I was one of those people who always seemed to have something wrong with them. It seems once I got over one health issue, another one arose. I am not religious but I do remember many times cursing god and asking him/her to stop…all to no avail. What health issues you ask?
- In my youth (ages 8-14), I had WARTS. Some on my knee. Some on my hands. Not disfiguring mind you. Just annoying. Eventually, they went away.
- At age 10, I woke up one day not feeling well. We had a doctor who lived down the street come by and he suggested I get to the hospital right away. (To this day, I am wondering what he saw in me that made him suggest that. I felt like I just had a cold.) Anyway, I spent 7 long days in the hospital. Blood work out the kazoo. Diagnosis: unknown. I found out years later that they were testing me for RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS. By the way, the highlight of the week was my dad visiting my every night after work and we’d watch Hogan’s Heroes together. It’s funny the things you remember.
- Through my childhood, I had a variety of NERVOUS TICS (throat clearing, eye rolling, etc.)
- In my teen years, I had the pleasure of dealing with ACNE. Worse than many; not as bad as some.
- At this point, I know what you’re thinking. “Wow…warts, tics AND acne. You must have been quite the catch.” Yeah…good times indeed.
- Fast forward to my late twenties and I developed LOWER BACK PAIN. Severe at times. It’s something I still deal with and actually am currently in physical therapy for it.
- In Spring 2007, I began peeing blood. Diagnosis: BLADDER CANCER. And you males out there don’t want to know how they diagnose it. Uh…huh. It was low-grade and after one reoccurrence, I’ve been cancer free (phew!!).
- In Spring 2008, after years of complaining of stomach aches and losing 15 pounds, I finally listened to Mrs. Dude and went to a GI. Diagnosis: CELIAC DISEASE.
- In Fall 2008, working one night, starting feeling “not right”. Pain in my neck and shoulder…hurt to inhale. Mrs. Dude said we should go to hospital. Do you think I learned my lesson? Of course not. Lying in bed, had a strange sensation. Almost like back pain, but in my entire torso. Jumped out of bed. Feeling went away. Mrs. Dude spent the entire night poking me in the back to make sure I was alive. The next day, my doc said I should go to emergency room just to get it checked out. After five hours of tests, diagnosis: MULTIPLE BLOOD CLOTS IN BOTH OF MY LUNGS (medical term: pulmonary embolism). That strange sensation I had was the clots passing thru my heart into my lungs. This is the point in time where most people die from this. Seriously…WTF!?
- I got hit bad with COVID in April 2020. Came in two waves. Not fun.
- Dupuytren’s Contracture. Tendons in my hands are gradually starting to tighten up. Kinda hard to explain, so here ya go.
- Knee pain. Sometimes bad…sometimes not. Sometimes in my right leg…sometimes in my left leg. Sometimes in the front of the knee…sometimes…well, you get the picture. Diagnosis: Osteoarthritis.
- Malignant Melanoma. Surgery August 17, 2021 to remove cancer and to see if it’s spread into lymph nodes. It did not!
- Got slammed by COVID three times (so far).
- CRACKED TOOTH. Had to get the damn thing pulled. Luckily it was one of my back teeth.
Yikes…that’s a lot!
It got me wondering if there was any connection between my constant health battles and celiac disease. So I did a survey, asking my fellow celiacs what other health issues and diseases have they dealt with. I heard back from over 1,000 people and oh…my…god!
I put together a word cloud, with the health issues mentioned the most in bigger font. All items on the word cloud were mentioned at least five times.
How many do you have on this list?
