LogFAQs > #895043904

thedicemaster posted...

improperly sedated root canal, I felt the full sensation of having a nerve pulled out with a tiny drill-like toothpick.

I've felt that one too. Three times in the same root canal, they tried to start and it still wasn't numb enough. Torture.

The worst pain I ever felt and the second worst pain I've ever felt are part of the same event.

I had to have a spinal tap. Surprisingly, having a needle put in my spine to collect liquid was easy and fine. What came after was not.

So when you get a spinal tap, if you're unlucky, you get this thing called a spinal headache. It's caused by your spinal fluid continuing to leak out so that your brain is no longer properly cushioned. It's like having your brain fall on the floor of your head.

The pain was unspeakable. It's fine if you lay down, the brain comes to rest in a comfy position. But if you sit or stand upright for so much as a split second, the hammer comes down. It is not just a headache, it's being tortured. Pounding and burning and feeling like your brain is screaming.

I spent several days in bed, trying the at home remedies for it. Peeing felt like it took a hundred years since I had to be upright. Finally we went to the hospital.

The cure is almost worse than the problem.

I had to get what's called a blood patch. The doctor takes a lot of blood out of your arm and injects it into your spine. It's believed to patch over the leak causing the headache.

The needle used in this process is more like a tube. It is big. Biiig. You do not want it in your spine. I had to sit upright on a table, with too little local anesthesia, while this monstrosity was pushed into my spine. I think this took about a thousand years. I was trying not to scream, covered in sweat and about to either vomit on the nurse or pass out completely. I couldn't move for a very long time after they finally let me go.

I am never agreeing to a spinal tap again. LOL
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`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe.