywhere near enough for me to think both shoulders were out. He’s gonna need his moms help for a while.
Image source: anon
#35
I had a patient, 60 something male, who had three of his fingers mostly amputated by a snow blower at about the level of the second knuckle. He came in with his fingers hanging from skin flaps and was totally stoic. Not only was he a zero out of ten for pain, his vitals were rock steady. No alteration in heart rate or blood pressure. He kept joking around about it… “Ah just cut em off, they’ll grow back.” This guy remained a zero out of ten for THE ENTIRE TIME even when they “just cut em off…” His biggest concern was getting out of the ER in time to watch a football game. B****s m**********r.
STARK CONTRAST are the patients I get who scream bloody m****r and cry when the blood pressure cuff is pumped up on their arm. Grown adults. Are you kidding me?? Also screaming and crying is only going to make your BP go up causing that cuff to squeeze tighter and tighter.
Image source: Missusmush
#36
When my daughter was 5, she severed her ring finger in a door. I was making lunch for a picnic when she realized her teddy bear was in her room (and you can’t have a picnic without a teddy bear..)
she went upstairs to grab it, when I heard a slam and one single bloodcurdling scream. Then silence. I ran to see what was the matter and my little daughter was sitting on the floor in front of her door, covered in blood and staring at something.
she looked at me and said “my finger is off momma”
I wrapped her hand in a towel, picked up her finger and called 911.
in the ambulance, the paramedic was asking her questions about how much pain she was in and she told him that its the most hurty thing ever but she was more sad that she ruined teddy with her blood.
they ended up being able to reattach the finger, but her teddy was ruined. I tried to wash him, but it didn’t came clean. The whole upstairs looked like a m****r scene. I even washed blood off the ceiling!
a few days later, the paramedic knocked at the door with the biggest teddy bear I ever saw.. He gave it to my daughter and told her that she was the bravest little girl in the world. It was really sweet :).
Image source: anon
#37
I have a high pain tolerance, but if you think im turning down a shot of morphine when offered to me in a sterile setting…hah!
Image source: prostateExamination
#38
I don’t think my pain tolerance is really any higher than normal, but I’ve surprised a few people.
When I was about 5 years old I fell and took a pretty good chunk of skin off the side of my head. We went to the emergency room, I was still crying pretty loudly, and got into the room. My dad pulled the doctor aside and told him, “don’t surprise him, just tell him exactly what you’re going to do and you’ll have the best patient ever.”
So the doctor did. He explained that he’d have to shave around the wound, scrub it with a brush to remove any dirt, clean it again, and then bandage it. I said ok and let him get to work. I sat quietly, wincing occasionally while he scrubbed my open scalp, but didn’t cry or freak out. I knew exactly what he was doing so the pain was completely expected and I saw no reason to really react.
The doctor was absolutely amazed and said he’d try that with all his patients.
The two other times are more recent, one was a 6.5 hour tattoo session with no breaks after which my artist called me a psycho. The other was when I broke a bone in my hand and told the ER doc that my pain was maybe a 3 or 4 on their scale.
Edit: Remembered another one. I split my scalp open on the antenna of an F18 and needed stitches/staples. It was almost 3 hours before a doctor was finally ready to start stapling me up and by that time I was sick of waiting while still oozing blood. He realized he had forgotten the numbing agent and I told him, “doc, look at how many tattoos I have. Do you really think a few staples are going to bother me?” He looked a little horrified for a moment, asked me if I was sure, and then finally stapled me up. 10 staples.
Image source: tattedspyder
#39
Not a doctor, but once I was bouncing at a club in a historic part of the downtown district where my college was located. Being in the historic district, the building had high ceilings and big, tall windows with thick, heavy glass.
One night some kids got upstairs and decided it would be a good idea to kick one of the windows out… right over top of the crowded smoking patio out front. I felt a great weight come down on the top of my head and heard the sound of breaking glass. I thought (being that it was a pretty rough bar) that someone broke a bottle over my head, so I turn around raising the dukes and ready to fight when I feel what only could be described as my ear peeling off the side of my head.
What had happened was, a shard of glass about an inch wide and over a foot long connected with my head at the top most point of where my ear connected to my head, slid down through my ear canal, and lodged in the back of my jaw bone, making it impossible to close my mouth properly.
