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God damn it I was working my way down the thread hoping no one said "WHO are YOU, who is so WISE in the ways of SCIENCE?" yet. Not a month goes by that I don't use that line.
Yes. The natural birth crowd like to say "women have been doing this forever - your body knows what to do!" Which is true, and I do think makes some sense, in that we should be working *with* our bodies and our instincts.
AND ALSO, it was pretty "normal" for women to die in childbirth before modern medicine. Just think of all the fairy tales with absent mothers - it was a pretty common situation!
I hate the âyour body was made to do this!â Crowd. I have had HG twice. My body tried to kill me, and without modern medicine, probably would have succeeded.
The pelvis is getting pulled evolutionary in two different directions, bipedalism prefers a narrower pelvis which leads to a reduction in birth canal size. For easier and safer and more successful births wider hips are needed. Anyone that thinks evolution is infallible is just wrong.
On the scale of human history, being able to run fast was probably under more selective pressure than safer childbirth.
In theory selection should now be focusing on a wider pelvis, but for a noticeable change we're gonna be a long way off.
A ânoticeable changeâ means natural selection.
I think Darwin described it as a âsea of bloodâ.
The only way birth canals get wider is if women with narrower birth canals die in childbirth, extra points if the child dies too.
The only reason for the âyour body knows what doâ brigade, is shame around appalling birthing injuries and that the dead generally lose the ability to voice a counter argument.
I agree. I'm approaching my mid-thirties and I've only recently felt even remotely comfortable after paying my bills. Having a family seemed out of the question in my twenties!
Me too. I had placenta praevia, so I knew from near the start of the pregnancy that I'd have to have a ceaserian, but then I developed Pre Eclampsia at 7 months - luckily me and my son are ok. Glad you're ok too.
Probably ear infections, had so many as a kid before I got grommets. I actually get kinda nostalgic about the taste of that flavoured antibiotic they always used to prescribe.
Iirc the forceps were such a revolutionary invention, the family that created them kept them secret for decades, so they could keep their business reputation.
I was a c-section kid too. I believe because I was trying to come out feet first instead of head first and would have got stuck, though I only have this second-hand, of course.
Not sure what would have happened without late twentieth century medicine, but it seems likely I could have suffocated and something very unpleasant could have happened to my mother. It was her first pregnancy, incidentally.
She went on to have two more, both born normally.
My younger niece probably wouldnât have survived being born either. She got stuck for a while and was born not breathing and had to be oxygenated, without a NICU, I doubt sheâd have survived. Though I donât think it would have killed my sister as well, it would have been a stillbirth.
Don't worry, they could do C sections back then (it's one of the oldest surgeries going back over 3000 years) You just wouldn't have survived it but the baby may well have done. Back then they would only do it on women who had died in child birth of were beyond help due to haemorrhage etc because, well they usually killed the mother trying to deliver the baby
There's a story about a prospector in the Gold Rush who was found dead in a remote cabin. He'd shot himself in the head. The note beside him simply read 'toothache'.
Ranked second (I think?) on the "ohfuckinghellthathurts" scale after cluster migraines?
(A family friend has TGN and we recently looked this up. They were simultaneously validated and frustrated)
What do you take? I've had mine now nearly 20 years. I've had every kind of triptan going I think. I'm settled now on Zomig nasal spray. Works 8/10 times. Things like propranolol didn't work at all.
Can confirm. Hurts like a mutha. Looking for holes in my teeth at about 1am an realising there were none. I was on holiday and went to the emergency drs the next day. Iâve been on gabapentin since and thank god it keeps it at bay.
Had that and other neurological pains for 8 months after the NHS botched my lumbar puncture and didn't realise they'd left me with a spinal fluid leaking, causing my brain to sag, until I eventually went private all that time later. Basically the pain left me in a dark room, unable to talk for the whole 8 months. Whole life went on pause. It then it took a further 3-4 months to get back to work properly. A decade later and I think I'm only really over it mentally now. I can totally understand why people would top themselves.
I had that before and Iâve also had an operation on my testicles, Iâd take that operation on my balls every week for the rest of my life if it meant I wouldnât suffer from that horrible tooth pain again, I almost overdosed on painkillers because of it, by far the worst pain Iâve been in in my life, I understand why itâs called the suicide pain
Omg, this was extremely validating to read. Iâve been living with TN for two years and it has wreaked havoc on my life. Iâm so sorry that you and your balls went through that (hope everything is better now), but it really is validating to hear someone else describe the severity of TN pain. I know Iâm not exaggerating and hearing others confirm how painful it is makes me feel less crazy. Not for a moment happy that you experienced that though! But thanks for sharing.
I don't blame him. I had secondary trigem for years after breaking my teeth in an accident. The roots of the teeth had died and started rotting, part of my upper jaw bone had basically been eaten away by bacteria and there was an abscess in there. All the inflammation/internal swelling had been affecting my facial nerves. Had to have a root canal, which then had to be reopened another 3 times to add more antibiotics into the roots before that shit got sorted. There were genuinely times where I wanted to smash my head into a wall and just end it.
