People Share Their Strangest Health Scares

Nearly everyone’s experienced a health scare in their life at some point, and for many people, it might even be pretty recently. And because we take our health seriously, these moments are enough to send us to the professionals. From unexpected illnesses to sudden, unexplained pains, our bodies have many ways to frighten us.

When it comes to feeling like something’s not quite right with your health, you’ve got some tough choices to make. Take some medicine? Tough it out? Deal scheduling yourself in with a primary care doc? What if you might need to go to the emergency room? Is it even that serious?

These Reddit users shared some of their health scares of their own. Some of these were very serious, and some turned out to be pretty much nothing at all. But all of them felt the common fear that comes with their bodies reacting in ways they didn’t expect.

The Dreaded Lump

My big scare was that I discovered that I had a small lump on the right side of my chest this past November. Yep, that was a lot of “fun.” While it ended up turning out to be nothing (thank goodness, right?), I spent about a month being pretty worried about it.

The seriousness and the expediency that the medical staff treated it with (as they should!) sort of freaked me out about the whole thing. I’m glad this was nothing, but it’s a reminder to check yourself regularly. Breast cancer’s no joke. Guys, that includes you! Reddit User: Hatcheling

Felt Like Dying

I had my first asthma attack in the middle of the night, but I didn’t know that was what it was. My chest felt like it was being stabbed and crushed at the same time. I went to the emergency room and they checked me immediately for all sorts of heart issues.

After a while, the nurse came in and explained that I contracted a rare cold strain that’s most commonly seen in elderly people. It attacked my lungs and caused me to have an asthma attack in the middle of the night with no warning. They said I was lucky I was young, or it would have killed me. Reddit User: supersoap_

Too Many Seizures

When I was sixteen years old, I had a six-month period of having repeated seizures every time I had my period, due to my hormones being totally imbalanced. It was really concerning because I lost a lot of short-term and long-term memory because of it.

All of the adults around me were on high alert in case I keeled over. It was really pretty awful. Even though it stopped when they figured out what the cause was, I was still under a microscope for years just to make sure it didn’t come back. Reddit User: low_calorie_doughnut

The First Herpes Outbreak

First of all, despite what most people think, herpes is just like the flu for people who happen to fool around from time to time. You’ll probably get it at some point, and it’s not a big deal, but the first outbreak of that type (and on that area of the body) can frankly be terrifying.

So it happened that I did the deed with someone, and then three hours later, I got a fever. Then a painful sore showed up, and I lost over 10% of my bodyweight because of how sick I got. It was scary, but at least I know now that herpes is common and okay. Reddit User: [redacted]

It’s Not a Tumor

I went to the doctor a few years ago and they told me that I probably had thyroid cancer because my thyroid was all lumpy and huge. It turns out that I just have an autoimmune thyroid disease that makes the thyroid grow, which is very much not cancer!

I do have to get checked out at the hospital a few times a year to make sure, it’s not more serious though. To be fair, I think I’d take a random autoimmune thyroid disease over thyroid cancer any day, so I guess I’d call that a win? Reddit User: [redacted]

When Genetics Is Scary

For almost a year, I was rushing to the bathroom to pass mucus and blood about 10-15 times every day. I was only in my twenties, so I was obviously pretty terrified that I had colon cancer because I have a family history of it and three of my grandparents had it.

Luckily, it turned out to be ulcerative colitis and not cancer. I mean, ulcerative colitis is still certainly not a walk in the park, but hey, it’s no cancer. I changed my diet and took medication for it, and now I’m doing fine. Reddit User: StarGentleUterus

The Rainbow Roll

I got a rainbow roll at a sushi place in the mall, which had all kinds of fish and shrimp. I put sriracha on it and ate the whole thing. Five hours later, I started getting itchy; when I went to the bathroom, I saw I was covered in hives. I woke my parents up, then blacked out; they decided it’d be a good idea to take me to the hospital.

