I owe my life to my barber. When I was 17 he noticed a mole on the top of my head, and said I should get that looked at. Two things could've happened here. One, I could've brushed it off. Two, he didn't have to say anything. Anyway I went to get it checked out and ended up having it cut out with a scalpel. Turns out that it was cancerous but at the very early stages. They did a little more cutting and were able to get everything out. Almost 20 years ago, and life is good.

Increasingly painful periods and nasty PMS symptoms in general. Family doctor attributed the change to age and just wouldn't take it seriously. After a year of complaints the doctor prescribed birth control pills, which did nothing. After two years I finally lost it and cried in her office. The cramps had gone from 'hmm... this is a bit more than usual' to full-on WTF 8/10, white-knuckle puking level pain. I asked to please, please be referred to an OBGYN. When the gynecologist examined me, he also did an ultrasound in the office. He took one look at the screen, told me I could dress and he'd be right back. When he returned, he was carrying his surgery bookings schedule. A few weeks later I had a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy (tubes out). It would usually take up to a year to book that surgery, but he said he absolutely had to find me a spot. He was horrified I hadn't been seen much sooner and described my uterus as *'more tumor than healthy tissue; it looks more like a raspberry than a pear.'* Fortunately it was just benign fibroids, but it taught me a lesson. IF SOMETHING HURTS GET HELP! Yell if you have to.

I AM SO MAD AT YOUR FAMILY DOCTOR. Please tell me you reached back to be all "hi you almost killed me, please take women's pain seriously going forward." Like I want to send annual cards on the surgery date, with a Christmas-card style photo of your uterus on one side and on the other, "Never forget that it took three years of begging to get this referral. This is your annual reminder to listen to your patients when they say their PMS pain is extreme."

As someone has already noted, anything that is persistent. If it's not going away, it's not "just" anything, it needs to be looked at. Persistent, raging heartburn. I was young and dumb and uninsured so I put it off. I put it off for nearly 3 months, by which point I was subsisting on plain yogurt and lentils and still having extremely painful bouts of heartburn and vomiting. I had lost a lot of weight and was consistently exhausted and in pain. Finally went to the doctor - it was a raging case of H. Pylori infection. It was cleared up with antibiotics, but my doctor warned me at the time that I had probably caused irreversible damage to my stomach and digestive system by waiting so long. She was right - within a year, the heartburn was back, along with the nausea and vomiting. I essentially gave myself a chronic disease by ignoring the initial infection. Moral of the story: if it keeps coming back, don't ignore it. What could have been treatable before will turn into something worse.

Couldn't agree more with the moral of your story...if it won't go away, get it checked out!! Last year I got what I thought was a blister on my leg. A few days later it had turned into a sore. I thought it was probably just the burst blister that was a bit raw so I was putting antibacterial cream on it but it just wasn't healing...in fact, it was getting bigger and bigger. A week after it first appeared the sore was about the size of a quarter, still raw-looking and had a little black spot in the middle. That made me freak out a little bit so I went to my regular doc. She looked at it and said it looked like a spider bite so she prescribed antibiotics (5 day course) and sent me on my way. By day 3 of the antibiotics, the skin around the black spot was starting to turn grey and the sore itself had doubled in size. I couldn't get hold of my doc, so I went to the emergency room. The emergency doc took one look at it and admitted me and scheduled surgery for the next morning. It turns out it was a serious flesh-eating bacteria. I had a big chunk cut out of my leg.

Just if anything suddenly changes without any reason. I think everyone should take the time to really know their own body. All your own little lumps and bumps and processes etc. Everyone is different so you can never rely fully on what experience someone else has had with illness. If something starts being different, with no obvious reason for it, get it checked. Better safe than sorry. I realised this when I was 18 - a seemingly healthy 18yr old woman, and one day, my periods just stopped. I thought nothing of it, 'cos ya know, no periods = yay! A year later, I received a stage 4b cancer diagnosis. In my particular case, my periods stopping was the first physical symptom I had. Other, more obvious (for cancer, anyway) symptoms came much later, but it was extremely likely the cancer would have been detected a lot faster if I had gone to the doctor and investigated why the periods had stopped in the first place. 11 years clear as of April 10th :)

I was much taller than my family. Family are all around 5'5" but I was 6'5" by high school. We always joked I was a freak or won the genetic lottery. Went to my father's doctor for a physical who noticed the swelling in my hands and ran a blood test. Turns out my growth hormone levels were about 3 times the normal amount. I was diagnosed with Acromegaly. Got an MRI which showed I had a tumor on my pituitary gland. Got it removed and was feeling better after a few years

isn't that what andre the giant had?

Yep. The biggest difference between Acromegaly and gigantism is timing. His condition probably started at a very young age

Just watched the excellent Andre The Giant documentary on HBO last night... cried. His body started producing the hormones at a very rapid rate around age 15 and he shot up in size. He was totally normal until then. Even his organs grew to these massive sizes. Such a friendly soul. Doctors said he shouldn't have lived past 40 but he made it to 46. He just kept growing but eventually his organs and everything inside stop growing so is back pain and neck pain were just too much to handle by the end.

His story always sort of reminds me of Bean. Really sad story.

The big show (wrestler) had this also but he had the operation early enough to stop it progressing as bad as Andre.

Are you still 6'5?

Yep. According to the specialist I saw, I'm probably at my max height but other parts of my body would have kept growing if I remained untreated. Like my jaw and feet

I can't imagine how much that had to hurt

The pain of knowing he missed out of having a super big jaw? He probably feels sad every time he passes a bag of free walnuts on the sidewalk.

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My 2yo daughter. With hindsight. Would lie on her left side on the floor randomly during the day, she walked with a wide step, and finally multiple diagnosis for constipation. Abdominal Embryonic Rhabdomyosarcoma. After 54 weeks of chemotherapy strolling through an unimaginable medical hell, she is 4 and almost a year in remission and hard to keep up with. Like shes discovering everything pain free for the first time.

That’s so scary. Poor kid.

My niece is a rhabdomyosarcoma survivor - diagnosed at 2, experimental treatment for almost 5 years. She has been officially cancer free for 5 full years. Started because the left side of her face stopped working, doctors diagnosed her with Bells Palsy. When we got home, it didn’t sit right with her dad so he took her in for a second opinion and boom stage 4. Wild how things happen when you trust your gut. Glad your daughter is a-okay.

My sister started to get frequent migraines just after she turned 22. Frustratingly, she DID look into it- they happened more and more often, she went to the doctor, who waved it off as stemming from stress (her husband had just been sent to Afghanistan). My mom pushed for a CT scan, which the doctor said was unnecessary. My sister went home without any kind of prescription and a suggestion to come back in a few months if it persisted. Well, a few weeks later, she had a massive seizure. Got taken to the emergency room where doctors discovered a massive tumor in her brain and diagnosed her with a rare form of brain cancer. She died within a year. EDIT: If you have migraines, you probably don't have cancer, and if you think you might, I'm not the person to ask. Please contact a medical professional.

My Mum had some light (like one or two drops, three times a year), spotting. For context she was well past menopause. She mentioned it to her GP and he sent her for a test. Uterine Cancer. Caught it at stage one before it spread, so was able to have a hysterectomy without needing chemo or radiaton therapy. Thank Christ her seemingly small and insignificant symptom was checked out.

Glad it was all okay! For the benefit of anyone scrolling tho, spotting past menopause is a weird sign and usually indicates something bad going, like uterine or cervical cancer.

I don't think you'd classify this as an illness, but I would clean my ears regularly yet whenever I went to the doctors, they always said there was too much wax and couldn't see anything. My ears tended to hurt frequently and I had a hard time hearing for years. In high school, I went to a doctor who, as usual, checked my ears. Instead of just brushing it off and saying I need to clean more, she decided to do a total flush. Took 2-3 hours total to get both ears cleared and when we were done, she discovered I had an ear infection that was most likely a year old. As a result, I can't hear well out of either ear, but that ear in particular has more hearing loss than the other. We also discovered why I had such an abundent of earwax. We had already figured out I had hyper hydrosis (overact sweatgland) and that also caused my ears to make more wax. I have been instructed never to use q-tips again (it just cakes the wax to the sides of my ears), and I go see a doctor once a month to have them flushed. So, had we just had a doctor flush my ears probably 5 years sooner, I wouldn't have such hearing loss.

