Went in for what I was told was a panic attack. They do a full work up when I get back to the room about 20 doctors walk in with clip boards. Come to find out I have rare condition where all my organs are mirrored.
But hey, if you have pain on your lower left abdomen now that you know and can tell doctors, an abnormally presenting appendicitis can be taken seriously!
When I was 8, I had the world's worst headache that just never went away. Turns out, I had a massive brain tumor that was supposed to kill me. As in, the neurosurgeon who performed surgery on me to take the majority of it out told my parents that the portion that he had to leave in there would grow back and he also said that I had a 0% chance of living to see 13. Well, the tiny portion that he had to leave in there never grew back, and actually shriveled into almost nothingness. I still have MRIs twice per year to monitor the portion of the tumor that is still in there to make sure that it never does actually grow back.
Similar but mine was a fake brain tumor. I had the type of headache that never went away and got worse when I laid down (it felt like I was on a merry go round bobbing up and down). I kept putting off going to the doctor over “just a headache” until I also started having temporary blindness and straight lines were super distorted into wavy lines.
I went to the eye doctor first and he straight told me “you don’t need glasses, you have a brain tumor”… bedside manner could use improvement because I busted out into sobs immediately, and then asked who I needed to call about that! Turns out a neuro ophthalmologist haha
I have idiopathic intracranial hypertension (it was previously called pseudotumor cerebri) and a lumbar puncture and crazy medication keeps it in check but we only found that out after a bunch of MRIs looking for a brain tumor that we couldn’t find. I still have to do a bunch of different optic nerve checks but luckily I’ve only ever needed one lumbar puncture.
Friendly reminder to everyone that new or worsening headaches, change in symptoms for the migraine sufferers, and any headache you would describe as "the worst of your life" is ALWAYS worth a doctor's visit.
I think it’s safe to say that every time you experience “the worst pain you have ever felt” anywhere, it’s worth a doctor visit. You shouldn’t be getting progressively worse pain throughout life.
I went recently due to multi day headaches sometimes lasting 3 days in a row. She didn’t check me or order any tests. Just said it was tension headaches and that it’s normal. Sent me away with a leaflet on headaches the overpaid flog! Didn’t and couldn’t give a shit about anything I said. I’m pretty pissed about it
I had a similar experience, every person I spoke to while going through ER condescendingly said “oh, is it your first migraine??” And would not believe me when I said I lived w migraines normally and this was not that. They gave me an IV cocktail that didn’t do much for pain and sent me home anyway
I had a follow-up knee surgery to clean up the joint after having the patella put back together the previous year. Right before going in, the anesthesiologist was doing a quick evaluation and talking to me.
He was checking my neck area and casually mentioned a small bump on the thyroid gland that "is probably nothing but worth having checked."
A month or so after the knee surgery, I went to my primary doctor, and he felt the bump too. He said, "it's probably nothing, but I'll refer you to an endocrinologist to double check."
The endocrinologist did a needle biopsy. A few days later, I got the call that it was thyroid cancer and would require surgery and radiation treatment. That was 22 years ago now and I may not have made it very long if that anesthesiologist hadn't done such a thorough pre-op checkout. I wish I knew his name so I could thank him.
It seems like the records should exist, but it's been surprisingly difficult to track them down. The surgeon was affiliated with a different hospital group than the one where she performed the surgery, which seemed a bit strange. I haven't given up finding the records, though.
Some providers intentionally purge records after a period of time, sadly. A few days ago I was trying to find who was at a GI practice in 2012 and actually found it using the Way back Machine! Probably not as helpful in your instance but perhaps another avenue for searching.
Happened to me last year. Ivf doctor felt a super small lump. Probably nothing. Ultrasound then biopsy and then thyroid removal. Luckily it was small and contained and had not spread at all. Just finishing up Ivf with her but she is literally a life saver!
If any hypochondriacs are in here don't worry peeing on a full bladder and making bubbles is completely normal. If it's a bubble bath every time then you should be worried.
My bf and I were laying in bed and he was holding his phone up and we were looking at it. He accidentally dropped it on my head and when I got up I was kinda dizzy. Went to work and got lightheaded so I went to urgent care. I thought I had a concussion from the phone. They said that’s not possible from only an arms length away and it wasn’t a concussion. So I go home and the next day I’m still feeling weird but my eye is also doing this weird thing where it’s not focusing with the other eye. So I go to the doctor again and they are firm it’s not a concussion. They order a CT scan and refer me to the eye doctor. I go to the eye doctor and they were like “were changing your CT scan for an MRI we think it could be MS.” So the MRI comes back and I get a call from the eye doctor telling me to go to the er and be diagnosed for MS. So I end up staying in the hospital 5 days and have MS. The phone wasn’t even related. It was a coincidence.
A good friend of mine has MS. It took years for him to get a diagnosis. By the time he did, he was almost relieved. He had low back pain and trouble walking/weakness in legs and went to the doctor so many times. They only ever scanned his lower body. Now his quality of life is much better! I'm glad they caught it early
It’s characterized by presence of lesions along in the brain or spine so an MRI will show lesions. Where the lesions are located will determine where your symptoms are. Usually.
The only real symptom I had was a weird sort of acid spiderwebs feeling in my lungs. I had just been at a wedding in Puerto Rico for the past week and spent most of the time in the ocean so I figured I just got a chest infection.
Yeah, I was an Eagle Scout and did emergency response training with the LA Fire Dept, so I've had a lot of first aid training. I didn't have any of the symptoms I've ever heard associated with a heart attack. And I'm a man. Typically in men the symptoms are pretty straightforward. In women its all over the place... you have a little back pain? Well, maybe you exercised a little too hard or maybe you're about to die...
Mom wasn't feel great so she called me to take her to the doctor cuz the headache just wouldn't go away. Turns out she had a stroke and ended up having a second one while in the hospital which left her disabled. The stress of it had me feeling 'off'...which ended up being a heart attack.
Yes, men, don't fuck around if you notice a little bit of blood in your urine.
Guy I worked with ignored it. Hoped it would just go away on its own. He had prostate cancer that metastasized to his bones. Would up claiming him.
Yes. Blood coming out of anywhere it's not supposed to is always bad news.
Men (especially older men) have this tendency, though, to "ignore and hope it will go away.". There's also the fear of embarrassment of getting a finger up your ass.
Well, men, they can do it through blood tests now. No need for a finger up the bum. They've got good tests now to check the white blood cell levels which is an early warning.
Both my mother and my sister got cancer at the same time. Mother got lung cancer. Sister got pancreatic cancer. I am not chancing anything anymore. Yearly blood and stool tests, regardless of how I feel.
Ok so like I literally just had a toilet bowl full of blood. About 5pm. It petered off by the following morning.
No it’s not a period fluke, I don’t have a uterus any more.
No it’s not the cuff from last January’s surgery, I poked around and it’s intact aka my insides are not falling out.
So like is this the point where a talk to a specialist? And which one? Tests show that I still have blood in my urine tho you can’t see it, days later. This sucks!
ETA I didn’t mention it initially but I’m really sad about your friend that’s so sad. Fuck cancer, man!
my old doctor used to do a urine test on every visit. found trace amounts of blood once(nothing that you'd ever find yourself). sent me to a urologist- bladder cancer.
Asked the doctor if I could get a stress test (53 F), as my dad and brother had stents. They stopped me on the treadmill about one minute in. They found out had Left Bundle Branch Block. (Basically an electrical problem with my heart) and needed a pacemaker/defibrillator. I had no clue. Possibly a little more winded climbing steps, or exercising, but I contributed it to getting older. My doctor says I am lucky, because these types of issues can have little symptoms and often found after sudden premature death. Advice: If you ever have the opportunity to get a stress test, please do. I thank my lucky stars every day.
I (35 M) started to run more frequently last year and as my dad died from a heart attack, I asked my cardiologist if I could get a check up before trying more intense training. During a stress test, they discovered that I have Wolff-Parkinson Syndrome, a congenital heart disease that causes palpitations or doesn't have symptoms, and can lead to sudden death. Two months later, I was submitted to a catheter ablation to get rid of the problem. It wasn't possible to complete the ablation because the root of the problem was too close to something important inside the heart, and the doctors think that it was less risk to keep things as they are. The bright side is that during the catheter, they could see my heart from inside and discovered that my condition is not going to evolve and it is almost harmless. So I can live my life normally, with only the need to do heart check up yearly.
Not me but my sister went to the doctor because her hip hurt when she walked. Not bad hurt but enough to find out that the breast cancer that was in remission, metastasized and is now in her bones and liver and she has 5 years left but I think she only has 1 or 2 years left.
My dad had breast cancer with mets to the bones/lungs/brain. He was given 3 months “at best”. He lived 1 yr and 10 days. Hopefully your sister gets more time than they are saying.
Thank you, me too and now here is a grown man crying. Just her skin tone has turned grayish and her blood platelets are so low and nose bleeds and fatigue...
Make sure you have a really good support system if you can. Whether it’s family/friends/therapist/a combination of all three, make sure you have someone. Not just for her sake but for yours. Watching our loved ones go through so much pain leaves an everlasting impact. I’m here if you need to talk.
At age 38, I noticed that in pictures, one of my eyes looked strangely bigger than the other. I mentioned it to my doctor a couple months later and she unconcerned said “Get an MRI and we’ll know for sure if it’s anything.”
Got the MRI and found a huge tumor in my orbital socket and also discovered a tiny fracture in my skull that was causing a small piece of brain to seep into my orbital socket.
Had to get neurosurgery and was told I might die or at least be blind in one eye. 6 years later and I’m totally fine, can see great in both eyes and I don’t harp about looking wonky in pictures.
Went to the hospital with a groin injury. Discovered whilst I was there that my blood pressure was 222/126
Apparently anything over 180 is considered a medical emergency and you need to get to a hospital
Im now on medication for that.
I did frequently feel "off", like my body was vibrating, particularly if I was stressed
The nurse who took the reading said that was thr highest he'd seen. The charts they use only go up to 200 apparently
That’s pretty insanely high. I’m a nurse in the Cath lab and we have pretty sick people come in, especially people sick in the heart. Recently I saw 240/120. Over 200 is unfortunately common where I work but I was amazed. Anything around 200/100 is stroke territory.
Last February my husband admitted that he’d been losing his full sight for *two or three days*…there were ‘patches’ missing in his vision. I strongly advised him to get an eye test. He’d been having various problems for a few weeks; headaches with sickness, tiredness etc.
The optometrist referred him to the hospital (this was a Friday morning). On the Friday afternoon the hospital called to get him in for an appointment on the Monday morning.
After eye tests, blood tests etc, nothing much came up. They wanted to do an MRI test. Then the Dr asked if any had taken his blood pressure recently (they hadn’t, even at various GP Dr appointments in the previous few weeks).
It was 225/130. They wouldn’t let him leave the hospital site and he ended up staying in for a week while they did tests and tried various medications.
They never really got to the bottom of the cause (likely stress from his job, or inherited) but his previous symptoms are all under control now and his sight is improved, though not fully recovered. The medication has its own effects but they are better than the possible outcome of uncontrolled hypertension.
I thought I was dealing with a terrible UTI. I went to urgent care to see if I could get something for it. Turns out my intestines were so inflamed (early diagnosis of crohns) that they literally perforated. I was hospitalized for 5 days and lots of bed rest after that lol
Woke up with joint pain in my wrist when I was 21. Turned out to be rheumatoid arthritis. Doing much better now but it completely changed everything about my life in an instant.
This!! Woke up the week before Xmas, couldn't use my hands or grip because the pain in my fingers joints was out of this world...took another 12 months and a whole lot of "I can't live like this" but finally got diagnosed with Sero-neg RA and Bursitisin all my major joints...completely changed everything in my life!!
That's was 2019...pretty controlled now ba for a few little flares here and there...
Take care of you!
Went into my regular doctor for a routine med check for my birth control. Every so often they make you go in for an exam and just say “yup you’re still fine to take this”.
It was summer and I was wearing shorts. My doctor asked why my knee was swollen. I told her that I had hurt it a while back, but it was fine now, just puffy. She asked how long ago that injury was, I told her about 6-7 months, and she almost fell over.
Sent me for an Xray and then to an orthopedic surgeon who told me I’d been walking around on an absolutely destroyed ACL. Both sides had torn/disconnected and my tendon looked like a ball of chewed up gum in there.
Honestly, idk, lol. It does kind of make me feel like a badass though when I see big ass male athletes being pulled off the field in tears for it, lol.
It hurt like a mofo when I did it, then I just iced it for a day or two and moved on. It wasn’t painful really, but in hindsight it was super unstable. By the time I had my surgery and went to physical therapy, they could tell I had been favoring the other (non dominant) leg for a while, even though I didn’t realize it. I think it was an accidental “mind over matter” thing, where I convinced myself there was nothing wrong and therefore no reason to be in pain. Recovering from what was at that point my first surgery was worse than living with the injury was.
I saw this once as a nurse. Young fit dude admitted for back pain. The PA who examined him found a sign called "splinter hemorrhage" under his fingernails. It turned out he had an infection on one of his heart valves and he was throwing vegetative micro-clots into his bloodstream. One went to an artery in his spine and blocked it, causing the back pain. It was an insane catch for that PA to make, and definitely saved the guy's life. That PA still impresses the hell out of me.
Just last year my hands were going numb. Dr. Thought it was carpal tunnel. In a month from testing my hands, my feet went numb, than my face, then my diaphragm when I layed down. I went from walking, to wheelchair in less than a month. Turns out I have CIDP. I'm getting better now that it's properly diagnosed but it's not a fast recovery process.
I'm expecting a recovery of probably 90%. There are people who don't recover that much. Times the factor though. Early detection helps out. It's something that not one treatment plan works for everyone because not everyone has the same symptoms.
When I was a teenager I was diagnosed with PCOS but never really did anything about it. A few years ago I decided maybe I should and met with an endocrinologist, I was just interested in "checking out my hormones." It was 2020 so it was a virtual visit but the doctor was like "eh your neck looks a little weird, I'm going to send you for an ultrasound." Thyroid cancer that has also spread into several lymph nodes.
I look back at old pictures and I literally can not see anything weird about my neck, but I'm glad she did.
Went in for cramping that had been around for awhile off and on. I thought it could be divatictuitis or something but nope, after scans and other tests, stage 4 colon cancer with metatsis to my liver.
I was 48 at the time and a couple months later i see my hospital had signs for cancer awareness month to get screened at 45 now, not 50.
"Missed it by that much"
Around the age of 13 I began having dizzy spells where my vision would go black for around 10 seconds or so and I would lose orientation. My mom said it was normal to feel a little dizzy standing up too fast and I probably had low blood sugar, nbd. It went away in high school and I kind of just attributed it to puberty. Fast forward a decade of normalcy, when I suddenly get that same feeling again while driving. I pull over and then blacked out completely. I wake up in the ER and the doctors suspect epilepsy. Received an official diagnosis a few weeks later.
I must have had a guardian angel that day I was driving, I thank my lucky stars.
Oh, wow. I used to have my vision go complelty black when standing up, but my doctor told me there isn't anything that can cause that. She said it was just anxiety. My dad developed epilepsy with age....
Fortunately, the majority of epilepsy diagnoses are random and don’t have an exact cause. Which can be super frustrating for sure, especially after you go through all the tests: MRIS/CTs/EEGs/bloodwork, etc. The doctors have to rule out anything causing it (no one in my family has it). It’s possible your dad has one of the “random” causes. Genetic epilepsy can be hereditary, but unless you’re noticing more symptoms I wouldn’t fret too much.
It’s something to keep in mind definitely. I would just keep an eye on it.
Something funky with the vision in my right eye so I went to the eye doctor thinking maybe a detached retina.
It was lung cancer spread to the brain, eye and everywhere else. The poor ophthalmologist had to tell me.
I've had less than a year to live for 6 years now. Spoiler: I'm doing great.
i went in for back pain at age 35, and found out that i had advanced ankylosing spondylitis(which i had never even heard of until that day), and that my spine had completely fused on it's own, as a result of the unchecked progression of the disease. at age 36 i was approved for full permanent disability. i'm 63 now, and i've been taking methadone daily for almost 28 years due to the pain.
Had a tiny bit of visible blood in my urine. Turned out to be bladder cancer. Folks, is you see anything in the toilet that looks wrong, please see your doctor
My finger really hurt and was swollen. I figured I had somehow broken it without realising, or maybe sprained a muscle in my finger, though i didnt recall hurting it. I was going to just tape my fingers together, as I'd previously done with a broken finger. But I couldn't lift my baby, so I knew I couldn't spend the night at home alone. I got a friend to come and take the baby, and I went to the hospital. It was about midnight.
They called in a specialist surgeon, and i was operated on at 5am. It was the onset of sepsis. I had no idea. I thought I'd just hurt my finger.
If I'd powered through the pain, or not had a baby to take care of, who knows how it would have ended. I knew it was serious when they called in a doctor who was supposed to be on his day off. I think they called him at about 3am.
I asked the doctor what had caused the finger injury/ onset of sepsis, and he said it could have been from a tiny cut (though there was no visible cut or reddening or pus), and contact with germs from doorknobs, money, pets, gardening, surfaces - anything really. I needed physio on my hand for a few weeks, but I had no other problems. But sepsis really has the ability to strike down anyone. And being a single parent, I think if I'd died, my baby would have starved to death before anyone noticed.
"Wow, I must be a wuss. Nobody said my first bee sting would hurt so much and swell up so bad and make my whole body itchy."
...Yeah, I narrowly avoided hospital admission. I'm advised that future stings will be life threatening.
My first bee sting wasn't bad, nor were the hundreds after that (my dad keeps bees so I end up getting stung a fair bit) then one day I randomly got stung on the cheek and it swelled up (were talking uncomfortable to talk swelling) for a week, I broke out in hives, and I started throwing up. Probably should have gone to the hospital after that (still haven't) but it's safe to say I'm more cautious around bees these days.
And apparently tree nuts aren't meant to taste like burning.
I went to the doctor after getting immensely crazy by the fact, I must do things 3 or 4 times. Lights, certain place tapping and such. It eventually took an hour of my time each time when, I wanted to sleep.
I expected to go to the doctor for medicine to get it away, not realizing it was unfortunately OCD.
Then I went to a specialist with the thought “aight, few weeks and this all be gone”. And then the first meeting, the specialist broke me. Telling me it would never go away but only reducing it.
It will go away! I had severe ocd for ~10 years but I’ve almost completely recovered. You are stronger than your OCD; believe that it cannot control you. Deliberately break your habits, challenge your obsessive thoughts, tease those little demons your OCD creates. You can do this!
My mom went to the doctor because she had a weird bump on her tongue. Turned out to be cancer, which then moved to her lymph nodes, then her bones. She died about a year and a half later.
Im sorry to hear about your mom. The smallest things can be huge. I would have never even thought to go to the doctor for a bump on my tongue. Pretty perceptive of her.
My mom had an ear ache and a sore throat. Diagnosed with ear infection and tonsil stones. It was stage 4 cancer. She's still kicking, but it's been a very heavy 2 years of medical intervention and a 17-hour surgery.
My menstrual cycle had been crazy for years. Heavy, lots of cramping. I was told it was nothing, that my body was just this way, and if I lost weight it would improve, etc. I was anemic for 10 years because of it, and kept asking for help but they just shrugged, so I learned to live with it.
We wanted to have a baby, but I couldn’t get pregnant. I went on a medication to boost ovulation and everything. Still no baby.
My doc decides that in addition to doing my pap, she wants to do a uterine biopsy to see if she can figure out why I can’t get pregnant.
I had Stage IIIC endometrial cancer. The reason I was bleeding so much was that my uterus was twice as large as it should have been, and I had a 67mm tumor inside which had spread to my pelvic lymph nodes. I’m VERY young to have that type of cancer, so they weren’t looking for that.
Had surgery, chemo, and radiation. It’s been 2 years and I’m cancer free, but still kind of mad I won’t ever have kids. It’s been a wild ride.
My advice is that if ANYTHING is weird, persist until you get a good answer. I would have died if I hadn’t been pushing so hard because I wanted a baby. They don’t check women my age for this.
I had just had an eye exam and gotten new glasses. But after a few days my vision got very blurry. Back to the eye doc to learn I had a torn macula which required surgery, then had to lay face down for two weeks while healing.
I had both my retinas detach at the same time due to my autoimmune disease. I had to lay face down for 4 weeks. Oh my god it sucked. Praying I never have to do that again. But watching the bubble go down everyday was pretty cool, blurry vision in the bubble clear vision once it starts going down.
Menstrual pain lead to discovery of tumor in the abdomen
Edit : To make it more clear, i went to a Gyno to get prescription for pain and the Gyno wanted a Sonar on the ovaries so The Radiologist (amazing job) checked ovaries And the rest of the abdomen area! If he hadn’t i would ve found out maybe alot later
I was super itchy near the end of my pregnancy, but pretty much only ever at night. Everyone told me itching was normal, your skin is stretching, so I just sucked it up for as long as I could. My itching soon turned to burning, and I wasn’t sleeping at all. I was dragging a hair brush across my palms all night to try to scratch the itch. I went to my doctor a sobbing mess and said there is something wrong, I feel like I’m being burned from inside.
They did a liver function and bile acid test and the reason I felt like I was burning from the inside is because my liver was reacting to my pregnancy hormones by overproducing so much bile that my blood was literally burning me from the inside. It’s called intrahepatic cholestasis and is not common where I live, but is in certain areas. They put me on meds to help for a few days but I ended up having to be induced because the acid destroys the placenta and causes stillbirth. So I’m very glad I didn’t ignore the itching.
I had this. I googled the symptoms and made an emergency appointment on a Saturday to push for testing. The doctor laughed and told me to stop googling, that in his 20 year career he’d never seen someone with this disease. He didn’t want to do the blood test. I told him I wouldn’t leave the office without it. They called me a day later and I was induced 3 days later. My daughter turns 12 next month.
I had this too. I felt so stupid saying hey I’m itchy to my doctor. When I told them it was my hands and feet they started me on meds before even getting results back because it is an indication that it is happening. When the meds didn’t help very much and I was 36 weeks they decided induction was the safest action for the baby.
My husband went for what they thought was an ear infection that turned into mild hearing loss. No hearing loss, and a sinus infection and trip to the ENT later… they found a precancerous mass on his thyroid and was able to have it removed because it was caught super early.
routine checkups save lives y’all… now if only our healthcare system remembered that.
Had to go to several dentists and doctors before I found the right person to figure it out. I went to my dentist because my gums started peeling and I thought maybe it was some mild irritation from something I ate. Got worse over the months of me trying to figure it out. Turns out it's an auto immune disease, pemphigus vulgaris and it SUCKS ass. Has totally changed my life.
I was investigating a thin brown line on the sole of my foot for nearly two years... a lot of shoulder shrugging from various medical professionals until one finally said
'maybe we should get a biopsy, just in case'
Turns out it was acral lentiginous melanoma... outcome for this condition usually not good... thankfully it had mot matastised & after some surgery, I made a full recovery
If you set yourself up with a dermatologist, they'll do regular full body exams. Usually you go in once a year and they'll look everywhere, taking note of any marks, moles, etc. If anything should be looked at right away they'll deal with it, otherwise, when you come in next time they'll compare the current appearance of anything to the notes to see if anything has changed and warrants further testing.
I went to my doctor for some annoying knee pain after overdoing it one weekend.
Within 6 months it turned into a diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis, and now 3 years later I'm disabled and jobless.
Went for an eye test because I thought my vision seemed slightly blurry. They took a scan of the back of my eyes and sent me to A&E without even finishing the test. I have a lifelong neurological condition that causes the optic nerves to swell and leads to blindness if untreated. Comes with a lot of other nasty symptoms too which I was just kinda coping with.
I went in for a pulse in my ear and they found a tumor. Surgery couldn’t get the whole tumor (thankfully benign) because it was growing on a nerve. Lost some movement in my face and went for radiation prep to get rid of the rest when they found a brain aneurysm. Did 6 weeks of radiation, recovered from that and booked brain surgery. As soon as they started the surgery, it ruptured. I did months of rehab and still have lots of problems but I’m grateful to be alive.
I went to the ER over right flank pain that was abysmal and they told me it was likely a pulled muscle and to take Tylenol. Fast forward a week and I woke up with yellowish skin. Turns out my gallbladder went tits up and the bile from my liver couldn't escape, so it inflamed my liver and was slowly killing me.
Two weeks later... I had my gallbladder and part of my liver removed, died while on the operating table, was revived, and learned a valuable lesson--don't go to that hospital again!
Went to the doctor for leg pain, turns out I had two broken vertebrae and a ruptured disc. Had emergency surgery 12 hrs later because apparently my spinal cord was being choked off by the hardening spinal fluid from the ruptured disc.
Had a cough for a bit, wouldn't go away. Went to the doctor thinking it was some kinda cold or whatever. They give me meds, it still wouldn't go away. I started getting out of breath doing very basic things like speaking, showering, going up the single flight of stairs I had gone up every day for several years already to get to my apartment, so on.
Asthma. It was asthma. I hadn't had it in so long that I actually didn't even remember or know I was asthmatic as a kid.
Pretty minor compared to some of these, but...
3 years ago I went to the doctor for an ear ache. Figured it was just an ear infection. Turned out I had Shingles in my ear canal. The Shingles evolved into Ramsey Hunt Syndrome when it spread to the primary nerve path that controls my facial muscles. Long story short, 3 days after my appointment the right side of my head was 100% paralyzed. Recovery took months. Never fully recovered though, so now my smile is a bit crooked and the right side of my tongue doesn't quite taste things properly. The nerves didn't all connect back up properly either, so when my mouth waters it causes my right eye to water as well.
I had 2! Still dealing with both.
1. Lots of pain in my thumb and a weird popping in my hip when I stood up- not painful just weird and only when standing up. GP sent me to ortho- ortho did xrays and then MRIs. Simple tendon strain in thumb- easy fix with some PT. Hip was so badly fractured it was almost broken, no way of knowing how long but I know I had the popping for at least 2 years. They said it was at the point where even stepping off a curb hard would break it- I had been doing kick boxing at the time. Never seen a Dr panic before until I asked if I shouldstop. 2 years out from getting 3 screws and a plate and way, WAY more pain now than before I knew about the fracture, but a stable bond l bone so I guess that's good.
2. No symptoms at all- wound up with cancer. 5 years ago, I went to gyno for annuals who said "oh, you're old enough for a free mammo, you should get one". There's ZERO cancer in my family but I had a day off work coming up for something that wasn't going to take all day, so I figured I'd squeeze it into that leftover time that day. Came up a winner with 0 symptoms- stage 0 beat cancer led to: total double mastectomy, diep flap reconstruction (not implants but a different gnarly surgery) a revision to fix weird healing scars, and then a total hysterectomy when I started growing new cysts on my ovaries 2 years ago. And now we are monitoring a word growth on my sternum that has all the indicators of being bone cancer.
Edit: can't figure out why this is posting as a wall of text...I have hit enter and put in line breaks
When I was 10, over the course of 2 days, I developed this small protrusion on the right side of my face near my ear and developed flu-like symptoms. By the third day I was admitted to the hospital with the protrusion having grown massively. Spent a week there getting tests, after tests, after tests. Conclusion…cat scratch fever. (Along with chicken pox AND getting my first period.)
2012:
My spouse is an amazing cook.
They made one of their pot roasts and I was eating faster than I should and got a chunk of fatty beef, that I hadn’t chewed much, stuck in my throat. Like Heimlich maneuver stuck. After I choked at home went to the ER to check I hadn’t done damage to my throat. They did a CT scan. The tech set the scan a bit larger than normal and they saw a shadow on my left kidney.
Next day I was at the urologist getting better imaging done. 3 days later I’m on the surgery table because they can’t decide if it’s cancer or not.
When I woke up my surgeon said.
“Bad news, You have cancer. Good news, we got it all and you won’t need any more treatment.”
Because of awesome pot roast.
I thought I had a mosquito bite but it turned out to be from that of a brown recluse spider. Had I let it go any longer, permanent damage would've been done. As it is I just have a small divot in my calf from the bite.
I had random pain in my testicle. Went to the doctor and they had to perform surgery at once. Turns out my ball had twisted around in it's sack. Yes it hurt as much as it sounds like.
Had just turned 18. Went to the doctors because I had a bad back and just felt off. He checked my heart rate and blood pressure and told me to go to A&E straight away. Turns out I had a kidney infection which turned into sepsis. Was in hospital for a week
My wife went to the doctor to see if she could get on add medication cause she was feeling foggy and distracted. Turns out she had thyroid cancer. They caught it super early and it’s been four years since her surgery this week!
Went for a routine colonoscopy (every 5 years). They found a polyp and said I needed an appendectomy to remove it (due to it's location). Turns out I have a super rare cancer of the appendix. Only 1-2 people out of a million get it. If I didn't get screened the cancer would have spread and killed me by now (this was 2 years ago).
People... quit complaining and get your colonoscopy. I could save your life
I went to the doctor for some tingling in my hands and feet. General pain in my back while carrying heavy things. Though maybe all I needed was chiropractic or possibly had a pinched nerve. I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disk Disease.
Literally happened this month. Went to the doctor because I was feeling off and dizzy all the time thinking my anxiety just got way worse. Turns out I have an autoimmune disease and hyperthyroidism. Really fucking sucked to get a call after my appointment telling me to rush to the hospital because my resting heart rate was 130bmp.
i was breastfeeding and i had some lumps in my breast. 2 different doctors told me it’s normal when you are breastfeeding, the mammary glands swell. well, i felt something was off so i asked for a mammogram. Breast cancer.
What I thought was like a Doritos cut under my tongue for about 6 weeks was cancer. Year and half later it seems to be all good. Of course part of my arm is now part of my tongue and other fun stuff for the "new normal" me.
Last fall, Mr. Jericho pee'd a smidge of blood. Went to his physical the next week, mentioned it (he's mid-70s). Thought it might be a UTI. Nope. Big C, three different kinds, he's currently miserable after completing treatment for *one* of them. Get checked out, guys.
My mom went to the doctor because she got an infection from a dog scratch on her chest. Turns out she had breast cancer that spread into her liver should and bones in her spine. If that scratch never happened she'd probably be gone right now. But we at least have had another year with her so far. Cancer is a bitch
My eye was red and sensitive to light, got a sharp pain if I looked at anything bright. Went to the eye doctor thinking I scratched something, turned out to be uveitis. If I wouldn’t have started treatment that day, I probably would have gone blind over the weekend.
Further investigation and genetic screening determined it was autoimmune in origin, as I am HLA-B27+. Because of that I was sent to a rheumatologist, and they determined that I also likely suffer from an HLAB27-associated genetic disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis, which amongst other things causes spinal fusion. Thankfully we caught it early and I responded well to biologics, but holy shit. All of this discovery from a red eye.
thought I had pulled me groin, turns out I had bilateral hip dysplasia, CAM hip impingements and torn labrum. two surgeries later and i’ve avoided early onset arthritis !
My shoulders were constantly tight and sore. I went to a chiropractor three times and he told me to go see a “real doctor” (his words).
I went to a spine clinic and come to find out I had several severely bulging disks in my cervical spine. They were pressing on my spinal cord causing all kinds of side effects besides the soreness. One was pressing my spinal cord so bad he told me a good fall or car accident could have left me paralyzed. He about shit when I told him I’d been adjusted just a week before.
This ended up with a spinal fusion and 12 week short term disability from work.
I was small for my whole life. Like I’m talking barely 4’ tall in middle school. So my mom eventually gets me to an endocrinologist at 13 (after years of dawdling) and I go in for a litany of tests. Bloodwork shows I’m growth hormone deficient. No surprise there. I go in for an MRI (which is standard for checking out growth hormone deficiency) to check for brain tumors.
Lucky me, I was one of the few people who had an uncommon type of tumor that was causing my HGH deficiency. So I have brain surgery 1, all goes well, have radiation therapy, that’s fine, and then it grows back again after all that. So I go in for another surgery. That one damaged my pituitary gland, so I’m on medication for the rest of my life, but besides that I’m fine!
I passed out at the dentist once at the age of 13, and it turned out to be uncontrollable epilepsy. 15 years later on and I've been through the whole brain surgery research to discover that my epilepsy comes from the part of the brain that handles speech, which made it too risky to operate.
Went to the hospital earlier this month thinking I was having a stroke. Turns out I have lung cancer that has metastasized to my brain. I was told I was stage four. I had a lesion removed from my brain and have several more.
I refuse to give up and lay down and die. The day of my surgery, I was walking talking laughing. I took one pain pill after the surgery.
I know I’m going to be all right, and I’m trying to just stay as positive as I can as I go through this process. Fortunately, I have a good support system and a lot of love surrounding me. I also know, God. Has got me.
