If you’re anything like me, you might Google every single symptom you’ve ever experienced. Well, at the risk of increasing your health anxiety, sometimes little ailments actually mean big problems. And over on Quora, someone asked, “What was something small you went to the doctor for that turned out to be very significant?” Here’s what people said in response.
1.“When I was 18 and at university, one of my friends asked if I could see OK, as he had noticed me squinting. I had had an eye check as a routine test at my general practitioner’s only a few months earlier and could read the bottom line of the chart. My eyesight was fine. Over the next few weeks, I also noticed I was squinting…”
“…I said I wanted to go when I went home for Easter. I got my mum to make an appointment, and she dropped me off. The optometrist was a friend of my parents. He was quite chatty and told me I was probably short-sighted. He said, ‘We won’t make any assumptions until after we do the check.’ At this point, I could not read the second line on the chart with either eye. This was only about three months after reading all the lines perfectly at the doctor’s. The optometrist went through the tests to see what glasses I needed and checked my eyes. He looked at me and said that I would need corrective lenses, but he wanted to call my mother and wait until she got there to discuss what was wrong with my eyes. I knew then it was severe.
My mum arrived ten minutes or so later, and he explained I have keratoconus and may go blind. Glasses would not correct my vision; I would need hard contact lenses and to see a special lens fitter in the city and an opthalmologist. In the meantime, I got glasses. I was 18. I was intolerant to contact lenses. A few years later, my sister also got the same diagnosis. She was also lens intolerant. At 26, I walked in front of a car and could not see; my eyesight was that bad. Even wearing glasses, I could not read the top line on the chart. That year, I had my first corneal graft (transplant); the following year, my other eye was done. I still cannot wear contacts but legally drive with glasses. It has been a rocky road, but I saw my kids reach adulthood.”
—Prudence B.
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2.“I went to my regular checkup with my cardiologist in January. I felt pretty good except for some ongoing chest pressure and fatigue. I had a stress test, echocardiogram, and event monitor within the previous ten months. Nothing significant showed up…”
“…The doctor decided that since this pressure hadn’t gone away, it was time for a heart catheterization. The next week, I went in for the cath, sure that it wouldn’t show anything the other tests wouldn’t catch. Boy was I wrong. I remember my doctor saying, ‘This isn’t good,” and he came closer to explain that my stent in a major artery was almost totally closed off due to an ostial lesion, and to re-stent would be dangerous. I had a cardiothoracic surgery consult and, the next day underwent a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). I was stunned, to say the least. I am feeling much better since the bypass!”
—Karen V.
3.“I was working a double at a restaurant one night. It had been exactly one month since my 21st birthday. Towards the end of my shift, I just felt off. I was lightheaded and extremely thirsty, but I couldn’t quench my thirst no matter how much water I drank. I thought maybe I was dehydrated or something else that wasn’t a big deal. I decided to go to the ER to get checked out and be safe. My coworker drove me to the hospital after my shift was over. I went to the check-in desk and briefly explained what was going on. Despite the ER being full, I was immediately taken back to triage. A nurse mentioned to another nurse that my breath smelled sweet. I covered my mouth, wishing I had stopped home to brush my teeth as I thought she meant I had bad breath…”
“…They checked my blood sugar. It was 338. I asked if that was bad but didn’t receive an answer. I was taken back, and they ran bloodwork. Several hours later, I still didn’t know what was going on. I demanded to see a doctor. A doctor came in shortly after and informed me I had juvenile diabetes, known as type 1 diabetes now. I was admitted and taken to a room where I would learn how significantly my life was going to change. It’s been nine years, and it’s still a daily battle. But I’m winning. I will not let this disease tear me down.”
—Sami S.
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4.“In April 2020, I noticed a little bump growing on my upper lip. It felt like an ingrown hair from shaving. I picked at it with a needle as I’d done before when an ingrown happened, but I couldn’t find the hair. It kept growing and turned out to be a speedy growing type of wart with a nasty solid ‘horn’ on it. I finally got an appointment at the dermatologist, and she took one look and told me she’d spray it with the liquid nitrogen, which would take care of it…”
“…After she sprayed it, she asked if I had any others. I said, ‘Well, I’ve got a crusty-looking wart on my left calf.’ Long story short, that thing I thought was just a wart turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma-type skin cancer. Fast forward to the present day, and I have had an excision to remove the SCC, plus two other biopsies. Thankfully, a spot on my toe turned out to be benign, but a spot on my face is basal cell carcinoma and will require Mohs surgery sometime later this month. The story’s moral is: wear sunscreen more often than I did!”
—Lloyd H.
5.“I started feeling a little tired and noticed a rather large bruise on my right forearm. I couldn’t remember doing anything to get it, but there it was…”
“…So about a week later, my husband told me I was becoming forgetful and sent me to my doctor. My GP sent me to a Neurologist; my Neurologist sent me to an Oncologist, and my Oncologist sent me to Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto. (I had lost consciousness in the Oncologist’s office, so I have no memory of my trip from Monterey, CA, to Palo Alto).
My Stanford Hematologist told me (six months later) that I had arrived about two days from death. I had Acute Leukemia, and my blood was 78% blasts.
That was the last bruise I’ll ever ignore!”
—Trisha B.
Emilija Manevska / Getty Images
6.“While raising my arms to put up my hair, I noticed in the bathroom mirror that my armpits didn’t look the same. One armpit was more indented than the other. It wasn’t an enormous difference between the two armpits, but it was undeniably there. It didn’t seem natural to me. I made a mental note to ask the doctor about it next time I saw her…”
“A few months later, I visited the doctor for a follow-up on an unrelated health matter. I mentioned what I noticed about my armpits, expecting her not even to look. After she saw them, she examined the puffier side. I had not realized that the puffy side was the problem side. She performed a manual breast exam on the puffier side and found a lump in the breast. She said, ‘It’s probably nothing,’ and ordered a mammogram. I was confident that it was just a couple of harmless cysts, and I wanted that mammogram ASAP so I could be sure.
I called around to find the mammogram facility with the soonest appointment. After the mammogram, I waited to hear back from my doctor with the mammogram results. After waiting a few days without my doctor, I received the radiologist’s report from the mammogram facility. When I started reading the report in the parking lot, it seemed like a mistake because it didn’t say harmless cysts. The report said that the lump looked like cancer. That couldn’t be me; it couldn’t be right. But it had my name on it. When I got home, I googled terms from my report, like ‘spiculated’ and ‘BI-RADS 5.’ The report seemed to say that my odds of having cancer were 19 to 1. My only hope was to tell myself that the radiologist could be wrong. Then I read that when a radiologist says there is a 95% chance of cancer, he is almost always correct.
I gave up. In my mind, I joined the ranks of the 1 in 8 women who get breast cancer. At first, I pondered the inconvenience and disfigurement of treatment. Then I realized that I could die from this, and I cried. When the doctor finally called, I was put in the care of an oncology team, who confirmed the cancer diagnosis with a biopsy. An MRI scan showed that the cancer had traveled to six lymph nodes in my armpit, causing the swelling that I had been able to see with my naked eye in my mirror. My small armpit discrepancy had indeed turned out to be something very significant. I bitterly regretted having waited over 18 months since my last mammogram. The lymph nodes have since been surgically removed, along with the cancerous breast lump. After chemo and radiation, still alive five years later.”
—Robin L.
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7.“It was April 2006, and I was getting ready to go out with some friends. I lived at home, and my mom yelled at me to put the flea collar on my cat. Roxie, my somewhat feral cat doesn’t love affection. Honestly, she didn’t belong in the house, but at this point, that’s neither here nor there; she had been with us for three or four years. Anyway, I put it on her, she lost her shit and bit the palm of my hand. I bled for a second, washed it, and told my mom the cat’s collar was on…”
“…The next day at work, I noticed that my hand was blotchy and felt warm and ‘off,’ which is the best way I can describe it. I called my mom, who said it might be infected and that I should go to the hospital. It was a Sunday night, and I had a copay, but I went to appease her. I stopped at home to grab dinner and headed to the ER. The ER nurse was a neighbor, and she asked what was going on.
I showed her my hand, and she pulled up my long-sleeved T-shirt and immediately got me a room and an IV. I was sitting there confused as to what the big deal was. It turned out cats’ mouths are FILTHY, and anytime they break the skin, it’s a big deal, and you should immediately go to a doctor. The doctor told me that I was within anywhere from 30–90 minutes away from the infection spreading to my heart, and the nurse, our friend, saw that it was at my shoulder and acted quickly. Had it gotten to my heart, an incredibly likely outcome would have been death. I was in the hospital for three days to clear out the infection. The best part is after spending half a week in the hospital, I got home, and that damn cat was sitting in the middle of my bed, and I swear she had a smirk on her face.”
—Chris G.
Kseniya Ovchinnikova / Getty Images
8.“My 12-year-old daughter got her period when she was 11. Everything seemed normal, and I didn’t think anything of it. Six months later, she had a common chest cold, so I took her to the doctor for some antibiotics. We were seen by a nurse practitioner who was very thorough and asked us many questions. The one question she asked us probably saved my daughter’s life. She asked about her period. After I told her, she recommended we get some bloodwork done, including hormones…”
“…So we did, and she was given some antibiotics for her cold, and we went home. Two days later, I got a phone call from her doctor, who wanted us to come in ASAP. My daughter’s hormones were way off. She had a testosterone level the same as a 25-year-old man and hardly any estrogen. She ordered a bunch of tests that included an MRI of her brain. An ultrasound of her uterus sent us to a specialist for hormones. Tests came back, and she was riddled with ovarian cysts, a tumor in her rectum, and a tumor near her pituitary gland just behind her eyes. Everything turned out to be fine. She is now 28 years old, and her hormones are back to normal and the ovarian cysts went away as soon as she started her periods again. She had to have brain surgery to remove the tumor behind her eyes, and then the tumor in her rectum just disappeared.”
—Stephanie W.
9.“When I was 35 years old, I noticed a red splotch on my right breast after I got out of the shower one morning. I didn’t give it much thought until it didn’t go away after a few days and started swelling. I went to my doctor, and she thought that I had mastitis and prescribed an antibiotic…”
“It still didn’t go away, so she prescribed a second course. One day, I did an internet search for ‘red spot on breast,’ and the first thing that came up was a webpage about inflammatory breast cancer. It was very rare, but I knew when I read the symptoms. I went back to my doctor, and she sent me to a breast specialist, who immediately scheduled a biopsy. As it turned out, I had stage three inflammatory breast cancer, which is a highly aggressive and fast-spreading cancer with a 45% survival rate. That was 12 years ago, and my surgery, chemo, and radiation were successful. The best advice I can offer everyone is to trust your gut and advocate for yourself.”
—Katy L.
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10.“My boyfriend had a stomach ache and felt sick; he vomited a couple of times and went to lie down. He slept for about an hour and woke up feeling worse. He decided to go to the hospital. He figured it was maybe an ulcer or something, and they would give him a prescription and send him home. They did a CT scan and some blood work. Turns out he had acute pancreatitis…”
“…He was in a coma for 43 days. He had a breathing tube and was on life support. The doctors said that he was going to die. Then, they put in two abdominal drains and did a tracheostomy (put a hole in his throat with a tube so the machine could help him breathe). He woke up and had no idea what had happened. He went to the emergency on September 30 and woke up in the ICU on November 12th. He was in the hospital in another unit till November 20th. He didn’t die, but it was very close. He is now recovering at home; he still has the abdominal drains and is now an insulin-dependent diabetic and has to take enzymes to help him digest food. Everyone said he wouldn’t make it, but I’m so grateful to have him home.”
—Jennifer S.
11.“I lived in Germany with my mother and father as a child. We used to travel back to the UK occasionally to see my grandparents. I remember being about six years old and examining my grandmother’s leathery-looking hands that were spotted with age. Then, I noticed a tiny bruise under her thumbnail. Like all children, I was worried she’d hurt herself and asked what happened. She couldn’t recall and shrugged it off, saying it was probably nothing…”
“…A few months later, we returned for another holiday. As my grandma gripped my hand, I turned hers over to see that dark purple smudge blotted beneath her thumbnail. It hadn’t gone away in months. I told my grandmother, quite seriously, that she should see a doctor. She laughed at my gravely concerned little face but promised me she would.
From then on, I bugged her about seeing a doctor in every phone call and every letter. I can recall being both delighted and annoyed as my parents laughed behind their hands at how cute it all was. I would not drop the subject. We got a call from my grandfather not long after. My grandma was having urgent and lifesaving surgery to remove her entire thumb. That stubborn little bruise was an extremely vicious and malignant cancer. Luckily, she’d kept her word and seen the doctor as promised, or it’s likely she wouldn’t still be here today, 27 years later. I have no idea why I so urgently pushed her to see a doctor; as such a young child, I couldn’t possibly have understood that a tiny bruise could be something so sinister. A very insistent voice inside me that I’m still not sure was my own, thankfully, wouldn’t let it go.”
—Hannah M.
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12.“My daughter, who had been living with us for four years, had a UTI that wasn’t responding to antibiotics. She was having some back pain and feeling a little sick to her stomach. She decided to get it checked out to see if she had a kidney stone. After they did X-rays and scans, they found a huge cancerous mass on her kidney. The cancer had also spread to her lung, liver, spine, bladder, and uterus. She never left the hospital and died exactly two weeks later. We never had a clue. She was feeling fine until about two weeks before going into the hospital. We were sure it was a kidney stone. I miss her terribly.”
—Billie A.
13.“In mid-March 2012 my husband started waking each morning with pain in his lower right abdomen. It would last about five minutes, then be gone for the rest of the day. This occurred every morning for about ten days when I finally told him he needed to see his doctor. He hesitated until I reminded him that he still had his appendix, which could be the issue and could rupture. He finally agreed and made an appointment for that afternoon…”
“He went in to see his doctor, who immediately sent him across the street to the hospital for a CT scan. He called to let me know, and I drove there to be with him while he awaited the results. We sat there and I reassured him that appendix surgery isn’t a big deal. We waited about an hour until, finally, a Physician’s Assistant entered the room with the films in hand. She stood briefly silent and finally spoke: ‘You have stage 4 kidney cancer. Call in the morning to make an appointment to discuss treatment.’ With that, she turned and walked out. Fever then three months later, my 59-year-old husband, whom I had loved since I was 16, died at home, surrounded by family.”
—Barbara D.
Jasmin Merdan / Getty Images
14.“When I moved to Thailand, I got terrible acne on my chin. I figured it was from the hotter climate, different food, pollution, or water. Whatever the cause, it was worse than it had been in years. That summer, after being in Thailand for about five months, I suddenly had to go home and I scheduled an appointment with my dermatologist while I was in town…”
“…When I got there, she gave me a topical medication to help me with my breakout. But she also noticed a very suspicious-looking mole. She tested it and found that the mole was changing rapidly. It wasn’t quite cancer, but it was so close to becoming cancer that they treated it like cancer. She immediately got me in to remove the mole, saying if I waited any longer, skin cancer could have developed and spread. It seemed to me like getting terrible acne from moving countries is what saved me from getting skin cancer. Without it, I would never have gone to the dermatologist, and they wouldn’t have caught it in time. It was the first time in my life that I thanked God for giving me acne.”
—Charissa E.
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15.“I had been having nagging neck and shoulder pain for months. I went to my doctor, who was an internal medicine doctor. He did a cursory check of things and decided I was most likely depressed. I didn’t believe I was, but I figured the doctor knew best. I left his office with a prescription for Prozac. I took it for a month and didn’t feel any happier or any less pain. We tried muscle relaxants also. They didn’t help much, but they made me sleep well. I stopped taking the antidepressant and went back to the doctor for another check…”
“…He sent me to a rehabilitation doctor who suggested physical therapy, so I started PT a couple of times a week. I was fit then, doing 100-mile cycling rides, sprinting, and Olympic-level triathlons.
As the months passed, there was no real progress, except I started getting shooting, shock-like pains in the side of my face that would make me twitch. They were intense yet momentary. The rehab doctor decided it was time for MRIs of my head and neck. He said the scans came back with nothing significant and decided we would start a course of lidocaine injection therapy. I went and had the injections.
The injections didn’t work for more than a couple of days. I called the doctor, and he was dumbfounded. He said the injections should have relieved for weeks, and we would try another round. He was referred to a neurologist for nerve testing. The testing showed nothing notable.
During that time, I found a large lump in my neck. It was close to my lymph gland and felt like it, but it wasn’t in the right place. When I went for my appointment, I asked him what he thought about it. He looked shocked and sent me for more MRIs.
When I met to review the new scans, he sheepishly admitted the first scans had shown a problem, and the doctor reviewing them said I needed further testing that extended further down my spine. The new scans revealed a massive schwannoma (a rare type of tumor) growing on my spinal cord and enveloping my C-2 nerve. The entire process to get the diagnosis was close to a year.
I was referred to a neurologist, who quickly said the tumor was too entangled and was beyond his scope of expertise. He referred me to another doctor who said the same thing and then referred me to the chief neurologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. He had concerns but took the case. We scheduled the surgery for a couple of months forward. He explained it was a slow-growing, non-malignant tumor and a slow approach would give me time to get my affairs in order.
Then, my partner suddenly died. As I write this, I still don’t know how I survived those days and weeks. What a horrible nightmare.
I had the surgery, which saved my life. They had to completely cut out my C-2 nerve and my vertebral artery on my right side. Permanent bilateral rods were placed in my neck. Much to everyone’s surprise, I could walk, talk, and breathe independently.
I survived and could return to my whole duty as a police officer seven months later. I will be forever grateful and indebted to the staff at the chief of neurology at Wake Forest.”
—Stacy C.
16.“In 2013, I was eating a burger when suddenly, after taking a bite, I could no longer open my mouth. I was terrified and had no idea why this just happened. I’ve dealt with TMJ for many years and assumed it had to be just that. I figured maybe a warm compress and massaging my jaw would unlock my mouth, but nothing seemed to work. I could only fit about the size of my pinky in my mouth. I couldn’t even fit a spoon in. So I made an appointment with an oral surgeon to determine what was happening. He did a physical exam and knew right away it must be an issue with the disc in my jaw joint. He scheduled an urgent surgery to get it put back in but ordered an MRI to go over just to be certain…”
“…The morning of surgery, he met with me briefly before it was time to go under. He said, ‘We got your results back from the MRI, and there are two things I need to go over with you.’ First, they confirmed the disc in my jaw slipped out and did not return when I took that bite out of my burger. Surgery was needed to correct the issue. Second, he said, ‘I need you to see a neurologist. We found a mass in your brain. I’m not a medical doctor and can’t diagnose this for you. Take a copy of your MRI to get this checked out as soon as possible.’
At that moment, my entire world just stopped. This was the most unexpected and terrifying news to receive just minutes before I was to go under for jaw surgery. I will never forget the way I felt at that moment. It turned out to be a large cyst wedged between the fossas of the left temporal lobe of my brain. It’s something my doctors closely monitor but are unable to remove at the moment. It still gets me anxious whenever I think about it, especially since it’s still there and growing gradually each year.”
—Sophia P.
James Leynse / Getty Images
17.“I was out of town and had stopped to go to the bathroom. As I relieved myself, a blood clot the size of a cigarette butt came out in my stream. I had been taking some diet pills and assumed that I was dehydrated and just needed to drink more fluids. The next evening, it happened again. I went to the ER, where they performed a CT scan…”
“…The doctor said it could just be an infection, but I needed to see my GP first thing Monday morning. He gave me a copy of the scan for him to see. Monday morning came, and I went to see my GP (who happened to be a close friend). He took the CD of the scan, looked at it, and came back obviously stunned. He said, ‘You have a tumor the size of a tennis ball in your bladder, and I’m almost sure it’s cancer.’
By Wednesday, I was in surgery. A week later, I was told I had Stage four cancer that was in my bladder, prostate, and urethra. I needed to start chemo within two weeks. I would also lose all of these body parts by the end of the year and pee into a bag for the rest of my life. Oh, and I needed to get my affairs in order. It wasn’t good. I never had any pain or other symptoms until that clot. Cancer is a sneaky son-of-a-bitch. The good news is that I beat the odds, and I am cancer-free after five years.”
—Rick W.
Agrobacter / Getty Images
18.“My Dad was having headaches. He thought he needed a new prescription for his glasses. But after a particularly nasty headache hit him like lightning and floored him, I took him to the ER. Two shots of Demerol later, and Dad was still in agony. The ER doc asked me how long my dad had been an addict, and I got extremely angry. My dad never did drugs. The doctor ordered a CT scan just to shut me up. It turned out my dad had a brain tumor. They did surgery two days later (they had to get the swelling down first) and gave him two to three months. He lived six and a half years, and he lived very well… He spent the time visiting everyone he loved. When he died, there was nothing left undone or unsaid.”
—DeAnn R.
19.“A few weeks before my nineteenth birthday, I was sitting next to my mom. When I went to look at her, she pointed out that my left eye did not track with my right eye, which made it look like I had a lazy eye. The next day, after we had all laughed it off (because it did look quite goofy), my mom made an appointment with a neuro-opthalmologist. We went in on a busy Saturday, and after he examined my eye, he requested that we make another appointment on a day when he would have more time to dedicate to me and the testing that would have to be done…”
“About two weeks later, my mother and I visited his other office, where he examined my eye. He asked me if I had recently experienced double-vision, and I realized I had. So, he explained the possible reasons for the eye (which he diagnosed as sixth cranial nerve palsy): it was an infection or, in sporadic cases, a brain tumor. He ordered a chest X-ray, blood work, and a head MRI.
The blood work and chest x-ray went well, but nothing was found. Going into my MRI, my mother was optimistic, but I just had a feeling that the diagnosis was going to be bigger than a bit of infection. A few hours later, the doctor called. He told me that I had a mass in my brain that was pressing against my sixth cranial nerve. He suggested that it was a sporadic form of bone cancer in my brain called chordoma that had grown on my skull base in the middle of my head. I was diagnosed two days after my nineteenth birthday.
Since then, my diagnosis has been confirmed, and I have had surgery to remove the tumor. I had many complications, like infections and brain fluid leaks, but I made it out. There was about five to ten percent of the cancer left, so I underwent proton radiation therapy to kill the rest of the cancer. In a few weeks, I will have been in partial remission for a year. I also had eye surgery about ten months ago to correct my eye, which was stuck looking inward since my first surgery. Since then, I have been dealing with a lot of other issues because of my tumor and treatment, like chronic nerve damage/pain, Hashimoto’s Disease, and hypothyroidism. Still, I have an excellent team of doctors who have provided me with excellent treatments.
I was a freshman in college when I was diagnosed, and now I’m going to be a junior. I’m studying psychology and music and participating in my college’s programs, theatre productions, and student life teams. In the future, I’m going to get my Master’s in mental health counseling and work as a therapist for adolescents and young adults with disabilities, rare diseases, and cancer. I would also love to perform professionally in my city orchestra/choir and maybe even audition for America.”
—Olivia D.
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Have you ever experienced a seemingly minor symptom that was actually a sign of a significant problem? Tell us in the comments or in this anonymous form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.