50 Medical Conditions That Are Way More Serious Than People Realize

Had to visit physical therapy several times across one year. One thing I notice is the magnitude of back pain problems triggered by bad daily routine and posture. These get ignored and gradually affect your quality of life. Some are reversable with phsyical therapy but others are too late to address to a full reverse point. Exercise and priortizing ones health is key here!

Persistent sinus infections. I used to get them all the time as a young teen between allergies and nasal polyps. I had one that would not go away. Went to the doctor’s office twice and was sent away with the reason being “it’s just a bug that’s been going around.” WrongO! I ended up in the ER. Turns out it may have started as a sinus infection, but it turned into a brain infection. The same thing happen to a family member 15 years prior. A kid at the high school I attended died from the very same thing a few years after I had mine.

One thing people ignore until it’s too late is chronic stress.

It sneaks up slowly. At first it just feels like normal life. You have work pressure, bills, family responsibilities, and you keep telling yourself everyone feels this way. You push through it because that’s what you’re supposed to do. You think you’ll rest once things settle down, but they never really do.

Meanwhile your body is under constant strain. Your sleep gets worse, your appetite changes, you feel tense all the time, and you stop enjoying the things that used to help you relax. Over time your blood pressure rises, your immune system weakens, and your mood starts to fall apart. Then one day it catches up to you and your body forces you to stop.

The hardest part is that you usually can’t see the damage happening. There is no obvious warning sign. But the toll adds up quietly. Taking care of yourself early, even in small ways, isn’t a luxury. It is maintenance. You only get one body, and it needs rest just as much as it needs effort.

Sleep apnea. "It's just snoring" until you have a heart attack in your sleep in your 40s.

BigBlueF150:

This was me. I put off having a sleep study for way too long. When I finally had it done, the doctor asked if I was actively trying to die in my sleep.

Signs of insulin resistance, the big one being waist circumference beyond the recommended measurements 35”.
I was marching myself towards type 2 diabetes and thought I was doing fine with exercise until I started have atrial fibrillation several times per week. Then I had to really get on track with my dietary choices.
If I hadn’t developed afib, I probably would have just kept going, thinking I’ll just always be a little overweight, and it’s no big deal, and then ended up with diabetes and probably a stroke or a heart attack.
I’m actually glad my heart gave me this warning that I couldn’t ignore.

Hypertension. I've known/heard about people ignoring their symptoms for years until they're being rushed to ER with a heart attack or stroke. I passed off the symptoms for years as anxiety since the symptoms are very similar and I have PTSD/anxiety. I'm now on medication. Still have anxiety, but nothing compared to the hypertension levels I was feeling pre-meds.

Not necessarily ignored, but not taken seriously in my mom's case: chronic pain and swelling.

For about 6 months, my mom had chronic and worsening stomach/abdominal pain. She initially wrote it off as diverticulitis, which she had dealt with before. Doctors waved her off as it just being because she was severely overweight. Then came the abdominal swelling. It started small at first, but the doctors didn't think too much about it thinking she had just gained more weight.

Turned out to be ascites causing both the pain and swelling. They culminated into causing a full bowel obstruction that landed her in the ER. Underlying cause of the ascites turned out to be stage 4 gynecological cancer. She managed to walk again after being bedbound for 2 months, but lost the fight after about 9 months of treatment.

Please, if you are having any symptoms like hers and the doctors are not taking you seriously...

*Push back!* Advocate for yourself!

I sometimes wonder if things would have been different if I had pushed her to go to a different doctor and not accept the old, 'it's because you're fat' answer.

Massive bruising after an injury to a leg.

When I was in my mid twenties I popped my right knee out of joint while at work, ( have since been diagnosed with joint hypermobility) this was around 1983 or so, back then no work, no pay, and I had a wife and family so I just wrapped it and went back to work the next day

The leg was one big bruise from mid thigh to mid calf, and when I told my family doc about it he said don't ever do that, with that kind of bruise in a leg you could have developed a blood clot.

At that age you're indestructible though, or you think you are, lol.

Most of them.