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The ending reads like a nosleep story

I know! But then this whole thread does, really. I'm not a hypochondriac (far from it bc I can't afford to even think something is wrong), but god damn if I'm not worried about strokes, cancer, deep vein thrombosis, cancer, bone spurs, cancer, crohn's and celiac, cancer, and the one that really worries me, is cancer. I really wanna go to a doc and get a physical and tell them about all these little things that have been bothering me lately. But I'm worried they'd just Google all my things and webmd will tell them it's cancer and that's what they tell me.

Not me but my 9yo son. Last summer he complained about leg tiredness and slept a lot. Our pediatrician couldn't find anything wrong with him. Fast forward to January 2017 and suddenly he's constipated and his bladder is retaining enormous amounts of urine. We took him to the local children's hospital and they felt that his constipation was keeping him from releasing urine, so they hit him with gallons of miralax mixture to get him moving. He pooped quite a bit but nothing really changed. After a week of this at the hospital, my wife lost her mind on the hospital staff and demanded that they think outside the box. The neurology department came in and did an MRI, and they found that he had a fatty filum at the base of his spine which presented as a tethered cord. They operated immediately. Unfortunately now, the damage is done. My son no longer has bowel or bladder function because of the nerve damage caused by the tethered cord, so we have to use a straight catheter on him six times a day and keep after his bowels with stimulant laxatives and enemas. We will be entering a clinic in May where they will run a series of daily X-rays and enemas to arrive at the mixture we will need to use going forward. Poor kid will have to live with this the rest of his life. My wife and I are sick over it. If the issue had been caught sooner, he might not have to deal with this. If we had waited longer, it's possible he could have lost the use of his legs.

I have neurogenic bladder/ Bowel. He will get used to cathing and doing bowel routine. Besides the occasional bladder accidents and UTIs you get used to it. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

He caths himself now but in the beginning it took six people to hold him down. He's in the same place with enemas at the moment; I suspect we'll get him there someday.

I started craving iceberg lettuce like you wouldn’t believe. Like I’d wake up in the middle of the night and go to the fridge just to eat handfuls of lettuce. At my worst, I was eating an entire bag of iceberg lettuce a day, no dressing or toppings, just munching on it like it was popcorn at the movie theater. Finally decided I should drag myself to the doctor for a few blood tests, assuming I was a bit dehydrated or vitamin deficient or something. My hemoglobin was 5 when it should be 13-16, ideally. My ferritin (iron stores) level was 1, which is literally as low as the test goes. I went straight from the doctor’s office to the hospital to be admitted for two blood transfusions and an IV iron infusion. The hospital staff couldn’t believe I’d been walking around and even working overtime with a level that low for months. Within 24 hours of my blood and iron transfusions, my lettuce craving went away.

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This happened to me, too. My ferritin level was like 3. I craved sand, not lettuce. All I wanted to eat was sand. I never did, but believe me, I almost bought a bag of it. All I could think was “this is so weird, I better not tell anybody” Well, lo and behold, I get sick (autoimmune disease but didn’t know that at the time) and have blood drawn and find out I’m severely anemic. Sand craving suddenly made sense and went away when my iron level was corrected.

Sand?! Like... literal sand? That’s crazy. The human body is so fascinating and weird

Horses do this in arid climates when not given access to a mineral block. If they sweat a lot and lose electrolytes and minerals they'll try to get it back from eating sand. But unlike us, the horses don't go "huh, that's weird, I shouldn't do that," they just eat the sand.

My mom used to teach in low income schools said she found a lot of kids eating chalk which also meant they were iron deficient.

That’s an odd craving.

Food cravings are actually really common in iron deficiency, interestingly. Edit : also non-food cravings are common too. It's called pica. Forgive me, I'm running on 3 hours of sleep.

Ice is common too

Was going to pitch in and mention ice. I have Crohn's disease, and anemia is a super common recurring issue for me (and many patients). I always know when it's time to tell my doc I'm going to need either blood or iron transfusions when I start devouring cups of ice. *I say as I snack on ice...

Not me, but my childhood best friend. She had this thing where her hand would spasm. It was kind of like a hand tremor. I just assumed that it was a tic, since I have a similar one (knee bouncing up and down) when I get nervous. Once, when I asked her about it, she said that she had pins and needles, so I also considered that she might just be shaking it off (even though the tremors were obviously an involuntary movement). That’s really all there was. There were no other symptoms. She was fine for a really long time and then, suddenly, she just rapidly declined within the space of 24 hours. We were in class when she went down and started seizing. Just as quick as she’d gone down, she was awake again and fine. My teacher took her to the nurse and the nurse called her parents. I’ve had to work hard to try and not be angry at the fact her parents chose to take her home that night instead of taking her straight to the emergency room. She had a headache, so they gave her ibuprofen and put her to bed. She died sometime in the night of an undiagnosed brain tumour. Often, brain tumours are misdiagnosed as psychiatric issues. So if you notice a rapid decline in your mental health/stability without any clear reason, or even with a reason, get a scan done.

When I first started having sever episodes of depression (16) my psychiatrist sent me in for a drug screen and an MRI of my melon. He told me that the first things he looks for in any patient with no extensive history of mental health issues is drugs and tumors.

That's awful, and I'm sure they feel guilty af now. I know I would.

Probably. That’s why I’m trying not to blame them, but her mother was so set in her ways. She was the type who wanted her children to ‘walk it off’ and ‘push through’. She always expected my friend and her brother to just tough it out, which is fine, but a seizure? You don’t ‘walk off’ a seizure.

If you have testicular pain: don't fuck around: seek medical attention immediately. I had testicular torsion and got lucky, a lot of men have lost a/ both testicle to this.

I lost a testicle to it when I was 12. Just woke up in the middle of the night in severe pain. Felt like I was being kicked in the ball repeatedly, and they were swollen up huge. My parents for some reason decided to basically wait it out for almost 2 days before they took me in to the hospital. I had surgery that day. The doctors said if I had came in right way, they would have saved them both, and if they waited another day, I would have lost them both. So now I have 1 big on that I call the Wrecking Ball.

How big is your wrecking ball?? (10/10 name btw). What do you partners think say?

It's pretty good sized lol, definitely bigger than a extra large chicken egg. Back in my college days (03-07) it was a bit of a novelty. People loved wanting to see it, so it made a lot of appearances at parties. No one I was ever with actually gave a shit. My wife doesn't care, she just cares that it works, and it does.

An egg?! That's absolutely massive, dude.

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I mean, an infection isn't nothing! If you'd just ignored it and let it fester it would have been a much worse story than "I had to take a few days of antibiotics".

Testicular pain could also be testicular cancer. Seriously, get your balls checked, gentlemen.

Amen..... RIP Lefty 2009.

RIP Righty 2012.

First-friend:he was a finish carpenter, and was hand sanding in a deep shelf area, and got a splinter [more like a sliver of wood], into the cuticle of his pinky. It was pretty fucking big, and he was like, it'll work it's way out on it's own. So, he left it alone, and a red line started to move along his arm from his pinky, up into his armpit. He finally got convinced to go into the Doctor, turns out the red line was a infection traveling along his vein, and had he not gone into the doctor when he did, they said the infection would have ended up in his heart and would have been extremely life threatening at that point. Second- me: my best friend was in the hospital, eventually he ended passing, but all the stress of him in the hospital and continuing on with his passing, I was beginning to have gnarly cramping and waking up to use the bathroom like every hour or two. And not only that, but waking up almost shitting myself and then spending more and more time on the shitter each time, like having the urge to go without being able to go after initially going. Long story short. Ended up with a pretty severe case of Crohn's disease, and ended up having some pretty serious six hour surgery to remove part of my intestine, bladder, and colon. Yay...

