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mike · 3699 days ago · link · · parent · post: What's the most serious medical ailment you've ignored, thinking it was getting better?
Oooh! I might get a prize for this one! Thought I had a pneumothorax, a small hole in the lining of my lung. Just takes some antibiotics to fix, or so the google-machine told me. I was on my way to Paris for vacation and didn't want to bother until I got home. Got home and made an appointment to see the doctor after the weekend. I saw the doctor 11 days after the first indication of trouble. Turns out if I had waited a few more days I'd have been dead. They drained 3 liters of fluid out my lung in 24 hours, and continued to drain a liter a day for a month. Lymphoma. 3 years chemo, radiotherapy, surgery, the works. Moral: when it hurts to breathe, it's probably not nothing!