Common Threads: Tell us about your most intense physical pain...

In our last Common Thread, we talked about our most Embarrassing Moments--moments that cause us intense psychological pain, grief and regret. Today I want to talk about physical pain. Whether by malevolent intent, dumb luck or our own stupidity, we have all experienced intense pain and suffering—it’s part of the human condition and it’s a common thread that unites us all. Let’s share our stories...

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PROVO, UTAH – As I have mentioned in other threads, I was raised as a Mormon and in 1994 (I was 19) I was called on a 2-year mission to Brazil. As is customary for missionaries serving in foreign countries, I spent the first 8 weeks of my mission at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo so that I could get a crash course in Portuguese.

Missionaries, by rule, are never alone. You are always assigned a “companion” and in some cases, due to unusual circumstances, you might have two companions at one time. (Companions are reassigned every couple of months—Missionaries will often have about 12 different companions throughout their mission).

In the MTC I had two companions. We dormed together, studied together, ate meals together, and when we were feeling ambitious, we'd exercise together. On this particular day, we were trading off doing push-ups in our dorm. As I was doing my set, my companions suddenly jumped me and we wrestled around (as boys are sometimes prone to do). During the wrestling, I took a knee to my ear. It didn't hurt, but I noticed that I suddenly couldn't hear as well out of it (kind of like when your ears need to pop).

Throughout the day, I kept expecting my hearing to come back to normal, but it didn't. I came to the conclusion that some earwax must have gotten jostled around and that THAT was the problem. Fortunately, I remembered I had some earwax removal drops back at the dorm...

That night, as I was getting ready for bed, I tilted my head and placed a few of these acidic drops in my ear canal. Now if you've ever used these drops, you know they don't hurt, they just bubble up (quite loudly) in your ear--that's how you know they're working; only this time, that's not what happened—that wasn't what happened at all. Instead, just a couple seconds after applying the drops, I knew something was VERY wrong... I knew the drops had gone too far—they had somehow passed behind my eardrum and they were about to wreak havoc on the now-exposed nerve core.

The pain was the most intense and excruciating that I had ever felt. In a panic, I started clawing at my ear, but it was pointless… the drops had gone too deep. I couldn’t cry out, I just collapsed to the floor. My companions were quick to notice something was wrong but felt helpless… People from other rooms started trickling over to see what the commotion was all about. There was nothing anyone could do.

The pain lasted a couple of hours and eventually subsided enough that I could get to sleep. The next morning, I went to be evaluated by the MTC medical personnel. The doctor examining me said he had never before seen this much ear trauma…

What had happened was that, when the knee hit my ear, compressed air punctured my eardrum—that, of course, allowed the drops through to the exposed nerves.

There is a silver lining to this story: Missionaries aren’t supposed to leave the MTC until they leave for their assigned countries. However, my ear incident required that I see a specialist in another city—and wherever I go, my companions have to (or in this case, get to) go with me. As a result, we all got to take a road trip. The highlight was stopping at McDonalds (which, for an MTC missionary in 1994 was like heaven). When we returned to the MTC with evidence of our McDonalds bounty, we were the envy of all the other missionaries… ☺

Now it’s your turn. The real purpose of Common Threads is to hear from you! Misery loves company, so I would love to hear some of your most Painful stories—and I think others would, too. Add your story in the comments! Or, if you prefer, blog your story separately and link back to this thread so we can find it! If you don’t want to share, then maybe you’ll take a moment to read other people’s stories and encourage them by upvoting the ones you like. Now, without further ado: