If anyone can attest to the expression, "too much of a good thing," it's 23-year-old Jason Garnett. The Englishman woke up to his usual morning erection last Friday but received the surprise of a lifetime when it lasted an impressive 17 hours. In an interview with Medical Daily, Garnett recounted his harrowing experience, which he described as nothing less than “horrible.”

Garnett’s week started out as rather pleasant. He explained to Medical Daily that the two consecutive days prior to the incident he engaged in sexual intercourse like any healthy young man.

“Basically, I had sex for two days, went home, and woke up with morning glory,” Garnett said. Only this “morning glory,” unlike the countless others Garnett had experienced in his life, didn’t fade away. The young man did a quick Google search on different home remedies for stubborn erections.

“I tried everything to get rid of it," he said. "I went for a run, took a cold ice bath, put ice on it,” but still the erection remained. In addition to being relentless, the erection had begun to take on the unpleasant side effect of pain. “It started to really hurt after a few hours,” said Garnett, who eventually checked himself into the hospital because he was “basically rolling around in pain.”

Garnett was given his own hospital room around 6 p.m., a full nine hours after the young man first noticed his uncomfortable situation. It was then that a urologist examined Garnett’s penis and determined that it needed to be drained of blood.

“It was horrible. I don’t know how to explain it. It was just horrible,” he said. “The doctor had, like, a plastic sheet on, like, my side with loads of absorbent pads, and they left me like that for two hours with it dripping.”

The urologist took around two pints of blood from Garnett’s penis and intermittently administered him with artificial adrenaline — an ordeal that lasted hours.

Although shaken by his experience, less than a week later Garnett seems to be recovering well.

“I’m perfect, I’m fine. I was laughing about it once they gave me the morphine,” he said.

At least the young man has a great story to tell at his next party. Garnett later learned that what he experienced was actually a case of priapism. Priapism is described as a prolonged erection of the penis, completely unrelated to sexual stimulation or arousal. According to Garnett, this was not the first time he experienced an abnormally long erection.

Garnett added that about a year ago he woke up with a similar situation, only this erection faded after a few hours and was not painful. It’s a good thing that Garnett went to the hospital when he did because the condition, along with being extremely uncomfortable, is also dangerous. It left untreated, it could lead to tissue damage, which would cause an inability to get or maintain an erection.

The condition is quite rare and caused when blood vessels or nerves change the normal blood flow, leading to a perpetual and unwanted erection.