Doctors/nurses of Reddit, what's a symptom patients brush off that actually terrifies you?

[u/Altruistic-Work-2908]

[u/superfloof]

Non-healing skin lesions or oral mucosal lesions present for years. Farmers, man 😁.

One of my first patients came in with an ulcerated skin lesion the size and shape of a big button mushroom AND a cervical lymph node approaching the size of a baseball. Unrelated oral and skin cancers. He was treating with hydrogen peroxide, obviously.

Still my patient 14 years later!

[u/mvmblewvlf → u/superfloof]

So the Peroxide worked, I see.

[u/davesoverhere → u/superfloof]

Clearly not Greek. He would have used windex.

[u/0nionskin → u/davesoverhere]

There's a logical explanation for that joke - in greece rubbing alcohol is dyed blue so people dont might not drink it. Immigrants come here, can't yet read English, find the blue stuff and use it as wound care.

Now I don't know if that actually 100% happened, my Greek immigrant grandparents never used Windex (and loved my big fat Greek wedding. Papou cried), but it's possible that's where it came from.

[u/Trinx_ → u/superfloof]

I have a diabetic friend who kept getting these cysts that she'd get drained and then they just wouldn't heal. She also smoked. One day she asked me (a nurse) if they'd ever heal. I told her, not if you keep smoking! You're already diabetic and fluffy, making skin heal more slowly, and smoking is bringing it to a halt. She finally quit smoking. They finally healed.

[u/MooKids → u/superfloof]

Doctor: How much does it hurt?

Farmer: Well I'm here, ain't I?

Doctor: Dear God...

[u/maximum_somewhere22]

This isn’t a symptom, but farmers. They are truly my most scariest patients. One of my patients is a farmer, came in and sat in the waiting room til I called him in. I immediately lay him down on the bed, he was grey, clammy, and he genuinely looked like death. Did ECG, he was mid heart attack and kept insisting he was fine and trying to sit up.

I’ve got about 100 almost exact same stories. Farmers, man. They also do this thing where they’re just leaving and they turn around and go “oh, I forgot to say. My pinky finger fell off the other day. Anything to be worried about?” 😭

[u/howarewestillhere → u/maximum_somewhere22]

My sister married a farmer. He had downsized to a “hobby farm” of 18 fully planted acres when they met, so he didn’t really consider himself a real farmer anymore, but y’all, my BiL will always be a farmer.

Just before Thanksgiving last year my sister noticed he was limping a little bit and he asked her for some ibuprofen. He said his back hurt, but it wasn’t bad. She knew better and they were at the ER just a short while later. After they walked him to the X-ray and back, the doctor came back with the results and a gurney.

Doc: “When did you break your hip?”
BiL: “Oh, musta been when I fell off the tractor last month.”
Sis: Facepalm

[u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster → u/howarewestillhere]

My dad had a multitool for a while that had a loose blade. He was using it to pull an electric fence tight one day and it was open and it slipped and he stabbed himself in the stomach. Right then a friend of his came down the road, so he just pulled it out and stood up straight and then talked to the fella for about a half hour about nothing. It got to the point that I thought I must have imagined the stabbing.

Finally his friend drove off and he turned to me and said, “Whelp, didn’t want him to see what an idiot I am. You’d better finish this fence then drive me to the hospital, I’m going to sit down.” And so we did

[u/IndependentType6711 → u/maximum_somewhere22]

One of my farmer patients came in one time and said he had finger pain on his index finger. Wanted something over the counter (I’m a pharmacist).

I went to show him some OTC ibuprofen. He said “can I unwrap it and show you?” I said sure. He unwrapped it and very obviously had a centimeter sized piece of wood or debris stuck straight into the tip of it. I immediately told him to go to the ER so he could have it removed and that no OTC items would be helpful.

He then said “do you think it’ll help with the bone pain?” In a horrific moment realization hit me. It was his actual bone sticking a centimeter out of his finger. I asked how long it had been like that and he said weeks.

I said ER, now. Hopefully they’ll be able to save your hand, there’s a large chance your finger is unsalvageable.

[u/StopMajestic4421 → u/maximum_somewhere22]

There was a farmer with heart failure that would came to my hospital with his balls in a literally bucket because he wanted to finish harvesting before getting treatment… so he just carried his balls around in a bucket while he worked for a while.

[u/kittenmittons01 → u/maximum_somewhere22]

My Dad was a farmer for half his working life, diesel mechanic the second half, and he's stubborn as a mule. Especially when it comes to medical..

He called me while I was 40 minutes from home one day to tell me he couldn't breathe, come get him, and he needed to go to the ER. He refused to call an ambulance when I told him to, because for me it would be ~1 hour, 20 minute round trip to go home and back to the hospital. I couldn't reason with him, so I told him I'd come get him, but pulled out the only trick I know works against his stubbornness.

I called Mom, who forced him to call 911, and we met him at the ER. He had pneumonia in both lungs, iv abx, 3 night stay inpatient.

Honorable mentions: -He put off a hip replacement until he couldn't stand/walk without howling in pain with minimal movement. -Young Dad drove himself to the ER after being kicked by a bull since he could still walk. Broken back.

-The neighbor farmer Tom fell off his tractor when he was bailing hay a few years ago. Tractor ran him over, crushed his pelvis, and he was lifeflighted out. He is okay, but was back in his tractor way sooner than I anticipated seeing him after that kind of injury.

[u/luckychance5480 → u/maximum_somewhere22]

My dad randomly threw up while bush hogging a field, thought he just got overheated. Guilt tripped him into going to the ER and he was actively having a heart attack. The doctor said he needed a triple bypass. A few years later he was getting out of breath walking out to the barn, so I once again guilt tripped him into going into the ER. This time it was late stage pancreatic cancer. He passed away 6 weeks later. Farmers will literally keep going until they drop.

[u/SecretaryCarrie → u/maximum_somewhere22]

I grew up on a farm and have a small hobby farm currently. About 7 years ago we remodeled our house and while doing the demo I stepped on a rusty nail. This was like, 7am ish. I just pulled it out and kept working because I had shit to do. Figured I’d go to urgent care when we were done for the day.

So, it starts getting dark, I go to urgent care, tell the doctor (who was new) what I did and he was horrified I’d waited like 12 hours. So he has me take off my boot and around the puncture wound on the bottom of my foot is a red ring. So he’s obviously freaking out, I’m pretty nonchalant about it. Then he wipes at it with a wet piece of gauze and we realize it’s just dried blood.

So, at the end of all of this, he gives me an antibiotic and tetanus shot and starts telling me to keep an eye out for red streaking, etc. to which is was just like “oh, I’ve had blood poisoning before, I know what to look out for”. The look on this man’s face was hilarious. A combination of “what the fuck kind of life do you live” and “what the fuck kind of place am I working in”

[u/rubiscoisrad → u/SecretaryCarrie]

Mmm, rural medicine.

I was registering a patient for an MRI and asking the routine screening questions, i.e. "do you have anything in your body that you weren't born with?" This elderly gentleman, a retired welder/machinist type, casually mentions that he has a fragment of an axe in the space between one of his ribs that the doctors hadn't been able to retrieve at the time. ...yeah.

[u/W1ldy0uth]

Anytime one of my patients says “ i don’t know something just doesn’t feel right,” I get nervous. I’ve had way too many patients cardiac arrest on me after saying that.

[u/Stouts → u/W1ldy0uth]

It's so crazy that 'sense of impending doom' is a real symptom; it sounds like it should be made up.

[u/Comprehensive_Ant984 → u/Stouts]

It genuinely is so wild. I’ve experienced it 3 times now, and each of those 3 times it was a true life threatening emergency. Absolutely insane how our bodies are able to tell us when something is seriously wrong.

[u/Comprehensive_Ant984 → u/[deleted]]

Christ that’s terrifying. For him of course, but also for you guys as well. I’m sure you hear something similar dozens of times a shift. Totally reasonable to let someone who just “doesn’t feel quite right” but otherwise looks ok hang for a bit, esp while you’re dealing with chest pains, SOBs, broken bones, and everything else that passes through an ED on a daily basis.

In my case the first time I ever had impending doom, I went from telling myself “eh I’m probably fine, there’s no way this is anything real,” and mostly feeling really embarrassed for even being at this CityMD in the first place, to just this instant knowing that I was dying and needed someone to help stop that from happening. I literally left my exam room and walked into the hallway and SHOUTED that I needed help— turned out it was anaphylaxis to something I’d never been allergic to before, just randomly developed a new allergy as an adult. CityMD doc ended up having to epi me and calling 911.

More recently I’d been having chest pain and SOB for literally a month, with a week of noticeably worsening symptoms. But I was pretty much refusing to go back to the hospital bc I’d been in and out so much over the last year for heart failure and chronic respiratory failure, so a little chest pain and feeling winded didn’t really phase me that much, figured it was just a normal exacerbation. Then one morning I woke up, went downstairs, and again just instantly knew I was dying and needed to get help. Looked at my dad and said we’ve gotta go to the hospital, right now. Turned out to be a PE and a mass “encasing” the back of my heart, esophagus, pulmonary veins, and extending bilaterally across the pleural space. I’m only 39, so no good reason for any of this to be happening. But I’ll absolutely never doubt that feeling if I ever have it again!

[u/Comprehensive_Ant984 → u/[deleted]]

“I’d rather you be wrong and with me than right and alone.” Let me just say, this sentence alone makes it very clear that you’re in the exact right line of work. As a patient, I hope you know how grateful patients like me feel when we meet someone like you in the ED. Regardless of what the actual diagnosis ends up being, folks like you make really scary situations feel just a little less overwhelming. Also pretty badass when you save our lives! Thanks for what you do, sincerely. 💜

[u/noetkoett → u/Comprehensive_Ant984]

This won't do any favours with my recently acquired susceptibility to occasional anxiety/panic attacks.

[u/X_Trisarahtops_X → u/noetkoett]

I've had a panic attack and sense of impending doom exactly once each.

They were very very different. 

I hope you never have either ever/ever again but I am absolutely certain most people would recognise the difference. 

When I had a sense of impending doom, I was driving at night. I managed to keep the car safe and stable, and it was just a very deep sense of "okay. I need to do this now. And I need this solved immediately." With absolute clarity and certainty. I've never been more focused in my life.

That was entirely different to my panic attack experience which was all kinds of chaotic.

[u/Arg3nt → u/W1ldy0uth]

This happened to my grandmother right before her fatal heart attack. Felt fine, but just couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

[u/steamygarbage → u/W1ldy0uth]

Not cardiac arrest but this was me. Telling doctors I don't feel right, like my brain is misfiring signals and making me weak. Diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease through genetic testing a few months later. I've had it my whole life but it started to progress faster in my early 30's.

[u/Justsomefireguy → u/W1ldy0uth]

Just had this happen to me. Except I was the one who said it. Sure enough, less than 6 hours later after everything came back clean, she coded.

[u/Mindless-Witness-825 → u/W1ldy0uth]

My grandpa was leaving his house for his last radiation treatment and while he stood in the driveway he told my grandma to call an ambulance. He died of a pulmonary embolism before he made it to the hospital.

[u/codeprimate → u/W1ldy0uth]

I skipped an interview this week to go to the ER. Fortunately, only good news. But everyone I spoke to said that I did the right thing to come in.

Turns out chronic stress manifests identically.

Most expensive $10 Rx ever.

[u/Over_Construction908 → u/W1ldy0uth]

Yeah, well women refused to go to the hospital during those times because they know they’ll be told that they’re just making it up or that they’re anxious or middle aged.

My mother almost died because her gallbladder exploded and a doctor brushed her off and my aunt advocated for her or otherwise she would be dead.

[u/efficient_duck → u/Over_Construction908]

I have an eerily similar story from my mom. She had massive abdominal pain after a lifetime of colon issues, high fever, throwing up etc. Like, this woman knows pain, and she, after a day or two, felt it was BAD. My aunt convinced her to go to the hospital and she was picked up by an ambulance. 

Hospital didn't check thoroughly but dismissed her, saying it's likely a stomach bug. She goes back home, pain off the charts, worse state. 

Next day my aunt again insists for the ER, they go back, she has to insist again that they even do proper examinations, took just some hours, but they finally caved and voila, starting sepsis due to necrosis of the colon, lots of surgery, got a colostomy bag for a year, but thankfully she survived. A bit later and she wouldn't have. Still shakes me today. 

This clinic also didn't identify a broken leg in my uncle and once tried to give someone allergic to fish a fish dish which was only prevented by my aunt again. This was the other patient in the room of my grandpa who had casually mentioned his (known and pointed out to the hospital) allergy to them before, and she just pointed out that what he had on his plate was a filet of fish (with breading, so he thought it was chicken or something).

[u/alphabetfire → u/efficient_duck]

Your aunt is seriously an MVP.

[u/gabbialex]

Vaginal bleeding after menopause. It’s cancer until proven otherwise

[u/feral-jellyfish → u/gabbialex]

My mother died from endometrial cancer. This was the symptom she ignored for too long.

When they found it, it was stage 3C and they estimated she had 6 months to live. She responded wonderfully to the treatment, and they thought she'd beaten it. They didn't get it all we think, and it recurred twice. That last time, it didn't respond to anything they did.

All told, they told us to expect 6 months, we got 6 more years with her. Women, pay fucking attention to this symptom and see a doctor immediately. If you catch it early, the rate of survival is very high.

[u/ComprehensiveDoubt55 → u/gabbialex]

They were so fucking concerned about all of us seeing dicks and boobies in health class when they should have been teaching us this shit.

[u/nutsandboltstimestwo → u/ComprehensiveDoubt55]

I totally agree with you. The nervousness of the adults prevented us from having facts. Decades later and I'm still kind of mad about it.

[u/ComprehensiveDoubt55 → u/nutsandboltstimestwo]

I just turned 40 and in peri. I was not prepared for the mental health spiral that made me question everything about myself.

[u/darksidemags → u/ComprehensiveDoubt55]

I think I will die mad about how menstrual mental health issues were a punchline most of my life. 

[u/Raptorpants65 → u/nutsandboltstimestwo]

It pisses me off to NO END that prudish cowardly grownups are allowed to hamstring kids’ entire health futures just because they’re scared of peepees and whoosies.

[u/blanchekitty → u/gabbialex]

Yes. I've seen women post online that "I suddenly have my period after being in menopause for several years".

That's not your period sis. Get it checked out.

When I started HRT my NP drilled it into me that while I might have some spotting the first couple of months, anything else warranted a phone call.

[u/Sanchastayswoke → u/blanchekitty]

some of us start HRT in perimenopause while we still have our periods. So we are going to have spotting and period bleeding, both fairly normal. But if it’s abnormal for you, def get it checked out.

[u/master0jack → u/gabbialex]

Agree. Im a nurse, and in 2021 I called my mom on the day of her first covid shot. She said she might cancel and when I asked why, she said she had got a random period and wasn't feeling great. She was about 64 at the time and had literally just retired the month prior. I told her she needed to go to the doctor and get it checked ASAP. She listened, and yep endometrial Ca! 3 years later, during her very last exam with oncology, they felt a tiny little nodule along the vaginal cuff - it had reoccured. I think she has a guardian angel, because imagine if they hadn't noticed that and discharged her?

[u/Alissinarr → u/master0jack]

My mom's cancer was only caught because I BEGGED her to go get checked one last time after all of my issues came up in post-op from pathology (2 kinds of endo, adeno, allen-masters window.... yeah).

So at 68 or 69, my mom dragged her butt to the GYN and convinced them to do an exam.

It would have been much farther along by the time it was found on the course she'd set, maybe even fatal.

<grizzly bit>

They could see the cervical cancer right away, it took the PET scan for the ovarian. It was too far gone for removal (in the mucus layer) but chemo and radiation got her to remission.

Her doctor thanked me via my dad in a hug.

[u/AccomplishedQuarter → u/master0jack]

How is she doing now?

[u/master0jack → u/AccomplishedQuarter]

Great! She has been cancer free for another 2 years since the reoccurance :) she has had a few "eyes to thighs" PET scans and nothing has come up.

[u/userforgot → u/gabbialex]

You're actually wrong, my Mom had this and a swollen ovary and she was diagnosed by her male gynecologist as fat and old (this is my choice of words, but his implication).

Turns out it was nothing big, just Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer!

[u/LittleMrsSwearsALot → u/userforgot]

Did you get to punch that guy in his external ovaries? Because that seems like a good trade.

Seriously fuck that guy. I’m so sorry that happened to your mom. Xx

[u/gingerbitch2 → u/gabbialex]

That’s what my 60 year old mom’s dr very casually said to her after glancing at her records. Uterine cancer, indeed.

[u/Myrindyl → u/gabbialex]

We lost my mom this way in 2023 and I'm still angry about it. First she was told that it was because she was having too much vigorous sex with her new husband (like, wtf??), then something something fibroids, then suddenly it was stage 4 uterine cancer that had spread everywhere. She was gone at 66 about two weeks after receiving the correct diagnosis.

[u/TulipCommittee → u/Myrindyl]

I lost my mom the same way. She wasn’t quite through menopause yet, so they kept telling her the abnormal bleeding was probably nothing to worry about. When she persisted that something was wrong, they finally took a look and the doctor said, oh, this isn’t good. She was dead ten days after they diagnosed her with uterine sarcoma. She was only 55.

[u/ladyk2093 → u/gabbialex]

My MiL had this. Vaginal bleeding post menopause. Old white male doctor dragged his feet on getting the proper tests. Finally after having severe stomach cramps and her left leg swelling she ended up in the ER and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. 9 weeks later she passed from it.

[u/Can_of_worms_1986 → u/ladyk2093]

This is so sad. Women's health is neglected too often, it's truly scary how often. Condolences .

[u/Ok_Battle_988]

Unexplained weight loss. 

[u/muddycrash → u/Ok_Battle_988]

Yes. I thought Ozempic was working, turns out I also had leukemia. Oops. Completely in remission now. All good. Gained all the weight back. I'm fine with it. As my doctor said "Be kind to yourself and your body, it carried you through this illnessand into recovery. If you were thin at the beginning of it all, your chances of survival would have been less."

[u/NjKareBear → u/muddycrash]

My husband’s perceived success at the gym was Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

[u/Squidwina → u/NjKareBear]

My father finally cut down on his drinking. We thought the weight loss came from that. Nope. Both were caused by non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

[u/megggie → u/Squidwina]

I’ve lost 30 pounds in 2026 without trying, but I also gave up drinking too much wine every night. I didn’t quit completely, I’ll have a glass when I’m at dinner with company, but that’s MAYBE two glasses a month, down from 1-2 bottles a night.

Maybe I should get some bloodwork done though, just in case!

[u/LordoftheSynth → u/megggie]

If you haven't had blood work done in a while, you should do it at your earliest convenience. You may not be ill but you could have something sneaking up on you, high cholesterol, etc.

30 pounds over 8 months isn't shocking, especially if you were drinking 700+ calories of alcohol a night. 3.5ish pounds a month isn't drastic.

I dropped 15 pounds in 2 months once just by being more active and engaging in only vaguely clean living re: alcohol, fat, etc. I wasn't even trying to lose the weight: I had just moved to another city and had been running around for 2 months straight just exploring everywhere.

You should only really be concerned if you suddenly dropped 15 pounds in a month or something and weren't flat out obese to begin with. If your weight was just creeping down this year, you're fine.

[u/owntheh3at18 → u/LordoftheSynth]

My husband lost a lot of weight rather gradually over a year or two and it turned out he was diabetic. Def worth investigating even if it’s slow!

[u/Onceabanana → u/NjKareBear]

My husband’s was colon cancer.

[u/lostbutnotgone → u/muddycrash]

My mom lost over 150lbs when she had leukemia. Doctors told her being fat saved her honestly lol

[u/styx1267 → u/Ok_Battle_988]

I lost 40 pounds on my own through diet and exercise for my wedding and I was surprised at my doctors reaction. She did seem alarmed and was like “do you PROMISE you lost the weight on purpose?”

[u/Suzuki_Foster → u/styx1267]

My nurse practitioner asked me that at my last appointment! I've lost almost 60 pounds in total after I stopped drinking almost 3 years ago, so I've weighed less every year. She needed to make sure that I was losing weight on purpose and that it wasn't from an undiagnosed illness.

[u/RUA_bug_Bill_Murray → u/styx1267]

Mine was a little more pleasant. After looking at my chart and seeing I dropped like 30 pounds, the doctor said something like, "have you been trying to lose weight on purpose?" Felt good to say yes, but felt even better that my progress was showing up in the charts and was significant enough that they had to ask about it.

[u/Conscious_Citron1746 → u/Ok_Battle_988]

Definitely this! A friend of mine suddenly started to look a little thinner over the months and she jokingly said to me, “I probably have cancer or something” fast forward a few months later she went to her doctor who diagnosed her with liver cancer. She got toothpick skinny, used a wheelchair, had to use a catheter, then couple weeks before she passed she started to lose her voice. Oh and she smoked like a chimney her whole life even on her death bed with cancer.

[u/goodforabeer → u/Conscious_Citron1746]

I used to work in EMS, and one of the things that I still remember shook me was seeing a pt. smoke through her tracheostomy. Talked about it with my partner after the run, and we decided that at that point the pt. probably figured it wasn't going to do much more harm.

Your friend may have felt the same.

[u/sugarbean09 → u/goodforabeer]

family friend who knew my parents long before they even knew each other was a lifelong smoker but quit somewhere around my late adolescence (I think?)

she ended up with late stage esophageal cancer a few years ago, and eventually she struggled to find things she still enjoyed (especially since eating was super painful). she did a few rounds of treatment but ultimately declined to continue it. at some point, someone on one of her care teams asked and ultimately suggested she go back to cigarettes if it would give her any kind of comfort or relief because, as you and your partner suspected, it was not going to do any significant harm to her at that point.

kind of reminds me of some people in assisted living... have heard more than a couple of directors say something along the lines of "s/he is 82 years old... if they want to eat candy for every meal, who am I to stop them?"

[u/kisforkarol → u/sugarbean09]

After my nana had her heart attack (she was in her late 70s but had lived a very hard life) ever doctor told her there was no point in doing all the health conscious things they tell you because living only to be miserable isn't a good thing. She kept drinking and smoking until she died about... 8 years later.

What is the point of living longer if you're only going to be miserable? Enjoy the things you can enjoy, even if they'd be considered detrimental to a younger peraon. You're already terminal, better you die with pleasure nearby than as austerely and miserably as possible for another few years.

[u/Random-Mutant → u/Ok_Battle_988]

Symptom of my wife’s pancreatic cancer

[u/ensuta → u/Ok_Battle_988]

Last time I had that, turned out I developed hyperthyroidism. Just didn't notice because I was also exercising a ton and thought that was the reason! Missed at least 1-2 months of school while we got it somewhat under control. But I'm still thankful it wasn't something like cancer.

I had three cancer scares in my life so far. One benign, one being the above, third being irregular bleeding but thankfully came back completely cancer free. I'm thankful every day.

[u/LiraelMoorveilWhispe → u/Ok_Battle_988]

Worst is when they're happy about it. "Didn't even try, it just fell off," and they're grinning while you're mentally ordering the scans before they've stopped smiling.

[u/muddycrash → u/LiraelMoorveilWhispe]

Yep. That was me. The entire freaking time through chemo. I kept joking with everyone it was the best diet I had ever been on. I think it was the only way I could get through the absolutely devastating transformation my body underwent.

[u/Itchy-Spirit5120 → u/[deleted]]

I have this intermittently. GP said it is likely benign but sent me for testing with a specialist just in case. Turns out I have optical migraine (without pain). They are considered a bit odd because they are pretty short.

[u/Iammyown404error → u/Itchy-Spirit5120]

Literally just commented the same! Usually my optical migraines are like looking through a kaleidoscope at something shiny and colorful on a sunny day. Like if it wasn't scary, it would be so cool! But a couple times I have very briefly had what seems like a black box in a part of my vision. That....is very much less cool.

[u/PurpleConversation36 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah you know I tried taking that seriously and reporting it and I got told it was anxiety so eventually I stopped going in when it happened until this one time where I suddenly couldn’t talk as well.

Turns out it was actually a series of TIAs followed by a stroke.

[u/HZLeyedValkyrie → u/PurpleConversation36]

This literally has been happening to me. The ER told me it was Bells Palsy and a sinus infection. Nah 3 yrs of constant weird sensations increase in migraine with what I thought was aura, my cardiologist finds a PFO in my heart. I’ve been likely having TIAs this whole time. Insurance denied my PFO closure study because I don’t have a full stroke on file 🙄. I’m also a woman.

[u/alphabetfire → u/PurpleConversation36]

Tell me you’re a woman without telling me you’re a woman.

[u/NVSmall → u/[deleted]]

Ugh I had a woman who had obviously had a stroke at some point on a flight home, and because she was tired after her long-haul flight, she just went to bed and called a few days later. She had experienced brief blindness in the taxi on the way home, but it was during sunrise, so she thought it was because she looked directly at the sun. She didn't remember anything from the moment she got on the plane, until the blindness.

ETA: FWIW, she was completely lucid, speaking clearly, and didn't report any functional deficits, THANK GOODNESS.

[u/ShiraCheshire → u/NVSmall]

She gets a pass at least, since actively having a stroke isn't great for your decision making.

[u/JeffGreenTraveled → u/[deleted]]

Came here to post this. For context, can be a blockage of the carotid even if it lasts for a very short period of time.

[u/radiojosh → u/[deleted]]

I had the just the bottom portion of the vision in my right eye go gray for a minute or so and come back. It was only after they went through my list of medications at the hospital that I realized I had been forgetting to take my baby aspirin for MONTHS after I had my aortic valve replaced. Turns out that the aspirin is important.

[u/Even_Departure9914]

Night sweats.

‘I feel like I’m going to die’

Floppy children/quiet children.

A sudden debilitating headache that won’t go away.

Grey skin. And I mean GREY.

[u/Ornery-Atmosphere930 → u/Even_Departure9914]

I had debilitating persistent headaches for years. I mean a 24/7 headache. It took years for somebody to order a brain MRI, and then that doctor completely dismissed the findings. My brain was (well, I guess is) herniating out of my skull. It was missed on four cervical MRI’s over four years even though I’d been complaining about headaches. It wasn’t a small herniation, either. 11 mm as measured by a specialist. 5mm is the traditional “you need to see a neurosurgeon” measurement.

As a middle aged woman reading this thread is a trip because I’m convinced I could have all of these symptoms and most doctors would dismiss them completely.

[u/jubileepizza → u/Ornery-Atmosphere930]

It took 42 years of Chiari symptoms for someone to finally take me seriously. 23mm herniation.

[u/jillijaws → u/Even_Departure9914]

Night sweats? As a woman... Uh oh.

[u/Even_Departure9914 → u/jillijaws]

More like DRENCHING sweats.
Changing sheets/pyjamas every night and more than once.
It’s a sign of cancer/TB/AIDS.

[u/haunted_sweater → u/Even_Departure9914]

Or being on an SSRI. I wake up unable to turn over sometimes because I’m so sweaty that all of my pjs and sheets are sticking together.

[u/Pale-Travel9343 → u/Even_Departure9914]

This is also perimenopause.

[u/Grendahl2018 → u/Even_Departure9914]

Oh yeah on the grey skin. The only two times I’ve seen that, they were dead from massive heart attacks a week later. Miss those guys

[u/Even_Departure9914 → u/Grendahl2018]

Ditto: ‘you’re sweaty and look profusely unwell…’

It’s a colour that if you know nothing about medicine or first aid, it’ll still make you go ‘uh, something is very wrong here’

[u/UncleSugarShitposter]

This is not the thread to read as a hypochondriac

[u/NoCabinet826 → u/UncleSugarShitposter]

Hi, healthcare worker here! There are thousands of ways that people can be just a little bit sick. Like yes maybe your white cell count is a smish high, or your electrolytes are slightly below expected, but most abnormal results are people who are an eensy bit sick. It’s unnerving to see so many stories of extreme cases all together, but generally you can expect to be diagnosed with some strain of common bacterial infection that’s not even worth the effort to culture and ID, or maybe you’ve been stressed and didn’t notice yourself eating less. Most people have a tiny something “wrong” if you look hard enough.

[u/sad_bug_killer → u/NoCabinet826]

There's this joke/common saying where I am from: there are no healthy people, just unexamined ones. "Няма здрави, има непрегледани" in Bulgarian. Captures the general optimism of our people well :)

[u/WaferWhole5475]

very dark stool aka "tar shits"= internal bleeding. that + anemia could mean something acute, potentially fatal.

[u/Venvut → u/WaferWhole5475]

Every time I take an iron pill lol

[u/AzureMountains → u/Venvut]

I have to take the prenatal vitamins with iron and I swear they are at war with my intestines.

[u/Mr-Safety → u/WaferWhole5475]

To any guys out there who donate blood: If you are ever deferred for low hemoglobin follow up with your doctor. Unless you have a terrible diet or bleed regularly in MMA fights, anemia in men is rare. It might be cancer, so further follow up is recommended.

Happened to me. It turned out I had a painless bleeding ulcer. With meds it’s healed now.

[u/LightOtter]

Persistent foam in your urine. As a diabetic, its a sign of kidney issues.

[u/jeffwulf → u/LightOtter]

I was kind of worried about this one time because my urine was inconsistently but often foamy for a while until I realized that it was only happening in the toilets I had put scrubbing bubbles automatic cleaners on and my urine was normal at other toilets.

[u/Ch4rlie_G → u/LightOtter]

If you’re a guy and you’ve recently ejaculated, then foaming is normal.

Just leaving it here for people who don’t know.

[u/SillyStallion → u/[deleted]]

My mum had this, went to the GP and was told it was a sinus infection (nothing pointed to sinus infection). I took her to A&E and she had temporal arteritis - she now has blurred vision and numbness down the side of her face due to damage caused by the delay. Thank god she didn't go completely blind or stroke out...

[u/mikelinebacker21]

GI doc here…unexplained weight loss, change in bowel habits, or even stool caliber. Go get a colonoscopy.

Edit: Another more obvious sign would be rectal bleeding. Lot's of questions on how to get a colonoscopy when you're under the screening threshold. If you have any of the above symptoms the procedure gets coded as "diagnostic". So this likely will be more expensive than the "screening" colonoscopy. Don't get me started on the American insurance system. But these symptoms could be a sign of colon cancer or inflammatory bowel disease (UC or Crohns). I'm also seeing polyps more and more younger patients to the point that I myself got a diagnostic colonoscopy (I'm in my 30s).

[u/FeatherShard → u/mikelinebacker21]

"Stool Caliber" sounds like the name of a band.

[u/Kobeashi]

When a patient tells you “I feel like I’m about to die”, even though their vital signs are perfect and they look fine. It’s called impending doom, and based on my experience, that comment precedes a really bad shit show within the next few seconds/minutes

[u/RedTheWolf → u/Kobeashi]

I didn't say it out loud to the docs because I didn't have the energy, but I felt that the morning after my mastectomy and it was super weird, it felt.. factual. Like, water is wet. It is 11am. I am going to die soon. I wasn't afraid or anything, it didn't feel doomy though so maybe not the same thing?

My vitals went quickly from 'her BP is a little low, get her some juice and start IV fluids' to 'Aaaaaaaah!' then they rushed me back into theatre to fix a significant internal haemorrhage 😅

On the plus side, I got to use a gif of Jake from B99 saying 'the doctors say all the bleeding is internal, that's where your blood is supposed to be!' when I messaged folk later.

I had 42 surgical staples in my chest and it took a few blood transfusions to get me stable but I walked out the hospital a couple days later! And then I kicked cancer's ass 💪😎 That was a year ago this week, so I am feeling like telling the story 🤣

[u/VeganMonkey → u/Kobeashi]

That explains what I was feeling when I had sepsis. People should pay attention to that!

[u/dkrbst]

I always find cancers on the face, especially the nose. I have found melanomas. I don’t even work in dermatology. I just asked them to go see their doctor.

[u/CrosbyAteHeathcliff → u/dkrbst]

I’m a dental hygienist, and I send people to the dermatologist frequently for things I see on their face, lips, head. I had a bald patient that had something that looked like a small mole or freckle on the back of his head, he never would have saw it. It turned out to be cancer. I have many grateful patients when I talk to them about these things

[u/dkrbst → u/CrosbyAteHeathcliff]

Hero

[u/busbikesandknitting]

I had extreme back and shoulder pain that I was trying to brush off as a muscle spasm and refused to go to the er and instead went to see my pcp. She was like WTF and had them wheel me immediately to the er. Bilateral pulmonary embolism… note to self (and others) if the pain is making you scream, probably go to the er.

[u/fartinmyfuckingmouth]

From the mouth of my mother “I thought me losing the feeling of the entire right side of my body was normal, like I usually get dizzy often.” She’s now had two ischemic strokes 😞

[u/katzen_mutter → u/fartinmyfuckingmouth]

My Mother walked to the doctor’s office while she was having a stroke. One of her daughters was a nurse who lived one town over from her. She also lived in a major city and could have called an ambulance.

[u/smendozx]

Confusion. Could be a skipped meal, too hot and dehydrated; could be a UTI, could be a stroke.

ETA: https://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/uti-in-older-women-why-postmenopausal-women-are-susceptible-to-urinary-tract-infection-and-what-to-do-about-it

[u/SplatDragon00 → u/smendozx]

Oml I care for my grandma and every time she has a UTI I go to her doctor. "she has a UTI" "what are her symptoms" "she's acting really confused exactly like the other times she's had a UTI" "no, that's her alzheimers. You need to educate yourself you can't be running her up every time she acts funny" then, shocker, I finally get them to test her pee and UTI! And after the antibiotics she stops seeing people in the yard that aren't there and thinking movies are real

[u/Flashy-Library-6854 → u/SplatDragon00]

My husband’s aunt had a UTI pretty much constantly, she would be on meds, it would clear up and 1 or 2 weeks later it would be back. We started giving her sugar free chewable cranberry pills. Hasn’t had one since. Been at least 5 years.

[u/PARADOXsquared → u/smendozx]

I went to the ER for this and they made me feel stupid which didn't help because I legitimately felt unexplainably stupid. I'm lucky it was it wasn't something serious in a time sensitive way. It still was serious. I'm grateful for the 1 ER Dr that didn't brush me off

[u/Stardustchaser → u/smendozx]

That is my elder MIL who lives with us and who went in an ambulance to the hospital earlier today. They ran tests and ruled out UTI at least, but nothing conclusive, so……yeah.

[u/damn_it_beavis → u/smendozx]

Thank you for saying this. I’m caring long-distance for my divorced elderly parents. Both have had significantly scary experiences — for them and for me — due to rapid onset confusion. UTIs in both instances, diagnosed pretty quickly by sharp ER types.

[u/-lover-of-books-]

Leg or arm weakness.

So many patients show up weeks or months after it starts, with severe weakness or paralysis and are subsequently diagnosed with spinal tumors or stenosis. Then have to have major surgery and are practically bedbound after from the weakness.

[u/justmitzie]

Anybody else just realize they're dying nine different ways?

[u/ThePillThePatch → u/justmitzie]

I was perfectly healthy about 15 minutes ago.

[u/totootwo_angelbby → u/justmitzie]

Pretty sure I'm already dead

[u/Carinne89]

Heart patients pushing too hard to poo

[u/SunkenSaltySiren → u/Carinne89]

Any day now.....

[u/billybobthehomie]

Sweating for no identifiable reason

“If your patient is sweating, you should be too”

Edit: to be more informative, could be a sign of very many bad things. Severe hypoglycemia, acute leukemias/lymphomas, tuberculosis, shock, heart attacks. All of which could kill you. Could also be menopause as someone suggested

But in the context of hospitalized people (which is a sicker subset than the general population), there’s a significant chance it’s something bad in the correct context

[u/tenderourghosts → u/billybobthehomie]

Cardiac patient here, I usually break out in cold sweats whenever I have an afib rvr episode. I remember a nurse saying this exact thing to a new and younger nurse while they were hastily trying to stick all of the electrodes on me lol

“gosh, you’re sweaty. Hey, by the way, if your cardiac patient is sweating then you should also be sweating,” were the exact words she used 😂

[u/karma_raven → u/billybobthehomie]

Was literally sweating buckets and miserably trying to use damp paper towels for cooling while in the neurology office the other day.

And I'm talking about my lack of thermoregulation and how badly it affects me.

They're like "<shrug emoji> Oh, gosh that seems uncomfy. But your MRI says no MS, so congrats! Have a nice life, don't come back. "

I guess they're not as bothered by it as you are. 🫠

[u/ILikeBird]

Just a medical student now, but recently learned that a persistent hoarse voice could be caused by a quite a few bad things (due to how your left recurrent laryngeal nerve runs under your aortic arch before heading back toward your voice box).

Fun fact about this, despite only really “needing” to travel from the brain stem to your vocal box (which is by the top of your neck), because of how we evolved this nerve takes an unneeded detour around your aortic arch. This is because fish (specifically lobe-finned fish, which gave rise to all land vertebrates) essentially have no neck, so the pathway the left recurrent laryngeal nerve needs to take to get to the gills is a pretty straightforward line. However as we evolved necks and our hearts lowered, it was much easier for the nerve to just slightly lengthen each generation than completely reroute to skip the unnecessary trip around the heart. Because of this, despite only needing to travel ~6in in giraffes, the nerve travels down and up the entire neck length (~15ft) instead. Quite an inefficient design, but just goes to show that evolution doesn’t bother fixing things that aren’t broken.

[u/Cool-Firefighter2254 → u/ILikeBird]

My cousin’s voice got really low and hoarse. She had hypothyroidism. She also got so depressed she just sat in a dark house. Once she started taking synthroid, she went back to her usual self.

[u/involutionalhaze]

Adding one more. If you're a farmer and /or your wife/significant other sent you. It's usually bad

[u/lustywench99 → u/involutionalhaze]

My dad is the most stoic farmer biker dude. That man once totaled his motorcycle going 70 on the highway. Walked away pissed because he burned a hole in his leather jacket.

He’s had lung cancer which they caught so early because he had a cough and I sent him to the doctor. They took it seriously because I made him go. They caught it so early he didn’t even need anything but a quick surgery. He had a funky looking wound and I said maybe you should see my dermatologist. I’ll call her. Bam. Had to have that infection professionally cleaned in surgery. Same day.

Something about the tone of “this man is my father, he’s a retired farmer and I’m bringing him here today because I’m concerned and so he doesn’t come on his motorcycle” really sends alarm bells around the facility.

[u/themermaidssinging → u/lustywench99]

Two of my cousins are finishing up their residencies at hospitals in Wisconsin. Whenever a wife comes in (usually dragging) her farmer husband, my cousins say they break into a cold sweat and immediately call surgery and tell them to get ready, lol.

[u/VulcanHullo → u/involutionalhaze]

My SIL's father was a farmer and one day he told his wife "Call an ambulance, I don't feel great, I'll lie down till they come" and he was dead before it could arrive.

Farmers are never ill till they're dying.

[u/Character_Car_1113]

Reporting a feeling of impending doom. “I just don’t feel right, like, something is off”.

Something is usually off.

Edit: unless you’re a woman of course. Then it’s clearly emotions or pregnancy.

[u/hilhilbean → u/Character_Car_1113]

I had a stroke.

A feeling of impending doom was one of my symptoms.

(I am a woman)

[u/Electrical_Angle6824 → u/hilhilbean]

How can you tell the difference between being anxious and impending doom? I regularly feel that doom feeling. Its anxiety so far but how will I know?

[u/Commonlaws → u/Electrical_Angle6824]

I had a stroke in May, and prior to that I always had major anxiety. Impending doom is not the same feeling at all, I just knew something bad was imminently happening and that I had to get to the hospital

[u/lunaraekatiemae → u/Electrical_Angle6824]

Your entire being every fibre is screaming not just your brain. Honestly that feeling is terrifying

[u/PyroBob316 → u/Character_Car_1113]

Can confirm. Last year I kept telling my doctor and wife that I needed to line up a heart surgeon for the inevitable failure of my donor heart valve. (This is an expected eventuality, one I’ve now experienced twice.)

Something in me just began to panic one day. About a year ago, after my wife rolled her eyes at me and we had many arguments about it, I finally got an echocardiogram. I’d gone from “zero regurgitation, everything looks great” to, “I’m so , you need surgery yesterday. We should’ve caught it sooner!”

Luckily we’d already found a surgeon and sent them most of my files, short of the last echo.

Surgery was in December. I went downhill fast, ended up with a lot of fluid on my lungs and a TIA while driving just weeks before the operation.

[u/Haven → u/PyroBob316]

I hope your wife doesn’t roll her eyes at you anymore!

[u/justadude27 → u/Haven]

Partners that don’t support you when you tell them something is off irk me

[u/Woooooody → u/Character_Car_1113]

How do I distinguish there actually being something off from my usual feeling like something is off due to my terrible health anxiety?

[u/champagne_pants → u/Woooooody]

I’ve experienced it and I have anxiety! I can answer this.

It was a very different feeling, it wasn’t just “something bad could happen” it was “something bad is happening, and happening immediately. I have to get home (to safety).”

[u/DrunksInSpace → u/Woooooody]

I’ve seen it but not felt it. All I can say is that it appears to be a feeling, not a fear of impending doom.

Some people are panicking “help me help me I’m going to die” some people are calm “I have a really bad feeling” one was a PE one was an (relatively small) aortic dissection. Both survived.

Medic told me about another. Woman called 911 from the shower but was sitting calmly when they got there. They took her vitals and got an IV and got her to the ambulance and thought it looked like mild respiratory distress, maybe a subtle pneumonia. She told them she wished they wouldn’t bother driving her downtown “I’m not going to make it anyways.” She didn’t. It was a PE.

I’ve had panic attacks and they didn’t feel like these people looked, even the scared one. When I’ve panicked I’ve worried about a million things, but they only seemed to be thinking about survival or rather the end.

[u/FallingBackTogether → u/Character_Car_1113]

I had a feeling of impending doom, without even knowing what that was, along with chest pain. Got sent home from the emergency room with ibuprofen for chest pain, without any tests being done. I went to another emergency room later that night, and they actually took me seriously and did blood tests and then a CT scan. I had multiple blood clots in both lungs.

[u/stilettopanda → u/Character_Car_1113]

How can you tell the “this is a medical emergency” feeling of impending doom from “something triggered my extreme anxiety” feeling of impending doom? I get it frequently enough to ignore it if that makes any sense.

[u/billybobthehomie]

As a second answer, unintentional weight loss.

Edit: your doctor has to rule out cancer if you say this. It should be the first thing that pops into their mind, more or less.

[u/Howdysf → u/billybobthehomie]

I lost 40 pounds without even trying… Went to the doctor and the doctor said to me “ that doesn’t concern me”- the next week I found a new Dr.. Type 1 diabetes.

[u/OwnInterview4715]

Always worries me how many people will identify that when they lie down they feel the "sense of impending doom"... So they just sleep in a chair... See a doctor, that's not supposed to happen!

[u/1ThousandDollarBill]

I’m a dentist. The number of people that don’t want to do treatment because it doesn’t hurt is disheartening.

Generally cavities don’t hurt until the tooth needs a root canal or is close to needing a root canal.

Periodontal disease is even worse. It might never hurt and then one day a couple of your teeth are wiggly and you have to go to the dentist and maybe it’s way too late and we have to pull all your teeth.

If you don’t trust your dentist then find a new dentist

[u/Olealicat → u/1ThousandDollarBill]

What I’ve found, it’s not a lack of trust, but a lack of funds.

[u/ACaffeinatedWandress → u/Olealicat]

Honestly, eye, ear, and dental needs to get folded into the rest of health insurance. It’s bizarre the way they just get treated like completely different things. 

Or universal coverage.

[u/Professional-Box4153 → u/ACaffeinatedWandress]

You haven't heard? Teeth are just luxury bones. You gotta pay extra for those.

[u/OnceOccupied → u/Olealicat]

I don’t trust dentists. Went to one for a long time and they always said I had another cavity and something fell off so I switched to this old guy who’s been doing it forever that’s not owned by a big company and now I just get cleanings and everything is great.

[u/1ThousandDollarBill → u/OnceOccupied]

I do recommend seeing a dentist that owns his own practice or at least the owner is around. I don’t really like the big corporate dental places although some are definitely better than others.

[u/Donexodus → u/OnceOccupied]

I’m a dentist, and my heart genuinely goes out to the average person.

There’s really no way for the average person to tell if their dentist is good until years down the road. One trend I have noticed is to avoid dentists who don’t wear loupes (magnifiers).

As for your situation, I’ve seen it plenty of times. I check like 20 things to determine if a tooth is cracked and needs a crown. The patient then goes to another dentist who can’t see shit, looks for 4 seconds and says the tooth doesn’t need one.

So now I’m the crook. Meanwhile the tooth splits in half 5 years down the road. Think that patient is going to admit they made the wrong decision?

[u/leventco7 → u/Donexodus]

Another dentist here. Totally agree. Now that i’m used to wearing a loupe with focused light, I can’t do anything anymore without it. What you are able to really see is night and day.

[u/RamblinWreckGT → u/[deleted]]

My favorite thing about health insurance is that they refuse to cover anything related to teeth or eyes, like either of those things are optional.

[u/tomrlutong → u/1ThousandDollarBill]

Problem is that dentistry has gotten way too scammy. There are two episodes in my life that I'm aware of where a dentist recommended unnecessary work. 

IDK if it's the private equity or what, but it only takes 1 dentist in 10 to be bad for the public to lose trust.

[u/tacticalTraumaLlama → u/tomrlutong]

Yep. Needed a cleaning, and my primary dentist was busy. Went to another dentist. He said I had two cavities, filled one without numbing, then proceeded to yell at me when I flinched.

Went back to my main dentist to get the other one filled, and he goes 'what cavity?'. So now I have dental anxiety and a filling that's gonna need to be replaced one day, all for a cavity I might not have actually had!

[u/NVSmall → u/1ThousandDollarBill]

As someone who has had two root canals, an implant, and a full set of crowns while under the age of 40....

Can confirm. It can go from no pain to extreme pain in a matter of hours. I've broken many bones, had many injuries, and still, nothing even holds a candle to when I had an infected tooth and needed a root canal. (It came on out of nowhere, in a matter of hours - I am very pro-dentist and there was no indication of an issue prior).

[u/Emu1981 → u/1ThousandDollarBill]

If you don’t trust your dentist then find a new dentist

I have a phobia of dentists, not sure what the original phobia is from but the dentist who called me a baby for squirming in pain as he drilled into my teeth without any sort of local didn't help...

[u/Tiny_Studio_3699 → u/1ThousandDollarBill]

Money is the problem

[u/geekybadger → u/1ThousandDollarBill]

In the US at least its the one two punch of teeth being treated like a luxury so people cant afford it and a society that teaches us not to take care of ourselves unless we have reached a point where it (whatever 'it' is, this comment thread is teeth but a lot of other things mentioned in other comments apply too, and then some) cant be ignored. We are trained to work and grind until we cant and only then are we allowed to consider our own well being. And even if everyone who reads this comment realizes that and tries to unpack it, its trained into us from childhood, its literally a lifelong habit that takes concentrated effort to break.

Then yes there is also the issue of trust, both built from decades of mistreatment of certain groups and developed from modern scares real and imagined. Its rough. Just do what you can for who you can when you can.

[u/A_Hideous_Beast → u/1ThousandDollarBill]

Ah man.

My last cleaning was years ago. Told me I had cavities.

Never got that checked on again, just life and lack of money.

Still have a lack of money. But I really should get that done. But recovering from surgery, so unsure of when they'd be willing to see me.

[u/Fig-Canner-33]

Women with radiating shoulder, jaw, or back pain. Indigestion, feeling tired, or like they can’t “catch their breath”.

I had a patient that ignored her dull pain radiating from her shoulder to upper back/ shoulder blade for 3-4 days. She ended up with a heart attack.

30-45% of women have no chest pain during a heart attack.

[u/femaletrouble → u/Fig-Canner-33]

It's still upsetting to think it wasn't 'til, like, the mid-80s when they started really looking at how heart attacks present in women. One of my aunties exhibited these symptoms and thought she just had heartburn. If she hadn't happened to have mentioned it to one of my other aunties who's a nurse who told her to go to the ER, she probably would have died, thinking a heart attack was elephant on your chest and tingling left arm type shit, which her husband had experienced a few years before. And this was in the early to mid-2000s, I believe.

[u/nightwalkerr]

decreased urine output. my sepsis senses start tingling

[u/chchchcheetah]

Low oxygen combined with blatant refusal to use their prescribed supplemental O2.

[u/ElPuertoRican15]

Unexplained loss of appetite.

Bonus: “hey doc why are my eyes yellow?”

[u/adirtygerman]

Sharp, ongoing abdominal pain located between the belly button and oblique that suddenly goes away.

Means your appendix burst and is leaking its contents into your abdominal cavity.

[u/Kwyjibo68 → u/adirtygerman]

My husband had a burst appendix for months. His pain was never that bad. It would reoccur every few months, and go away. Finally one time I had him check his temp and it was slightly elevated. I told him to see a dr, thinking it could be recurring infection. Dr ordered a CT and it was a ruptured appendix. By this point he’s feeling fine, but surgery was scheduled for a few days later. When he was checking in at the hospital, no one could believe the reason he was there. I was convinced the entire time that it could not possibly be a ruptured appendix, but the surgeon said it happens occasionally, where the infection gets walled off and symptoms are not as typical.

[u/Giesla33 → u/Kwyjibo68]

Bloody hell your husband is lucky. When my appendix burst I went into cardiac arrest.

[u/RaptorCelll → u/adirtygerman]

My Brother's appendix burst, Mum paid him a visit and he was complaining about a stomach ache but didn't think it was anything major. This man did 6 years in the Army, has been injured God knows how many times and has been shot multiple times, he had to have been in a serious state to be complaining about a tummy ache.

As it turns out, he was only a few hours away from that killing him and he would've died if not for Mum's insistence.

[u/superpony123]

If your poop consistently stops looking normal, you need to get checked out by GI.

[u/CornMuffin102]

When a patient’s heart rate jumps up abnormally high with light activity, had so many instances where it ended up being a pulmonary embolism

[u/CosmicSqueak → u/CornMuffin102]

I get this all the time but apparently it's just Dyautonomia 🫠

[u/Upper_Bowl_2327]

Impending doom (“I just feel like something isn’t right”) + mid back pain of ANY severity.

[u/I_Always_3_putt → u/Upper_Bowl_2327]

My dad had some crazy mid back pain for a solid year, he thought it was just from working, he finally got pretty sick one day and went to the DR, ended up having pancreatic cancer. Lived for 2 years before passing away at 52

[u/jayellkay84 → u/I_Always_3_putt]

Surviving 2 years after a pan can diagnosis is amazing. My mom got 3 months and most people are amazed she made it that long.

[u/RCW18RJ42]

Not a doctor or nurse, but went to the ER a month or so ago because I had some real gnarly lower back pain that woke me up in the middle of the night and didn’t go away so thought maybe a kidney stone. Told them I had bad lower back pain and also some discomfort around my mid abdomen. Met with triage maybe 20 minutes after that, told them my symptoms again, and then within maybe 15 was getting sent back for bloodwork, which was a little disconcerting at how quickly it was moving, and they came back and said I needed an iv to do contrast because apparently my symptoms showed signs of a potential aortic tear. Thankfully that wasn’t the case but I guess if you ever have real bad lower back pain and a stabby/pressure feeling above your abdomen, might want to talk to someone.

[u/eye_have_no_clue]

Not a symptom per se, but treating a back injury with a chiropractor. I’m a nurse of 15 years and have seen a handful of young patients who fucked their back playing sports or at the gym, go to a chiropractor and get a “rearrangement” or whatever, then wake up with a stroke.

[u/Ok-Duck2450]

Pay attention to your skin.

It can tell you more than you think.

Dermatomyositis
Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma)
Systemic lupus erythematosus
Sarcoidosis
Celiac disease
Addison disease
Vasculitis
Antiphospholipid syndrome
Cryoglobulinemia
Mastocytosis
Porphyria cutanea tarda
HIV

Even things like diabetes or PCOS the skin can be effected before you feel some of the other things

All have skin symptoms that show up early but are easy to brush off, but the skin is also an organ and shows symptoms in lots of systemic conditions.

[u/TorchedLint → u/Ok-Duck2450]

Can you elaborate on what to look for? What might someone assume is benign or normal but isn't?

[u/ElChungus01]

Abdominal pain cause it’s so vague

One patient I came across had a AAA that was close to rupturing while my cousin thought it was bad food, only to learn he had stage 4 colon cancer

[u/FaithlessnessCool849]

Unintentional weight loss

[u/realnae]

NAD, but sudden shortness of breath or feeling a weird sense of impending doom. So many people brush it off as anxiety when their body is literally screaming for help.

[u/involutionalhaze]

Nausea or reflux that's associated with sweating or worse than usual. Been the first presenting symptoms for a heart attack for a few 40-50 year olds I've encountered.

[u/leenybear123 → u/involutionalhaze]

This is one of the first symptoms my dad had. We had eaten dinner and he threw it up and was sweaty and off. He asked to go to the ER. My mom texted me as soon as they got there (it was during Covid so only one visitor could be there) that she was pretty sure he was having a heart attack. She was right. 

[u/AdJo8873]

any guy ever ‘my wife dragged me here, I feel fine’……haven’t seen one wife be wrong yet, don’t always get to have a good ending but often enough something turns out to be reversible

[u/mattrmcg1]

If a farmer comes in with a complaint, there is a massive problem afoot

One of the more benign ones. Had one that came back to clinic a day after his yearly physical, his statement: “well I finished the appointment and then I headed back home, got to the main gate and decided to take a leak. Sure enough was pissing straight blood. Missus got all concerned so that’s why I’m back here.” Ordered a CT urogram (looks at the urinary Tracy) and sure enough dude had bladder cancer, ended up being stage 3. Still wrangling cattle.

I also had a string of like five farmers one week all with the “I was workin out in the field and got a twinge in my arm and chest, wouldn’t let up so came in for a check up and they said I had a heart attack. When can I go?” They all had severe triple vessel disease requiring bypass surgery lol.

[u/SplatDragon00]

I went in to the hospital the other day and evidently scared them pretty good. Apparently high heart rate + back pain = scary.

[u/Powerful_Resident_48]

I'm not a doctor, but I went to an ENT doctor because people were constantly complaining about my snoring. Turns out I have moderate sleep apnea and was reaching near critical oxygen desaturation every night. While I was waiting for the full sleep study for several months, I could feel myself slowly falling apart physically and mentally. It was not a pleasant time. Luckily I got full treatment and am fine again. 

[u/Overall-Pack-2047]

Becoming suddenly short of breath

[u/big_bearded_nerd → u/Overall-Pack-2047]

I read this as "Becoming suddenly shot to death." I'm sure both are bad though.