re: What's caused you the most amount of physical pain in your lifetime

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Pilonidal Cyst

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This. Wow. No one told me what exactly was going down. I drove myself to the doctor's office (bad move). They gave me local anesthetic which doesn't work on infected tissue I'm told. Dude goes to town with a scalpel and I had to make them stop because I thought I was going to vomit. They then packed a couple of feet of iodine soaked gauze into the new hole in my back and told me to pull a foot of it out every day until it was gone. Awful.

But the worst was my Parotidectomy. They removed a tumor from my mouth the size of a large plum. Fortunately, it wasn't cancer. However, I was left with a side effect of the surgery called First Bite Syndrome. Every time I eat or drink, the "first bite" is excruciating. My brain is trying to make that gland work that isn't there anymore. It feels like someone shoves a searing white hot needle into my jaw on that side of my face. No amount of opioids or alcohol can stop the pain. Fortunately, it only lasts for a couple of seconds, but it's EVERY SINGLE TIME I eat or drinks anything. Yes, even water. It's worse with anything salty, tart, or sweet.