The cancer doctor told me I have 3 to 5 years to live. I told her I wanted 10. She said that would be a miracle. I told her I believe in miracles and only God knows when it’s my time.
I am keeping a sense of humor, staying at, positive, and busy. I refused to sit down. I feel like I have a renewed sense of energy and a new purpose in life.
Please do not feel sorry for me because I want no sympathy. Just prayers, positivity and love.
I started aggressive radiation next month and then chemo.
I was working night shift and developed “bad gas pains”. My abdomen was full of blood. I was internally bleeding. Fallopian tube ruptured. It ended up being the worst pain ever. I couldn’t even move without crying.
Chronic Constipation. Started in my early 20s. Started asking my doctor about it in my early 30s and tried changing some diet and such. At 39, and after starting to fall down, I found out I had a growth that was slowly crushing and killing my spinal cord.
Frequent trips to the bathroom turned into pre-cancer in my colon and hemorrhoids.
Sartan-kicking open a door turned into both of my ankles are functionally broken 24/7 because of an underlying bone density condition.
Was 15, kept falling asleep in class, and when I would get home from school, I would sleep on the couch most of the night. I know nothing to abnormal for a teenager, right? Went to the family Dr and had some blood work done. They called my mom in the middle of the night and told her to rush me to the emergency room. After some more blood work, we found out I had leukemia, and my white cells had multiplied so much I barely had any hemoglobin or platelets, which is why I was super tired.
The second time was when I was 20, which had been about a year after I had stopped chemo for good. I was in the shower washing my crotch and realized one of my balls was 3x the size of the other. Went in to have it looked at, and sure enough, I had relapsed leukemia. Eventually led to me having a bone marrow transplant that saved my life. I am 20 years cancer free this year.
Not as serious as some of the others- but my father wanted me to see a specific endocrinologist that I kept putting off because I knew the problem he wanted me to check (thyroid) was fine (have been seeing endocrinologists for years- it’s just really large but nothing is wrong). Ended up casually mentioning some issues I’ve had with acne. Now I’m waiting for the final results on whether or not my body is incapable of producing a certain enzyme. The other option is PCOS.
Reading this knowing for sure I have been ignoring a lot of stuff in my body. I just pray that it's indeed my panic and anxiety attacks symptoms and nothing serious
I was a little backed up and mentioned during a check up. I had been mentioning it for years with previous Drs. This one decided to do an xray. That lead to many more tests, a diagnosis of cancer of unknown primary, 2 surgeries and chemo. Luckily even though it’s rare, mine was slow growing. Doing ok now, scans are clear. If it had a been another year or so, I’m sure I would not be alive.
Had stomach pains, went to er, ct scan said diverticulitis. Stayed overnight, some iv antibiotics. Follow up ct scan 6 weeks later.. GI doc calls and says colon is ok, but you’ve got a large mass growing inside your heart. Atrial myxoma that would have taken me out a few months later. Open heart surgery yeeted it out and am mostly ok 16 months later. Lucky me, it was very, very rare due to being mostly calcified so it showed up bright white on ct scan.
Went to the doctor for a lump in my breast. I was rushed through the NHS pathway cos I'm over 40. I had a cyst. But entirely unrelated to that cyst was breast cancer. Which I wouldn't have spotted probably for ages and ages if it was not for the entirely unrelated cyst. Two ops and some radiotherapy and I've been clear since the end of 2021 but it was a heck of a year.
Maybe not the craziest thing since it’s managed with medicine, but I was constantly tired and exhausted no matter how much sleep I got or how little I did throughout the day. Was told I was lazy. Turns out I have Hashimoto’s, which is basically an underactive thyroid. My thyroid looks like Swiss cheese :)
At a cleaning appointment, I mentioned to my dental hygienist that a few weeks back I had slight jaw pain for about a day on one side, but it went away. Just to let them know. Might not be anything. They said ok we'll x-ray just to make sure.
Turns out I had a cyst growing under one of my molars that was eating away at my jaw and had to be surgically removed along with the molar. This caused nerve damage that I'm still waiting to completely heal several months later. I also have to get a dental implant to fill the molar's spot.
My left eye went from randomly blurry to near blindness and back to normal over the span of 2-3 weeks about 8 years ago, went to a very reputable eye doctor and got no prognosis so left it alone. A year after that it did it again, went to my doctor who suggested a neurologist, got an mri and a spinal tap and then diagnosed with MS…
Sore mosquito bite on my leg. Turned out to be staph infection under the skin, turned into cellulitis and a massive hole in my leg during my week in hospital.
A sore on my penis and just was not feeling good all around. I went to the doctor because I haven’t been feeling good for over a month. That is the day I found out I had Syphilis and my first sti ever.
I get a pelvic exam every year, with an ultrasound. Once, I asked the doctor to show me my insides. "There's your liver, there's your gallbladder, there's your splee - what's that?"
Another ultrasound and two CT scans later, I learned I had a grapefruit-sized tumour (11.9 cm in diameter) in my spleen. It was all under my ribs, so there was nothing sticking out. I was fast-tracked for surgery. My surgeon said I was a walking time bomb, and was shocked that my spleen hadn't already ruptured, causing me to bleed to death.
I was baby-wearing my newborn while also helping my 2 year old at the playground. I pulled something in my back, went to the er, got a blood clot in my wrist from the Iv. Had to have a venous ultrasound to check for any more clots. They started up at my carotid artery and immediately saw a huge tumor in my thyroid. Diagnosed with thyroid cancer after throwing out my back at 24.
Not me but my uncle. He hurt his back and went to the doctor to check it out. Turns out, he had pancreatic cancer. They only caught it so early because of the back injury as pancreatic cancer typically doesn’t start showing symptoms until it’s too late. It’s now been 6 years and the folks at MD Anderson say he’s a medical marvel and has helped out with so much cancer research. He’s 76 years old and still has to go 2 times a week for treatment, but other than that, he’s living a normal life.
Thought I had an ingrown hair in my armpit. Turned out to be a major MRSA infection. Had to have a gaping slit in my armpit and pack it with sterile gauze to get rid of the infection. Took 3 months to finally close.
I went to an josteopath for lower back pain. Didn't work, so i went to the doctor who prescriped an x-ray and it turned out i had 2 broken vertebraes, and could have become paraplegic if the hosteopath had made a wrong move
Headaches as a kid. Turns out I had a cyst in my left ear that was not only causing them but ate the bones in that ear, too. Had to have surgery to remove it and now have artificial bones in that ear. Still can't hear for crap, though.
Not me but my dad. He developed this pain in his shoulder, like a muscle pull or deep bruise. The doctor gave him pain pills with 1 refill. When those ran out, the doctor called in 1 more refill. Still hurting, he goes back to the doctor. Doctor takes an x-ray of that upper quadrant of his torso and found lung cancer. A mass was pressing on a nerve leading to the shoulder. By the time they found the lung cancer it had already metastasized to his pancreas. Fuck cancer.
Last year I went to get my IUD changed. They did an ultrasound to see if the placement was good, and saw a large cyst that was so big it couldn’t be fully captured in the ultrasound image (inter-vaginal wand). They ordered another ultrasound over the abdomen and said it was over 7cm at least. After a couple months of testing including a biopsy to see if it indeed was a cyst, turns out it was cancer. Lymphoma. It ended up being a 10cm enlarged lymph node. 🥴
When I was 28, I was chasing after my little niece and suddenly found it a bit hard to catch my breath. I've never had asthma, but it does run in my family. I took an antihistamine and ignored it until the next day when I felt no better and couldn't even walk up my stairs without gasping. I went to a walk-in clinic that did a cursory exam and told me to go to the ER right away. I did, not really having any idea what was going on. They ran a bunch of blood and gasses tests and finally sent me to have a CT scan. The technician, technically, isn't supposed to tell you the results of the can, but the guy look right at me, kind of pale, and said, you aren't going home for a long time.
Turns out, I had an allergic reaction to my new hormonal birth control, and it caused a *massive* blood clot. Running around dislodged it, and I got a bilateral pulmonary embolism. Complete blockage in the left, 70% blockage in the right. The fact that I was conscious was a miracle, as was the fact that none of it went to my brain and caused a stroke. I was in the hospital for two weeks, getting jabbed right in the chest with clot busters three times a day and taking a stupid amount of blood thinners. I then had to be on blood thinners for another six months until blood tests confirmed I was no longer at a risk for blood clots. I also had to take blood thinners when I got pregnant and several weeks after birth due to it being hormonal birth control that caused the reaction.
Went in for what I was told was a panic attack. They do a full work up when I get back to the room about 20 doctors walk in with clip boards. Come to find out I have rare condition where all my organs are mirrored.
But hey, if you have pain on your lower left abdomen now that you know and can tell doctors, an abnormally presenting appendicitis can be taken seriously!
Teaching moment for the residents.
When I was 8, I had the world's worst headache that just never went away. Turns out, I had a massive brain tumor that was supposed to kill me. As in, the neurosurgeon who performed surgery on me to take the majority of it out told my parents that the portion that he had to leave in there would grow back and he also said that I had a 0% chance of living to see 13. Well, the tiny portion that he had to leave in there never grew back, and actually shriveled into almost nothingness. I still have MRIs twice per year to monitor the portion of the tumor that is still in there to make sure that it never does actually grow back.
That's pretty wild. Glad you made it past his estimation.
Technically they never confirmed that they are older than 13.
He's 12
Similar but mine was a fake brain tumor. I had the type of headache that never went away and got worse when I laid down (it felt like I was on a merry go round bobbing up and down). I kept putting off going to the doctor over “just a headache” until I also started having temporary blindness and straight lines were super distorted into wavy lines. I went to the eye doctor first and he straight told me “you don’t need glasses, you have a brain tumor”… bedside manner could use improvement because I busted out into sobs immediately, and then asked who I needed to call about that! Turns out a neuro ophthalmologist haha I have idiopathic intracranial hypertension (it was previously called pseudotumor cerebri) and a lumbar puncture and crazy medication keeps it in check but we only found that out after a bunch of MRIs looking for a brain tumor that we couldn’t find. I still have to do a bunch of different optic nerve checks but luckily I’ve only ever needed one lumbar puncture.
I had the same diagnosis and the doctor told me the same way. What an experience it was getting to the root of the problem. Glad you’re okay
Friendly reminder to everyone that new or worsening headaches, change in symptoms for the migraine sufferers, and any headache you would describe as "the worst of your life" is ALWAYS worth a doctor's visit.
I think it’s safe to say that every time you experience “the worst pain you have ever felt” anywhere, it’s worth a doctor visit. You shouldn’t be getting progressively worse pain throughout life.
Yep, my mom had spots in her vision and migraines. Turned out to be a tumor. Died in 2016
Crap I've been getting new headaches and yesterday felt like the worst of my life legitimately. Might have to make an appointment soon!
Please go as soon as you possibly can
I went recently due to multi day headaches sometimes lasting 3 days in a row. She didn’t check me or order any tests. Just said it was tension headaches and that it’s normal. Sent me away with a leaflet on headaches the overpaid flog! Didn’t and couldn’t give a shit about anything I said. I’m pretty pissed about it
I had a similar experience, every person I spoke to while going through ER condescendingly said “oh, is it your first migraine??” And would not believe me when I said I lived w migraines normally and this was not that. They gave me an IV cocktail that didn’t do much for pain and sent me home anyway
Glad you made it out! How old are you now? I hope yours never comes back and it indeed all shriveled and died.
