If you have a chronic condition, you know that the symptoms can range from classic to complicated. You might be well-acquainted with common symptoms like tightness or tingling (or maybe not!), but even for people who’ve been diagnosed for what seems like forever, there are still some symptoms you might think are totally normal for years.
So, in the interest of shedding some light on people’s illnesses, I decided to ask people in the BuzzFeed Community to share the things about their chronic conditions they assumed were “normal” until a diagnosis told them otherwise. Here are their answers:
1. “Way back when, I had awful pain during my period. I was 16 when my mom took me to a OBGYN. He gave me a patronizing smile and told me it was because ‘you don’t want to be a woman. It will go away when you have a baby.'”
2. “For decades, I suffered from lower back pain, more significant upon first waking. I was told for all of those years it was normal, until one GP finally listened and ordered a blood test. A simple blood test that any doctor over the decades could have ordered could have saved me from a lifetime of pain.”
3. “I’ve had arthritis since I was a kid, about 11-12 years old. When it first started, my mom took me to the doctor, where they patted us both on the head and said it was nothing more than growing pains.”
4. “I thought all the pain at the sites where I’d previously had surgeries was old age, and that my sudden memory loss and hair falling out in clumps were sure signs of rapid aging.”
“I thought especially that whole-body weakness and fatigue were from getting old.
But everything happened all at once over a few weeks’ time; that was surprising.
Yup, COVID.”
—billarnold65
5. “Feeling like I was going to pass out after riding elevators/escalators. I’ve been having some weird symptoms for 15 years, and in 2023, I got a POTS diagnosis.”
6. “I thought stomach pains, bowel movements only one to two times per week, and straining with bowel movements was normal. It was chronic constipation.”
7. “I had low back pain for over 10 years because I listened to those who said, ‘We all have back pain,’ and, ‘wait as long as you can before surgery.'”
8. “From about the age of 13, I started experiencing debilitating pain with my periods. It started with cramps that kept me from functioning; like, heating-pad-and-meds-every-four-hours-on-the couch kind of pain. My doctor put me on birth control and said that was all he could do.”
9. “Visual snow. I constantly see floaters, even if I close my eyes; I can still see colors and everything clearly, but it’s like having TV static in front of it (also when my eyes are closed). I always thought my vision was pretty normal. I didn’t find out I had it until I was 17.”
—bandteacher24
10. “I thought being exhausted to the point where I couldn’t get through the day in my mid-20s was normal. I thought the constant back and shoulder pain was something everyone dealt with and chalked it up to getting older.”
11. “I just ran out of air, so it became work to walk, and work trying to control breathing when it got difficult. Eventually, I collapsed. Diagnosis: stage 4 lung cancer.”
12. “A few years back, I became progressively tired, lightheaded, and headache-y. The walk from my car to my office building made me out of breath. In the evenings, I felt feverish but didn’t have a fever, and I struggled to stay awake past 8 p.m.”
13. “Hypothyroidism and chronic migraine checking in. I said to a friend while discussing headaches, ‘You know how whenever you pause for a second you realize you have a headache?’ They did not know.”
14. “I’ve had headaches three to four times a week ever since I can remember. I thought everyone walked around with headaches several times a week and just dealt with the eye-watering pain, thinking I needed to drink more water. OTC medications didn’t help at all.”
15. “I get chest pains daily. Sometimes they’re sharp, shooting pains, but normally they’re mild. I brushed it off as second puberty until one day I also couldn’t breathe or feel my left shoulder or upper arm.”
16. “I never understood the ‘don’t lock your knees because you’ll pass out’ thing. Turns out I have Elhers-Danlos syndrome. MY knees go way past locking and allow for blood flow to return. I can stand for a very long time with my knees ‘locked.'”
—Anonymous
17. “I grew up with really bad “growing pains” in my hips and knees which I just assumed everybody went through. (It didn’t help that doctors said that too.) I also had cool party tricks where I could bend my body in weird ways and freak people out.”
18. “I thought it was normal to stand up and have my vision go completely black and get super, super dizzy. I really pushed for a diagnosis because I was a server and my managers DID NOT respect that I couldn’t do stairs. Finally got diagnosed with POTS.”
19. “I’ve had lower back pain for two years now and leg pain for almost six months. Basically, I walk with a cane. I’ve tried physical therapy and pain management, and neither helped.”
“They did an MRI and found I have tethered cord syndrome; basically, the spinal cord should be free, but mine is tethered to tissue. It’s rarely diagnosed in adults. It explains so many of my medical issues. I most likely have to get surgery for them to de-tether the cord.”
—thelandmermaid
20. “I thought it was normal to feel tired and sick and foggy every day of my life. Turns out I’ve had Lyme Disease since I was 17.”
21. “Endometriosis. Years of being told ‘it’s just cramps’ and little to no support even after a surgical diagnosis. I’ve had four surgeries now, including a hysterectomy, and still struggle with pain monthly. On top of it all, I’ve developed a stomach ulcer from years of ibuprofen use. Sometimes even the diagnosis isn’t helpful. Women’s health needs more research!”
22. “I used to have to be careful how big the bite of food I took was, and get food to go down with liquids. And every time I swallowed, I could feel the food scrape all the way down to my stomach.”