On the way there, I was losing my sense of hearing and sight, and I couldn’t stand up or walk. The doctors eventually decided it was an allergic reaction, but when I took an allergy test for fish and shellfish, I came out clean. No one knows what caused the reaction, but I avoid fish and shellfish and sriracha now. Reddit User: chancho405

A Brain Abnormality

I participated in a psychology study that required a basic MRI scan to match up to my brain activity. I was too claustrophobic for the full scan but managed the quick 5-minute one. A few weeks later, I got an incredibly vague email saying I had an abnormality and needed to be referred to neurology for further scans.

It turned out to be a small, common cyst that a bunch of people have, but that first email scared the heck out of me. I wasn’t really comforted until I got the results from more recent scans that confirmed everything’s totally fine. Reddit User: mysecretoutlet

Mystery Pain

When I was 9 years old, I started getting side cramps all the time out of nowhere. They ended up being so bad I struggled to breathe. I’d also get sharp, intense head pains. I went to multiple specialists and had dozens of tests run, but no one could figure out what was going on or why I was having these symptoms.

A few years later, my sister thought to check my medication. One of my asthma medications had side cramps listed on there as a possible side effect. When I got permission to stop taking the medication, sure enough the symptoms stopped too. Reddit User: [redacted]

An Unusual Rash

I got a butterfly rash (a rash that goes across the nose and cheeks) on my face when I was around 19 years old. I went to the doctor because it felt like it was on fire every time I moved or touched it. The doctor calmly explained we needed to test for lupus.

He then gave me some steroid cream to get the rash to settle down. He called me just a few days later and delivered the good news: it wasn’t lupus! I still have no idea what caused the rash, though. But I was pretty relieved. Reddit User: dearmissally

They Say Stress Kills

For a long while, the stress in my life was cranked to a dial of 11, which made me have occasional panic attacks. One day, while I was at work, I felt a crippling pain in my chest that actually brought me to my knees. I felt a shooting pain rush through my left side.

It got to the point that breathing was painful and I thought I was having a heart attack. After being rushed to the hospital, I got confirmation that I didn’t have a heart attack. I never got an “official” reason for the event, but the doctors told me to take better care of myself. Reddit User: ManBearPaul

The Worst Outcome

Once time I actually had to be airlifted to the hospital with a back injury from playing rugby when I was younger. Rugby, if you’re not aware, is a really aggressive physical sport, after all. As I lay on the ground, waiting for the helicopter to arrive, I was convinced I would be wheelchair-bound forever.

It’s every rugby player’s worst nightmare. It was honestly terrifying. Luckily, while the back injury was a nasty one for sure, it was nothing permanent. I turned out to be fine, which I’m really grateful for. But it was definitely scary though. Reddit User: ludicrousgib

Not Okay “Down There”

I was in my teens, and my dad had just been diagnosed with testicular cancer. I noticed that I had this weird, painful lump that made it hard to walk or even sit down. I tried to leave it alone, but it was just this really bad irritant that wouldn’t go away.

Luckily, it had turned out to just be a cyst, but it was a terrifying few days until we figured out what it actually was. Getting cancer is awful, no matter what age. I was just terrified I would end up the same way that my dad had! Reddit User: moleware

They Just Stopped Working

My legs suddenly became paralyzed and no one could figure out why. It was just one day I upped and collapsed, and then I couldn’t walk. After about a week though, they just starting working again. Then I had tingling sensations and issues with weak limbs.

I thought I might have had multiple sclerosis since it’s often something that’s diagnosed in women when they’re in their 20s.There was no cause, at least that the doctors or anyone else could figure out. The symptoms stopped after a year. Reddit User: dottywine

It’s Normal, Really

I had these weird brown spots in the middle of my chest that showed up when I was around 12 years old. Then suddenly one day, when I was 21, they had spread from my chest down to my stomach, over my neck, over my back, down my arms, and onto my chin.

I freaked out at the sudden spread and went to see a dermatologist about it. She took one look and said, “Oh, it’s tinea versicolor,” then gave me a 10-dollar prescription. It cleared up in four days. Apparently, it’s a common fungal infection caused by the yeast on your skin. Reddit User: [redacted]

He Couldn’t Walk It Off

I was walking to campus for a class and my groin started to hurt with every step that I took. After a few hundred yards of walking, I felt like I was going to start throwing up from the pain. I went to a clinic nearby, and they sent me to the emergency room.