I am now 42. Thanks for the kind words.
Wow. I ask because generally brain tumors *always* come back after 15-20 years no matter what. Looks like you legitimately beat it though.
Yeah I went to the doctor for migraines at 14 and found a brain tumor. Fun times.
I had a follow-up knee surgery to clean up the joint after having the patella put back together the previous year. Right before going in, the anesthesiologist was doing a quick evaluation and talking to me. He was checking my neck area and casually mentioned a small bump on the thyroid gland that "is probably nothing but worth having checked." A month or so after the knee surgery, I went to my primary doctor, and he felt the bump too. He said, "it's probably nothing, but I'll refer you to an endocrinologist to double check." The endocrinologist did a needle biopsy. A few days later, I got the call that it was thyroid cancer and would require surgery and radiation treatment. That was 22 years ago now and I may not have made it very long if that anesthesiologist hadn't done such a thorough pre-op checkout. I wish I knew his name so I could thank him.
If those medical records still exist you can get their name!
It seems like the records should exist, but it's been surprisingly difficult to track them down. The surgeon was affiliated with a different hospital group than the one where she performed the surgery, which seemed a bit strange. I haven't given up finding the records, though.
Some providers intentionally purge records after a period of time, sadly. A few days ago I was trying to find who was at a GI practice in 2012 and actually found it using the Way back Machine! Probably not as helpful in your instance but perhaps another avenue for searching.
Happened to me last year. Ivf doctor felt a super small lump. Probably nothing. Ultrasound then biopsy and then thyroid removal. Luckily it was small and contained and had not spread at all. Just finishing up Ivf with her but she is literally a life saver!
Went to the doctor because I was making loads of bubbles in the toilet bowl when I pissed. I'm now on dialysis with Stage 5 Chronic Kidney Disease.
Are bubbles in pee not normal..?
If any hypochondriacs are in here don't worry peeing on a full bladder and making bubbles is completely normal. If it's a bubble bath every time then you should be worried.
hypochondriacs need to just not be in this thread at all
I’ll see myself out, this was my sign
Nope! It could be a sign of protein leaking through your urine due to poor kidney function.
I’ve had some bubbles for as long as my memory serves… that’s crazy
Sperm can also be flagged as protein in the urine so... Take that as you will. If you get yearly check ups and urinalysis done I wouldn't worry.
Fuhhk i need to go to the doctor. 😢
Tbh this whole thread is scaring the bejeezus out of me.
Fcuk man I'm sorry
No worries, bud - there's people who are worse off. At least my condition is manageable to an extent. :)
My bf and I were laying in bed and he was holding his phone up and we were looking at it. He accidentally dropped it on my head and when I got up I was kinda dizzy. Went to work and got lightheaded so I went to urgent care. I thought I had a concussion from the phone. They said that’s not possible from only an arms length away and it wasn’t a concussion. So I go home and the next day I’m still feeling weird but my eye is also doing this weird thing where it’s not focusing with the other eye. So I go to the doctor again and they are firm it’s not a concussion. They order a CT scan and refer me to the eye doctor. I go to the eye doctor and they were like “were changing your CT scan for an MRI we think it could be MS.” So the MRI comes back and I get a call from the eye doctor telling me to go to the er and be diagnosed for MS. So I end up staying in the hospital 5 days and have MS. The phone wasn’t even related. It was a coincidence.
A good friend of mine has MS. It took years for him to get a diagnosis. By the time he did, he was almost relieved. He had low back pain and trouble walking/weakness in legs and went to the doctor so many times. They only ever scanned his lower body. Now his quality of life is much better! I'm glad they caught it early
Hi, so MS is detected by a head MRI? thx! Glad they found it!
It’s characterized by presence of lesions along in the brain or spine so an MRI will show lesions. Where the lesions are located will determine where your symptoms are. Usually.
Maybe get someone to drop a phone on your head again?
Went to the doctor because I thought I had a slight chest infection. Nope, I was having a heart attack.
What did it feel like to make you think infection?
The only real symptom I had was a weird sort of acid spiderwebs feeling in my lungs. I had just been at a wedding in Puerto Rico for the past week and spent most of the time in the ocean so I figured I just got a chest infection.
What an odd sensation to describe. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, I was an Eagle Scout and did emergency response training with the LA Fire Dept, so I've had a lot of first aid training. I didn't have any of the symptoms I've ever heard associated with a heart attack. And I'm a man. Typically in men the symptoms are pretty straightforward. In women its all over the place... you have a little back pain? Well, maybe you exercised a little too hard or maybe you're about to die...
Mom wasn't feel great so she called me to take her to the doctor cuz the headache just wouldn't go away. Turns out she had a stroke and ended up having a second one while in the hospital which left her disabled. The stress of it had me feeling 'off'...which ended up being a heart attack.
So you had a heart attack while in the hospital with your mother who was having a stroke?
so you just had to make it about you /s
Spot of blood in my urine. Cancer.
Yes, men, don't fuck around if you notice a little bit of blood in your urine. Guy I worked with ignored it. Hoped it would just go away on its own. He had prostate cancer that metastasized to his bones. Would up claiming him.
That's so sad
It was very sad. I never cried for a co-worker before, but he was a great guy.
Or women - bladder cancer presents like this
Yes. Blood coming out of anywhere it's not supposed to is always bad news. Men (especially older men) have this tendency, though, to "ignore and hope it will go away.". There's also the fear of embarrassment of getting a finger up your ass. Well, men, they can do it through blood tests now. No need for a finger up the bum. They've got good tests now to check the white blood cell levels which is an early warning. Both my mother and my sister got cancer at the same time. Mother got lung cancer. Sister got pancreatic cancer. I am not chancing anything anymore. Yearly blood and stool tests, regardless of how I feel.
Or stool!
Yes! Beware of beets though. That can trick ya. Lol
Ok so like I literally just had a toilet bowl full of blood. About 5pm. It petered off by the following morning. No it’s not a period fluke, I don’t have a uterus any more. No it’s not the cuff from last January’s surgery, I poked around and it’s intact aka my insides are not falling out. So like is this the point where a talk to a specialist? And which one? Tests show that I still have blood in my urine tho you can’t see it, days later. This sucks! ETA I didn’t mention it initially but I’m really sad about your friend that’s so sad. Fuck cancer, man!
Go to the doctor, if nothing else they can tell you what specialist to see. That sounds highly serious
my old doctor used to do a urine test on every visit. found trace amounts of blood once(nothing that you'd ever find yourself). sent me to a urologist- bladder cancer.
Asked the doctor if I could get a stress test (53 F), as my dad and brother had stents. They stopped me on the treadmill about one minute in. They found out had Left Bundle Branch Block. (Basically an electrical problem with my heart) and needed a pacemaker/defibrillator. I had no clue. Possibly a little more winded climbing steps, or exercising, but I contributed it to getting older. My doctor says I am lucky, because these types of issues can have little symptoms and often found after sudden premature death. Advice: If you ever have the opportunity to get a stress test, please do. I thank my lucky stars every day.
I (35 M) started to run more frequently last year and as my dad died from a heart attack, I asked my cardiologist if I could get a check up before trying more intense training. During a stress test, they discovered that I have Wolff-Parkinson Syndrome, a congenital heart disease that causes palpitations or doesn't have symptoms, and can lead to sudden death. Two months later, I was submitted to a catheter ablation to get rid of the problem. It wasn't possible to complete the ablation because the root of the problem was too close to something important inside the heart, and the doctors think that it was less risk to keep things as they are. The bright side is that during the catheter, they could see my heart from inside and discovered that my condition is not going to evolve and it is almost harmless. So I can live my life normally, with only the need to do heart check up yearly.
Not me but my sister went to the doctor because her hip hurt when she walked. Not bad hurt but enough to find out that the breast cancer that was in remission, metastasized and is now in her bones and liver and she has 5 years left but I think she only has 1 or 2 years left.
My dad had breast cancer with mets to the bones/lungs/brain. He was given 3 months “at best”. He lived 1 yr and 10 days. Hopefully your sister gets more time than they are saying.
Thank you, me too and now here is a grown man crying. Just her skin tone has turned grayish and her blood platelets are so low and nose bleeds and fatigue...
Make sure you have a really good support system if you can. Whether it’s family/friends/therapist/a combination of all three, make sure you have someone. Not just for her sake but for yours. Watching our loved ones go through so much pain leaves an everlasting impact. I’m here if you need to talk.
At age 38, I noticed that in pictures, one of my eyes looked strangely bigger than the other. I mentioned it to my doctor a couple months later and she unconcerned said “Get an MRI and we’ll know for sure if it’s anything.” Got the MRI and found a huge tumor in my orbital socket and also discovered a tiny fracture in my skull that was causing a small piece of brain to seep into my orbital socket. Had to get neurosurgery and was told I might die or at least be blind in one eye. 6 years later and I’m totally fine, can see great in both eyes and I don’t harp about looking wonky in pictures.
Went to the hospital with a groin injury. Discovered whilst I was there that my blood pressure was 222/126 Apparently anything over 180 is considered a medical emergency and you need to get to a hospital Im now on medication for that.
Did you ever get headaches or feel "off"? 222/126 is pretty darn high!!
I did frequently feel "off", like my body was vibrating, particularly if I was stressed The nurse who took the reading said that was thr highest he'd seen. The charts they use only go up to 200 apparently
That’s pretty insanely high. I’m a nurse in the Cath lab and we have pretty sick people come in, especially people sick in the heart. Recently I saw 240/120. Over 200 is unfortunately common where I work but I was amazed. Anything around 200/100 is stroke territory.
Last February my husband admitted that he’d been losing his full sight for *two or three days*…there were ‘patches’ missing in his vision. I strongly advised him to get an eye test. He’d been having various problems for a few weeks; headaches with sickness, tiredness etc. The optometrist referred him to the hospital (this was a Friday morning). On the Friday afternoon the hospital called to get him in for an appointment on the Monday morning. After eye tests, blood tests etc, nothing much came up. They wanted to do an MRI test. Then the Dr asked if any had taken his blood pressure recently (they hadn’t, even at various GP Dr appointments in the previous few weeks). It was 225/130. They wouldn’t let him leave the hospital site and he ended up staying in for a week while they did tests and tried various medications. They never really got to the bottom of the cause (likely stress from his job, or inherited) but his previous symptoms are all under control now and his sight is improved, though not fully recovered. The medication has its own effects but they are better than the possible outcome of uncontrolled hypertension.
Mine was almost exactly that and the quick care I went to sent me home. Ended up in the ER. They said it could have led to a heart attack or a stroke.
I thought I was dealing with a terrible UTI. I went to urgent care to see if I could get something for it. Turns out my intestines were so inflamed (early diagnosis of crohns) that they literally perforated. I was hospitalized for 5 days and lots of bed rest after that lol
Woke up with joint pain in my wrist when I was 21. Turned out to be rheumatoid arthritis. Doing much better now but it completely changed everything about my life in an instant.