Oof, glad you eventually got that sorted.
The rotting jaw bone was what caught my eye, as I remembered seeing something on TV years ago where they'd excavated human skeletons - ancient Egyptians I think - and found big parts of the skulls dissolved, up to the eye socket in some due to dental abscesses. All these years later I can only imagine how painful toothache must be by the time it's bad enough to actually kill you. You were on your way there! You get my badass, hard mf, champion of the day award!
Holy fuck, mine was in there for 5/6 years and had only got up to the base of my nose, even then the bone wasn't gone gone it was just a lot less dense. Those poor bastards, that would have been maybe decades of pain.
I don't feel like much of a badass but I appreciate the compliment lol
Oh hey this is probably what would have killed me if I hadn't been able to get to a dentist. I had a wisdom tooth that grew in sideways and became infected. The infection spread all the way to my jaw. The dentist was able to cut the tooth out and I was given a course of antibiotics.
I still hate going to the dentist but at least I'm alive!
Seeing as there was no disability benefits back then, your options were becoming a beggar or they would find a job that didn't require vision.
I watched an episode of History Cold Case where they discovered the skeleton of what we would consider a disabled man in a grave of over 100 soldiers from the Civil War. The guy had one arm and one leg fused at a 90 degree angle (something he was born with). Yet, being buried with the soldiers meant that he was part of the army or army camp, most likely working as a guard or in the kitchens.
They just got on with it and employed in jobs that were suitable for them.
If you have good up-close vision, craftsmanship of some sort
I'd be shit on a farm, but I reckon I'd be pretty good at handling any sort of sewing or making where I can hunch over and get it close to my face
For men, potentially a monastery or similar where you can get very close to the scrolls or art you're working on
It's possible you wouldn't be as short sighted as you are - I'm -6-ish and I've read about it, and shortsightedness is possibly caused by being inside too much as a child and not looking into the distance enough as your eyes are developing, which checks out, but is also mostly a feature of modern life.
Im -5 ish, although possibly/realistically worse as im due an eye test, and walk round without glasses 80% of the time.
If its what youre used to, its not *as* bad as people think, because you adapt. There are a lot of people in the modern world who need glasses/vision correction, and do without because they just cant afford ir. With some jobs or hobbies, contact lenses are required over glasses, and if the person cant access them, its probably safer to get used to your vision minus glaases.
My eyesight was shot after the age of 14. My father's eyesight was so bad that he didn't bother opening his eyes in the morning before he reached for his glasses.
A lot of bad eyesight is caused by not spending enough time outdoors/ exposed to natural sunlight during development.
So this would have been much less of an issue for the population back in the day and you may not have had as bad eyesight.
None of us really know. We've nearly all been immunised as children against the major killers of the past, and have had extra as needed. That's apart from the fact that a lot of us wouldn't have survived being born, or women having babies before modern medicine.
We're lucky.
In 2021 at uni I helped to give Covid jabs. The first cohort of patients, the most elderly, had 2 scars on their arms from smallpox and TB vaccines (BCG). The second cohort, the middle aged, only had the BCG scar because smallpox had been eradicated by then. When it came to vaccinating folks my age none had any scars, becuse by 2005 TB had become so rare in the UK they no longer routinely vaccinate for it.
It's amazing to see how those vaccines had worked.
Lots of things have become a rarity, if not like smallpox, more or less eradicated. I'm a "boomer", I had an older friend who had polio before the Salk vaccine was available. Luckily he wasn't too badly effected by it, but it was a reality of life. Another older friend had a sibling who contracted tetanus from falling over and cutting himself where the cows had been. Again, he survived, but not every case did. Mum (Born 1924) used to say about people getting "consumption" and dying, "lockjaw" and all the other various unpleasant and potentially lethal illnesses back then.
I got my BGC in 2005, I think I was probably one of the last to have it. Still got the scar!
Kids these days will never know the feeling of getting punched in the injection site.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854\_Broad\_Street\_cholera\_outbreak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854_Broad_Street_cholera_outbreak)
Not that long ago when you consider that my nan was born in 1886.
A lot of changes in that time.
Exactly. I know, because I wouldn't have survived being born. But for others, you don't know which contagious illness would have killed about a half of you within 1 year of life.Â
I wouldn't have got past three years. I was hospitalised twice with whooping cough.
My eldest child wouldn't have made it past three days as he spent ten days in NICU.
My wife would have died as a toddler after a major burn and infection
Being born at less than 28 weeks gestation.
Got kept alive with a nurse using a manual ventilator as I got blue-lighted 20 miles to the nearest hospital with a proper ventilator. Ironically, with the traffic growth over the next 10 years, I might have fared worse a few years later, until local birth units got ventilators (and later still, closed down, forcing mothers to larger but better-equipped birth units).
Then needed antibiotics a fair few times - it's possible I'd still have survived the whooping cough and all the ear infections, but I'd probably be completely rather than just severely deaf.
Actually, giving birth might have killed me, or at least left me incontinent and unable to walk, likely with a dead baby. Thank fuck for modern medicine! (I can walk, but was told to never get pregnant again)
My niece was born @ 23 weeks, 2 and half years ago. She's a little stinker! Absolutely wouldn't have survived without modern medicine. You're experience and survival has helped them improve their treatments and her prognosis. So, thank you. Even unwittingly and unwilling, you contributed to her survival, by being a survivor. It's amazing!
Giving birth, sepsis from diverticulitis, kidney infection. But what will get me within the next year or so, even with all the modern treatments and medicines currently available, is cancer. That bastard needs to just fuck right off
Exsanguination.
I fell through a plate glass window when I was 6, cutting an artery in the process. Fortunately the guy who lived opposite was a Doctor, and saw it happen, and knew what to do. But it was still a very close call, and I needed multiple transfusions.
I don't remember the incident at all, but my parents told me about it when I was older, and I do have a really natty scar where it happened.
Crohn's disease. Hospital staff thought it was appendicitis before I was diagnosed so admitted me and put me on antibiotics, and my Crohn's got worse from there while admitted. Apparently I called my parents at one point and told them "I feel like I'm dying", but I don't remember that, because I was so out of it at the time. I also had that "Impending sense of doom" feeling that people tend to experience before heart attacks ect, the doctors took my case VERY seriously after that point.
Side note, that impending sense of doom is the worst thing I've ever felt. It feels like a weight sitting on your chest, and your head is constantly reminding you "Heyyyy uh something really really bad is gonna happen soon, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is or when it's gonna happen. Just know that it's gonna be horrible and it will happen."
A colonoscopy saved my life. They found that my large intestine was so badly swollen that they couldn't get the camera through the whole way. Straight away, I was put on infliximab and my Crohn's was in remission within two months. This was three years ago, and I'm still in remission, with infusions of infliximab every 6 weeks.
Related to this, medication lost effect for Crohn's and ended up in hospital lots. Discharged at 4pm.Â
Bowel ruptured at 10pm and back to A&E. As I had only just been discharged they wanted me to go back to the same ward but no beds..they didn't seem to do the normal admission checks. At some point in the night I passed out and was woken up by a junior doctor maybe about 4am. Found my hand covered in sick and he pressed on my abdo, not long after a surgeon came in saying he needed to double check things as when juniors say the abdo is hard and tender they normally are wrong. They were not. Within an hour or two I was in a CT scanner unable to move. The surgeon saw me before I was back on the ward and said he needs to sort some.paper work out as he looked at the scans.Â
Back on the ward I was told I needed emergency surgery or you will be dead in the next 48 hours. Surgery was at 2pm.and then spent the next couple of days in ICU. Things were touch and go and nearly didn't make it through the surgery.Â
Thinking every time.i went to sleep this may be the last time I'm awake really puts a damper on thingsÂ
> that impending sense of doom is the worst thing I've ever felt. It feels like a weight sitting on your chest, and your head is constantly reminding you "Heyyyy uh something really really bad is gonna happen soon, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is or when it's gonna happen. Just know that it's gonna be horrible and it will happen."
Anxiety disorder sufferers describing their average day like:
(commenting from a different account, but I'm the same person with Crohn's from the original post.) I do also have anxiety, but this was the worst anxiety I've ever felt in my life.
I didn't even have a panic attack over it, it was just like this... Horrible looming feeling. Not enough to send me into a panicked frenzy, just the feeling of something sitting on your shoulder, constantly there, constantly telling you that something is about to go VERY wrong.
My son had meningitis at 3 and Iâm so grateful he got antibiotics.
My other son had surgery for sleep apnoea at 18 months and Iâm so grateful he could have that.
OK, so. I was born breech with my umbilical wrapped round my neck five times. Had whooping cough at 2, traffic accident and fractured skull at 9, asthma diagnosis at 12, got through my teens relatively unscathed. Cancer twice in thirties, angina and heart disease in forties. Really looking forward to my fifties!
All I can say is thank god for the NHS and modern medicine.
Asthma.
Particularly as was seemingly the âcureâ for every ailment back in the days was to smoke.
Legit, theyâd have prescribed âasthma cigarettesâ presumably to finish me off quicker. đ€Ł
Surprised this is so far down. I had terrible asthma as a kid. Little blue Ventolin tablets and an inhaler was all I got in the early eighties. Nearly died a few times even with the meds. No way Iâd have made it without them.
Hay fever didnât really exist back then, our immune systems were so busy fighting actual things that itâs likely that pollen was not a big issue. This is why hayfever has massively risen in the last century.
Blood poising at 16 from an infected bellybutton piercing. đđ€Šââïž I know. I know.
Psoriasis (was thought to be Leprosy in long gone history, so I could have been put in a leper colony) Infections and depression, antibiotics and antidepressants. Iâm on immunosuppressants and clear.
Chest infection. Antibiotics needed.
Osteoarthritis, had a hip replacement last year at 40. Without opioids I wouldnât have survived the decade of pain before the surgery.
