Ligma.
Gotta be wary of that one.
It’s easy to miss, and super easy to treat. Literally have heard of people going into the hospital for it, being given a glass of orange juice, and feeling better within minutes
Polio, measles, mumps, rubella, etc. All the stuff we haven’t had to worry about that are apparently coming back now that vaccination rates are dropping.
Do we need to worry about ourselves if vaxxed?
Yes and no
No if you are vaccinated for the most part you should be fine HOWEVER
If your best friend. Daughter, son or what have you is immune compromised. Meaning they can’t be vaccinated. Suddenly they are a big target. And you should do your best to protect them by encouraging others to vaccinate. It’s not about your protection 95% of the time. It’s about the few in your life that can’t be vaccinated.
Oh absolutely on the last part. This was a huge deal with COVID, and is really why I wore a mask all of the time (and am starting to once again).
Yes. Vaccines don’t grant 100% immunity. They give your body enough information to kill the disease before it gets out of hand. The goal is to make so many people resistant that the disease can’t spread and it dies out. If your immune system isn’t working well, or it didn’t “parse” the vaccine properly, you can still get sick.
Here’s some info from the WHO: https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/vaccine-efficacy-effectiveness-and-protection
mostly measles, since its more dangerous than the other ones, besides being pretty severe for adults it also wipes out the immune system in a complicated way. chickenpox is another nasty one for adults, severity for adults increases the older you get chickenpox. apparently alot of people dont know if they are vaccinated against chickenpox.
cancer in young people, cancer symptoms are often vague or non-symptomatic. unusual signs is things that dont go away within 2-3 weeks. like a mouth sore that doesnt heal in like 2-3 weeks, or a growing lesion on the skin that doesnt go away. more unusual rare skin type disease like skin lymphomas may show up as common eczema or psoriasis rashes they usually go away on its own or with treatment. but with the cancer they dont go away and display progression, might take months or years.
You might think of these more often than many others so I’m not getting full marks for the assignment. Can’t hurt to review the basics though.
Stroke
Memory aid: FAST for Face, Arm, Speech, Time. It’s a reminder to look for facial features drooping on one side, arm weakness, and speech abnormalities (slurred, jumbled, absent, etc.) indicating that it’s time to call for emergency medical services.Heart attack
Pain above the belt line (often chest and arm but can show up many ways), difficulty breathing, heavy sweating, pale skin, and a sense of impending doom. Last one’s a bit weird: either heart attacks give you the ability to imprecisely sense the very near future or your body is starting to feel the inefficiency of a failing system.Diabetic emergency
Often, a person who seems drunk is just drunk. They might be diabetic and having problems with regulation of blood sugar levels instead though. Look for medical alert wristbands and things of that sort which may provide a clue into what’s going on if they’re having a hard time communicating verbally.Sugar levels might be too high or might be too low but for the short time until the ambulance shows up, I’d treat it as low by default. Food and drinks with sugar might help but consider choking risks and other hazards in case they seem like they may lose consciousness or have difficulty swallowing.
In all of these cases, calling for EMS early is one of the most important steps you can take. Get that ball rolling as soon as it is reasonable to do so since minutes can make a difference if it turns out to be something serious and the patient’s condition goes downhill fast. I’m also going off the assumption that there aren’t more suitable explanations (e.g. slurred speech immediately after a root canal might not make me think of a stroke right away) for signs and symptoms on display.
Heart attack symptoms are different for women. I wonder if that’s true for the other ones too.
I had a co-worker who had a stroke while he was on shift, the only symptom he had was that his arm went limp and he couldn’t control it properly. He left early to go to the hospital and didn’t find out it was a stroke for about 6 hours because none of the other symptoms turned up. He said they had to take him for multiple different tests before they figured out what it was.
UTI. if you feel a lot of pressure in the front apron pouch (lower torso) and it starts to sting a bit to go to the bathroom and you find your pee is hard to come out and you always feel like you need to pee, and you feel a bit foggy brained get to a doctor for some antibiotics sooner rather than later. Catch these warning signs before they turn into infected kidneys. That’s where it gets super dangerous.
Kidney infection feels like someone has punched you in the side. Like a horse kick and it is deep. You will be feeling it high on the back like in the ribs. By then it can no longer be treated as a uti and they have to give you something else for it to clear it up.
Also if you feel that deeper pain for any reason go to emergency. Get a CT scan. regular back/spine/arthritis pain is along surface pain. Like you can touch it if it is like a centimeter from the skin surface.
anything deeper that lasts more than a few days you want to check for pancreatic cancer to possibly catch it early.serious the amount of people who brush it off as just back pain as it gradually gets deeper regret not going in sooner.
And If you’re a guy getting uti Something is going real wrong cuz men shouldn’t be getting uti. Get to a doctor asap. If you are pretty certain it’s likely not to be from a sti/havent had sex in a while : get to emergency quick. This could be a problem with the larger bowels with bladder that leads to sepsis.
Ladies: Get some pee sticks, those will help you keep an eye on your urine health too. Uti gets pretty common for women as ph changes with hormones but still get it checked by a doctor if it’s super common like less than every six months. Heck even if it’s every six months is still far too often.