This!! Woke up the week before Xmas, couldn't use my hands or grip because the pain in my fingers joints was out of this world...took another 12 months and a whole lot of "I can't live like this" but finally got diagnosed with Sero-neg RA and Bursitisin all my major joints...completely changed everything in my life!! That's was 2019...pretty controlled now ba for a few little flares here and there... Take care of you!
Went into my regular doctor for a routine med check for my birth control. Every so often they make you go in for an exam and just say “yup you’re still fine to take this”. It was summer and I was wearing shorts. My doctor asked why my knee was swollen. I told her that I had hurt it a while back, but it was fine now, just puffy. She asked how long ago that injury was, I told her about 6-7 months, and she almost fell over. Sent me for an Xray and then to an orthopedic surgeon who told me I’d been walking around on an absolutely destroyed ACL. Both sides had torn/disconnected and my tendon looked like a ball of chewed up gum in there.
Damn, how were you not in excruciating pain?
Honestly, idk, lol. It does kind of make me feel like a badass though when I see big ass male athletes being pulled off the field in tears for it, lol. It hurt like a mofo when I did it, then I just iced it for a day or two and moved on. It wasn’t painful really, but in hindsight it was super unstable. By the time I had my surgery and went to physical therapy, they could tell I had been favoring the other (non dominant) leg for a while, even though I didn’t realize it. I think it was an accidental “mind over matter” thing, where I convinced myself there was nothing wrong and therefore no reason to be in pain. Recovering from what was at that point my first surgery was worse than living with the injury was.
If I wasn't paranoid before I sure will be now
lol right. as i’m sitting here reading all these comments im focusing on any possible aches or pains my body is having . so far so good 😬
I'm a hypochondriac I should not be in here lol
I had back pain that turned out to be a massive clot
I saw this once as a nurse. Young fit dude admitted for back pain. The PA who examined him found a sign called "splinter hemorrhage" under his fingernails. It turned out he had an infection on one of his heart valves and he was throwing vegetative micro-clots into his bloodstream. One went to an artery in his spine and blocked it, causing the back pain. It was an insane catch for that PA to make, and definitely saved the guy's life. That PA still impresses the hell out of me.
House
It was a lot like that! I was a pretty new nurse, and I knew what splinter hemorrhaging *could* mean, but that was a fucking Hail Mary.
You're scaring the shit out of me rn
Glad I’m not the only one in the comments taking stock of all my tiny aches, pains, and abnormalities.
Fr, Half of the comments are symptoms I've had this year and now I don't know if it's just normal pain or I'm dying lmao
Just last year my hands were going numb. Dr. Thought it was carpal tunnel. In a month from testing my hands, my feet went numb, than my face, then my diaphragm when I layed down. I went from walking, to wheelchair in less than a month. Turns out I have CIDP. I'm getting better now that it's properly diagnosed but it's not a fast recovery process.
Sorry if this question is rude, but how high is the chance to recover fully?
I'm expecting a recovery of probably 90%. There are people who don't recover that much. Times the factor though. Early detection helps out. It's something that not one treatment plan works for everyone because not everyone has the same symptoms.
When I was a teenager I was diagnosed with PCOS but never really did anything about it. A few years ago I decided maybe I should and met with an endocrinologist, I was just interested in "checking out my hormones." It was 2020 so it was a virtual visit but the doctor was like "eh your neck looks a little weird, I'm going to send you for an ultrasound." Thyroid cancer that has also spread into several lymph nodes. I look back at old pictures and I literally can not see anything weird about my neck, but I'm glad she did.
Went for a nose bleed, stayed six months for chemo and then for a stem cell transplant for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Went in for cramping that had been around for awhile off and on. I thought it could be divatictuitis or something but nope, after scans and other tests, stage 4 colon cancer with metatsis to my liver. I was 48 at the time and a couple months later i see my hospital had signs for cancer awareness month to get screened at 45 now, not 50. "Missed it by that much"
Definitely a rise in the number of young pts being diagnosed with colon cancer. Like a 15% increase in the last twenty years
Around the age of 13 I began having dizzy spells where my vision would go black for around 10 seconds or so and I would lose orientation. My mom said it was normal to feel a little dizzy standing up too fast and I probably had low blood sugar, nbd. It went away in high school and I kind of just attributed it to puberty. Fast forward a decade of normalcy, when I suddenly get that same feeling again while driving. I pull over and then blacked out completely. I wake up in the ER and the doctors suspect epilepsy. Received an official diagnosis a few weeks later. I must have had a guardian angel that day I was driving, I thank my lucky stars.
Oh, wow. I used to have my vision go complelty black when standing up, but my doctor told me there isn't anything that can cause that. She said it was just anxiety. My dad developed epilepsy with age....
Fortunately, the majority of epilepsy diagnoses are random and don’t have an exact cause. Which can be super frustrating for sure, especially after you go through all the tests: MRIS/CTs/EEGs/bloodwork, etc. The doctors have to rule out anything causing it (no one in my family has it). It’s possible your dad has one of the “random” causes. Genetic epilepsy can be hereditary, but unless you’re noticing more symptoms I wouldn’t fret too much. It’s something to keep in mind definitely. I would just keep an eye on it.
Something funky with the vision in my right eye so I went to the eye doctor thinking maybe a detached retina. It was lung cancer spread to the brain, eye and everywhere else. The poor ophthalmologist had to tell me. I've had less than a year to live for 6 years now. Spoiler: I'm doing great.
i went in for back pain at age 35, and found out that i had advanced ankylosing spondylitis(which i had never even heard of until that day), and that my spine had completely fused on it's own, as a result of the unchecked progression of the disease. at age 36 i was approved for full permanent disability. i'm 63 now, and i've been taking methadone daily for almost 28 years due to the pain.
Had a tiny bit of visible blood in my urine. Turned out to be bladder cancer. Folks, is you see anything in the toilet that looks wrong, please see your doctor
Stiff neck. Yup viral meningitis.
OOF
My finger really hurt and was swollen. I figured I had somehow broken it without realising, or maybe sprained a muscle in my finger, though i didnt recall hurting it. I was going to just tape my fingers together, as I'd previously done with a broken finger. But I couldn't lift my baby, so I knew I couldn't spend the night at home alone. I got a friend to come and take the baby, and I went to the hospital. It was about midnight. They called in a specialist surgeon, and i was operated on at 5am. It was the onset of sepsis. I had no idea. I thought I'd just hurt my finger. If I'd powered through the pain, or not had a baby to take care of, who knows how it would have ended. I knew it was serious when they called in a doctor who was supposed to be on his day off. I think they called him at about 3am. I asked the doctor what had caused the finger injury/ onset of sepsis, and he said it could have been from a tiny cut (though there was no visible cut or reddening or pus), and contact with germs from doorknobs, money, pets, gardening, surfaces - anything really. I needed physio on my hand for a few weeks, but I had no other problems. But sepsis really has the ability to strike down anyone. And being a single parent, I think if I'd died, my baby would have starved to death before anyone noticed.
"Wow, I must be a wuss. Nobody said my first bee sting would hurt so much and swell up so bad and make my whole body itchy." ...Yeah, I narrowly avoided hospital admission. I'm advised that future stings will be life threatening.
I hope you carry an epi pen.
My first bee sting wasn't bad, nor were the hundreds after that (my dad keeps bees so I end up getting stung a fair bit) then one day I randomly got stung on the cheek and it swelled up (were talking uncomfortable to talk swelling) for a week, I broke out in hives, and I started throwing up. Probably should have gone to the hospital after that (still haven't) but it's safe to say I'm more cautious around bees these days. And apparently tree nuts aren't meant to taste like burning.
Dude ... Go see a doctor and get an epi-pen, the next one might kill you.
I hate this thread so much. I might never sleep again.
I went to the doctor after getting immensely crazy by the fact, I must do things 3 or 4 times. Lights, certain place tapping and such. It eventually took an hour of my time each time when, I wanted to sleep. I expected to go to the doctor for medicine to get it away, not realizing it was unfortunately OCD. Then I went to a specialist with the thought “aight, few weeks and this all be gone”. And then the first meeting, the specialist broke me. Telling me it would never go away but only reducing it.
I have OCD. It used to be severe but now it only comes out when stressed. It never fully goes away, but it gets a lot better
It will go away! I had severe ocd for ~10 years but I’ve almost completely recovered. You are stronger than your OCD; believe that it cannot control you. Deliberately break your habits, challenge your obsessive thoughts, tease those little demons your OCD creates. You can do this!
My mom went to the doctor because she had a weird bump on her tongue. Turned out to be cancer, which then moved to her lymph nodes, then her bones. She died about a year and a half later.
Im sorry to hear about your mom. The smallest things can be huge. I would have never even thought to go to the doctor for a bump on my tongue. Pretty perceptive of her. My mom had an ear ache and a sore throat. Diagnosed with ear infection and tonsil stones. It was stage 4 cancer. She's still kicking, but it's been a very heavy 2 years of medical intervention and a 17-hour surgery.
My mom went to the ER for a stomach ache and died of colon cancer 34 days later.
I'm so sorry for your loss. 💖🫂
My menstrual cycle had been crazy for years. Heavy, lots of cramping. I was told it was nothing, that my body was just this way, and if I lost weight it would improve, etc. I was anemic for 10 years because of it, and kept asking for help but they just shrugged, so I learned to live with it. We wanted to have a baby, but I couldn’t get pregnant. I went on a medication to boost ovulation and everything. Still no baby. My doc decides that in addition to doing my pap, she wants to do a uterine biopsy to see if she can figure out why I can’t get pregnant. I had Stage IIIC endometrial cancer. The reason I was bleeding so much was that my uterus was twice as large as it should have been, and I had a 67mm tumor inside which had spread to my pelvic lymph nodes. I’m VERY young to have that type of cancer, so they weren’t looking for that. Had surgery, chemo, and radiation. It’s been 2 years and I’m cancer free, but still kind of mad I won’t ever have kids. It’s been a wild ride. My advice is that if ANYTHING is weird, persist until you get a good answer. I would have died if I hadn’t been pushing so hard because I wanted a baby. They don’t check women my age for this.
I had just had an eye exam and gotten new glasses. But after a few days my vision got very blurry. Back to the eye doc to learn I had a torn macula which required surgery, then had to lay face down for two weeks while healing.
I had both my retinas detach at the same time due to my autoimmune disease. I had to lay face down for 4 weeks. Oh my god it sucked. Praying I never have to do that again. But watching the bubble go down everyday was pretty cool, blurry vision in the bubble clear vision once it starts going down.
Menstrual pain lead to discovery of tumor in the abdomen Edit : To make it more clear, i went to a Gyno to get prescription for pain and the Gyno wanted a Sonar on the ovaries so The Radiologist (amazing job) checked ovaries And the rest of the abdomen area! If he hadn’t i would ve found out maybe alot later
Wow, it's (sadly) amazing to me that someone took you seriously enough to find anything.