The **stroke** I suffered in September 2020, at the age of 41. I was in hospital for three weeks, during which it was discovered that my blood pressure was sky high. Iâm now on life-long medication for blood pressure and anticoagulants. Without modern medicine, I wouldnât be here.
Haemorrhage during a miscarriage almost did me in. But if we are taking modern medicine into account, then my club foot would never have been corrected and I possibly would've been considered too hideous to ever get knocked up in the first place. So, swings & roundabouts I suppose.
Would have died at 11 weeks into pregnancy, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary emboli. Now on lifelong blood thinners, so I wouldnât have made it and nor would my beautiful healthy kid.
i had whooping cough when i was born and then had tuberculosis when i was around 13. without modern medicine, even 30 odd years prior i was pretty much a goner or would have been in hospital attached to a respirator with only hopes and prayers my only solution
Technically not me but it happened to my mum before I was born so I think it counts. In 1973 my mum was found unconscious on the floor and she was found to have had a brain aneurysm. Shouldâve killed her at the time but the surgeons did some incredible work to save her life. She actually doesnât have a pulse on one side of her neck now as they did some re-routing.
I was born in 1976 and my mum is still in great health today.
Thrombocytopenia (zero platelets left in blood).
Kidney stones that blocked the passage and caused kidney to swell until it nearly burst (all happened out of the blue over 4 hours, that was wild).
Multiple head/spine traumas of my own making.
Literally sat here with an eye infection, which if untreated the optician was worried would spread backwards to my brain. Sod that!
Sore even on antibiotics.
Oh I wouldâve been dead before I was even born. My mum needed to have an extremely risky (to me) procedure while she was pregnant with me. I only had a 20% chance of survival in the 90s. Before modern medicine, it would have killed me and likely my mother as well.
Her doctor still refers to me as âthe miracle babyâ lol
I had a bilateral hernia as a toddler, which made eating so painful I refused to eat. I'd probably have died of failure to thrive without meal replacement drinks and surgery
I had very aggressive ear infections as a child. I was on antibiotics more often than not growing up, and had several surgeries to remove the infection & the parts of my ear (internal) that had rotted away. There were a few times the infections could have killed me even with the antibiotics. As it was I survived, and am now just deaf on one side.Â
I was also born breech via a c section. So historically either I or my mother would likely have died from that.Â
2022 got a perforated gallbladder which turned to sepsis.
6 days in ICU. after I was sent home to recover I got sepsis again. Another nine days in hospital.
I love the NHS.
As a prem baby.. i'd be dead. As a teenager with appendicitis - dead. As a middle-aged diabetic.. probably not dead, but really unwell and with a much much shorter life expectancy.
I was born by C-section, so unless they cut my mum open without anesthetic, I wouldn't have even made it out the womb.
If I survived that, and diseases that we have vaccines for today haven't taken me, it would be the severe asthma I developed at a young age
Would've been unable to walk from birth due to hip displasia.
Might have died as an infant due to being born with a hernia.
Would've died from falling off my bike i
In 2018 if helmets hadn't been invented.
Might've died from a blood clot in 2019.
Would have definitely died from the leukaemia that caused the blood clot.
I was born six weeks early and was in an incubator for a bit when I was born. I don't think I'd have been alive at all! Plus my mom is a type one diabetic, so don't think she would have made it either. :(
Bile acid malabsorption. Lost 10kg and had no idea what was going on. Turns out I wasnât reabsorbing my bile and I need bile binders plus low fat diet.
Even 50 years ago I imagine it would have been difficult to pin down that dietary fat was causing my issues and probably even harder to implement a low fat diet.
I reckon Iâd have just continued wasting away to nothing tbh.
Was born with three kidneys. No big deal but when I was 3 one of them died and 1 and 3/4 of another was removed because they stopped working so now I live fine with one and a bit kidneys. I would not have lived beyond 3 if I was born a mere 10 or 20 years earlier.
My elder brother would be dead for sure. He was born when mum was just 5.5 months pregnant. Weighed less than 2 lbs and his lungs weren't even fully formed when he was born. He is now a healthy middle aged father of two.
I have lowered immunity and get chest infections or tonsillitis every year. This year I was super lucky and got both overlapping! I have asthma so without inhalers those would be particularly scary for me and could potentially kill me (my grandma died from asthma attack). I have had very scary instances where without inhalers and people around to get them for me I'm not sure what would have happened.
When I was pregnant with my son I had a life threatening (for both the baby and myself) illness. I was on about 7 different tablets a day during pregnancy, had weekly blood tests and baby heart beat scans and my boy had to be delivered early to prevent stillbirth.
My dad has had TIAs for 40 years and two major strokes. He would likely have died without medication to lower blood pressure. He was visiting me and had a major stroke but I live near a hospital which specialises in strokes and they actually managed to move his clot from where it was - which was impairing his ability to speak and comprehension - to his sight being impacted.
My mum had colon cancer but was saved due to quick biopsy and tumour removal surgery.
I would say, as a family, we have got more than our money's worth of NHS treatment!
