The Worst Non Life-Threatening Illness You Can Remember.

[Pavaux]

Hi wonderful community!

 

I hope you are healthy because I am very much sick. Probably the worst I have had in my life-time, which gave me the inspiration for this topic.

 

What is the worst non life-threatening illness you have ever had or remember? By non-life threatening I mean no fatal diseases or dissabilities, just a really bad common flu or cold.

 

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My terrible illness started about 3 days ago.

 

First day (Friday), I only had a hoarse voice and a phlegm build-up in my throat. I couldn't talk to anyone at work that day. Everyone thought it was hilarious and I did too for a while, then it just got plain annoying.

 

Second day, my voice started to worsen to the point where all that came out of my mouth were squeaks and desperate attempts to make intelligent conversation. Boss told me to stay at home 'till it got better, but I decided to just continue with my work without conversation (I actually got a lot done that day).

 

Third day, and this is where shit really hit the fan. I woke up as normal, usually jumping out of bed to reach my alarm (Have it at the end of my room to force me out of bed), and I'm fairly sure that I feinted. From what I can gather now, I felt a sudden blood-rush to my head and it was all too much. I woke up on the floor, no injuries thankfully, only landed on my carpet floor. When I got up, my sickness was terrible. I was severely dizzy, it felt like the equivalent to taking a really trippy drug. I had a horrific head-ache, runny nose and all those together made sure that I couldn't get very far without almost collapsing, so I fell back into bed. Stayed in bed and called my neighbour (such an awesome lad) to let himself in and to find my medicine box. He got me headache tablets and the like. Only spent about 2-3 hours of the whole day on my feet. Called my boss that I was sick also. If I didnt get stuff done the last day the arts centre I worked in would have to do without one of their shows.

 

Today, I feel the same as yesterday, but everything is more minor, still have a slight headache, dizzyness and a runny nose but not as bad. I just hope this means that I am recovering. Definitely the worst I have ever had.

[Jordick]

Couple of years ago, I had pretty bad diarrhea which included vomiting and small fever. For 3 days I literally had to live in my toilet, because you never knew which end was going to blow next, nor when. I couldn't eat anything, I couldn't sleep at all, and worst thing was that I couldn't even go to hospital for treatment. During those 3 days all I were able to do was to lay on my mattress and just wait for the next blowout. I'm aware that bad diarrhea can be life threatening, because of dehydration, but luckilly I don't live in Afrika, so I had plenty of clean running water to drink.

 

Fun times.  

[Bloodfang]

Bit of a similar situation like Jordick, I was in Spain for an internship, luckily for me my sister lived in Madrid so it was easier to go there. We used to go to quite a lot of restaurant and visiting the city.

 

Unfortunatly I think I've eaten/drank something bad, for a whole week I had a bit of fever, extreme pain in the stomach and had to go to the toilet to vomit or take a dump twice a day minimum.

Worst part of it was that I really couldn't eat good things like cereals or anything, I barely eat the rice my sister made for me and drink some water but that was it. I didn't felt that hungry but I really wanted to eat something lol ! When I tried to eat anything other than rice = insta vomit, that made me angry as fuck haha

 

I think I've lost a lot of weight too because of that, when I went to the hospital they didn't even helped... I can't remember exactly but they gave me something similar to Doliprane, which is just a medicine you take when you have small pains or headaches... lmao

[Chaos63]

Not really an "illness", but I had grown in toenails through much of my childhood, which is basically when a nail goes haywire and starts growing out of width, cutting into the flesh on the sides. It's why I always hated gym class, whenever I kicked a ball or sprinted for more than a minute I had to resist the urge to curl up in a ball on the floor and curse every saint I could think of. Once the same shit started happening to a second nail, I finaly said fuck it and went on surgery to sever the nerves on both sides of each toenail which resulted in the overall shittiest month of my life. To top it off, because I was too young, they only let me take a very limited amount of painkillers.

Needless to say, my threshold got kicked up quite a few points from this disgusting experience. Never fucking again.

[StayFrosty]

A couple of months ago I found out I was borderline developing Addisons Disease (Adrenal Glands failure), would have meant a life time on Cortisone Injections ...luckily though it was discovered in time and have been on a strict regime since to turn the situation around and has been working

[Caturday]

Sarcoidosis with Eye Involvement, while it can be deadly once beyond stage 3, that time it was only eye involvement, therefore Ill count this into this thread.

Just imagine straight lines becoming like spaghetti, caused by inflammation on the retina, that spot later "exploded" and became a scar.

Takes some real good time to get used to which is why I mainly use my left eye now which is fine, and nothing is as scary as having an eye disease that could lead you to being visually impaired or blind.

Emphasis here on it being more bad psychologically than body-wise, even tho you do feel like crap with that disease being tired 24/7 and jumpy at every noise.

[Buddy Christ]

Does Cluster Headache (primary chronic) count?

I talked to a woman who suffers from it in a support group and she said it was worse than giving child birth without anesthesia.

Some doctors say it is the worse pain from a disease know to mankind.

 

Acutally, one of the "nicknames" for Cluster Headache is "Suicide Headache", so I guess it can be life threatening.

 

 

[Dallas-Arbiter]

I had a few life threatening things happen when I was a kid. When I was born, my umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck, and I was blue, didn't help that I was almost a breech birth. The doctor shoved his hand up into my mom, turned me around, and unwrapped the cord, then pulled me out. Saved both of our lives.

 

When I was 4, I got Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever. Almost died from that, because the doctor was a retard, and did not know what he was dealing with. Finally he figured it out, but after the fever was gone, it took me about 4 months to recover. I was so weak, I couldn't do much of anything, I had enough energy to get up, and go lay on the couch all day. It was hard for me to eat too. I could keep it down, but I didn't have the energy to chew.

 

About 4 years later, I began suffering from headaches. I'd wake up and feel fine, and I'd go to school, but a few hours later, I'd get a terrible headache, and by the time I got out of school, I'd have to throw up, and nothing I could take for the headaches worked, so I'd just lay in bed for the rest of the day. This was everyday. But I'm sure it was something at the school, in that particular room that was making me sick, because as soon as Summer break started the headaches went away.

 

 

[Redflyingmonkey]

I got malaria once when I went to work in Cambodia. Was teaching in the middle of Phnom Penh, and I got the great idea to go on a trek in the south with two friends. Of course I was lazy with the monthly medicine you have to take since I was working in town and didn't visit the jungle much, so there, one mosquito bite, two days sleeping in the tent, and I wake up the third day with my head splitting in two -> off to the hospital. It's not as bad as it sounds though, it's like a huuuuge fever and I lost in one week like 10 kilos, plus I don't remember one second when I wasn't shivering. They treat this stuff really quickly if it is found early during the infection phase, and I really realized when I got out of the hospital how terrible it is that millions of people die from it considering how easily it can be treated... 

[Slammer64]

Now me, I was the last case of Rubella in my city back in the early 60's, if I remember right it was 1964, spent a month in quarantine, not fun for a 5 year old.

[gregathit]

Had mono at the age of seven.  Was sick the entire summer.  Was too weak to get out of bed or even blow my nose.  Didn't get to play little league baseball or anything else a seven year old would spend his summer doing. Was the worst summer EVER.  Got better just in time to go back to school.  What a freaking jip.

[Redflyingmonkey]

Had mono at the age of seven.  Was sick the entire summer.  Was too weak to get out of bed or even blow my nose.  Didn't get to play little league baseball or anything else a seven year old would spend his summer doing. Was the worst summer EVER.  Got better just in time to go back to school.  What a freaking jip.

 

That's why you don't kiss girls until you're old enough to fully enjoy a whole month stuck in your room 

[srayesmanll]

How about osteomyelitis of the fifth metatarsal of the right foot?  Basically an infection in the bone that will not go away and can spread to other bones.  Does that count since I didn't die?  Had to have a resection of the foot done, basically removing all of the bones for my little toe.  There was the possibility of having to remove the entire foot, but luckily it hadn't spread past that bone.  The surgery plus dose heavy duty intravenous antibiotics kicked it.  Damn lucky...

 

Of course now I'm known a Frodo of the Nine-Toes...

[windpl]

Well I'm kinda lucky, worst illness I always get is a cold. But boy what a COLD, I can't basically  function my eyes get all red and watery I use like a 30m of wipes and I'm bitch(more extreme version than usual) to everyone. Bud thanks god(s) that I get cold like once or twice in year.

 

It is not normal to have such good health, I'm quiet sure that I will die premature on some horrible illness.

[Darkwisdom]

Viral encephalitis. 

 

I had it when I was 12 and is effectively the inflammation of the brain. It isn't really life threatening, but it makes you want to die. Caused by a virus (a similar strain to chicken pox) it made me have seizures, vomiting and made me lose control of my limbs and such. It was eventually treated with antibiotics and anti-seizure meds, but man.. it was really horrible. 

[EternalDamned]

The first day at sea when I was in the Navy was kinda routine at first. Drank a 6 pack of coke and ate a can of pringles for lunch. (I was a bit of a junk food junkie ) Well, then we got out to the ocean and I discovered I was prone to sea sickness. I spent the next 3 days puking my guts out nearly non-stop. And let me tell you, puking up pure bile is not only disgusting, but painful as it burns its way out. Finally the seasickness patch started working after that. But I swear, it took me several years before I could even think about eating a pringles potato chip with out a psychosomatic gag reflex kicking in.

[Chaos63]

Well I'm kinda lucky, worst illness I always get is a cold. But boy what a COLD, I can't basically  function my eyes get all red and watery I use like a 30m of wipes and I'm bitch(more extreme version than usual) to everyone. Bud thanks god(s) that I get cold like once or twice in year.

 

It is not normal to have such good health, I'm quiet sure that I will die premature on some horrible illness.

 

By that logic, I'm absolutely fucked. Tea with honey every day have kept colds away for half a decade and counting.

There's no such thing as too healthy, man.

 

[Lexi SubZero]

Bladder infection...that is literally a freaking pain-in-the-dick/pussy illness. ...feels like pissing razor blades...to make it worse..you have go often. 

[Captain Cobra]

Irritable bowl syndrome.  Here 4ever too, so I have to constantly watch what I'm eating.

 

Had problems with ingrown toenails as well.  Banged it enough times for it to go through to the other side of my toe, so I got the phenolisation treatment for it.

[gregathit]

 

Had mono at the age of seven.  Was sick the entire summer.  Was too weak to get out of bed or even blow my nose.  Didn't get to play little league baseball or anything else a seven year old would spend his summer doing. Was the worst summer EVER.  Got better just in time to go back to school.  What a freaking jip.

 

That's why you don't kiss girls until you're old enough to fully enjoy a whole month stuck in your room 

 

Try three months.  I got sick one week after school let out and was cleared by the Doc just in time for my first day of school.  As I said, worst summer ever!

[legendarytoyou]

I have to say my very first migraine headache.  I was in high school and was working on a Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture (I was heavy into math and science) when I noticed some odd wavy lines in my vision.  It started to get progressively worse so I started thinking, "is something stuck in my eyes?"  I didn't realize what it was until about an hour later when it felt like someone was splitting my skull open a millimeter at a time.  The pain got so bad I was actually admitted to the hospital.  Found out later I was diagnosed with chronic migraine.  My lot in life for being a deep thinker.

 

Fortunately I learned over time how to fight them.  I keep migraine medicine within arms reach, learned to massage the back of my head with a chair that has a built in neck massage and learned the best thing you can eat to combat a migraine is bananas and yogurt.  I've been accused of being very right brained (emotional, loving, artistic and creative) and my doctor told me as a result I may experience more severe migraines than usual.

[Userper]

My worse experiance with illness was when I was coming down with the flu a few months ago.

Nothing really special about the symptoms, headache, dizzyness, runny nose ect, the reason it was so bad is because I was working that day, and my job at the time was very physical, the usual manual labour stuff.

 

So there I am working away, and my boss calls me over... I start walking over and pass out half way down the production line :b.  I must have fell pretty hard because I broke my nose, had to get 5 stiches on my forehead, and was forced to stay awake for 48 hours until my concushion was clear ... Worst day ever :   On the upside, I got a wicked new scar

[Someone92]

Not really an illness, but when I was a child I somehow heard of hunger strikes, and got the idea to try it out myself.

 

So when the next holidays arrived and my family had no regular breakfasts and dinners together so I could avoid eating unnoticed a went on a hunger strike. A got a sensation of hunger every six to eight hours for half an hour or so, but otherwise I was fine. I just got exhausted a little quicker than usual. The sensations of hunger started as uncomfortable and eventually became painful, but still tolerable.

However, after more than two days of not eating anything the next sensation of hunger was extremely painful, my entire body went numb and I collapsed on the floor. Luckily my mother found me a felt eternity later. I was so weak she had to cut the bread into pieces and feed me them, and even just chewing was a task that wore me out. I eventually made a full recovery.

[Cynical Misanthrope]

I suffer from migraine headache at least twice per week. Been doing that since.... As long as I can remember. It got better a few years back, but now is has increased again.

Last years summer, I also suffered from something that is called Blood clot (?). I could barely walk, or use my hands. It can be very deadly depending on where the clot is located.

Had to eat penicillin fora few days and then it disappeared.

 

Funny thou, and I'm not sure why, but I do sometimes at random moments feel the same pain in the exact same places, but only for a second or two.

 

 

 

[Chbaakal]

I have what is considered to be an inoperable Class 1 Benign Tumor in my brain. I've had this for all my life. I'd experienced migraines during growth spurts in my childhood and teen years but they turned into just random occasional headaches due to the pauses in the growth of the tumor. The odd thing is that this....thing in my head doesn't follow the 'normal' pattern of most, since the MRI's and CAT scans show a few tendrils of tissue from the main body spread out into different areas of my brain (supposedly this type of growth pattern is extremely rare, and some doctor's I've seen before wanted to biopsy some samples, in case the tumor was actually a birth defect caused from part of an 'absorbed' twin sibling).

 

The usual symptoms; random headaches, slight dizziness, occasional muscle 'tics', temporary spurts of memory loss, mild disassociative fugue states, slight losses of balance, and some very odd sensations in extremities (numbness, phantom pain, cold and heat, etc....).

 

Removal of this entire thing by surgery is said to be impossible, and highly risky for just the main body itself. I guess 'We' are stuck with each other... .