you ready to suck it up buttercup
because today we're diving straight into
the most painful injuries you could ever
experience torn acl it's the bane of
every professional athlete one of the
most common sports injuries and one that
can easily end your dreams of being a
global superstar
from tom brady chipper jones teddy
bridgewater and
wait tiger woods really as we were
saying
torn acls are a nightmare for
professional athletes engaged in extreme
performance sports such as
golf apparently yeah the sport where you
drive to your ball after you hit it
anyway torn acls are caused by sudden
and very rapid changes in direction
your anterior cruciate ligament connects
your knee bone to your shin bone
and is responsible for 90 of your leg
stability
when you suddenly change direction and
your ligament tears your leg can't
properly support you anymore and you'll
be on your way to a very quick
introduction with the dirt
if the tear is small you can typically
get away with rest and rehabilitation
though beware because even a small tear
can take you out of the sports action
for up to a year
this is the reason that the injury is so
dreaded by professional athletes
who in effect can tank an entire season
and even part of a second season with
just a small tear
however if the tear is severe enough the
entire ligament might need to be
replaced with surgery
in that case your torn ligament will be
replaced with a grafted-on tendon
that can be taken from another part of
your knee or from that of an organ donor
think just because you're not a pro
athlete you're not at risk think again
acl tears can occur from everyday things
like jumping and landing wrong
doing squats improperly twisting your
leg in a fall
and just sitting there watching your
favorite youtube channel only one of
those is made up and we're not telling
you which
speaking of tearing things if you like
using your arms this next excruciating
injury
will leave you crippled for up to a year
and a half
torn ulnar collateral ligament let's
stick with ligaments for now because
your body
is full of them and they are extremely
prone to ripping tearing and generally
disintegrating into dust inside your
body
and when they do it's a one-way ticket
to the worst pain in your life
both from the injury and the very very
long and painful rehabilitation process
most common in sports that involve rapid
overhead movements such as baseball and
discus throwing
and the javelin this injury leads to the
tearing of the ulnar collateral ligament
which is located in your elbow
as the most important ligament in
providing stability for your forearm and
elbow
a torn ulnar collateral ligament is not
only painful
but can make any activities even
non-sports related ones impossible
you can trust us on this one because the
writer of this script is writing from
personal experience
like a torn acl you might hear a pop
when you first suffer the injury after
which if the tear is small
you'll experience extreme pain radiating
from the inside of your elbow
and will generally be unable to move
your elbow very far without extreme
distress
if the injury is severe enough to tear
your ligament completely you'll need
surgery to replace the torn ligament
and as much as a year and a half to
recover baseball fans might remember
that this injury used to be
fatal to ball players until an
experimental surgery in the late
1970s replaced la dodger's pitcher tommy
john's torn ligament
with a tendon from his forearm our next
injury is not only very common but
absolutely devastatingly painful
fractured leg so you broke a leg big
deal
god gave you a spare for a reason but
wait a minute because severely broken
legs and we mean
injuries to the point of thoroughly
shattered bone can be one of the most
painful injuries you'll ever experience
you can break a leg in any number of
hilarious ways
as a quick youtube fail video search
will show you
however shattered legs are only common
in extreme situations such as high speed
car crashes
air accidents and very high falls when
alcides moreno survived an incredible
47-story fall as a window washer
his legs were so severely fractured that
doctors briefly considered amputation
in the old times amputation would have
been about the only option as a severe
enough leg fracture would have prevented
the leg from healing properly
or fusing back together correctly what
would result would be a deformed leg
that could end up completely useless
modern medicine though has gotten a lot
better at putting humpty dumpty back
together again
often in severe fractures that can't be
treated right away perhaps because of
the severity of your other injuries and
the risk of surgery
an external fixation is used to keep the
bone together while you await treatment
these are typically metal rods that are
screwed directly into your bone
but the rod remains outside of the body
metal plates can be used to hold the
pieces of broken bone together if the
fracture is severe enough
and those plates can either be left in
the patient or removed after healing
screws are also commonly used to hold
your pathetic bones together while they
heal
and like the plates might be left in or
taken out after healing is complete
screws can actually come in many
different shapes and sizes depending on
the need
and are used alone or in conjunction
with other attachments
in severe fractures of the long bones
nails or rods are inserted into the
hollow center of the bone which would
normally contain bone marrow
the rod runs the length of the bone and
screws are used to keep it in place
the rod provides stability and prevents
the fracture from shortening or rotating
until it's healed if your bone has
shattered like glass though you'll end
up receiving treatment using wires and
pins
that will literally piece back together
the confetti that your bone is turned
into
giving it a chance to heal and fuse back
together in one piece
if the fracture was severe enough
doctors have no choice but to leave the
wires in for life
the next injury on our list not only
leads to extreme pain
but possible lifelong paralysis
fractured vertebrae
all of the injuries we've covered so far
can be recovered from even if very
painful rehabilitation can take a very
long time
vertebrae however are kind of the
primadonnas of the skeletal system
and once they go they can go for good
with devastatingly painful consequences
vertebrae can be fractured in a variety
of ways people with severe osteoporosis
a disease that weakens the bones
can fracture a vertebrae just from