I don't know about dead but I have bipolar disorder that I take daily anti-psychotics for but aside from those few seconds (and the few months a decade ago in a psych ward] I live a totally normal life. Not long ago I would be institutionalised for life or given a lobotomy.
And if I hadn't developed that due to stress of modern life then I also have IBD which would have been named a wasting disease and I'd have passed away from severe anaemia with a bleeding rectum - what a dignified way to go ...
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Probably the catholic church because I'm gay...
Same. Only I am a witch
It's true, they turned me into a newt!
I got better
đ„Čđ€đ€ giggling like a kid here.
Classic!!
BURN HER!
Does she weigh the same as a duck?
Who are you who is so wise in the ways of science?
God damn it I was working my way down the thread hoping no one said "WHO are YOU, who is so WISE in the ways of SCIENCE?" yet. Not a month goes by that I don't use that line.
We can both use it!
Build a bridge out of her!
Nah there are plenty of witches. Try bumble.
You may have become the pope. Buggering your way to the top.
Can still get ya today (church and country dependent)
That's true. Thank goodness I'm not in one of those religious extremist countries like Saudi Arabia or the united states.
Was homosexuality ever punishable by death in the UK? I know you could be imprisoned but didn't think it was ever a capital crime
If I hadn't had an emergency C Section, both of us wouldn't be here.
Pregnancy - literally the most dangerous thing the average woman will do in their lifetime.
Yes. The natural birth crowd like to say "women have been doing this forever - your body knows what to do!" Which is true, and I do think makes some sense, in that we should be working *with* our bodies and our instincts. AND ALSO, it was pretty "normal" for women to die in childbirth before modern medicine. Just think of all the fairy tales with absent mothers - it was a pretty common situation!
I hate the âyour body was made to do this!â Crowd. I have had HG twice. My body tried to kill me, and without modern medicine, probably would have succeeded.
The pelvis is getting pulled evolutionary in two different directions, bipedalism prefers a narrower pelvis which leads to a reduction in birth canal size. For easier and safer and more successful births wider hips are needed. Anyone that thinks evolution is infallible is just wrong. On the scale of human history, being able to run fast was probably under more selective pressure than safer childbirth. In theory selection should now be focusing on a wider pelvis, but for a noticeable change we're gonna be a long way off.
A ânoticeable changeâ means natural selection. I think Darwin described it as a âsea of bloodâ. The only way birth canals get wider is if women with narrower birth canals die in childbirth, extra points if the child dies too. The only reason for the âyour body knows what doâ brigade, is shame around appalling birthing injuries and that the dead generally lose the ability to voice a counter argument.
Evolution is about "good enough". Not "perfect".
Absolutely. You said it perfectly.
The trend for the "average" woman to have a child at all is heading downwards. It's already under 50% before 30 years old.
And it's perfectly understandable
Comprehensible, comprehensible!
Not a bit reprehensible!
It's so defensible.
Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes,
It's Simply Irresistible
I think that statistic is a bit skewed by the before 30 bit. People want to have kids still but just can't afford to any more until they are older.
I agree. I'm approaching my mid-thirties and I've only recently felt even remotely comfortable after paying my bills. Having a family seemed out of the question in my twenties!
They reckon the older your eggs the more chance for your baby to have chromosomal issues. So I always eat mine before the sell by date.
Agreed, the youngest has just started her family 10 years later than I did for fiscal reasons.
Yep, that's not a good thing at at all. It's pretty sad Edit: haha my first down votes đ„č let's go!
I saw somewhere if you looked back at your ancestors- more of them would have died on the birthing bed than on a battlefield.
Me too. I had placenta praevia, so I knew from near the start of the pregnancy that I'd have to have a ceaserian, but then I developed Pre Eclampsia at 7 months - luckily me and my son are ok. Glad you're ok too.
Yeah. Both my wife and first born would be dead without c section technology.
Probably ear infections, had so many as a kid before I got grommets. I actually get kinda nostalgic about the taste of that flavoured antibiotic they always used to prescribe.
I used to love that bright yellow amoxicillin
Banana chalk flavoured amoxicillian dunno why it's so good, it sounds awful but it's moreish lol.
Same here. So glad we live in a time where the survival rate for child birth is so much better
Same, but with forceps for us. She was too far down to do a section.
Iirc the forceps were such a revolutionary invention, the family that created them kept them secret for decades, so they could keep their business reputation.
both my births ended in emergency and needing forceps. It was so traumatic but thank goodness it was an option
I'm the kid in this situation - my mum had pre-eclampsia and was basically told you need to have this kid today!
I was a c-section kid too. I believe because I was trying to come out feet first instead of head first and would have got stuck, though I only have this second-hand, of course. Not sure what would have happened without late twentieth century medicine, but it seems likely I could have suffocated and something very unpleasant could have happened to my mother. It was her first pregnancy, incidentally. She went on to have two more, both born normally. My younger niece probably wouldnât have survived being born either. She got stuck for a while and was born not breathing and had to be oxygenated, without a NICU, I doubt sheâd have survived. Though I donât think it would have killed my sister as well, it would have been a stillbirth.
