What is the scariest medical symptom you ever had?

[Spinneret]

Bleeding from my backside, was fine in the end

 

[BrianL]

One day at work I stood up from my desk and felt a pinching in the joint at my left leg and pelvis. It was pretty strong. As the day went on, when I would sit or stand the pain was unbearable! I went home and as I walked up the steps my leg went totally numb, which fairly was better than the pain. I had a pinched sciatic nerve and herniated disc. Fortunately it was treated with steroids and PT, never rising to the need for surgery, though my little toes still experience numbness.

 

[lynxstch]

My heart racing out of my chest, not being able to catch my breath and had no energy to do anything. Diagnosed with A Fib. Fine for the last 2 1/2 years now.

 

[summerlyangel]

Heartrate in the 250s.

Racing heart, felt like it was pounding out of my chest for several hours. Vomiting, chest pain, faint. Thought it was anxiety at first and let it ride for several hours until the vomiting started. Then I just knew it must be a heart attack. Wasn't. Turned out to be an undiagnosed arrhythmia (AVNRT) that my providers had been treating as anxiety for 20+ years. You know, since I'm a woman, it must have been all in my head. Took an er visit and an electro cardioversion to see that it was something serious. The good news is that I had ALL the heart workup one can possibly have and my heart is structurally sound with no disease. An ablation and meds mostly cured me, though as I approach my 50s, my heart is becoming very sensitive to things like alcohol, caffeine, certain meds, heat and dehydration.

It wasn't the most painful, that was unmedicated childbirth, but it was absolutely the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced.

 

[barkley]

aphasia-my brain knew what i wanted to say but it was not what i was speaking.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Not gonna go into it here as people get the wrong idea, but it involved very heavy medication that I'm still on, 30 years on. I'll be on meds for the rest of my life. It involves systematic blood tests lest the dose becomes toxic and I, uh, die.

 

[tvguy]

Symptoms? No. Every concern my Doctor found turned up in routine blood work and CT scans with no symptoms. That lead to more tests which in turned out with good ends. But let's just say I have seen a lot of specialists and I am some of my Doctor's only patients with my situations. And other specialists question some of the findings until they peel the onion more in my tests and biopsies and find out those health oddities have been confirmed.

 

[JulieBeeRN]

Had a lot of swelling after my spinal fusion surgery and literally thought that I was going to die. That segued to a panic attack that didn't help. My HR was in the 250s and they were pushing meds and nothing helped.

 

[Moliphino]

I was severely anemic and being admitted to the hospital, so I knew it wasn't great. But when the nurse told me she had reclined my bed because my vitals were so bad that she was worried I was going to go into cardiac arrest that sort of drove home just how bad.

 

[tink2424]

Anxiety symptoms with burning in the chest and tingling in my extremities. I hate when I have my bad attacks.

 

[Tiggerish]

Last summer I was dizzy, disoriented and seeing things that were not really there. I ended up hospitalized because I was so severely dehydrated. My blood sodium level had dropped so low that I was considered critical. They had to restore the level slowly, too fast and you go into convulsions and heart issues and die. I was in the hospital for a week, rehab for three weeks followed by two months of at home PT.

 

[mickeyboat]

Bell's palsy - went to Urgent Care and then to the ER where stroke protocol was initiated before I even received my hospital bracelet. It was a scary, but thankfully short, time, and I will never complain about a long wait time in the ER again.

 

[Cadiewampus]

PSA was gradually getting higher at each visit till it got high enough that my primary thought a visit to a urologist was warranted. He scheduled an mri of prostrate showed nothing other than some enlargement. My primary called the results most unremarkable. First physical after that it was high again at 10 went back about 4 months later back down to a 6. Next stop urologist to find out why my most unremarkable prostate keeps going up and down.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Coughing and running a fever after my first Chemo.

 

[Disneychick75]

Anaphylaxis

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I had a melanoma removed from leg at the end of 2021. A few days later, shortly after the new year, it was looking red and there were some odd sensations. I had extensive nerve damage from the surgery, so we figured that's all the sensations were. There wasn't really any pain or heat, nor was a I running a fever. They put me on oral antibiotics for the redness and I continued to track my progress. It didn't look good, but a friend with more surgical experience insisted it was just bruising and the tightness was from standard surgical swelling. So, I tried to go on with the notion that it was normal...until it started dripping and oozing a nasty brown substance.

 

[pooh2001]

Drop foot
A couple of times both legs go numb
Fell down and could not get up
I use a cane to get around and not allowed to drive

 

[georgina]

Bad headache and stiff neck (bacterial meningitis due to a CSF leak)

 

[Dead2009]

high heart rate and pneumonia

 

[ambula603]

After my 2nd c-section, I had horrible fluid retention and swelling. Our first night at home I was awake in bed and felt like I couldn't breathe, that the fluid was up around my lungs. I just remember thinking what if I can't breathe and I die after just having this baby!? Hormones, lack of sleep, pain meds, etc all led me to believe I was dying for sure.

My daughter just had an allergic reaction to Bactrim and we thought it was turning into Stevens-Johnson syndrome for a bit. That was scary to wait and see if her skin started to peel off. (Thankfully it did not!)