Yup. Brain cancer most of the time.
Reading these stories here make me glad I’m the kind of person that goes to the doctor the moment I notice something’s off.
But the one exception for that was when, for “some reason”, for an entire month, I always started feeling fatigued after only being awake for a couple hours. It felt like there was a pressure in my head, and it felt like there was a rubber band around the top of my head (above my forehead). (Some of you probably know where I’m going with this now.) Thinking it was just seasonal allergies or poor sleep (I had a bad habit of “late to bed, early to rise”), I just toughed it out.
It took until my ears started feeling clogged that I realized what was going on. I’d apparently been dealing with a sinus infection for an entire month, and my ears were starting to get infected from it now. I’d never had a sinus infection without having been sick prior to it before. (I tend to get ear and sinus infections after every cold.) So it kinda surprised me, and it’s why it didn’t even cross my mind until I started feeling the effects of the ear infection. I think I took 2-3 rounds of antibiotics to clear it up, and I also took a round of steroids to immediately open me up and help me drain.
This is sort of similar to how I got diagnosed with IBD. I’d had bleeding for a month in the rear end, nothing big just small bits of blood. Which is a symptom of a flare up. Ibd is basically inflammation of the bowel btw.
Eventually the inflammation got so bad that I ended up with swollen feet and I couldn’t walk. The inflammation in the bowel led to an infection in my feet and the first day I had the swelling (I went to bed the night before and woke up with it) I went to A and E (I’m in NI which is part of the UK and so it was the NHS) They sent me home with ibuprofen and told me that my feet were swollen because of something muscular, also told me to use epsom salts in a bath so I bought two big fuck off bags on amazon. The next day my feet got worse so I phoned my GP practice and met with a Dr later in the day and he suspected an illness which largely affects kids, so he sent me to A and E that day to get tests done. Anyway about 6 days later after multiple blood tests, a biopsy and an iron infusion and a transfusion (I had bad anaemia) I was diagnosed with IBD.
Hasn’t worked for me. My partner made me go to the ER today. I’ve been completely deaf in my right ear for a month now. They said that wasn’t an emergency and sent me out with a prescription for Flonase. On top of that. After I left I read my paperwork. They wrote down that my blood pressure was 177 over 114. But never said anything about it. That probably should also have been addressed but whatever.
That’s what I get for having no insurance in the US.
Super duper go see an ENT doc. Emergency room really is for emergencies. Mom’s been and emergency nurse for decades and hates the system but it is the way it is.
Ask your GP if you have one.
Certainly losing your hearing in one ear absolutely sounds like an emergency to me. Going death slowly over time is different.
Go back and tell them you smell burning toast.
Heh, I would, but unfortunately every time I go there and they blow me off they charge me at least a few hundred dollars. Of course I’ll never pay that, but this is why folks don’t go to the emergency room.
Also, I just want to add that this isn’t a small hospital. This is the world famous UAB hospital. You’ve probably never heard of it, but UAB the college and hospital pretty much are Birmingham, Al.
I live in Alabama. We have Medicaid but at a whopping 14k a year I was told I make too much. I have applied many times. I am also a stay at home parent for a special needs child. But every time it comes back denied.
I went and registered for a charity hospital. The thing they seemed hung up on was how much my rent is. But I’m having to pay $50 a visit to go there. Which is full price.
I don’t know. Honestly, I have come to terms with the fact that I will die relatively young. Lack of medical care is a real thing. Just to be clear. I’m not saying that I am going to do anything to speed up the process on purpose. But I’m an old millennial and my quality of life has plummeted. As I’ve stated in other threads life just isn’t fun anymore.
Well shit, that’s awful.
The thing they seemed hung up on was how much my rent is.
Do they want you homeless or something? It kind of sounds like it. We really need universal healthcare, as flawed as that can be sometimes. This is ridiculous. Our country can be so great and generous and then you hear about this kind of shit. I’m sorry you’re going through it.
I don’t have the terrifying story a lot of people have here but I can confirm every time my SO has made me go to the ER/Urgent Care, I have returned with weeks worth of painkillers and other drugs to fix the issue.
Yeah I’ve lived this…
Years ago I had a rash under my arm that wouldn’t go away, at first I thought it was just because I had swapped deodorant or I switched back, then I assumed it was now just aggravated because I was spraying stuff on a rash so stopped and was putting cream on it, after about 3-4 weeks it had spread around to my back and the wife saw it when I hopped out of the shower one night and told me to go to the doctor’s. I was like yeah guess I should, another week passed and she asked me to meet her at the shops after work, I arrive and she had booked me a doctor’s appointment… As soon as I took my shirt off the doctor gasped and said I had to go to ER immediately, I stupidly went home and had a shower first then went to ER, handed them the letter from the Dr and skipped the whole queue, triage nurse is slipping a cannula in and putting me on penicillin while I’m still being checked in… ended up in hospital for 5 weeks with a severe case of cellulitis so bad they brought the medical students passed me every morning…
Thing is I felt fine the whole time, no pain at all, didn’t feel sick and the whole time they’re telling me it’s life threatening…
that sounds terrifying - did they tell you how close you were to being too late?
Honestly wasn’t terrifying because I felt fine and no they never told me that just that it was serious. The worst part of the whole experience for me was my are had to be elevated the whole time and that meant every second… I had to walk around with this pole on wheels with a sling to keep it up even in the toilet or shower and even sleeping it had to be straight up
Funny… I’ve been going through a health issue I have been seeing doctors for, but just like you, I basically feel fine. The only time I don’t is within a few minutes of getting up in the morning, I dry heave. But once that’s over, I’m fine. Except when it comes to food. I don’t want to be around food. I don’t want to smell it. I don’t want it in my mouth. I don’t want to chew or swallow it. My doctor described it as being like anorexia except with a physical cause. As a last ditch resort before going to the Mayo Clinic, I got my gallbladder removed after a surgeon saw the results of a scan and gave it a 50/50 chance of working. It may just be working, because I haven’t wanted to eat yet, but I’ve stopped heaving.
So yeah, I’d say 90+% of the time, I feel just fine. No nausea, no pain, no dizziness, nothing. I just can’t stand food. It sucks, because I like to eat and I’ve lost a ton of weight and living on Ensure and Gatorade is a really boring diet, but other than now that I’m recovering from the surgery, I haven’t felt sick at all and I haven’t since this started (a year in total, this bout of not eating since August).
Same thing happened to me but I was 11yo. They told my parents another week and I could have died.
I had doctors and nurses checking on me like ever 30m and I felt fine.
Same, my partner nearly died around the same age from a tiny infected glass cut that developed cellulitis.