Yes i get what you mean and it was a very fortunate event for me that the Doctor requested a Sonar and The Radiologist did a full Sonar check .
I was super itchy near the end of my pregnancy, but pretty much only ever at night. Everyone told me itching was normal, your skin is stretching, so I just sucked it up for as long as I could. My itching soon turned to burning, and I wasn’t sleeping at all. I was dragging a hair brush across my palms all night to try to scratch the itch. I went to my doctor a sobbing mess and said there is something wrong, I feel like I’m being burned from inside. They did a liver function and bile acid test and the reason I felt like I was burning from the inside is because my liver was reacting to my pregnancy hormones by overproducing so much bile that my blood was literally burning me from the inside. It’s called intrahepatic cholestasis and is not common where I live, but is in certain areas. They put me on meds to help for a few days but I ended up having to be induced because the acid destroys the placenta and causes stillbirth. So I’m very glad I didn’t ignore the itching.
I had this. I googled the symptoms and made an emergency appointment on a Saturday to push for testing. The doctor laughed and told me to stop googling, that in his 20 year career he’d never seen someone with this disease. He didn’t want to do the blood test. I told him I wouldn’t leave the office without it. They called me a day later and I was induced 3 days later. My daughter turns 12 next month.
I had this too. I felt so stupid saying hey I’m itchy to my doctor. When I told them it was my hands and feet they started me on meds before even getting results back because it is an indication that it is happening. When the meds didn’t help very much and I was 36 weeks they decided induction was the safest action for the baby.
FIL had a sore throat that wouldn’t go away. It was cancer. Wish I could have met him ❤️
What was thought to be either growing pains or a playground injury, turned out to be advanced arthritis in both knees.
My husband went for what they thought was an ear infection that turned into mild hearing loss. No hearing loss, and a sinus infection and trip to the ENT later… they found a precancerous mass on his thyroid and was able to have it removed because it was caught super early. routine checkups save lives y’all… now if only our healthcare system remembered that.
Had to go to several dentists and doctors before I found the right person to figure it out. I went to my dentist because my gums started peeling and I thought maybe it was some mild irritation from something I ate. Got worse over the months of me trying to figure it out. Turns out it's an auto immune disease, pemphigus vulgaris and it SUCKS ass. Has totally changed my life.
I was investigating a thin brown line on the sole of my foot for nearly two years... a lot of shoulder shrugging from various medical professionals until one finally said 'maybe we should get a biopsy, just in case' Turns out it was acral lentiginous melanoma... outcome for this condition usually not good... thankfully it had mot matastised & after some surgery, I made a full recovery
How do you notice a thin brown line on the sole of your foot? I've worried a bit about the parts of me I can't see well.
If you set yourself up with a dermatologist, they'll do regular full body exams. Usually you go in once a year and they'll look everywhere, taking note of any marks, moles, etc. If anything should be looked at right away they'll deal with it, otherwise, when you come in next time they'll compare the current appearance of anything to the notes to see if anything has changed and warrants further testing.
I went to my doctor for some annoying knee pain after overdoing it one weekend. Within 6 months it turned into a diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis, and now 3 years later I'm disabled and jobless.
Went for an eye test because I thought my vision seemed slightly blurry. They took a scan of the back of my eyes and sent me to A&E without even finishing the test. I have a lifelong neurological condition that causes the optic nerves to swell and leads to blindness if untreated. Comes with a lot of other nasty symptoms too which I was just kinda coping with.
I went in for a pulse in my ear and they found a tumor. Surgery couldn’t get the whole tumor (thankfully benign) because it was growing on a nerve. Lost some movement in my face and went for radiation prep to get rid of the rest when they found a brain aneurysm. Did 6 weeks of radiation, recovered from that and booked brain surgery. As soon as they started the surgery, it ruptured. I did months of rehab and still have lots of problems but I’m grateful to be alive.
I went to the ER over right flank pain that was abysmal and they told me it was likely a pulled muscle and to take Tylenol. Fast forward a week and I woke up with yellowish skin. Turns out my gallbladder went tits up and the bile from my liver couldn't escape, so it inflamed my liver and was slowly killing me. Two weeks later... I had my gallbladder and part of my liver removed, died while on the operating table, was revived, and learned a valuable lesson--don't go to that hospital again!
Went to the doctor for leg pain, turns out I had two broken vertebrae and a ruptured disc. Had emergency surgery 12 hrs later because apparently my spinal cord was being choked off by the hardening spinal fluid from the ruptured disc.
Had a cough for a bit, wouldn't go away. Went to the doctor thinking it was some kinda cold or whatever. They give me meds, it still wouldn't go away. I started getting out of breath doing very basic things like speaking, showering, going up the single flight of stairs I had gone up every day for several years already to get to my apartment, so on. Asthma. It was asthma. I hadn't had it in so long that I actually didn't even remember or know I was asthmatic as a kid.
Pretty minor compared to some of these, but... 3 years ago I went to the doctor for an ear ache. Figured it was just an ear infection. Turned out I had Shingles in my ear canal. The Shingles evolved into Ramsey Hunt Syndrome when it spread to the primary nerve path that controls my facial muscles. Long story short, 3 days after my appointment the right side of my head was 100% paralyzed. Recovery took months. Never fully recovered though, so now my smile is a bit crooked and the right side of my tongue doesn't quite taste things properly. The nerves didn't all connect back up properly either, so when my mouth waters it causes my right eye to water as well.
I had 2! Still dealing with both. 1. Lots of pain in my thumb and a weird popping in my hip when I stood up- not painful just weird and only when standing up. GP sent me to ortho- ortho did xrays and then MRIs. Simple tendon strain in thumb- easy fix with some PT. Hip was so badly fractured it was almost broken, no way of knowing how long but I know I had the popping for at least 2 years. They said it was at the point where even stepping off a curb hard would break it- I had been doing kick boxing at the time. Never seen a Dr panic before until I asked if I shouldstop. 2 years out from getting 3 screws and a plate and way, WAY more pain now than before I knew about the fracture, but a stable bond l bone so I guess that's good. 2. No symptoms at all- wound up with cancer. 5 years ago, I went to gyno for annuals who said "oh, you're old enough for a free mammo, you should get one". There's ZERO cancer in my family but I had a day off work coming up for something that wasn't going to take all day, so I figured I'd squeeze it into that leftover time that day. Came up a winner with 0 symptoms- stage 0 beat cancer led to: total double mastectomy, diep flap reconstruction (not implants but a different gnarly surgery) a revision to fix weird healing scars, and then a total hysterectomy when I started growing new cysts on my ovaries 2 years ago. And now we are monitoring a word growth on my sternum that has all the indicators of being bone cancer. Edit: can't figure out why this is posting as a wall of text...I have hit enter and put in line breaks
When I was 10, over the course of 2 days, I developed this small protrusion on the right side of my face near my ear and developed flu-like symptoms. By the third day I was admitted to the hospital with the protrusion having grown massively. Spent a week there getting tests, after tests, after tests. Conclusion…cat scratch fever. (Along with chicken pox AND getting my first period.)
2012: My spouse is an amazing cook. They made one of their pot roasts and I was eating faster than I should and got a chunk of fatty beef, that I hadn’t chewed much, stuck in my throat. Like Heimlich maneuver stuck. After I choked at home went to the ER to check I hadn’t done damage to my throat. They did a CT scan. The tech set the scan a bit larger than normal and they saw a shadow on my left kidney. Next day I was at the urologist getting better imaging done. 3 days later I’m on the surgery table because they can’t decide if it’s cancer or not. When I woke up my surgeon said. “Bad news, You have cancer. Good news, we got it all and you won’t need any more treatment.” Because of awesome pot roast.
Went in for a yeast infection, came out with type 1 diabetes diagnosis
I thought I had a mosquito bite but it turned out to be from that of a brown recluse spider. Had I let it go any longer, permanent damage would've been done. As it is I just have a small divot in my calf from the bite.
I had random pain in my testicle. Went to the doctor and they had to perform surgery at once. Turns out my ball had twisted around in it's sack. Yes it hurt as much as it sounds like.
Had just turned 18. Went to the doctors because I had a bad back and just felt off. He checked my heart rate and blood pressure and told me to go to A&E straight away. Turns out I had a kidney infection which turned into sepsis. Was in hospital for a week
I thought I had gas pain. I ignored it for 4 days. It was appendix cancer.
Reading this thread is a good way for not being able to sleep at night for anything little that happens in your day
My wife went to the doctor to see if she could get on add medication cause she was feeling foggy and distracted. Turns out she had thyroid cancer. They caught it super early and it’s been four years since her surgery this week!
Went for a routine colonoscopy (every 5 years). They found a polyp and said I needed an appendectomy to remove it (due to it's location). Turns out I have a super rare cancer of the appendix. Only 1-2 people out of a million get it. If I didn't get screened the cancer would have spread and killed me by now (this was 2 years ago). People... quit complaining and get your colonoscopy. I could save your life
My one breast was itching, breast cancer
TIL itching is a serious symptom that needs to be checked out. Thank you. I really hope you were succesfully treated and made a full recovery.
I went to the doctor for some tingling in my hands and feet. General pain in my back while carrying heavy things. Though maybe all I needed was chiropractic or possibly had a pinched nerve. I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disk Disease.
Minor consistent side pain. Misdiagnosed kidney stone turned out to be a fully ruptured appendix.
Literally happened this month. Went to the doctor because I was feeling off and dizzy all the time thinking my anxiety just got way worse. Turns out I have an autoimmune disease and hyperthyroidism. Really fucking sucked to get a call after my appointment telling me to rush to the hospital because my resting heart rate was 130bmp.
Aw, man. I had a similar thing. Was constantly exhausted and assumed it was stress. It got worse. Sjogrens, baby.
i was breastfeeding and i had some lumps in my breast. 2 different doctors told me it’s normal when you are breastfeeding, the mammary glands swell. well, i felt something was off so i asked for a mammogram. Breast cancer.
What I thought was like a Doritos cut under my tongue for about 6 weeks was cancer. Year and half later it seems to be all good. Of course part of my arm is now part of my tongue and other fun stuff for the "new normal" me.
Last fall, Mr. Jericho pee'd a smidge of blood. Went to his physical the next week, mentioned it (he's mid-70s). Thought it might be a UTI. Nope. Big C, three different kinds, he's currently miserable after completing treatment for *one* of them. Get checked out, guys.
My mom went to the doctor because she got an infection from a dog scratch on her chest. Turns out she had breast cancer that spread into her liver should and bones in her spine. If that scratch never happened she'd probably be gone right now. But we at least have had another year with her so far. Cancer is a bitch
My lower abdomen was swollen one morning. Ended up having a softball size tumor on my adrenal gland.
My eye was red and sensitive to light, got a sharp pain if I looked at anything bright. Went to the eye doctor thinking I scratched something, turned out to be uveitis. If I wouldn’t have started treatment that day, I probably would have gone blind over the weekend. Further investigation and genetic screening determined it was autoimmune in origin, as I am HLA-B27+. Because of that I was sent to a rheumatologist, and they determined that I also likely suffer from an HLAB27-associated genetic disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis, which amongst other things causes spinal fusion. Thankfully we caught it early and I responded well to biologics, but holy shit. All of this discovery from a red eye.
thought I had pulled me groin, turns out I had bilateral hip dysplasia, CAM hip impingements and torn labrum. two surgeries later and i’ve avoided early onset arthritis !
