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Any time we suffer an injury, we know exactly what to do.
Depending in its severity, we either seek medical help or tend to our minor irritations, abrasions and such with simple antibacterial ointments and a band-aid.
However, there are some physical ticks or discomfort we think are symptomatic of an injury but in fact are caused by something completely unbeknownst to us unless we seek medical professional.
Curious to hear examples of these medical mysteries, Redditor Prudent_Tip4118 asked:
"What is the oddest thing you thought was ok/normal and ended up being a medical problem?"
These Redditors were stunned to discover the truth behind their odd physical ailments.
Not Just A Muscle Strain
"I thought I pulled a muscle playing with my dogs one day. One week later I finally go to the hospital because the pain is getting worse."
"Turns out I suffer from a genetic blood clotting condition and had a two foot log clot in my leg and multiple pulmonary embolisms on my lungs. Doctor was legit surprised I was alive."
– EchoRespite
Proper Breathing
"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."
– honeybeebzzz
"That pulled muscle was actually a collapsed lung. After days of hot baths, massages, trying to relax-nah, nothing helped. No wonder."
– bmbmwmfm2
"I had a spontaneous collapsed lung, it felt like there was a balloon in my chest inflating, because the air I was breathing would leak out and get trapped in my chest cavity."
– Kaizen2468
Got Milk?
"Until I was 16 I thought everyone got stomach cramps a few times a day. Turns out I'm lactose intolerant."
– go_eat_worms
"My 5th grade math teacher thought I hated her because I always got stomach cramps and asked to go to nurse. No, it was just the period after lunch, where milk was the only option to drink, and it turned out I had developed a lactose intolerance."
"I even went to the doctor about it and he told my mom I was making it up. It was the school secretary who figured it out."
– ana_berry
In The Zone
"My family told me I would randomly 'space out', although I never remembered, all thought it was normal. Turned out, I was having 'absence seizures."
"We only found that out at a routine doctor’s appointment, just conversing with the doc, when I guess I just came to and the doctor said she wanted to get a bunch of tests done. Been an epileptic for almost 17 years now."
"Edit: I woke up to all these upvotes and replies and was shocked, tbh to see how many of my Reddit fam has or had what I have. Unfortunately, my Epilepsy has evolved into tonic clonic seizures, I rarely have absence’s anymore, but had one focal back in November."
"For anyone who has friends and/or family who has seizures and Epilepsy, thank you for being there for them. Just know, we appreciate you all. For all that HAVE seizures and Epilepsy, UNITE!!! Love you all Reddit fam, you’re the best."
– Loves_me_tacos125
Excruciating Pain
"I thought I was constipated for a few days. Hurt like hell. Turned out to be diverticulitis and a perforated colon. My wife called the ER and they brought me in without triage and sent a chaplain. I lost a foot of my large intestines and almost died."
– VR6SLC
Sometimes our body tries to tell us something but the communication gets lost in translation.
Medical Marvel
"General stomach pain that I dismissed as perhaps constipation, but which would - every few years or so - send me to emergency worrying that it was my appendix. I was kicked out of emergency departments at different hospitals multiple times, because it was not."
"I moved to a new city and was lucky enough to score a decent family doctor who took it seriously. She told me she was rather impressed with the amount of 'referred pain' I was having and that I should go straight to emergency. I replied that there was not a hope in hell I would subject myself to that kind of humiliation again. No way."
"She sent me for a CAT scan and lo and behold, it WAS my appendix. She referred me to a surgeon, and on the day of my surgery no one in the hospital seemed particularly interested in my condition, I think most of the medical staff thought I was having unnecessary surgery though, curiously, they were MUCH nicer to me afterward. I recall a lot of people standing over me in the recovery room."
"The surgeon called me to come in for a meeting a couple of weeks later, and when I walked into his office he had an odd expression on his face. He told me my appendix was many times the normal size, probably because it had been infected and healed over the years, building up scar tissue."
"He asked me if I minded if he wrote it up in a medical paper or a textbook (I can't remember exactly which - he taught at the university). I gather at the time 'grumbling appendixes' were a bit of a unicorn and there had been much debate over whether they were real. So I guess my appendix settled that argument in the medical community once and for all."
– GoOutside62
Constant Facial Twitching
"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."
– hillbilly-man
Never Underestimate Erratic Weight Loss
"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."
– Grilled_Cheese10
The world completely changed for these lucky Redditors who recieved proper treatment after unexpected incidents.
Fluttering Heart
"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."
– Ambitious_Doubt_1101
Don't Always Chalk Things Up To Age
"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."
– cwsjr2323
The Ache
"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."
– disneyDaf
When The World Changed
"Not me, but one of my brother's friends in high school."
"This friend was a goober; always making silly but friendly jokes that make families laugh as a whole, all and all a genuinely funny person."
"One day he took my sister's glasses and was "acting like her" only to pause for a moment and then say 'wait...is this how things are supposed to look?'"
"My man needed glasses and found out from f'kin around. I'm glad the universe leaned towards him in a positive way as far as that went!"
– innerfatboy3
Beautiful Vision
"Had this happen recently on a much less severe scale. Approaching my mid 30s and have never had glasses. I did see an eye doctor a handful of times throughout my 20s just to check in, but my vision was always fine."
"One day a few months back, one of my coworkers insisted I try his glasses on. I don’t know why I obliged, but I’m glad I did because my vision has gotten so much worse and I didn’t realize it until that moment. It was so gradual, that I didn’t notice."
– TheProphetEnoch
While this didn't help with my hypochondriatic tendencies, there was some form of validation combing through these responses.
If you're unsure about that odd quirk you've been experiencing and it doesn't go away, you might want to get it checked out.
Sometimes it's better to address something than ignoring it, hoping the issue will go away on its own.