BuzzFeed – Medical professionals and others shared the warning signs that people often ignore, which could signal a serious health issue.
1. “Little lumps on your gum. Now, it could be a fibroma or a bony growth, but especially in decaying teeth, it could be a dental abscess (where the pulp is infected) and could lead to more serious health conditions, IV drips, and even death if not treated.”
—Anonymous
2. “I specialize in obesity and nutrition: If you lost more than 30% of your weight on a GLP-1 like Ozempic or Wegovy, you likely need other stuff checked out. I’ve seen multiple instances of cancers missed because we were blaming the Wegovy, and they had colon cancer.”
3. “Don’t ignore sudden severe itching in pregnancy; this can be a sign of liver disease and may need early delivery of the baby and possible liver transplant eval.”
4. “When someone says, ‘You know, I lost vision in that eye a couple of weeks ago. But I had another appointment that day, so I waited two weeks to come in.’ Or some variation. Happens all the time. If you suddenly lose vision in one eye, get to an eye doctor immediately. Don’t wait. It’s always less fixable with time.”
5. “Stomach cramps/abdominal pain that can lead to a burst appendix. Usually, it feels like really bad acid reflux.”
6. “MD, Interventional Cardiology. STEMIs, for me. [A ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction is a severe type of heart attack caused by a complete blockage of a coronary artery, leading to a total lack of blood flow and oxygen to part of the heart muscle.]
People have had chest pain for six days, but only come in because it still hasn’t gone away. Whoops, your entire anterior wall is dead because you came in too late for revascularization. I hope you don’t mind wearing an external defibrillator for the next three months.” …