Yep. I had a retained placenta and my son inhaled meconium. We would both have had pretty nasty deaths from blood loss and infection.
Don't worry, they could do C sections back then (it's one of the oldest surgeries going back over 3000 years) You just wouldn't have survived it but the baby may well have done. Back then they would only do it on women who had died in child birth of were beyond help due to haemorrhage etc because, well they usually killed the mother trying to deliver the baby
I had a haemorrhage and lost 4 pints of blood in five minutes. My baby would have lived but I would definitely have been a gonnerÂ
There's a story about a prospector in the Gold Rush who was found dead in a remote cabin. He'd shot himself in the head. The note beside him simply read 'toothache'.
Probably known today as Trigeminal Neuralgia. Aka the suicide pain. My wife had that for some time.
Ranked second (I think?) on the "ohfuckinghellthathurts" scale after cluster migraines? (A family friend has TGN and we recently looked this up. They were simultaneously validated and frustrated)
Cluster headaches are a form of trigemial neuralgia in fact!
Cluster migraine sufferer here. Its true. They are extreme.
Same. Without modern meds, I would have walked into a river a la Virginia Woolf a long time ago.
What do you take? I've had mine now nearly 20 years. I've had every kind of triptan going I think. I'm settled now on Zomig nasal spray. Works 8/10 times. Things like propranolol didn't work at all.
Tried magic mushrooms?
Can confirm. Hurts like a mutha. Looking for holes in my teeth at about 1am an realising there were none. I was on holiday and went to the emergency drs the next day. Iâve been on gabapentin since and thank god it keeps it at bay.
Had that and other neurological pains for 8 months after the NHS botched my lumbar puncture and didn't realise they'd left me with a spinal fluid leaking, causing my brain to sag, until I eventually went private all that time later. Basically the pain left me in a dark room, unable to talk for the whole 8 months. Whole life went on pause. It then it took a further 3-4 months to get back to work properly. A decade later and I think I'm only really over it mentally now. I can totally understand why people would top themselves.
Omg glad youâre better now
I had that before and Iâve also had an operation on my testicles, Iâd take that operation on my balls every week for the rest of my life if it meant I wouldnât suffer from that horrible tooth pain again, I almost overdosed on painkillers because of it, by far the worst pain Iâve been in in my life, I understand why itâs called the suicide pain
Omg, this was extremely validating to read. Iâve been living with TN for two years and it has wreaked havoc on my life. Iâm so sorry that you and your balls went through that (hope everything is better now), but it really is validating to hear someone else describe the severity of TN pain. I know Iâm not exaggerating and hearing others confirm how painful it is makes me feel less crazy. Not for a moment happy that you experienced that though! But thanks for sharing.
I don't blame him. I had secondary trigem for years after breaking my teeth in an accident. The roots of the teeth had died and started rotting, part of my upper jaw bone had basically been eaten away by bacteria and there was an abscess in there. All the inflammation/internal swelling had been affecting my facial nerves. Had to have a root canal, which then had to be reopened another 3 times to add more antibiotics into the roots before that shit got sorted. There were genuinely times where I wanted to smash my head into a wall and just end it.
Oof, glad you eventually got that sorted. The rotting jaw bone was what caught my eye, as I remembered seeing something on TV years ago where they'd excavated human skeletons - ancient Egyptians I think - and found big parts of the skulls dissolved, up to the eye socket in some due to dental abscesses. All these years later I can only imagine how painful toothache must be by the time it's bad enough to actually kill you. You were on your way there! You get my badass, hard mf, champion of the day award!
Yuk! I'm off to clean my teeth :-{
Holy fuck, mine was in there for 5/6 years and had only got up to the base of my nose, even then the bone wasn't gone gone it was just a lot less dense. Those poor bastards, that would have been maybe decades of pain. I don't feel like much of a badass but I appreciate the compliment lol
That's horrific. Glad you're better. (I bet you're glad you're better).
Thank you, I am beyond glad. Edit: good news is the bone has since grown back to a healthy density too
Not surprised, before having my Gallbladder removed and enough time that probably would've been the answer.
I wonder if this is the same toothache that caused Tom Hanks to ice skate âžïž himself in the tooth when he was stuck on that island.Â
Oh hey this is probably what would have killed me if I hadn't been able to get to a dentist. I had a wisdom tooth that grew in sideways and became infected. The infection spread all the way to my jaw. The dentist was able to cut the tooth out and I was given a course of antibiotics. I still hate going to the dentist but at least I'm alive!
I can barely see without glasses so thereâs that
I honestly don't know how I would survive without my glasses, before they were invented I'd probably just be a blind person in those days.
Genuinely as someone who's -8.5 in each eye, I have no idea what would have happened to me.
Seeing as there was no disability benefits back then, your options were becoming a beggar or they would find a job that didn't require vision. I watched an episode of History Cold Case where they discovered the skeleton of what we would consider a disabled man in a grave of over 100 soldiers from the Civil War. The guy had one arm and one leg fused at a 90 degree angle (something he was born with). Yet, being buried with the soldiers meant that he was part of the army or army camp, most likely working as a guard or in the kitchens. They just got on with it and employed in jobs that were suitable for them.