I turned to my boss who was standing next to me (apparently, because I don’t remember this next part, this is what bystanders told me) and said “Hey Mike, would you pull this out for me?”
Went to the hospital, got stitched sans numbing aid, and made it back to the bar before close for a beer.
**tl/dr: piece of glass almost cut off my ear and part of the side of my face. Got stitched without numbing agent, went to get a beer after**.
Image source: befuchs
#40
While I was in nursing school I did a rotation in the ER. We had a trauma patient come in via ambulance due to a chest wound caused by a chain saw. Dude cut through skin and muscle exposing his ribs in an 8 inch nasty laceration to his chest… Right over his heart. He finished cutting down the branches before he climbed down the tree to alert someone of his condition. Came in bleeding profusely chatting away about the Buc’s game.
Image source: anon
#41
I was biking home and my shoe slipped off. I reached down to pull it on and my middle finger got peddled between the chain and the crank. Well Blood starts a squirting and I bike 5 miles home and my dad takes me to the hospital. I get there and the nurse asks me how much pain I am in and I say about a 3 or 4 I think i just cut it and if they could stitch me up as I needed to get home as 2 a days were starting. She sends me to xrays and I thouhgt that was a little odd as I just cut my finger albiet badly I didnt break the bone. The Xrays come back and whoops the bone in the tip of my finger is gone. Not broken in there it is back on the road somewhere. The nurse whacks me with her clipboard and goes how are you at a 3 or 4. I am man enough to admit the next morning waking up REALLY sucked. The throbbing was no bueno.
Image source: Valetudo170
#42
Med seekers and junkies coming down have the same level of pain tolerance. Barely touch the junkies and they flip out due to pain, whereas the med seekers attempt that s**t and overact. I saw a guy try to fake a seizure and it was the funniest s**t ever. He was curling his hands up like he had CP and leaning his head back to gather spit so he could “foam at the mouth”. Med seekers will always be allergic to morphine and need dilaudid and ativan.
I don’t think i have met anyone with a high pain tolerance. Some chick came in with cysts on her ovaries and declined meds because she was in recovery, so that is actually pretty bad a*s.
Image source: plcwork
#43
First time posting.
When I was 8 I managed to squash 3 of my toes with an anvil and I kept on walking. My dad (Former EMT) said that he didn’t know how I was still walking around.
We bandaged it up and went to my doctor’s on an emergency call thing he used to do and they took an X-Ray and came in with this really weird look on his face. I shattered 8 bones and they had to do surgery to rebuild my foot.
I’ve since been st**bed twice (In quick succession) and the admitting nurse wondered how I was concuss while nearly bleeding out.
Image source: runnerrunner23
#44
ER doc here. 54 year old guy comes in with a heart attack keeps telling us he’s fine. He looked SICK. When we begin switching out the EMT’s monitors for our own on his chest, he says, “don’t worry about that, it is my elbow that is the problem.” Not 2 seconds after he finished that sentence, he was d**d.
Luckily we were able to revive him. I kept track of his case while he was upstairs, and he left the hospital alive and without any neurological deficits. feels good!
Image source: WeightyPants
#45
ER nurse here, there are of course exceptions to the rule but generally I see elderly with a much higher tolerance to pain than younger patients. An 87 year old lady can have a fall, break her hip and be resting comfortably barely complaining of pain but a man in his 20s can come in with the same type of fall and barely be bruised and be writhing off of the bed. Of course it can pain med seeking behavior, cultural differences in age, or just the the people in general but this seems to be what I see on one a daily basis.
Image source: S2_Statutes
#46
Well, I’m not a Doctor or an ER nurse but I wanted to share this one. About 6 years ago now my mother wasn’t feeling well and hadn’t been for about 10 days. She had been going to work, doing her normal routine but thought she had a cold or the flu. One evening she asked my brother for a 3rd blanket to put over here because she was cold. He ended up calling one of her friends who came over and made her go to the hospital. The doctors in the ER quickly ascertained that it was a ruptured appendix. She had been walking around and working for 10 days since it had ruptured. She went in for immediate surgery and is still alive and kicking to this day.
Image source: Xenovas
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