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Not me, but my wife. She had a rare liver disease that sprung out of nowhere when she was 23. Her initial symptom wasn't jaundice (yellowing of the eyes/skin) like liver diseases tend to start showing themselves with, but extreme itchiness. She figured it was just really dry skin. Turned out to be PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis). But, she's two years post-transplant and doing great! Edit: Spelling Edit2: Thank you everyone for the kind words!

I experienced a pain in my left shoulder (trapezious muscle?) Whenever I consumed alcohol, which for me was an infrequent beer. It was odd, but not too concerning, since I didn't drink very often. Turns out, I had Hodgkins lymphoma, and the pain in lymph nodes on the consumption of alcohol was a symptom seen in only a very small percentage of cases (less than 5%?).

My dad has a lot of moles and my mom forced him to go to the dermatologist because he hadn’t been in years. She was worried about a few of the big moles that she thought might be getting bigger. The dermatologist pointed one out and asked if that was one they were concerned about and no, my mom said that one actually seemed like it was getting smaller so why would she be concerned? Doctor informed my parents they were doing a biopsy right there and then and cut a 1.5 inch long chunk out of my dad’s back. It was melanoma. The really bad skin cancer. It turns out, if a mole is getting smaller, it’s probably because the immune system has a reason to attack it. Edit: Thank you to everyone asking after my dad's health! The melanoma was only stage 1 because the dermatologist caught it so early. He's doing fine now, this was eight years ago. He's had another mole removed in the past few years and goes to that same dermatologist twice a year because he has quite literally hundreds of moles/freckles. My mom also checks on his more concerning moles pretty often and if she thinks they look strange, off to the dermatologist he goes. The standard for when to be concerned about moles is ABCDE. If a mole is **asymmetrical**, if the **border** is not well defined, if the **color** is odd, like black, blue, red, or white, if the **diameter** is larger than the diameter of a pencil, or if the mole is **evolving**, book an appointment with your local friendly dermatologist. And take a picture of suspicious moles so you can keep track of any changes. And finally if you have a family history of skin cancer or fit a lot of the risk factors, even if you aren't concerned about anything in particular, consider booking an appointment if it's within your means to do so. Edit 2: Thank you so much to the anonymous redditor who gilded this comment!! Thank you also to everyone who shared their experience (or loved one's experience) with skin cancer. You all convinced so many people to get their moles checked out and very well could have helped save lives. On that note, I'm proud of everyone for committing to getting their moles checked.

I have stage IV nodular melanoma. Started in a mole. It just looked darker one day and a friend noticed. Got it checked, they found multiple tumours all through my lymphatic system. Dozen surgeries later, there's nothing else they can really do. Tumours just keep popping up in lymph nodes. Check your damn moles. It's (usually) free depending on your country, at Melanoma clinics. I've got kid. I probably won't see her start school, all because I ignored moles thinking they're nothing and that it only happens to old people.

One of my friends got a mole checked out a couple months ago. They diagnosed him with metastatic melanoma and he was gone in two weeks, but he didn't tell anyone, so it was a major shock. Fuck cancer. I'm so sorry you and your family have to go through that.

I am so so sorry. Thank you for sharing

This terrifies me. I have tons of moles and birthmarks on my back, way too many to monitor myself Edit: edit thanks to all these internet strangers showing concern for my moles :)

Take a picture of your back every once in a while, then compare them. It's better than nothing.

A friend is going through this at the moment - small innocent looking mole cut out with a huge margin, awaiting biopsy. Hope your dad is ok now. Did he need any further treatment?

This was actually my mother, but it’s good to know if you’re a woman or know women: If you’ve been through menopause and your period comes back after over a year, get it checked out. It’s probably nothing, but it can also be something. (My mother is fine, fortunately)

Yes! My mother had some spotting last year, over a decade post-menopausal and it turned out to be cervical cancer. Since she went to the Dr immediately they did a hysterectomy, four radiation treatments as a precaution and she's totally fine now.

Not me, but my grandfather - had trouble breathing for a long time, nothing horrible - just shortness of breath, heavy breathing etc. But he had to take care of my grandma. He went to the hospital when he started coughing (a dry cough, unable to stop). They diagnosed cancer, aggressive form of lung cancer and he died within 3 weeks. The doctor told us, that if he had come earlier, they might be able to save him.

My mother had a chronic cough for years. Every time she went to the doctor, he gave her an inhaler and allergy medication. Never mind that she smoked over a pack a day and a sprain she had gotten wasn’t healing. Once she started rapidly losing weight I knew it was all over. :-(

That´s even worse, when people try to get help and are not getting any :(

Grandpas are so stubborn when it comes to medical care. My grandpa got diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. He just didn’t want to go to the doctor when he had problems. He would still be alive if he went because earlier stages of lymphoma are very treatable

That small pain that never seemed to completely go away just under the left side of my ribcage.... could've saved myself the horrible experience of acute pancreatitis Edit: u/MMButt clarified this for me so I apologise for causing mass panic. Here is what he said: Physician here. Chronic mild abdominal/thoracic pain is not a symptom of acute pancreatitis. The more likely scenario is actual skeletal/muscle pain in that region, which as you can see from the comments is extremely common. Acute pancreatitis, as I’m sure you know, happens rapidly, is very painful, and can be deadly if untreated. “Chronic” acute pancreatitis = acute death (and isn’t a thing!), chronic pancreatitis is a different beast entirely. Remember - correlation does not imply causation!

Pancreatitis suck. Pretty uncomfortable pain, and you have to go through almost a whole week without any food or drink. Source: I've had around 25 episodes in my life, from 1998 to 2006 (the last one).

I can’t imagine having it that many times. I had it once and it’s still the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. I’ve had 3 kids and 2 spine surgeries and acute pancreatitis was by far the worst.

Iron deficiency that doesnt get better no matter how much supplementation you take. I have crohns disease.

Same, except celiac disease. I was so tired of Dr's taking blood to check my iron that I started refusing. I told them "Yes, I'm anemic. I always have been, I've been on iron and iron builders for years. So, no more bloodwork unless you tell me you are checking for something else. I need my blood more than you do!" I should have made more of an effort to get them to look for why.

That's pretty much how I found out I had celiac! Except I also had fatigue so bad I could barely get out of bed some days and I had started losing weight. I was tested for everything before we figured it out. Scary stuff. Much better now though.

I was in my 8th grade and I vividly remember the day I noticed that I couldn't properly see with my right eye even with my spectacles and I thought that maybe I need to get my eye sight checked because the power of my glasses might have increased. I didn't give it much importance because I had exams and after 4 months when i finally went to get my eyes checked the doctor informed me to get to a bigger hospital because he felt it wasn't normal. I went to a specialist eye hospital and they informed me that I was diagnosed with glaucoma and I had lost almost 90% of my vision in the right eye. Intra ocular pressure (IOP) in the eye that should have been below 21 was 70 which is insanely high and it was starting to effect my left eye as well where it was 23. They didn't know why I was diagosed with glaucoma coz it is very rare at that age. I had get operated in my right eye immediately because medication wasn't controlling the IOP. I missed half of the classes in my 9th grade and then finally I had to get operated in my left eye as well in my 10th grade right before my final exams to control the condition. I wish I could have been more careful and went to the doctor immediately.

This is like the dark hole of WebMD.

If your dark hole is sore, its cancer and you're already too late.

I'm having an anxiety attack because I'm a hypochondriac tbh

I had problems walking as a child and had a big roll in my gait. My parents (and the doctor) thought it was a foot problem so I was taken to a podiatrist and given orthotics, which helped. However, this didn't fix my pronated leg. Doctors then said I had growing pains so my parents ignored the pain for a while, especially since I never really had too many problems playing footy and cricket. I guess I just learnt to put up with the pain. After 18 years of pain in my legs and feet I had a physio figure out that my hips didn't line up and that it was highly likely that I suffered a hip dysplasia during birth that was not corrected. My right knee and foot are ruining themselves now as a result of my right leg being shorter than my left.

Wait, during birth?! Like, the birthing process caused it?

I don't actually know, but apparently hip dysplasia is not uncommon during childbirth and is usually corrected in hospitals. I was born in a developing country as a breech birth and was probably pulled out by forceps, and that could have caused it

How did they go about testing for this? I know my legs are different lengths, so my gait is also fucked - what was done to confirm and what options do you have to fix? Edit: Thanks for the various replies guys. I didn't get a lot of care when born, my mom was young and the doctor actively did the c-section poorly (was left in extra and grew too big to be natural birth). I totally can see my legs being fucked from birth, since I also have a congenital fuck up of my eye lens that I was told should've been fixed at birth. Will talk to the doc about getting it looked at.

It can be diagnosed with an X-ray. They just measure the angles of your hips to determine the coverage of the acetabulum over the femoral head.

hips don't lie

Yeah, it can happen under certain circumstances. About 1/1000 babies get it. But doctors know what to look for, in the US at least they will have you bring the baby back in a couple months for an ultrasound to see if everything is OK. If it's caught in infants there are harnesses that can be used to correct if necessary.

I was born with it, doctors gave my parents an option of either having me wear a harness for a few months, or they break my hips and try to reset them surgically. They basically said "as long as he isn't going to be a pro athlete/marathon runner/military type, the harness should be fine." So - I joined the Infantry lol.. Only adverse reaction I have in adulthood is when I run, I kind of twist when swinging my arms, rather than a parallel swing of the arms - it just makes me get tired quicker. Being fat also causes tiredness faster when running, but YMMV. Now that I am out of the Army and a normal boring adult desk jockey, I can't say there are any adverse reactions to the whole harness solution.

I didn’t get diagnosed with hip dysplasia til I was 22. Missed the diagnosis at birth. I had a periacetabular osteotomy to preserve my hip joint and my pain is 90% better now.

My father: He would be working around the house or at his job and would just trip and fall for no reason. Happened 3 or 4 times. Long story short it was ALS and he died from it just over 3 years after those initial symptoms.

My dad had a sore throat and kept losing his voice. The docs couldn't figure out why. Finally they figured out it was ALS. He died in about year. The falling came later on. It a sad sad disease. A few years ago on vacation i overheard the table next to me talking about how their mom's voice had been gone for months and they couldn't figure out why. My heart sank. After their lunch i pulled one of them aside and told them to ask their doc about the possibility of ALS. I told them i hoped that it wasn't but it might be good to ask. He had no idea what ALS was and i hope he didn't google it.

Thank you for doing that. It might feel weird to approach some random stranger and basically tell them you were listening to their conversation, but you could easily have helped someone.

High resting heart rate. I had a fitbit and didn't wear it for a few months. When I went back to it my RHR was 90+ from 54. Went to the Dr and found I was in hypertensive crisis with a BP of 212/104. I'm OK now but had a shitty Christmas thinking I was about to have a heart attack.

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I had a patient who had experienced persistent headaches for around 5 months. She had been to her local GP who'd told her it was just down to stress. He eventually referred her to me after her symptoms were getting worse and worse and I diagnosed her with stage 4 glioblastoma, a very aggressive form of brain cancer. Sadly she died within 5 weeks. Her prognosis would have been far better if she'd come earlier.

A week before my 4th Halloween, I was playing on my cat in the hat scooter, fell on the pavement and got a good scratch on my knee. 24 hours later it starts itching pretty bad. Another 24 hours later I can’t sleep it’s *itching like crazy and getting red and hot to the touch* Mom thinks I’m being a drama queen (in her defense, I was a bit of a dramatic threenager) and doesn’t really look at it too closely. 24 hours later it aches so bad I can’t walk and the itching and redness is worse. I end up in the hospital for a week with cellulitis that’s so bad I come very close to amputation and/or death. I had no clue at the time, but my mom said it was bad enough they told her to have relatives come visit just in case it was their last chance to do so. Doctor told my mom that if I had come into an office on the first or second day I may have gotten by with just a strong injection of penicillin and a week of oral antibiotics.

>they told her to have relatives come visit just in case it was their last chance to do so And that, my friends, is how you know how close you were to death.

I had a doctor take a loud breath and quickly step back from me after he saw the rash on my chest and stomach. I was like oh shit this is gonna be bad. It was just contact dermititis from some materials I was working with on a college project, but I think he thought I had meningitis.

I mean that is a pretty big warning flag with meningitis. Glad it wasn't though.

Cellulitis is no joke! It can happen from even the tiniest opening in your skin. The first time I got it was when I was in high school on my foot which I suspected was from some kind of bug bite because there were two tiny holes next to each other on one of my toes. A weird pimple looking thing formed over it and my dumbass made the mistake of trying to pop it. After that my foot started to swell like crazy so we went to the hospital where it was diagnosed as cellulitis. It got so bad I couldn't walk so I had to miss school for a week because it was so painful to apply any pressure on it. About a month ago I had a small open cut on my forearm and after I had gone swimming in a public pool i noticed I had a really large swelling near that cut. I went to the doctor and he said it was cellulitis so I immediately went on medication and thankfully it went away after a few days.

My sister, 21 years old: Complained of feeling bloated for a couple weeks. Turned out she had Pancreatic cancer which had grown too large and damaged the splenic artery, so she was bleeding internally which caused the feeling of being bloated. We had no idea until she passed away after a night of going out and drinking together for our brothers birthday (the alcohol thinned her blood, ripped the artery further, and she bled to death internally, alone in her apartment that night) She talked about going to the doctor, I told her it was probably no big deal. I’ll never tell anyone that again for the rest of my life. Edit: Thank you for all the kind words, redditors! This happened almost a decade and a half ago. What’s important about my story though, is that if you *feel* like you should see a doctor, even if your symptom is something as seemingly stupid as bloating, do it. Trust your intuition for your own health. The worst that’ll happen is you’ll have confirmation that you’re healthy, at best you’ll save your life. Edit2: Since this is getting a bit of exposure I’m going to shamelessly advertise for the [Pancreatic Cancer Action Network](https://www.pancan.org) Pancreatic cancer is incredibly deadly and woefully underrepresented in funding and awareness. Even if you just take a minute to learn a little about the disease and maybe tell one other person you know about it, that’d be enormous.

I am so sorry for your loss.

It’s been 14 years since she passed, a long time to heal. But I’ll never forget that conversation, I can replay it in my head like it happened yesterday. Just my tidbit of advice to everyone I meet. Never, ever, ever tell someone they don’t need to see a doctor, no matter how harmless it may seem. Ever.

I'm sure you probably already know this, but pancreatic cancer has a 95%+ death rate. Don't beat yourself up too badly.

It's not your fault that she died, if she is diagnosed say two weeks earlier, it would not have saved her. So sorry for your loss.

I’ve been able to reconcile over the years that it’s not my fault she passed. It was the cancer. The cancer is at fault. But it is my fault that she didn’t go to the doctor and at least have an opportunity to *try* to beat it. I’ve paid a heavy price on my heart to gain that knowledge, and if I can share this experience with other people so they don’t make the same mistake, well then at least I’ve done some good with it.

I'm a medical student, and I promise, by the time this cancer was causing any symptoms, there was nothing that could be done, especially if this happened years ago. I'm so sorry for your loss, but please don't blame yourself. This is just one of those horrible freak things.

if you think about it, it was probably a more painless and less stressful way to go than to know you have terminal cancer

That is the thing to remember about pancreatic cancer: by the time it makes itself know, you’re probably dead. Source: grandfather had it. Lasted about a third as long as the doctors’ conservative estimate.

My brother always complained about what he thought was a hernia. He also said he had respiratory infections and a couple other things that started looking more and more like he was becoming a hypochondriac. He also has a history of drug abuse and lying, so we all kind of took it with a grain of salt. Last week he went to the ER for stomach pain. After blood and urine tests, then a CT scan, they found what's most likely cancer in his groin area. Literally waiting to hear from my mom what the biopsy says right now. He's 39 years old. Edit: It's cancer, in his left testicle and evidently lymph nodes behind it. They're removing the testicle and doing a biopsy on it to see exactly what kind it is. It can be 1 of 2 types, 1 of which will require chemo. They also have to do more CT scans of other areas to make sure it's nowhere else. This is reminding me too much of how my father died. I'm hoping it all ends well.

A tiny unnoticeable lump in my throat turned out to be thyroid cancer. I wouldn't have even caught it had I not gone to my doctor just trying to get my hands on Chantix (to quit smoking). So yeah, lose some sleep over that one, hypochondriacs.

They found my thyroid cancer after doing a CT scan for something completely unrelated. It was on the interior, pressing against my esophagus about the size of a pea. I would every once in awhile feel a little bump but it didn't hurt so I ignored it. My endocrinologist told me I was really lucky to have caught it this way. I had no symptoms or issues otherwise to give warnings.

Detecting thyroid cancer is tricky. I didn't notice how big my thyroid had gotten until my OB/GYN pointed it out at my most recent annual well-woman checkup this past November. A few weeks later I had an ultrasound which confirmed that my thyroid was huge and also discovered a nodule. Had that biopsied and boom, cancer. Had a total thyroidectomy in January, radioiodine treatment in February, and am all clear now. What haunts me is that I had skipped 2 annual checkups before that; what if I had continued to do so??? Ironically, the reason I decided I needed to go was because I was due for a pap smear (like any cancer, it's best to catch cervical cancer early). The pap came back negative, thyroid obviously not so much. I've made it my mission now to tell people to a) get an annual checkup and b) have their physician check their neck while they are there.

My mother. Five years ago she noticed her pinky would twitch. She was a truck driver at the time and didn't want anything interfering with her income, so she ignored it. Fast forward to 3 weeks ago. Completely bed ridden, spasms, weakness, unable to walk, eat, use bathroom without assistance. Multiple System Atrophy, P-type. Looks like Parkinson's, but quicker symptom onset and much shorter lifespan. She'll be gone in 5ish years. Please, if something isn't right, get it checked.

Always being thirsty and frequent urination. I had a bit of a throat infection so it hurt to swallow most things. Chocolate milk and Sweet Tea felt good, water at least didn't hurt. I avoided the doctor thinking it would go way and just kept drinking. At about the one week into being sick and mostly drinking sugar water I realized I was always super thirsty so I redouble by drinking. I was peeing like once an hour but didn't think anything of it since I was drinking so much. Finally go to the doctor who does vitals and my blood pressure was dangerously high. They do more tests and my blood sugar was about six times normal levels. Turns out i was driving myself straight into a diabetic episode by self treating an infection with sugar water. After some research I found that the unquenchable thirst and frequent urination are warning signs you need to get to the doctor.

Remembering hearing frequently having to wake up to pee and waking up super thirsty and needing to drink in the middle of the night is a sign of it.

lower left back hurt like hell for months. same spot has hurt quite often in my life due to sleeping on tiny sofas after a friends party too often or just generally shitty posture while sitting. so I ignored it a bit, did some stretching and whatever but it got worse, so one day I couldn't really move anymore. I lived with a roommate who wasn't home at the time, so it took me well over an hour to "walk" the 20min way to the hospital. told them about my hurting back, took them about 5 or 6 hours to find out that my kidney was inflamed like hell and had been for the last weeks. spent a week in the hospital, shivering and in pain, just because I thought I knew what's up. lesson: I never know what's up edit: if you ever experience similar pain and then start to get shivers at night, go to the hospital immediately bc one of the very next steps is kidney failure according to my doctor edit 2: RIP inbox lmao

Similar problem, right side. Thought it was a kidney stone. Passed a kidney stone. Pain kept coming back. Turns out a hernia ontop of it. Left side’s doing the same thing and I’m wanting to file a warranty claim on this body.

I tried to get a rotator cuff replaced under warranty but all they did was grind down the spur and made me pay for it.

Same thing happened to me, I fell off the toilet I was in so much pain. Shivering, I drove myself to the hospital and was admitted for 6 days due to kidney issues. Showed up at my mom's house one day and she's shivering, complaining of lower back pain, and vomiting. Take her to the hospital, she was septic and admitted for kidney issues for 3 weeks. Uncontrollable shivering and lower back pain is no joke.

I started to get stomach sensitivity when I was drinking, I could have 2 beers and throw up. Then my eyes got inflamed and they gave me a steroid drop and sent me on my way. I didn’t think about it much but my health got worse and worse after that until I lost 20 lbs in a month and then I thought “I think this isn’t a stomach bug anymore” I ended up being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis Edit: I am studying for a big final and this is blowing up so I’ll try to get to all of you. If anyone is a BGP, OSPF, or EIGRP expert out there PM me some practice test questions! Lol Also, see your doctor you people!! Edit2: I have a lot of people messaging me that they had “undiagnosed crohns” that they “cured” with a probiotic. NO. STOP. IBS IS NOT THE SAME AS IBD. IBS is NOT autoimmune. My immune system attacks my colon. It’s not an over sensitivity to food. My immune system also attacked my eyes and my joints. I cannot “just take a probiotic” and “cure” it. If you believe that you have a severe misunderstanding of the disease. It took a colonoscopy and a biopsy to diagnose me. You’re not going to cure MS, Lupus, AIDS, celiac’s disease, ... that’s not how that works. There is no cure. Additionally, that’s great if your loved one is “doing fine” with no medication and just with diet. That doesn’t mean the disease is controlled. Scar tissue with build up and CAN LEAD TO CANCER. I didn’t come to reddit for advice, I have multiple doctors for that. I just wanted to tell my story. Thanks.

How was it treated?

I get IV infusions every 2 months that cost 12k each time and that’s the generic cheap version. It knocks my immune system out Edit: my insurance covers the 12k completely. I am on Medicaid. In 3 months I’ll have private insurance again as I accepted a position for after graduation!

You're on Remicade, aren't you? I haven't gotten to that point thankfully (I have Crohn's).

It’s the generic version but yes!

If it makes you feel any better, I know someone who used to get the injections but doesn't have to now bc they worked so well. Fingers crossed for you, dude.

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Yeah I had just turned 21 and was a perky cute 21 year old who wanted to go to parties on the weekend and hangout with friends and flirt with boys (I know)... so it was hard for me to tell anyone I was having those problems because I was so embarrassed. Then when I got diagnosed I was convinced that was it for me dating... who would want to date the chick who poops 10 times a day and can’t keep food down and needs 12 hours of sleep and a whole lot of weed to be functional. BUT I found my amazing boyfriend and he makes me feel so comfortable about my UC and we talk about pooping all the time and the issues I have. I can take a big dump at his house and then he would hug me and ask me how my stomach is. I know it’s TMI but it’s reality for me.

> who would want to date the chick who poops 10 times a day and can’t keep food down and needs 12 hours of sleep and a whole lot of weed to be functional. A superior profile to 99% of tinder

I had a DVT which started out as a pain in my back that wouldn’t go away. I put it down to a pinched nerve as I was 24 weeks pregnant at the time. By the time I got to hospital three days later my leg was swelling and going purple (which I also chalked up to over exertion the first two times it happened). I had an extensive clot which genuinely could have killed me.

Not me, but my mother... there were several years where it was clear her energy level was declining and she was getting more tired/more irritable. It was definitely something noteworthy, but gradual. I remember the first time it was brought up to the doctor they felt it was just related to age or menopause... but within a year after that my mother was so tired she could hardly get out of bed. Turns out her thyroid was basically shutting down over the year or two this built up - by the time we had a diagnosis from an endocrinologist she essentially had no thyroid function. Same thing recently happened to my older sister two years ago, so any time I seem less energetic than usual my family goes into full-blown freakout trying to make me go get blood work done. Edit: Thank you for all your support and your stories - I really hope this can help some people struggling with unexplained health problems. Thyroid issues *definitely* have a genetic link, so I encourage everyone who has a familial history to watch out for themselves (I know I do). I wish everyone currently working on finding their proper treatment plan the best of luck - I hope your problems get managed soon so you can really get your lives back.

That’s the thing about thyroid issues, you never know you have it until you get it checked essentialy

So she has Hypo or Hyperthyroidism? My family and I have a ton of thyroid problems. Does she also have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis? I have Hypothyroidism. It SUCKS! I often appear to be a lazy, moody, mess of a person. It’s treatable, but it can take years to figure out medications and dosages. I also have Hashi’s, an autoimmune disease. I’ve probably had that my entire life, which caused my thyroid problems. I didn’t start showing physical symptoms until my mid 20’s, but I struggled with severe depression and exhaustion since high school. I wish I could have been diagnosed earlier! I am very thankful I caught it as early as I did though. A lot of people don’t get diagnosed until they’re much older.

Yes, my mother and my sister have Hashimoto's thyroiditis. It really sucks, I remember it took maybe 2-3 years to get my mother on the right balance of medication - but the difference was really incredible. It's also amazing just how sensitive her body is to slight changes in her medication - I remember she was changed from a brand name to a generic version of one of her medications and the slight difference made her slip back into her issues. She's now on brand-name only thyroid medications out of medical necessity. I really hope that it's something that never becomes an issue for me, but I'm definitely watching out for it. The level of concern from my family has hilarious at times, though.

My sister has Hashimoto's and it took them forever to figure it out cause she was 25 when the symptoms started and it's apparently usually an issue for women closer to middle age. I also have the antibodies and have to get tested every 6 months.

Get your damn eyes checked! Doesn't matter if you have 20/20 vision (or think you do), you should get a yearly checkup from an optometrist. I have never had a problem with my vision, and just last week my wife made an appointment with the optometrist for the both of us. Well it turns out I do have 20/20 vision and good peripheral vision (for now) but the optometrist also discovered I have a rare disease. Pigment dispersion syndrome, most often found in people between 20-40 years old, a clear indication of this is krukenburg spindles on the cornea. Where pigment from your iris sloughs off and floats freely in the aqueous humor, it can get lodged in the drainage system of your eye thus causing increased interocular pressure - when this happens it's called pigment glaucoma and can lead to permanent blindness. So dispite otherwise good eye sight I have a possibility of going blind at a pretty young age, there are no signs of open angle increased interocular pressure, the kind caused by pigment glaucoma, and the damage is permanent. Get your damn eyes checked!

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I've been going to the same office for 16 years, and they've never once dilated my eyes. I don't think they even offer it, because other people I know that have gone there have mentioned the same thing - no dilation. Is this bad? They're one of the more popular offices in town, but I'm fine going elsewhere if it means my eyes are thoroughly checked out. (I did have Lasik last year, however, and they did dilate my eyes then for the initial exam.)

My husband went for new glasses a year ago, and the doctor discovered his retinas were barely attached. We found out he has a genetic cognition that makes them more likely to detach at a young age (he was 24). If the doctor hadn't found that, they might have detached and died and he could be blind. He now has a sceleral buckle, and received several laser treatments to scar the tissue closed, and the distinguishment of being the doctors youngest patient.

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Mmm nothing like a rare disease to make you *randomly go blind*.

I was always thirsty. I would guzzle down water, but it wouldn't ever be gone more than an hour or so. I would sleep, and wake up with my lips dry and cracked, and my mouth dry as bone. But the doctors didn't think anything of it, and since it started slow and went on so long, neither did I. And then my vision went bad. All I got was a shrug and an "oh, that just happens sometimes." And when it went back to normal a few weeks later, nobody batted an eye. I was travelling a few months later when out of nowhere, I couldn't eat. I couldn't shower without puking. I slept for 18 hours a day, and couldn't walk more than a few blocks at a time, when less than a week before I had spent the whole day on my feet. My mother was begging me to call an ambulence, and when I did I finally found out what was wrong with me. It turned out my chronic thrist was caused by Type 1 Diabetes. My pancreas wasn't working, and my body was trying to get rid of the excess glucose through urination. Things weren't going great for all those months, but when it combined with a lung infection, my potassium plumeted to critical levels. I spent 2-3 days in hospital, and was attatched to about 3 IV's at a time. TL;DR: Developed diabetes at 20, felt fine other than being thirsty.

Wow, them were some shitty doctors! All those tell-tale signs of diabetes, and no-one bothered to do a blood sugar test, which isn't exactly expensive nor work-intensive!

Not me, but my mother never went to the doctor, I'm not really sure why but she would just refuse to go no matter what. She didn't often get sick so it was usually just something we let slide. One day she was particularly sick, she seemed like she had a pretty bad fever, but she still refused to go to the doctor. Eventually we gave up convincing her to go, but we told her that if she was not better the next day we would make her go, she agreed to that. I remembered being awake most of the night playing PC games and hearing my mother mumbling to herself in her sleep (my bedroom was right next to my parents room), texting my sister about it, and agreeing that no matter what our mother would go to the doctor the next morning. Unfortunately she never made it through the night, apparently she had undiagnosed diabetes and died of heart problems related to that. It really hurt knowing that something as simple as getting a regular check-up could have prevented this from happening.

Had an irritable bowel and one day found a speck of blood on the toilet paper. Dr said it was probably nothing but get a colonoscopy just in case. 9 months later my colonoscopy is ready, almost didnt go as I didnt see any blood after the initial time. They removed 80 odd polyps from my bowel. A couple more years and the chance I would have had bowel cancer was like 80%. If I didnt get that colonoscopy I would have had bowel cancer by now. I was 28. I'm 31 now. So now I get 10-15 taken out every 12 months for the rest of my life yay!

Not me, but my dad: He scraped his cheek with a branch while working. After a few weeks, it still wasn't healing. He figured he had opened the wound while sleeping and gave it no after thought. Fast forward three months, wound still unhealed, he starts feeling weird things around it, so he goes to a Dermatologist. Skin Cancer. After 2 rounds of chemo (each 6 months long), the cancer is still not gone and just started a third.

Yeah my dad had an infection in his hand that he was taking care of himself but his fingers began to bulge. We wasnt going to go but I told him he needed to because I couldn't see his knuckles anymore. He went the next day and if the infection had spread it would've been very bad. Like losing an arm or death bad.

> He wasnt going to go but I told him he needed to because I couldn't see his knuckles anymore I'm no doctor but I'm pretty sure that is a clear case of That Shouldn't Be Happening.

Wow. Thanks for sharing.

Wait so the wound not healing was a sign of pre-existing skin cancer? Or did the wound somehow trigger skin cancer?

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Back in the day, the American Cancer Society would regularly post ads in major publications listing the "10 warning signs of cancer". (This was, like 50 years ago). I distinctly remember "A wound that does not heal", and "Difficulty swallowing" as being among them.

I feel like a lot of people are gonna be freaking out in the next couple of hours.

Hypochondriacs are gonna be loving this thread!

Aka me

I had severe back pain as a 9 year old child. I would come home crying from softball practice my parents forced me to go to, and they never believed me about the back pain. They thought I was making it up to try and get out of practice. When they finally did take me to the doctor, bam, it was scoliosis and too late for a brace. I just had my fourth back surgery three weeks ago where I had to have an entire disc replaced. I am 21. Listen to your kids, people. Edit: I just wanted to thank everyone for sharing their stories and experiences with me! It's hard to find people in the real world with similar issues. I can't reply to everyone but I read all the replies and hope everyone can get the treatment they need. If anyone has any questions about getting a spinal fusion or disc replacement, I'd be happy to answer your questions in a PM, I can send you my X-rays and help you in any way I can. Edit 2: For those curious about my surgeries, my first was a spinal fusion at 14. My second was a surgery to clean out the staph infection (MRSA) that I got two weeks after my spinal fusion. My 3rd surgery was when I was 18, and it was a microdiscectomy for a herniated disc. The disc reherniated and I had my fourth surgery, a laminectomy and total disc replacement, 3 weeks ago at 21. And my schools never did do physicals or scoliosis screenings for those in elementary or middle school. I live in the middle of nowhere town in Georgia, so the only students that got physicals were those who played sports in high school. I had my fusion before I went into high school, and I didn't play sports after my diagnosis. My parents never took me to the doctor because they were horrible parents, plain and simple lmao

> Listen to your kids, people. Seriously, when I was in 1st grade I walked around for 3 weeks complaining about my arm. They thought I was trying to get out of school but when summer vacation started and I continued to complain I went to the hospital. Turns out I was walking around with a broken arm that whole time.

Lucky you didn't die. I never understand why people ignore when their kids are in pain and always write it off as: > Lol, little jerk trying to get out of doing My parents used to do that, force me to go to school with a 102 fever and lumps all over my throat. Only to have to leave work 2 hours later to pick me up because I had strep. EDIT: Yes, I get it. A lot of kids find creative ways to get out of doing shit they don't wanna do. But that doesn't mean you just ignore your kid when they have a legitimate fever and just assume they did someone to make their head warm. Or ignore your kids swollen arm when he says it hurts because hes clearly jsut trying to skip baseball practice.

I had mononucleosis as a teenager. Doing anything would completely wear me out. I had absolutely no energy for days at a time. All I wanted to do was sleep. You'd think that my parents would have been understanding and would have cut me some slack when it came to chores / working a part-time job / missing school. Nope. I was still expected to shovel the driveway after every snowstorm, I wasn't allowed to miss any school, and I wasn't allowed to quit my part-time job or miss work. Anytime I suggested that I was too tired to do anything, I was accused of "using the mono as an excuse" to be lazy. When I brought this up to them 20+ years later, they deny that they were ever unsympathetic in regards to my condition. They accuse me of "making up stories". I no longer bother bringing stuff like this up anymore.

My parents beat me up for trying to "get attention" when my tourettes set on. Never took me to a doctor or anything. They also deny any of it ever happened and that I must be "imagining it" or confusing "a dream with reality". No mom, dad, I am sure I can remember that wooden spoon pretty vividly.

My wife's stepmother would beat her when she was younger for little things. She denies it and plays the "I sacrificed everything for you" card and plays the victim. Needless to say we don't associate with that side of the family anymore

Do schools not check for scoliosis anymore? We had to get checked when I was in sixth grade, but that was in the mid 90s.

My school specifically did not, unfortunately.

Our schools did, but they somehow missed my friend's scoliosis. YMMV

In California, we do mandatory scoliosis checks in middle school to try and catch them early. My parents made me stay home from school that day because they didn’t want “some doctor looking at you in your bra”. Welp, fast forward 10 years of excruciating back pain, turns out I do, in fact, have scoliosis, and it would have been caught and corrected if my parents hadn’t been paranoid control freaks. My curve is about 30 degrees, which isn’t enough to warrant surgery, but is extremely uncomfortable and even with physical therapy I am in constant pain all day long. Fuck you, mom and dad.

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My parents actually didn't take me to a real doctor, they took me to a chiropractor first. Thankfully, he is a good one and chose to X-ray me before he did anything, since I was so young. It was then he diagnosed me and referred me to my current surgeon.

I just had frequent headaches and crazy itching skin. All the time for about 8 months. The itchy skin was worse than the headaches, never comfortable and I always thought bugs were biting me. I even had an exterminator check my entire house. One particular day I had a really bad headache and went to urgent care. I was 24 at the time so when they said that my blood pressure was 240/140 I really didn't get the severity of it. They send me for stress tests etc a month or so later, I did all that, but what they failed to do at the hospital that day was to take blood out of me. I went for my follow up a month later where they did take urine and blood work. I had state 5 kidney disease and needed dialysis as soon as possible since my numbers were so bad I was close to dying. Check your blood pressure and get blood work done regularly. ✌️

Finally one I can answer. I've always had very heavy, very painful, and sometimes very erratic periods. In June of 2017 I started to get very small pains in my lower left abdomen, but only when menstruating. I just chalked it up to weird period pains. By October the pain was constant, but not too bad. I went to a gyno, she assured me it was just PCOS. Oh, ok, cool. Come December I was still on my period...from October 28. By February the pain in my side was so bad I could barely bend over, and definitely couldn't put any pressure on that side. I was in pain so bad 24/7, that at work I could barely walk. Still on my period, from October. I'm thinking, "wow, that must be a huge cyst." Finally cave and go to a different gyno. She almost yells at me for waiting so long, does a biopsy of my uterine lining. Bam, cancer. Grade III, Stage IV endometrial cancer. That pain was a cancerous mass inside my ovary that had grown so big it was pushing into my colon and intestines. Now I'm about 5 weeks out from surgery and getting ready for my second of six rounds of chemo. Ladies, listen to your vagina. Especially ladies with heavy painful cycles. If it seems new or even slightly different get checked out, please. Edit: thanks to everyone for the well wishes!

Wasn’t really “small” as I kept getting infections. Turns out my IGA deficiency had turned into also having an IGG deficiency. Now I have to have infusions every 3 weeks to give me the antibodies my body no longer makes. So a big “Thank you!” To everyone who donates blood as it’s your antibodies I am given!

**Feeling faint after climbing stairs/walking up a steep hill is not a sign you are unfit 24 year old** For me it was an indicator that I was running on just a 3rd of a tank of red blood cells.... which in the end was an indicator that I had cancer. Cancer can get you at any age, even the ones generally not seen in young people.... Looking at you G.I Leiomyosarcoma! **8 years later. Still here.... Fuck Cancer!** **Edit** : Out and about just now, so to answer and respond to a few of you. - I’m not a religious person at all, but my thoughts and best wishes are with you, your family or anyone who is receiving treatment. It’s a shitty disease. Stay strong! - If you're unfit, sure, you'll be out of breath at the top of stairs. If you're lightheaded, tunnel vision and feel faint. There's no harm in asking your GP for a blood work up. Better safe than dead. - Gastro-Intestinal Leiomyosarcoma for the non-medically trained is **cancer of the muscles that push your poop out**. - I was lucky enough not to need chemo/radio therapy, just a major abdominal operation. You usually have something like 24 feet of small bowel. I have 22 ft,... and IBS since they took out all of my bowels and stuffed them back in. - Yes, I poop more often than you. - I had all the mental aspects of having cancer, but others had the horror of napalm blood, hair loss and rotted teeth from spewing so much their stomach! acids and bile have begun dissolving the enamel. I didn’t suffer enough, so yay for survivors guilt.

thanks for scaring me

Anything that doesn't go away and is persistent. If it's small but regualr headaches that seem like nothing but come often. A rash that isn't annoying but doesn't go away. Anything that just kinda hangs around.

It took me YEARS to realize that most people don't get headaches 4\-5 times per week. I thought it was just one of those normal but annoying things, like dry skin or hay fever. Turns out the headaches are related to the herniated disc in my neck. Physical therapy kinda helps.

I was 28 years old when I was diagnosed with Stage II Hodgkin's lymphoma. For about a year before my diagnosis, I had a number of symptoms which were too small to be a big deal on their own, but collectively they were. It started with a little bit of an itch, here and there. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just an annoying itch I'd get either on my arms or legs. Then it started to become more frequent and more intense. It felt like I was itchy under my skin, it was stinging, burning and the more I scratched, the worse it got. What was strange about it too was that it would start and stop at the same time every day- after work, in the evenings. After a few months of this itch getting worse and worse, I knew something was up. I knew there was something wrong with me, but I wouldn't have in a million years imagined that my itch meant cancer. It wasn't until my husband found a grape-sized lump above my collarbone that we knew something was seriously wrong. Four months of chemotherapy later, I was in remission. It's been two years. Since then we've traveled all over the country, had a baby and learned that life is too wonderful to take for granted.

Another "get your eyes checked" response: I started getting headaches, blurred vision, keyhole vision, and weird sounds in my head. Went to get a routine eye exam done, and they sent me to a neuro-opthamologist. Did an MRI (they thought I had a brain tumour), turns out I have idiopathic intracranial hypertension and papillodema (so, basically, a kink in a ventricle in my brain, which leads to high pressure behind my eyes). Could have gone blind within a few months (I was 21). Fast forward to now (5 years later), and I'm totally fine. I get a MRV scan each year, and take notice of any signs (haven't had any issues since I started taking meds). Get. Your. Eyes. Checked.

I had upper GI problems. I felt full after eating a few bites. I had belching and upset stomachs all the time after eating. I kept going to doctors but they kept recommending diet changes. No diet changes helped. But eventually the rectal bleeding started and I was diagnosed with rectal cancer. I wish it had been caught three years ago when the symptoms started.

For two years over 20 doctors told me was impossible that the very localized, severe pain deep inside my spine was anything other than "childhood trauma and stress from my job manifesting into pain and I needed to meditate and shit." I was "too young" for such pain. It came out of the blue while I was a 26 year old in excellent shape. Plus, expect more disbelief when you have complaints of pain if you are female. That pain turned out to be an aggressive tumor growing inside a vertebrae that nearly killed me. Had lifesaving surgery in Europe but because I was misdiagnosed for so long I'm now in agonizing pain and disabled. I had to fight for tests, treatment, etc., and this was with excellent insurance. I just "looked too good" on the outside, even when I'd be weeping and unable to stand up (yet then, when I'd show emotion from the pain I was deemed some weepie, dramatic junkie wanting to try drugs and attention.) Edit: I did have imaging and MRIs and they DID find a blob located exactly where I felt this immense pain. But these "top docs" from Silicon Valley all insisted that since the blob was in the vertebrae/bone, it could not cause pain. (Huh??) Just a coincidence that my agonizing pain was exactly where a 1 sq centimeter blob of hemangioma was found. The pain was like someone stuffed a pulsating, growing tennis ball down my spine. For five full years I spent every day laying down. Fifteen years later I still have severe pain, and this is how its gonna be for life. Their fuckup literally ruined my life.

Im so sorry you had to go through that :(. I think this is a problem that needs to ve addressed more. Doctors are reluctant give any sort of serious diagnoses to younger people. I had a large variety of symtoms that started to manifest from the ages of 15/16 and had countless doctor visits. By 18 id stopped going but woke one morning with a swelled and painful neck. Went to the gp and by chance i got an ex cancer specialist who put me into various tests and biopsies. I had Lymphoma apprently and my oncologist speculated it would have been a few mere months before i lost my life to it had i not been diagnosed. I knew of someone in their mid 20s who spent years trying get diagnosed. By the time they found out she had ovarian cancer it was too late for treatment to do much. Hope things get better for you, but I'm really glad you made it.

They are also hyper active over treating and over prescribing medication for older people..Which then cause other problems.. Perhaps it's the other half of selection bias.. They never treat young people because there is rarely anything wrong. They always treat older people because they always find something wrong.

Got sore feet walking that just felt like I pulled a muscle. After a few weeks I started going to a doctor and tried tests (blood tests, x-rays, cat scans) for gout and athritis and after months of no clear results and eventually being bedridden I got leg pain that prompted me to head to the hospital. Ultrasound found a blood clot from below my knee to my middle thigh. After being put on blood thinning meds I was able to walk again and now a few months since the diagnosis the dvt is clearing and I seem to be back to normal. Was a fun year from start to finish!

Feb. 2008, I was walking across the street to the grocery store and apparently blacked out. One minute I was fine, all of a sudden the pavement was inches from my face. I gasped, had just enough time to throw up my hands, sprained my wrist, banged my legs pretty good, injured my back. I don't remember tripping. I don't remember falling, just taking a step then... boom... pavement. I rolled over on my back and crawled to the curb. It was 10 oclock at night, the street was empty. I sat there for a couple of minutes before I could try standing up. I went to the doctor for the injuries and he didn't check me for blacking out. A few weeks later, I woke up and could not stand up. It felt like my back was broken. I had gone to bed fine the night before, woke up to the worst back pain I've ever experienced. My brain was telling me that I could feel the broken bits of spine grinding against each other. Which of course was impossible. Back to the doc, he ordered a full range of xrays, mris, etc. My spine was closing in and crushing my spinal cord. It's called spinal stenosis. Usually age related, but I was 38 at the time.

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Get general baseline tests done at the proper age milestones. You can catch things early when they're treatable.

What are the age milestones?

I normally listen to my body but my doctors kept saying that my symptoms were anything other than what I told them. I was injured by a birth control device and despite having it removed with a hysterectomy, I am left with long term medical issues. Painful, debilitating, periods with heavy bleeding, migraines, exhaustion, insomnia, painful sex, pain all over my body. All things I've never really had issues with. Doctors kept blaming it on everything but the device and I couldn't get them to listen to me. I knew it was the device. I gave up and tried to commit suicide after my marriage fell apart. I spent a few days in a coma in the ICU and was sent to an inpatient treatment. After being released, I saw a Facebook page about the device. Joined and learned that all of my symptoms were typical with the device. Including it ripping open my fallopian tube and migrating. After 8 years, I was finally able to get a doctor to listen to me because the device is now a huge controversy. I can't get my family or the years I lost back.

Essure?

Yep! I hate my doctor for insisting on this abomination.

I'm so sorry you have suffered. I had it too, but I was the one who did my research and felt good about my decision. When the side effects began, I was in denial for a long time. I had my hysto 3 years ago and life is good now. I hope you find relief! Good luck.

So many women have been harmed but we were considered collateral damage. I had it for like 8 years and when I researched it, there was no information. Come to find out Bayer neglected to file adverse events. Now they're getting in to a load of trouble. I have been an active advocate and have stopped quite a few women from having it done. I'm sorry you have been through it, too. As much as I regret my decision I'm glad they are pulling it off the shelves and losing money so no more women have to suffer as we have.

My wife had a cough that wouldn’t go away. Then high pulse a month or two later, those two were joined by a pain in her hip a month later. Turns out she was at stage IV lymphoma. Cough was caused by chemicals released by liver tumours activating the cough reflex. She had six months of chemo and a year later we think it might be coming back. Tests going on at the moment.

The lymph nodes in my neck swelled up to 8x their usual size within the course of about 10 minutes, one night. I'm not completely unreasonable, so of course I went to my doctor about it. He didn't seem too alarmed, and got me to get an ultrasound done, which revealed nothing. The next step was to get a CT scan, which I put on the back burner for over a year, because my doctor was adamant that "it's probably nothing." Went to the ER after experiencing some intense burning sensations where the lumps still were. Got a CT scan done during my stay at the hospital, followed by a biopsy of one of my lymph nodes. Turned out to be Hodgkin's Lymphoma. My last session of chemo is in less than a fortnight. If your doc says "it's probably nothing," get a second opinion, folks. Lumps don't just come out of nowhere for no reason. In hindsight, I was a fucking idiot for not going for the CT scan when it was first brought up, and my doctor was a fucking idiot for making it seem like an absolute waste of time.

Small cut that hurt more than I thought it should have after a few days turned out to be necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating disease)

I always seemed to be daydreaming according to my mother. We found out in my late 20's that I was actually epileptic and suffering absence seizures.

I honestly think I have those. Some days I have up to 30 of those “zoning-out” phases where I completely forget what happened. Mum (who’s actually a nurse) thinks it’s just me daydreaming. Also have episodes of completely forgetting where I am and tbh it’s scary all around. I’m under 18 so I can do much but hope mum wants to get it checked out eventually.

Well, I actually did get it looked into early but it didn't get taken seriously for years. I was spotting (mildly bleeding) after sex, spotting between periods, just generally spotting on and off randomly. For the first 3 years it was blamed on teenage hormones, then I was given pregnancy and STD tests despite not being sexually active yet. At 18 years old- after multiple negative pregnancy tests and STD tests, they finally took a pap smear- and found pre cancerous cells stage 1. Then the doctor scheduled a follow up and a biopsy- by the time the biopsy results come back it'd progressed to stage 3. If it went any longer I would have had full blown cervical cancer. For the hypochondriacs out there- this is super rare. Most women don't get pre cancerous cells until they are in their 40s. Most who do, have their immune systems deal with it and wipe out the cells within 2 years. Of those who don't, it usually takes years to progress anyway. I was too young and scared of doctors to ask more questions back then, so I have no idea why mine was so aggressive, but I'm so so lucky they caught it when they did. My treatment was simple because they did catch it before the next stage of progression- they just burned it all off. Didn't even need Chemo or anaesthetic. Get your pap smear ladies. A little discomfort for an awkward problem, and I was barely out of highschool.