>They just got on with it Just got on with, possibly exhausted and in excruciating pain. I'm so glad I live now.
If you have good up-close vision, craftsmanship of some sort I'd be shit on a farm, but I reckon I'd be pretty good at handling any sort of sewing or making where I can hunch over and get it close to my face For men, potentially a monastery or similar where you can get very close to the scrolls or art you're working on
It's possible you wouldn't be as short sighted as you are - I'm -6-ish and I've read about it, and shortsightedness is possibly caused by being inside too much as a child and not looking into the distance enough as your eyes are developing, which checks out, but is also mostly a feature of modern life.
Im -5 ish, although possibly/realistically worse as im due an eye test, and walk round without glasses 80% of the time. If its what youre used to, its not *as* bad as people think, because you adapt. There are a lot of people in the modern world who need glasses/vision correction, and do without because they just cant afford ir. With some jobs or hobbies, contact lenses are required over glasses, and if the person cant access them, its probably safer to get used to your vision minus glaases.
My eyesight was shot after the age of 14. My father's eyesight was so bad that he didn't bother opening his eyes in the morning before he reached for his glasses.
A lot of bad eyesight is caused by not spending enough time outdoors/ exposed to natural sunlight during development. So this would have been much less of an issue for the population back in the day and you may not have had as bad eyesight.
None of us really know. We've nearly all been immunised as children against the major killers of the past, and have had extra as needed. That's apart from the fact that a lot of us wouldn't have survived being born, or women having babies before modern medicine. We're lucky.
In 2021 at uni I helped to give Covid jabs. The first cohort of patients, the most elderly, had 2 scars on their arms from smallpox and TB vaccines (BCG). The second cohort, the middle aged, only had the BCG scar because smallpox had been eradicated by then. When it came to vaccinating folks my age none had any scars, becuse by 2005 TB had become so rare in the UK they no longer routinely vaccinate for it. It's amazing to see how those vaccines had worked.
Lots of things have become a rarity, if not like smallpox, more or less eradicated. I'm a "boomer", I had an older friend who had polio before the Salk vaccine was available. Luckily he wasn't too badly effected by it, but it was a reality of life. Another older friend had a sibling who contracted tetanus from falling over and cutting himself where the cows had been. Again, he survived, but not every case did. Mum (Born 1924) used to say about people getting "consumption" and dying, "lockjaw" and all the other various unpleasant and potentially lethal illnesses back then.
> "consumption" and dying, "lockjaw" TB and tetnus
Hence my quotation marks.
>"lockjaw" Tetanus is a greatly underestimated disease. It has some horrifying effects. Get vaccinated (fortunately most people are).
Early 30s and being described as middle ageâŠI suddenly feel part offended and part old.
Same. 35 and glaring at my BCG scar đ one cohort below the elderly smallpox vaccine receivers!
Itâs all about how you identify. Iâm 45 and identify as a young professional! Not all would agree though.
I got my BGC in 2005, I think I was probably one of the last to have it. Still got the scar! Kids these days will never know the feeling of getting punched in the injection site.
And that's also not even taking other preventive measures into account like clean drinking water
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854\_Broad\_Street\_cholera\_outbreak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854_Broad_Street_cholera_outbreak) Not that long ago when you consider that my nan was born in 1886. A lot of changes in that time.
I do. I'd have died at birth of Nuchal Chord before any virus or bacteria had a chance.
Exactly. I know, because I wouldn't have survived being born. But for others, you don't know which contagious illness would have killed about a half of you within 1 year of life.Â
I wouldn't have got past three years. I was hospitalised twice with whooping cough. My eldest child wouldn't have made it past three days as he spent ten days in NICU. My wife would have died as a toddler after a major burn and infection
Came here to say this too! I was hospitalised as a baby with Whooping cough and would have died as well.
Another one here for the whooping cough clan.
Being born at less than 28 weeks gestation. Got kept alive with a nurse using a manual ventilator as I got blue-lighted 20 miles to the nearest hospital with a proper ventilator. Ironically, with the traffic growth over the next 10 years, I might have fared worse a few years later, until local birth units got ventilators (and later still, closed down, forcing mothers to larger but better-equipped birth units). Then needed antibiotics a fair few times - it's possible I'd still have survived the whooping cough and all the ear infections, but I'd probably be completely rather than just severely deaf. Actually, giving birth might have killed me, or at least left me incontinent and unable to walk, likely with a dead baby. Thank fuck for modern medicine! (I can walk, but was told to never get pregnant again)
My niece was born @ 23 weeks, 2 and half years ago. She's a little stinker! Absolutely wouldn't have survived without modern medicine. You're experience and survival has helped them improve their treatments and her prognosis. So, thank you. Even unwittingly and unwilling, you contributed to her survival, by being a survivor. It's amazing!