sneezing which must make allergy season
extremely terrifying for them
people with tumors on the spine may not
even be aware of the tumor until it's
eaten away enough of the vertebrae and
causes it to collapse
however by far most people fracture
vertebrae in sports
falls and car accidents fractured
vertebrae can lead to a host of medical
issues
you might get lucky and only suffer
severe back pain sometimes lasting for
life even after the bone is healed or
you might get unlucky and suffer partial
or complete paralysis
if the damage is severe enough it has
affected the nerves that run along the
spine
that paralysis too might last for life
treatment for a fractured vertebrae can
be surgical or non-surgical
in non-surgical treatment the vertebrae
is allowed to heal on its own
which means you'll be left in crippling
pain for several months
while medication can be effective
doctors are wary of prescribing
habit-forming opioids
and thus you might be left with nothing
but tylenol to fight off the pain
a relatively new procedure known as
vertebroplasty can be used to treat
severe fractures surgically
during this procedure a needle is
inserted into the spine and used to pump
the collapsed vertebrae
with bone cement which hardens within
minutes a more refined version of this
technique uses a balloon which is
inflated inside the affected vertebrae
to create
height which is then filled in with the
bone cement this helps restore the
fractured vertebrae to something closer
to its original form
and can dramatically reduce long-term or
permanent pain
with either treatment option though
there is no guarantee of pain relief
but when the pain you're experiencing is
literally in your mind
no amount of pain relief can help
traumatic brain injury
every year 1.4 million americans suffer
traumatic brain injuries most sufferers
of traumatic brain injury will
experience chronic pain that can last
for months
unlike acute pain such as what you might
feel when you break a bone
chronic pain is persistent and can be
very difficult to treat or manage
medicines typically used for acute pain
don't work very well at treating chronic
pain
and their long-term use can either be
habit-forming or risk serious kidney and
liver damage
people with tbi usually suffer from
several different kinds of pain
the first is headaches which usually
start right away after the injury
but can manifest months later these can
range from your typical headache you
might feel when sick to more intense
migraines which last for
hours and feel like someone is driving a
spike into your skull
chemical changes in the brain or damage
to its structure can result in
neurological pain
this pain typically has no cause and
results from the brain misfiring and
creating
phantom pains that your nerves dutifully
report
individuals might feel like they're
burning have electricity coursing
through them
feel cold hot or experience painful
numbness and tingling
the fact that there is no physical cause
to the pain which can also manifest
anywhere on the body can be extremely
maddening to deal with
tbi can also result in spasticity which
is a condition where the muscles don't
react the way they should
while the condition itself doesn't cause
pain the failure of muscles to react
properly can lead to very severe pain
for example a muscle may remain flexed
long after it should have been relaxed
resulting in severe pain if you've ever
experienced the delight
of a charlie horse you'll know just how
terrible this type of pain can be
now imagine that you're getting hit with
that level of pain randomly across
any muscle of your body given how
delicate and complicated the brain is
traumatic brain injury pain can be
extremely difficult to manage
especially when it has no obvious source
while most people will recover over
time some unlucky few will have to
suffer their pains for the rest of their
lives
they say childbirth is the most painful
thing that you can experience
but our next injury can affect both men
and women and rivals childbirth
in levels of gut-wrenching pain kidney
stones
while not technically an injury kidney
stones are still one of the most painful
things you can experience and something
that will absolutely bring you to your
knees in tears
your kidneys are responsible for
cleaning your blood and if you have a
poor diet are overweight or take some
supplements or medications
minerals and salts can start to
accumulate in your kidney
the various materials making up the
kidney stone will typically crystallize
as the urine is concentrated
and while some can be flushed out before
they get big enough to notice
others will happily live rent free in
your kidney until they grow quite big
how big well vilas guge of india holds
the world record for a 5.11 inch wide
kidney stone
that had to be surgically removed from
his kidney the average kidney stone
however will only be the size of a
chickpea which really isn't that big
until you consider that you have to pass
it through your pee hole
oh and the stone itself is typically
very sharp and jagged
like one of those super mario spike
balls the pain typically begins when the
stone begins its path
out of the kidney at first this can mean
slight discomfort which can be
associated with back pain
as the stone crashes through your
urinary tract like a ping-pong ball the
pain
very rapidly increases to truly
excruciating levels
remember you're trying to push something
as big as a chickpea through a tube
barely big enough to accommodate it
oh and that chickpea is jagged and
pointy all over
even the strongest opiate pain
medications can sometimes barely begin
to cover the pain
which has been compared to childbirth
luckily the pain pretty rapidly subsides
after the stone passes through the
system
if however you're unlucky enough like
this writer was to have a stone large
enough to cause a blockage
you're in for weeks of crippling pain
and agony that'll leave you bed ridden
especially if the va refuses to approve
surgery and basically tells you to just
keep drinking water you'll push it out
eventually
during a blockage urination is extremely
difficult and can feel like high
pressure lava is escaping your body
the blockage can also lead to infection
as you're unable to fully drain your
system of urine
and an accompanying urinary tract
infection already in extremely painful
condition
becomes the cherry on top of a delicious
cake of pure human misery
now go watch the most painful things
humans can experience for more misery
or click this other video instead