The second-worst pain I have ever felt is toothache — until, that is, today.
Today's agony was caused by two factors. The first relates to my bad shoulder, for which I am doing physiotherapy exercises. The second relates to my incredibly fast reactions.
Here's what happened. I was lying on the bed, face down, both shoulders raised slightly, arms in the air behind me, holding for five seconds. Like this, in other words:
Then, the phone rang. I jumped, because that's what happens when you have fast reactions, and the muscles in my shoulder tensed up while they were in all the wrong places. It felt as if someone had smashed the whole assembly with a sledgehammer. The worst pain I've had from this shoulder before was at the tears-to-the-eyes level, but jeez, this was wail-to-make-it-stop level. It stayed like that for a full five minutes before it started to ease off. Even so, 90 minutes later it's still worse than toothache. It just sits there, hurting.
It's so bad, in fact, that I almost decided not to go in to work. However, I have a meeting with a student who has been having major attendance problems that are not his fault, and if I don't see him today then I don't know when I will.
I'd take a painkiller, but if I don't know what movements make it worse then when the painkiller wears off I could be in even more trouble...