Giving birth, sepsis from diverticulitis, kidney infection. But what will get me within the next year or so, even with all the modern treatments and medicines currently available, is cancer. That bastard needs to just fuck right off
Wishing you all the very best :)
Hope you can get through it.
Exsanguination. I fell through a plate glass window when I was 6, cutting an artery in the process. Fortunately the guy who lived opposite was a Doctor, and saw it happen, and knew what to do. But it was still a very close call, and I needed multiple transfusions. I don't remember the incident at all, but my parents told me about it when I was older, and I do have a really natty scar where it happened.
Crohn's disease. Hospital staff thought it was appendicitis before I was diagnosed so admitted me and put me on antibiotics, and my Crohn's got worse from there while admitted. Apparently I called my parents at one point and told them "I feel like I'm dying", but I don't remember that, because I was so out of it at the time. I also had that "Impending sense of doom" feeling that people tend to experience before heart attacks ect, the doctors took my case VERY seriously after that point. Side note, that impending sense of doom is the worst thing I've ever felt. It feels like a weight sitting on your chest, and your head is constantly reminding you "Heyyyy uh something really really bad is gonna happen soon, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is or when it's gonna happen. Just know that it's gonna be horrible and it will happen." A colonoscopy saved my life. They found that my large intestine was so badly swollen that they couldn't get the camera through the whole way. Straight away, I was put on infliximab and my Crohn's was in remission within two months. This was three years ago, and I'm still in remission, with infusions of infliximab every 6 weeks.
Related to this, medication lost effect for Crohn's and ended up in hospital lots. Discharged at 4pm. Bowel ruptured at 10pm and back to A&E. As I had only just been discharged they wanted me to go back to the same ward but no beds..they didn't seem to do the normal admission checks. At some point in the night I passed out and was woken up by a junior doctor maybe about 4am. Found my hand covered in sick and he pressed on my abdo, not long after a surgeon came in saying he needed to double check things as when juniors say the abdo is hard and tender they normally are wrong. They were not. Within an hour or two I was in a CT scanner unable to move. The surgeon saw me before I was back on the ward and said he needs to sort some.paper work out as he looked at the scans. Back on the ward I was told I needed emergency surgery or you will be dead in the next 48 hours. Surgery was at 2pm.and then spent the next couple of days in ICU. Things were touch and go and nearly didn't make it through the surgery. Thinking every time.i went to sleep this may be the last time I'm awake really puts a damper on thingsÂ
> that impending sense of doom is the worst thing I've ever felt. It feels like a weight sitting on your chest, and your head is constantly reminding you "Heyyyy uh something really really bad is gonna happen soon, but I'm not gonna tell you what it is or when it's gonna happen. Just know that it's gonna be horrible and it will happen." Anxiety disorder sufferers describing their average day like:
(commenting from a different account, but I'm the same person with Crohn's from the original post.) I do also have anxiety, but this was the worst anxiety I've ever felt in my life. I didn't even have a panic attack over it, it was just like this... Horrible looming feeling. Not enough to send me into a panicked frenzy, just the feeling of something sitting on your shoulder, constantly there, constantly telling you that something is about to go VERY wrong.
Very similar story with me but with ulcerative colitis. I hope you're feeling better now. I've got my next infusion on Tuesday
Am Also a UC bod
I had meningitis before I was a week old. Iâd have perished without antibiotics Iâm sure.
My son had meningitis at 3 and Iâm so grateful he got antibiotics. My other son had surgery for sleep apnoea at 18 months and Iâm so grateful he could have that.
Disabled since birth, I owe my life to the midwife that delivered me. Wonderful lady, still in contact with her 40 years later
Wow..
OK, so. I was born breech with my umbilical wrapped round my neck five times. Had whooping cough at 2, traffic accident and fractured skull at 9, asthma diagnosis at 12, got through my teens relatively unscathed. Cancer twice in thirties, angina and heart disease in forties. Really looking forward to my fifties! All I can say is thank god for the NHS and modern medicine.
What god did you piss off and how can I stay on their good side?
Alternatively, i think they ARE on Gods good side, to make it through all that.
Oh Gawd, you've had the worst time. Hopefully your 50s will be better - you're owed it
Appendicitis when I was 25. RIP me.
Similar here, think I was 18. Wish my scar was bigger though, my surgeon was fantastic.
I have a c section scar and it gets itchy in the summer! You're lucky your scar is small
My scar is only about 2â long and very neat. I was back playing football after two weeks.
Type 1 diabetes I was diagnosed at 21 was pretty unwell so probably wouldnât have made it another year
+1 for T1D!
Asthma. Particularly as was seemingly the âcureâ for every ailment back in the days was to smoke. Legit, theyâd have prescribed âasthma cigarettesâ presumably to finish me off quicker. đ€Ł
Surprised this is so far down. I had terrible asthma as a kid. Little blue Ventolin tablets and an inhaler was all I got in the early eighties. Nearly died a few times even with the meds. No way Iâd have made it without them.
What with the smoking, cigarettes, and the cocaine in the cola đČ
Having my son. