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They may indicate a serious condition
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| Difficulty Swallowing |
The fact that pain was in only one leg, combine with the hours she'd sat still on the airplane and Taylor's use of birth-control pills, pointed to a likely diagnosis: a blood clot. "Blood clots tend to form when blood flow is sluggish." explains Miami vascular specialist Barry T. Katzen, who treated Taylor. Long periods of inactivity, which can slow blood flow, coupled with the use of birth-control pills, which can cause blood cells to clump together, can contribute to the formation of a blood clot. Smoking is also a major contributing factor.
Without treatment, the pain would likely worsen as the leg swelled, and walking would become difficult. In some instances, clots could migrate to the pulmonary artery and cause a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung).
Taylor stayed in the hospital for five days, receiving anti-coagulants intravenously. Then she switch to anti-coagulant pills. She recovered fully---because she'd sought medical attention quickly. "Some people might have thought it was a muscle cramp and blown it off," Katzen says. "But such symptoms, especially when there is no obvious explanation, should not be ignored."
Here are seven other easy-to-ignore symptoms that experts say warrant medical attention.
Persisten Cough
During the school year, Brett Green, a university athlete in his early 20s, had a nagging cough and lost about 20 pounds. He thought the symptoms were due to the stress of competitive sports, but a chest X-ray suggested he had tuberculosis A lab culture confirmed this.
Caused by a bacterium, this infectious disease primarily affects the lungs and is transmitted via airborne droplets. In addition to a chronic cough, the main symptoms are fever, night sweats, weight loss and chest pains. In the disease's advanced stages, shortness of breath can also occur. Especially prone are children under age five, women of child bearing age, the elderly and medical personnel who work near TB patients.
Once treated, most people have no recurrences. After Green was given antibiotics, his infection cleared up.
A cough lasting more than three weeks can also indicate such conditions as bronchitis, allergies, asthma or lung cancer.
Frequent Nighttime Urination
A mother of three, Jenny Carter, in her mid-40s, was thrilled to have lost 20 pounds in just three months. Yet, she felt fatigued most of the time, and was taking a lot of middle-of-the night trips to the bathroom.
A diabetic friend recognized the symptoms and suggested a simple "finger-stick" test to determine Carter's blood-sugar levels. When her reading turned out to be high, Carter consulted a doctor, who diagnosed Type II (adult-onset) diabetes.
If left untreated, diabetes can damage the heart, kidneys, eyes and other parts of the body. But keeping blood sugar on an even keel with a combination of diet, exercise and insulin or other medications can help prevent or delay this damage.
Other diseases that cause frequent nocturnal urination include urinary-tract infections and prostate problems.
Difficulty Swallowing
Peter Llyod, 65, was overweight and suffered heartburn almost daily. When he started having trouble swallowing, he went to see his doctor.
An endoscope revealed a benign stricture that narrowed the lower esophagus. Studies suggest that strictures are the result of repeated acid reflux from the stomach into the esophagus. Obesity is a risk factor.
To treat the problem, doctors put a balloon into Llyod's esophagus and stretched it open. Then he was given acid-blocking medication to help prevent reflux.
WHAT would have happened if Llyod had ignored the problem? "The esophagus could tighten to the point where you couldn't swallow anything," says gastroenterologist G. Richard Locke III of the Mayo Clinic and Foundation. "Dilation with a balloon would be more risky and might cause bleeding."
Trouble swallowing can also be a sign of cancer of the esophagus.
Change in Headache Pattern
Martha Rabinowitz, 77, had suffered her share of headaches over the years, but nothing like the ones that started to plague her one spring. The intense, throbbing pain on one side of her head gripped her in the middle of the night or early in the morning.
Chicago Rheumatologist Robert S. Katz diagnosed temporal arterities---an inflammation of the arteries that serve the temples, face and tongue. Typically occurring after age 50, the disease can also cause temple pain, scalp tenderness, impaired vision, and pain in the jaw and tongue, especially after chewing or talking. Katz gave Rabinowitz corticosteroid drugs, which cleared up the inflammation.
"The onset of a new type of headache, particularly one confined to one side of the head, needs attention," Katz says. Without treatment, temporal arteritis can lead to blindness.
Severe Belly Pains
After dinner one evening, 58-year-old Laura Mancini developed a severe stomachache that antacids didn't tame. When she called her doctor and described her pain to him, he told her to meet him in the emergency room.
There, an ultrasound showed that a gallstone was blocking the opening to the gallbladder, which couldn't empty bile. Pressure built up.
Many people have gallstones that don't cause symptoms or need treatment. Minor attacks may last only half an hour. But according to gastro-enterologist Johnson Thistle of the Mayo Clinic, "If an attack lasts more than six hours, the gallbladder may be severely inflame. Left untreated, this can result in gangrene and perforation of the gallbladder."
Thistle removed Mancini's gallbladder, but some cases can be treated with medication. Typically the pain from gallstones is felt in the upper right abdomen and sometimes between the shoulder blades.
Brief Loss of Vision in One Eye
Farmer Raymond Duffy, 60, was reading the paper one evening when his vision began to blur. Testing each eye, he discovered that his right eye saw clearly, but there was a fuzzy gray cloud in front of the left one.
Within minutes the fuzziness cleared. When he had a few more spells over the next two weeks, he decided to get a checkup. Neurologist Dr. Harold P. Adams, Jr., determined that Duffy was having little stroke spells to the eye. Further testing revealed severe narrowing and blockage to the left carotid artery, the vessel that supplies blood to the left eye and parts of the left brain.
Medications can sometimes help, but in Duffy's case surgery was necessary. Doctors cleaned out the blockage in his carotid artery, and now he can read without difficulty. Had he ignored his brief vision loss, he could have had a major stroke to the eye and permanently lost vision in it.
Transient vision loss in one eye can also signal eye diseases such as glaucoma, or a life-threatening stroke to the brain.
White Patch in the Mouth
Pack-a-day smoker Vera Juarez, 57, noticed a white patch on the right side of her tongue. It was painless, so she ignored it. A few weeks later, the patch started to bleed, and it became difficult for her to articulate the letter "T".
Within three months Juarez noticed a lump on the right side of her neck.
By the time Juarez consulted her doctor, her cancer was advanced. Part of her tongue had to be removed, and radiation therapy destroyed some of her salivary glands, leaving her with a permanently dry mouth.
A lumpy white patch of skin on your lip in your mouth could be an early sign of oral cancer, says oncologist James Endicott.
Would the outcome have been different if Juarez had gone to the doctor when she first saw the bump? "The precancerous lesion could have been removed with a laser or minor outpatient surgery," Endicott says. "As with almost all cancers, early treatment would have improved her long-term chances of survival."
IF YOU HAVE any of these symptoms, see a doctor. In each case, early detection will boost your chances of recovery. And if your doctor finds the symptoms harmless, you'll gain peace of mind.
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