Article created by: Kotryna Br
In 2022, 38% of Americans said they or a family member skipped or delayed medical care because of cost, according to a poll from Gallup.
27% of respondents said the treatments they passed over were for "very" or "somewhat" serious conditions or illnesses, while 11% percent reported neglecting to pursue care for non-serious health issues.
A random sharp pain above my right ear and my tongue curling slightly. I thought it was just old age. Doc recognized it instantly as something wrong with my tongue. The cancer has been cured for seven years.
Depression. Apparently losing all hope and being numb to joy isn't just a part of growing up.
It took my lungs collapsing at 17 years old before doctors realized I wasn’t breathing in deeply enough to expand the bottom half of my lungs for basically my whole life. They asked why I never complained about shortness of breath. I never knew breathing was supposed to be easier than what I was experiencing.
As a kid I had anxiety and my heart would race. Fast. It felt like a hummingbird in my chest and would abruptly pause and resume a normal pace after a few minutes. At age 23 I had a bad reaction to a tricyclic antidepressant called imipramine and was rushed to the hospital. They ran an EKG and that rapid heart rate was a congenital defect known as Wolfe Parkinson White syndrome. Basically I had an accessory or 2nd electrical system in my heart that would cause a “short circuit” occasionally and my heart rate would skyrocket. It was cured via a procedure using radio waves to form scar tissue around the accessory node because the impulse could not conduct through the tissue. No problems since.
Losing weight suddenly got a little easier, and I assumed it was due to my efforts. Happy with my success, I buckled down harder (funny how it's easy to keep "being good" when you're actually seeing results). I lost more! It actually got to be almost easy. I thought I was doing such a great job! Turns out it was cancer. I guess I should have known something was up, but I honestly thought I was just doing a really great job with my diet and exercise. Had 4 surgeries and treatment and I'm doing well. Now I'm on meds with all kinds of side effects, including weight gain. Yay. But I'm alive, and so much better off than many others. I've only gained a little bit back, despite working really hard not to.
Sharp, excruciating pain in my hand. Thought it was arthritis, it runs in the family.
Nope. Bone tumor, thankfully non-malignant, slowly eating its way through my hand.
Two surgeries (one to remove the tumor, one to get bone graft from my femur) done at once, some cadaver bone, lots of excruciating physical therapy and a gnarly scar later—no more pain!
Massively heavy periods in my 40s. I thought it was just perimenopause. Turns out it was adenomyosis.
Until I was 16 I thought everyone got stomach cramps a few times a day. Turns out I'm lactose intolerant. .
You know how you get all congested after excercising, and wheeze for a bit before everything settles down again? No? Yeah, that’s because most people don’t have excercise induced asthma. I was in my 30s before I knew that was a problem and not normal.
I thought I had bad period cramps. Then I thought I had acute food poisoning. Turns out I had ovarian torsion and my ovary was slowly dying over the course of a few days.
Bent over to pick something up and felt a twinge in my groin (I’m male). I thought perhaps it may be a hernia. I wasn’t too concerned about it then things started to ache a bit. I went to the doctor only to find out I had testicular cancer. Fortunately after we cut out lefty and got all the results back from pathology it was staged at 1A seminoma. Meaning the surgery alone was all the treatment I needed.
That pulled muscle was actually a collapsed lung. After days of hot baths, massages, trying to relax-nah, nothing helped. No wonder.
I kept telling my OB I was worried about my legs/ankles swelling in the later part of my pregnancy. They dismissed it—told me all pregnant people experience it.
At 39 weeks I got sent to the hospital for extra monitoring on the baby due to an irregular test . She ended up being fine but my blood pressure was crazy high. I was induced that night and then given an emergency C-section due to severe preeclampsia.
Not a fun start to my baby’s life but she’s here and healthy so I can’t be too upset.
Used to drop my makeup all the time when I was getting ready in the morning. Ugh, so clumsy. Ended up being myoclonic seizures.
I'd have these really minor facial twitches, like a single small muscle in my upper lip or eyebrow. Nothing even severe enough to be visible by others. However, they'd last for a few weeks straight, even while I was trying to sleep.
I didn't think twice about it. They always went away on their own, after all!
After I suddenly went blind in my left eye and got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I connected the dots.
Edit: Facial twitches are normal! Just because you have twitches often doesn't mean you have a problem, especially if you don't have any other reason to believe you have multiple sclerosis or any other disease. My twitches were CONSTANT for WEEKS. And even then, there are other, less serious (and probably more likely!) things that can cause that. Please don't let my comment stress you out.