Older people (like 50s and above) often get acutely confused as the first symptom of a UTI. They’ll go to work, come home, and then an hour later they’re arguing with the clothing in their closet because they think it’s a family member and talking to faces they see in the walls. If your older family member just out of the blue starts acting “crazy” with no history of psych problems, drug abuse, or dementia, it could be something serious like a stroke, but it’s probably a UTI. UTIs also go septic super fast in older people so they definitely need treated sooner rather than later.
Id say more like 70s and above. Ppl aren’t all the same kind of old from 50 to 90. 40 yrs is a large span to be confusing all symptoms into all the same age group. And this ignores menopause (once again menopause gets ignored) which is its own bag of tricks which happens in the span as early as 45(and in some rare cases 30s) which can span all the way into mid 60s.
50 is a bit young to be confused with dementia or stroke unless there is something incredibly unusual (and I mean outlier level) going on. And they would typically still experience the UTI pain first before the confusion. Lots of women go onto use HRT just on the early symptoms alone.
There are differences in typical health prone changes the decades(including stages of peri, post, menopause and andropause).
like you wouldn’t be confusing a 5 yr old with a 20 yr old. And that is only a span of 15 yrs but there are distinct differences in puberty changes then too just as you wouldn’t confuse health problems a 70 old with someone at 55 with menopause symptoms.
you also wouldn’t confuse someone who might be unable to be mobile in their 90s getting UTI from an unchanged diaper or catheter with a 50 yr old getting a UTI from ph imbalance because of menopause.
I mean, it’s mostly the older range of the spectrum, but I’ve absolutely seen 50-something year olds become acutely confused suddenly and ultimately get diagnosed with a UTI.
Source: 8 years in EMS. I get called by panicked family members all the time.
Ok even at that I’m sure what with working with people and asking of questions the other symptoms are present. They might not connect from one symptom to another to be a factor of another. I have made the mistake myself as have others who may not be over 50.
UTIs can be scary if you don’t know the symptoms are related at any age or gender. hence why I posted this and what to look out for.
Also didnt ask you for sources just so you can post here. Sorry if I’ve somehow upset you and you felt you needed to do show criteria? Just to be here?. You don’t need a license pass or whatever to post here just to be valid to have a civil discussion between humans with bodies. Let’s just be courteous and respectful.
Source: trying to look after a frail meat and bone bag like everyone else.
I have a friend who was struggling with recurring UTI for years and years, they were on UTI blocker medicine etc. On the side they had random other strange health issues every now and then that seemed to appear and disappear with no obvious reason – skin issues, numbness in limbs, problems with sight, swelling and pains in legs etc, of course everything was checked and reasoned out individually - some way or another - but doctors didn’t take a closer look and consider whether they could be connected. They thought it could be arthritis, but tests didn’t show anything. Just a little while ago this friend’s fingers went suddenly numb and started swelling and turning purple. They rushed to ER and was put on heavy medicine, turns out the condition could’ve lead to gangrene soon. Now the doctors are suspecting it’s an autoimmune disease similar to lupus, but so far couldn’t have figured out which. The friend is on cytostatic treatment, cortisone etc. The meds have worked well and things that were considered normal before (like cold hands and feet, rash) have disappeared. They will probably be on this medication for rest of their lives.
What’s strange is that another person I know was just recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and had somewhat similar symptoms.
Tl;dr: if you have strange health issues appear, that don’t seem to be connected, it still might be worth checking if they are, because some diseases cause inflammation and tissue damage that causes all kinds of strange symptoms.
Not a disease as such but a condition. Sepsis aka blood poisoning, is a significant one for older folk. A fast heartbeat with low blood pressure, rash etc. It can be rapidly deadly but is not so easy to identify. About Sepsis warning signs
Treatment early enough definitely saves lives so it’s worth knowing about
tuberculosis
Apparently spreading in an Amazon warehouse in the UK currently too. But I suppose Amazon want as much consumption as possible
Psychopathy. Currently known in the US as APSD Antisocial Personality Disorder..
Best for all of the population to know lol. Strong and healthy boundaries and the ability to tell a known psychopath to fuck off goes a long ways
thats only a symptom, unless you’re a trained psychologist a layperson “diagnosing” people isnt going to be useful.
There are always signs. Knowing who is the freakshow is VERY helpful. There are ways to protect yourself in personal and business life.
Cat Scratch Fever
Cellulitis
Lyme Disease
I took care of someone once with cat scratch fever. Her cat got her maybe eight hour prior and she was a gnats ass hair away from losing her finger by the time she got to us. I do not recall if they lanced it or not but she got a shit load of IV antibiotics and was well shortly after, finger intact
Meningitis. Symptoms here. The light sensitivity and sore neck are early warning ones. By the time the dark blotches / rash show up on your skin you’re dealing with nasty sepsis.
It nearly killed my sister. Weeks in ICU.
Almost 30 years later she still looses her balance on any kind of incline or when tired.
