Article created by: Vėja Elkimavičiūtė
When it comes to health, all things should be taken seriously, whether it’s a common cold or something way more severe. That is because unlike computer game characters, we can not use cheat codes or complete missions to refill the levels of our well-being.
Be that as it may, some people tend to disregard certain symptoms, which might actually be something that should be checked out. Medics among the ‘Ask Reddit’ community members shared what and why seemingly harmless signs shouldn’t be overlooked. Emphasizing the illnesses certain symptoms can be indicative of, they shared their insight after one of the redditors asked what signs mean it’s better to head to the hospital.
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Weight loss when you didn't try to lose weight. When you have cancer, the cancer uses up your bodies energy and basically burns calories. Very often it's the first sign something is wrong and everyone ignores it. It's only when they present with a second symptom, we realise had they come in with the weight loss 6 months ago, we would have picked it up at an earlier stage. After that, I'd love for people to take age more seriously. If you're under the age of 30, chances are whatever symptom you're having isn't that important. Don't google it and think it's caused by a life threatening disease, because google dosn't put the symptom in the context of your age. Sure young people do occasionally get sick, but on a population level, you're wasting your money and risking having unnecissary tests by going to the doctor with every symptom the day you first notice it. On the flip side, once you turn 40, you family medicine doctor should become you're new best friend. Any symptom lasting more than a few weeks should be investigated. You can't keep ignoring your health like you did in your 20s and 30s and get away with it. Unfortunately at times it feels like all the 20 years olds are demanding tests for silly symptoms, and none of the 40/50 year olds are taking their symptoms seriously. It's the 40 year old who probably has the curable cancer, that wont present with it until it become incurable.
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Oncologist reporting in.
That lump that doesnt go away. That cough that doesnt go away. That diarrhoea that doesnt go away. Basically anything new that doesnt at least start to get better over the next couple of weeks or months. Could be chipotle. Could be cancer.
Hopefully wont be seeing ya.
Sudden toothache in a 50+ female with good oral hygiene. Heart attacks present atypically in many women, often pain in the jaw or neck. (Paramedic here)
I'm not a healthcare professional in any way, but my grandmother had a stroke last year. The signs were barely visible, and I almost did not take her to the hospital.
One side of her face was dropping ever so slightly... you couldn't really tell unless you looked at a previous photo of her. I called my mother to confirm what I was seeing... she saw nothing. I made phone calls to hospitals to ask what I should do. They told me to take her to the hospital if I was concerned.
Sure enough she had a stroke... a mild one, but the signs were so so subtle.
Period so heavy it soaks through a pads in less than an hour.
For some people this is sort of normal but if you are bleeding through everything GO TO THE HOSPITAL!
Physician here.
It's impossible to list everything so I like to keep it simple.
You know your body and how you feel. Any abrupt unusual changes should be checked out.
A few:
- Unequal parts: Draw an imaginary line down the middle and if anything is unusually unequal such as Pupils, facial droop/sagging, 1 sided weakness
- Sudden pain to light, especially with associating headache/neck pain or flashes of light
- Changes in sensation or communication, hearing, vision, slurring of speech, etc.
- Unusual shortness of breath
- Sudden and/or severe abdominal pain
- Unexplained weight loss
- Unusual bleeding
- Unusual swelling
- Sudden Confusion
When in doubt, get it checked out.
Skin or whites of your eyes are unusually yellow
In kids-teenagers mostly- constant peeing, constant drinking, cloudy eyesight and sweet fruity breath (when they haven't eaten anything to cause that) can be diabetes. Also, be on the lookout for breath that smells like nail polish. Could be ketoacidosis.
Slurring their words without being under the influence of an intoxicant. An uncle was slurring his words while speaking to my aunt. She thought he might have been tired and told him to rest, but her friend suggested that maybe he should go to a doctor. Turns out my uncle was having a stroke. If he had laid down to rest, he may have never woken up.
If you just had an extremely hard workout and your pee is brown/red.
Hospital. NOW.
This means your kidneys are failing.
If you strike your head hard and you suddenly start vomiting with no nausea. Along the same vein:
If a head injury occurs and the person is unconscious for any lenght of time, has one pupil larger than the other, isn't acting right, is hard to wake up...it would be time to call 911 and get to the emergency room.
Sudden changes in cognitive and/or behavior are a telltale sign of UTI on the elderly.
I've seen a few elderly patients in critical conditions whose symptoms were attributed to age/getting old.
Obligatory "not any of these" but my mother is a nurse, and I had a horrifying experience because my stubborn father wouldn't tell her he wasn't feeling well.
Evidently, he'd begun having trouble breathing, felt light heated, sick to his stomach, and just generally not okay. My dad spent 25 years in the military and is the worst person when he's sick because he won't admit anything's wrong. If that man says the words "I think I should go to the hospital" he should've been on the way hours ago.
I come into the living room one day to find him unconscious on the floor in an awkward heep. I went into blank-brain panic mode and thought "hospital" and dragged him outside, to my car, got him in and buckled, and the tore out of there. Called my sis, who lived on the road to the hospital, and had her jump into the moving car.
By the time he'd been admitted, tests run, ventilator applied, and all that, he'd not only been diagnosed with pneumonia but also stage 2 kidney cancer.
Long story short, pay attention to your body. If you feel wrong, pushing it off will *not* make it go away, and you could get yourself killed. My dad nearly died that day, and all because he wouldn't speak up days earlier when he started feeling bad.
Kids get fevers all the time and feel sluggish. Not necessarily a big deal.
But if your child develops a fever and a RASH that won't blanch on pressing head to the emergency room ASAP. It could be meningococcal sepsis and is rapidly life threatening. If you are confused about whether it is non blanching just press over it with a drinking glass. Looking through the glass you should be able to tell pretty easily if the spots disappear on pressing or not.
Just a medical student, and this is more an eye thing. But flashes of light and a sudden increase in floaters (specks, hairs) in your vision is bad. Particularly if you are already myopic.
Also headaches in the morning, or when lying down, which lessens when you stand or sit up right. Particularly if associated with vomiting.
After head trauma, if there's bruising under the eyes (racoon eyes) or bruising behind the ear, this usually indicates a skull fracture
A lot of folks don't recognize the more common signs of concussion often include severe nausea, sweating, and a desire to lay down. It can seem like someone's got a sudden flu, so especially with kids, you should ask if they hit their head if they're suddenly sick
Loss of vision. Amazing how many times people come in and say they lost vision in one eye months ago.
Nurse here. I'm speaking on behalf of the elderly. Please just go to the doctor when you develop common cold symptoms. Too many times I've witnessed or heard about a perfectly healthy elderly person ignoring this, and ends up developing pneumonia. Pneumonia in the elderly is very dangerous and shouldn't be taken lightly.
Also, check the fingers for clubbing. When I was in nursing school I noticed an older guy, probably mid 50's who had clubbed fingers. I wanted to tell him to get it checked because he also smoked. I was still infantile and it got me nervous so I never did. 1 year later he developed pneumonia and come to find out he had stage 4 lung cancer. I can't help but think that if I would have said something it could have been caught earlier.
When you start experiencing vision loss, but both eyes are doing it independent of each other. When you're losing vision like that without a physical reason (like something in your eye) that means there's something wrong with your brain, and in some cases, that can mean the onset of a minor stroke. For example, you start losing a bit of vision in one corner of one eye, then in a completely different area at a different rate in the other one. I didn't get many of the "normal" signs but that one was a big one I ignored it.
ER nurse here. Everyone has listed stroke symptoms and heart attack symptoms... the most important time to seek help is with any airway and/or breathing issues. Anything that restricts your ability to breath is dangerous. Especially with kids. Kids have the ability to compensate very well but when their bodies lose that ability they tank very quickly.
Your child vomiting in the morning, even before breakfast. Not worrisome right away, but if it happens multiple times. Can be an early sign of brain cancer.
Blood in your urine - Many people neglect this, could be an inflammation of your kidney or bladder cancer.