I used to work in a cardiovascular ICU and there were way too many patients who would have a decrease in exercise tolerance, function, energy levels overall, and not doing anything about it for weeks. And I’m talking about like, sleeping downstairs on the couch because they can’t make it up the stairs to the bedroom without getting winded.

Rapid weight gain, rapid weight loss, abnormal swelling, dramatic changes to your bathroom habits, all need to be checked out.

Obesity. It really sneaks up on you. If you are a 5'9" adult you are considered to be obese if you are over 203lbs. People don't realize how bad it impacts their life. Joint damage, heart disease, cholesterol, Blood Pressure... and damage to small blood vessels so impotence. Not to mention being overweight makes you less likely to exercise which makes you even more overweight. Before you know it you are looking at a heart attack or stroke.

Hitting your head and losing consciousness. Brain bleeds often don’t show any symptoms until you go down, dead.

I’m only alive because my coworker insisted I get in the ambulance. He was right. I checked out , but the crew got me rebooted. (Defib, breathing , etc).

weirwoodheart:

It's actually more common NOT to lose consciousness with a concussion than to lose it. This was one I had to tell patients a lot when they brushed off their head injuries as 'oh but I wasn't knocked out'.

Weight loss.

Had a few friends who were considered overweight, went onto better diets, exercise etc and the weight just falls off them, great eh?

Except when they hit their target weight and it keeps on dropping off despite going back to a normal diet.

Both were checked out and both had terminal cancer, one lasted two weeks, the other a month.

My primary doctor gaslighted me when I started losing my hair, feeling cold, feeling crazy fatigued shaky and matted hair and oversleeping. My doctor told me that I was just having anxiety and tried to put me on Xanax and I was having other symptoms like irregular periods and I asked if I can see a endocrinologist because 2 months prior I went to the hospital and they found that I had a thyroid number over five which means I wasn't making enough hormones. He dismissed that and told me that I was just having anxiety and that anxiety can cause all of those and that I didn't need an endocrinologist because he was all that I need and a gastroenterologist because I have a family history of gastro problems. My plan did not require his approval and I went to an endocrinologist I told her my symptoms and she even saw that I had some chin hairs and she said based on the symptoms that I told her she thinks that I had hypothyroidism PCOS and Hashimoto's and then she did a blood test within 3 months and it confirmed that I had all three. I am now on thyroid medications and Metformin. I fired my primary doctor and went somewhere else! So no it wasn't all in my head if you're not making enough thyroid levels you're going to have the symptoms that I just described and along with PCOS it is a double whammy! I've been doing better since then but it's sad that that doctor failed me and to top it all off I found out that Xanax would have interacted with one of my medications that I was taking. He even failed a cancer patient and started celebrating when a cancer patient was losing 60 lb in one month and he later found out somewhere else that he had cancer and he died months after that!

I had a friend that ignored his abdominal pain for a long time. He kept on taking Tylenol to push through it.

Turns out it was stomach cancer. Bill left behind a wife and two young daughters when he passed.

Please, if you're experiencing ANY abdominal pain which lasts for more than 24 hours get seen by a physician.

Acid reflux.

Watch your diet early. Avoid overdrinking and overeating. Eat spicy foods once in a while, not as the defining characteristic of your personality.

Not a doctor, but if one of your pupils is dilated and the other isn't, get it seen to asap. Happened to a pal of mine who showed a doctor friend more as a 'isn't this weird?' thing as he felt totally fine and the doctor sent him straight to the ER. Turns out he had some sort of arterial issue that needed immediate attention.

Infections that are persistent can turn septic and deadly. A former colleague had wrist surgery and was dealing with an infection off and on for weeks. Kept putting off going back to the doctor - it was “busy season” for tax filings. April 12th she was rushed to the ER and never came back.

Eating a food that you're mildly allergic to.

There will be one day when it isn't mild.

As a general practitioner and former ER doc: Anything related to metabolic health, like hypertension and diabetes. Usually people only grow to care for it (if ever) when they already have chronic kidney disease, heart failure, vision loss, diabetic ulcers... only then it's too late. And so they come to the ER with an emergency related to those...

Weight. A lot easier to lose a little than a lot.