I ended up staying there overnight and had a bunch of different doctors and nurses checking me out. It turned out that I had something called testicular torsion. Luckily, I didn’t need an operation. Everything turned out fine, but it was scary. Reddit User: eaz135

Something Wasn’t Right

A little while after I had my tonsils and adenoids removed, I went home and started to throw up blood. I got rushed to the emergency room and would up filling  a whole bucket with blood. Eventually, I threw up a blood clot that was the size of my fist.

After this, they decided to suction my throat out and put me back into surgery. Apparently, when they had taken my tonsils out, they clipped a little bit extra and didn’t stitch everything up the way they were supposed to. Reddit User: uglyhandwriting

It’s Just a Cold

I’d been sick for about a week or so and had been experiencing some bad soreness in my back. I chalked it up to the stress of moving into a new place and carrying boxes. But a week later, I woke up unable to breathe, feeling like I’d just run for miles.

I checked into the ER, and they told me they were going to sedate me for a bit to see if that helped my body recover. Two weeks later, I woke up from a coma. Apparently, I have a rare autoimmune disease that caused both my lungs to hemorrhage. I had to re-learn how to walk, talk, and swallow. Reddit User: coletastrophe

I Can Feel That

I went in for surgery to have a tethered cord fixed. That’s when your spinal cord isn’t working properly. Naturally, I was quite nervous, because you don’t want someone messing around with your spine. I also wasn’t quite all the way under the anesthesia when they started.

I was still awake when the surgeon made his first cut down the base of my back. The worst is that I couldn’t see, hear, or even speak, but I felt every inch of that incision. I very much would not recommend that to anyone. Reddit User: theonetruecripple

Careful of the Bath

I one time got out of the bathtub and actually almost blacked out. My brain was just repeating itself and I couldn’t even manage to think straight. My lungs just didn’t seem to be able to grab any oxygen. I sat down on the floor for a little while to rest.

Eventually I was able to think clearly again. I don’t know what happened. I thought that I’d had a stroke. Luckily, it was just a really bad case of my blood pressure dropping severely. Now I know to limit my long, hot baths. Reddit User: Premane

Eye Doctor Appointment

I was 11, having my usual appointment with the eye doctor. They do their usual thing of briefly shining a light into my right eye, before moving on to my left. Then the optician did something really weird. She kind of leans in and starts shining it at the same part of my eye, over and over.

She then tells my mom I have to go to the hospital immediately. So the final consultant said that the best diagnosis, in his opinion, was a mass of calcium deposits behind my eye or something, I’m not sure.  I basically just got a shrug and who knows, but that’s better than having cancer, so I’ll take it. Reddit User: salaciainthedepths

Something on My Lung

I once got an X-ray for something; I don’t remember what the initial thing was, but some of my lung was in the picture. My doctor called and said they wanted to do another one because something strange showed up on my lung! I was pretty worried about it.

I tend to be a bit of a hypochondriac, so I was especially freaking out honestly. Turned out to be an “artifact.” Sometimes one blood vessel will be lined up strangely and block another one so it looks strange on an X-ray. Anyway, not lung cancer. Reddit User: [redacted]

It’s Not the Flu

I got sick with what I thought was the flu. It started with muscle aches, headaches, and fever. Moved on to diarrhea, dramatic weight loss. I lost 20 pounds in 15 days and had chills, and night sweats. Went to see my doctor, who immediately ordered blood tests for HIV because she thought I was seroconverting.

I got the tests and then I had to wait 10 days for results. Spent a lot of time crying and kept having nightmares from which I woke up screaming. The tests came back; all negative. Doctor said it was probably a fungal thing called valley fever. Reddit User: InertiasCreep

Is It a Stroke?

I was at work one time and I just started seeing a whole bunch of zig zag lines in my vision, in addition to flashing lights. I sat down and it wasn’t getting better; after about a half hour, mom picked me up and rushed me over to the emergency room.

In the ER, the worst headache I’ve ever had starts, with me feeling weak in my arms and legs (probably from anxiety). At this point, I’m convinced I’m having a stroke at 18 years old. Ends up it was an ocular migraine caused by birth control. I never had migraines before that. Reddit User: [redacted]

Little Lumpy

I once discovered a lump on my testicle. I went to the doctor the next day for them to confirm the lump and send me to go get an ultrasound. I then spent the next four weeks worried sick about it, so much so that I wasn’t sleeping or eating very well.

I then got the scan and had to wait another two weeks for the results. I went to the follow-up with the doc to tell me it was a 1mm x 1mm cyst and he didn’t know how I found it. But it was nothing to worry about. Little lumpy is still there to this day. Reddit User: Kimmy1990

Strange Pee and Bruises

I had bruises where my kidneys are, one identical bruise on either side. I ignored it for about five or six days because I honestly was just scared and didn’t want there to be anything wrong. And I was also urinating very dark urine. Eventually, I got freaked out enough and went to the doctor.

They ended up doing a urine test and said everything was perfectly fine. Apparently my urine was dark from me exercising too much, and the bruises were from holding my hands on my hips too much. My thumbs caused the bruises. Reddit User: Runs_Toward_Fire

Cat Scratch Fever

When I was about two years old, my neck was super swollen, and the doctors thought that I had lymphoma. My parents were pretty terrified. To this day, my mom talks about how she cried when they pulled me away on the red wagon to get my lymph node biopsy.

The doctor’s office had this cute wagon that they took the kids to the operating room in, because it made it less scary. Turns out, I had cat scratch fever. Super rare, and I’ve never met anyone else with it. I was totally fine, but my lymph nodes still swell like crazy sometimes to this day. Reddit User: BarnaClip

I Was Constipated

I was dating my boyfriend for two weeks at this time, when something weird happened. We were Christmas shopping when I got this terrible sharp pain in my abdomen. I thought it might be appendicitis, so my boyfriend rushed me to the hospital. They doped me up on pain medication.

I confessed my love to my boyfriend of, again, two weeks. Yikes. The doctors came back in with my results. Turns out, I was constipated. I didn’t know constipation could hurt so much. My boyfriend and I are still together, two years later. Reddit User: [redacted]

Chest Pains

When I was fifteen years old, I had a cold. But I also was experiencing the worst chest pains of my life. I was terrified because it was honestly becoming hard for me to breathe. We ended up going to the hospital and staying there for a number of hours.

They did some tests on me and set up an EKG. At about 1 in the morning, they came back to us and told us that I just had really bad chest congestion from my cold. They gave me some children’s medicine you can buy in a store (don’t remember which one) and sent me on my way. Reddit User: Hawaiian_Brit

Take ALL Your Medicine

I got MRSA in my bloodstream from coming across rusty and dirty barbed wire. I started getting these cysts all over my body in random places. They would just pop up like once a week or so. I took medication to get rid of it but forgot to take them a couple of times.

Because of that, the MRSA had survived. More cysts then popped up in random places and eventually on my knee too. I freaked out, and I didn’t want to mess up my knee, so I made sure to take all the pills the second time around. Reddit User: rednecktash

Stomach Pain

I’d never had any kind of severe stomach pain before, so this particular pain made me feel like I was dying. I couldn’t stand up or move, but I couldn’t lie down either. I didn’t feel like going to the bathroom or throwing up though. It was very strange.

This went on for about 15 minutes, and we were about to drive to the hospital when it calmed down a bit and I fell asleep. I woke up and it was just gone. Like it never happened. I didn’t have any other symptoms or any stomach pain since then. Reddit User: maievsha

She Needed to Fart

I’ll never forget how upset my friend was when she had to take her only living aunt to the emergency room because she was having pain. I told her if she needed anything to let me know. The next day she calls me and invites me out to meet up with her.

She tells me in person that her aunt just had gas. She just needed to fart. She couldn’t tell me over the phone because her aunt made her swear not to tell anyone. I laughed and was relieved; so was she, but the aunt was super embarrassed about it. Reddit User: uwillnevahknow

Chest Pain, Numbness, Dizziness

I was experiencing chest pain and numbness on the entire left side of my body, with dizziness and incredibly high blood pressure. I went to my primary care physician’s office, and they ended up calling an ambulance for me to take me to the emergency room.

All the ER said was that I wasn’t having a heart attack. Fast forward two weeks; I’m experiencing all the same symptoms but add in nausea, extreme abdominal pain, and an inability to eat. I went back to the ER. Turns out I had a UTI. Most of the symptoms went away after they treated the UTI. Reddit User: luckycatsweaters

Infected v. Impacted

I went to the dentist a few days ago, and she told me that one of my wisdom teeth was infected. I had no idea what this could have meant, because honestly I had never heard of anyone else having this problem. Immediately I start panicking internally.

I went to have wisdom tooth surgery, and my ride home asked the doc about the infected wisdom tooth, He said, “Nope, not infected. None of your wisdom teeth were.” I was super relieved. This has me questioning if my dentist meant to say “impacted.” Reddit User: [redacted]

Stressing Doesn’t Help

I one time tripped and fell directly on my groin. One of my balls ascended, and I had trouble getting arousal  for a few days before I went in to get it checked out. The doctor couldn’t find anything wrong and suggested it might be that I had slammed down on my sack so hard it pinched the nerve that controlled that part of the body.

The worst part was that the doctor said that it might not get any better. Three months later of having the issue, it turns out that I had just bruised that nerve, and it took longer to heal because I was stressing over it so much. Reddit User: foreverkasai

Don’t Lock Your Knees

I nearly passed out during choir practice in high school this one time. I was dizzy, had bad tunnel vision, and everything sounded distant and muffled just before it happened, too. The whole nine yards. The teacher was worried about me and called my mom.

I got better pretty quickly after I fell back into my chair. It’s probably 8 or 9 years later and I’m not dead, so it was probably nothing. Looking back, I realize it was because I was locking my knees, but my teacher was so scared. Reddit User: Aperture_T

You Need Therapy

Every couple of months, I would have these periods of 3-4 hours where I literally couldn’t stand up/walk on my own. I saw over twenty different specialists who were convinced that I had a tumor, or brain cancer, or some super rare life-threatening disease.

It was just a psychological condition that makes stress manifest itself physically. After fearing that I had a terminal illness for 4 years, getting the news that I just had to go to therapy for a couple months to be able to WALK again was amazing. Reddit User: paracrazy

Adrenal Gland Tumor After Car Accident

I was in a car accident in 2011. During the trip to the emergency room, I had a CT scan done. They found a mass on my adrenal gland that looked consistent with a tumor. The urologist also thought it was a tumor. He ended up calling around town to find the best radiologist he knew who could get me in the next day.

As it turns out, I had broken my ribs during the car accident, and the ribs rammed into my adrenal gland, leaving a hematoma there. The “mass” had shrunk by a quarter of the size by the time of the second CT. It turned out not to be a big deal. Reddit User: [redacted]

It’s Still There

When I was a kid, I felt this small lump just behind my ear. I’ve always been terrified of getting cancer and thought I was going to die. I told my mom about it and saw the sheer terror in her eyes. She said if it’s still there tomorrow, we are going to the doctor.

It was still there, but I told her that it wasn’t. To this day, I never had it looked at. 30 years later I still feel it, but I think it’s just a regular lymph node that’s slightly bigger than usual. It’s certainly not anything serious. Reddit User: iWatchCrapTV

Lucky I’m Young

I had a doctor in high school who was unconcerned when I suddenly developed vertical double vision (which was freaking out everyone in emergency, where I had gone initially) and lost about 60 lbs for no reason at all. A year or two later, I told him that my arm would fall asleep much faster than normal.

For example, when I raised it to ask a question in class, it would end up falling asleep almost immediately. Then he really thought there might be something wrong with me. MRI was ordered and a brain tumor was found (and treated!). Reddit User: Raygun77