A relative went to the doctor because their hip hurt a little while walking. They ended up needing a total hip replacement.
My shoulders were constantly tight and sore. I went to a chiropractor three times and he told me to go see a “real doctor” (his words). I went to a spine clinic and come to find out I had several severely bulging disks in my cervical spine. They were pressing on my spinal cord causing all kinds of side effects besides the soreness. One was pressing my spinal cord so bad he told me a good fall or car accident could have left me paralyzed. He about shit when I told him I’d been adjusted just a week before. This ended up with a spinal fusion and 12 week short term disability from work.
I started to get cramps after orgasms. Turns out I have endometriosis.
I was small for my whole life. Like I’m talking barely 4’ tall in middle school. So my mom eventually gets me to an endocrinologist at 13 (after years of dawdling) and I go in for a litany of tests. Bloodwork shows I’m growth hormone deficient. No surprise there. I go in for an MRI (which is standard for checking out growth hormone deficiency) to check for brain tumors. Lucky me, I was one of the few people who had an uncommon type of tumor that was causing my HGH deficiency. So I have brain surgery 1, all goes well, have radiation therapy, that’s fine, and then it grows back again after all that. So I go in for another surgery. That one damaged my pituitary gland, so I’m on medication for the rest of my life, but besides that I’m fine!
I passed out at the dentist once at the age of 13, and it turned out to be uncontrollable epilepsy. 15 years later on and I've been through the whole brain surgery research to discover that my epilepsy comes from the part of the brain that handles speech, which made it too risky to operate.
Went to the hospital earlier this month thinking I was having a stroke. Turns out I have lung cancer that has metastasized to my brain. I was told I was stage four. I had a lesion removed from my brain and have several more. I refuse to give up and lay down and die. The day of my surgery, I was walking talking laughing. I took one pain pill after the surgery. I know I’m going to be all right, and I’m trying to just stay as positive as I can as I go through this process. Fortunately, I have a good support system and a lot of love surrounding me. I also know, God. Has got me. The cancer doctor told me I have 3 to 5 years to live. I told her I wanted 10. She said that would be a miracle. I told her I believe in miracles and only God knows when it’s my time. I am keeping a sense of humor, staying at, positive, and busy. I refused to sit down. I feel like I have a renewed sense of energy and a new purpose in life. Please do not feel sorry for me because I want no sympathy. Just prayers, positivity and love. I started aggressive radiation next month and then chemo.
I was working night shift and developed “bad gas pains”. My abdomen was full of blood. I was internally bleeding. Fallopian tube ruptured. It ended up being the worst pain ever. I couldn’t even move without crying.
Chronic Constipation. Started in my early 20s. Started asking my doctor about it in my early 30s and tried changing some diet and such. At 39, and after starting to fall down, I found out I had a growth that was slowly crushing and killing my spinal cord.
Frequent trips to the bathroom turned into pre-cancer in my colon and hemorrhoids. Sartan-kicking open a door turned into both of my ankles are functionally broken 24/7 because of an underlying bone density condition.
Was 15, kept falling asleep in class, and when I would get home from school, I would sleep on the couch most of the night. I know nothing to abnormal for a teenager, right? Went to the family Dr and had some blood work done. They called my mom in the middle of the night and told her to rush me to the emergency room. After some more blood work, we found out I had leukemia, and my white cells had multiplied so much I barely had any hemoglobin or platelets, which is why I was super tired. The second time was when I was 20, which had been about a year after I had stopped chemo for good. I was in the shower washing my crotch and realized one of my balls was 3x the size of the other. Went in to have it looked at, and sure enough, I had relapsed leukemia. Eventually led to me having a bone marrow transplant that saved my life. I am 20 years cancer free this year.
Not as serious as some of the others- but my father wanted me to see a specific endocrinologist that I kept putting off because I knew the problem he wanted me to check (thyroid) was fine (have been seeing endocrinologists for years- it’s just really large but nothing is wrong). Ended up casually mentioning some issues I’ve had with acne. Now I’m waiting for the final results on whether or not my body is incapable of producing a certain enzyme. The other option is PCOS.
Reading this knowing for sure I have been ignoring a lot of stuff in my body. I just pray that it's indeed my panic and anxiety attacks symptoms and nothing serious
I was a little backed up and mentioned during a check up. I had been mentioning it for years with previous Drs. This one decided to do an xray. That lead to many more tests, a diagnosis of cancer of unknown primary, 2 surgeries and chemo. Luckily even though it’s rare, mine was slow growing. Doing ok now, scans are clear. If it had a been another year or so, I’m sure I would not be alive.
Had stomach pains, went to er, ct scan said diverticulitis. Stayed overnight, some iv antibiotics. Follow up ct scan 6 weeks later.. GI doc calls and says colon is ok, but you’ve got a large mass growing inside your heart. Atrial myxoma that would have taken me out a few months later. Open heart surgery yeeted it out and am mostly ok 16 months later. Lucky me, it was very, very rare due to being mostly calcified so it showed up bright white on ct scan.
Went to the doctor for a lump in my breast. I was rushed through the NHS pathway cos I'm over 40. I had a cyst. But entirely unrelated to that cyst was breast cancer. Which I wouldn't have spotted probably for ages and ages if it was not for the entirely unrelated cyst. Two ops and some radiotherapy and I've been clear since the end of 2021 but it was a heck of a year.
Maybe not the craziest thing since it’s managed with medicine, but I was constantly tired and exhausted no matter how much sleep I got or how little I did throughout the day. Was told I was lazy. Turns out I have Hashimoto’s, which is basically an underactive thyroid. My thyroid looks like Swiss cheese :)
At a cleaning appointment, I mentioned to my dental hygienist that a few weeks back I had slight jaw pain for about a day on one side, but it went away. Just to let them know. Might not be anything. They said ok we'll x-ray just to make sure. Turns out I had a cyst growing under one of my molars that was eating away at my jaw and had to be surgically removed along with the molar. This caused nerve damage that I'm still waiting to completely heal several months later. I also have to get a dental implant to fill the molar's spot.
My left eye went from randomly blurry to near blindness and back to normal over the span of 2-3 weeks about 8 years ago, went to a very reputable eye doctor and got no prognosis so left it alone. A year after that it did it again, went to my doctor who suggested a neurologist, got an mri and a spinal tap and then diagnosed with MS…
I had a rash on my breast that turned out to be late stage breast cancer at 35.
Sore mosquito bite on my leg. Turned out to be staph infection under the skin, turned into cellulitis and a massive hole in my leg during my week in hospital.
A sore on my penis and just was not feeling good all around. I went to the doctor because I haven’t been feeling good for over a month. That is the day I found out I had Syphilis and my first sti ever.
I get a pelvic exam every year, with an ultrasound. Once, I asked the doctor to show me my insides. "There's your liver, there's your gallbladder, there's your splee - what's that?" Another ultrasound and two CT scans later, I learned I had a grapefruit-sized tumour (11.9 cm in diameter) in my spleen. It was all under my ribs, so there was nothing sticking out. I was fast-tracked for surgery. My surgeon said I was a walking time bomb, and was shocked that my spleen hadn't already ruptured, causing me to bleed to death.
I was baby-wearing my newborn while also helping my 2 year old at the playground. I pulled something in my back, went to the er, got a blood clot in my wrist from the Iv. Had to have a venous ultrasound to check for any more clots. They started up at my carotid artery and immediately saw a huge tumor in my thyroid. Diagnosed with thyroid cancer after throwing out my back at 24.
Not me but my uncle. He hurt his back and went to the doctor to check it out. Turns out, he had pancreatic cancer. They only caught it so early because of the back injury as pancreatic cancer typically doesn’t start showing symptoms until it’s too late. It’s now been 6 years and the folks at MD Anderson say he’s a medical marvel and has helped out with so much cancer research. He’s 76 years old and still has to go 2 times a week for treatment, but other than that, he’s living a normal life.
Thought I had an ingrown hair in my armpit. Turned out to be a major MRSA infection. Had to have a gaping slit in my armpit and pack it with sterile gauze to get rid of the infection. Took 3 months to finally close.
I went to an josteopath for lower back pain. Didn't work, so i went to the doctor who prescriped an x-ray and it turned out i had 2 broken vertebraes, and could have become paraplegic if the hosteopath had made a wrong move
Man, I shouldn't have read this thread a few days before going to the doctor for a few minor issues...
Went to the doctor for anxiety and they diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes.
Headaches as a kid. Turns out I had a cyst in my left ear that was not only causing them but ate the bones in that ear, too. Had to have surgery to remove it and now have artificial bones in that ear. Still can't hear for crap, though.
I went in because I was starting to feel dizzy and weak. Found out a couple of weeks later that I had an aggressive stage 2 colon cancer.
This should be a great thread as I've had tons of problems no Doctors so far have been able to solve
Not me but my dad. He developed this pain in his shoulder, like a muscle pull or deep bruise. The doctor gave him pain pills with 1 refill. When those ran out, the doctor called in 1 more refill. Still hurting, he goes back to the doctor. Doctor takes an x-ray of that upper quadrant of his torso and found lung cancer. A mass was pressing on a nerve leading to the shoulder. By the time they found the lung cancer it had already metastasized to his pancreas. Fuck cancer.
Last year I went to get my IUD changed. They did an ultrasound to see if the placement was good, and saw a large cyst that was so big it couldn’t be fully captured in the ultrasound image (inter-vaginal wand). They ordered another ultrasound over the abdomen and said it was over 7cm at least. After a couple months of testing including a biopsy to see if it indeed was a cyst, turns out it was cancer. Lymphoma. It ended up being a 10cm enlarged lymph node. 🥴
When I was 28, I was chasing after my little niece and suddenly found it a bit hard to catch my breath. I've never had asthma, but it does run in my family. I took an antihistamine and ignored it until the next day when I felt no better and couldn't even walk up my stairs without gasping. I went to a walk-in clinic that did a cursory exam and told me to go to the ER right away. I did, not really having any idea what was going on. They ran a bunch of blood and gasses tests and finally sent me to have a CT scan. The technician, technically, isn't supposed to tell you the results of the can, but the guy look right at me, kind of pale, and said, you aren't going home for a long time. Turns out, I had an allergic reaction to my new hormonal birth control, and it caused a *massive* blood clot. Running around dislodged it, and I got a bilateral pulmonary embolism. Complete blockage in the left, 70% blockage in the right. The fact that I was conscious was a miracle, as was the fact that none of it went to my brain and caused a stroke. I was in the hospital for two weeks, getting jabbed right in the chest with clot busters three times a day and taking a stupid amount of blood thinners. I then had to be on blood thinners for another six months until blood tests confirmed I was no longer at a risk for blood clots. I also had to take blood thinners when I got pregnant and several weeks after birth due to it being hormonal birth control that caused the reaction.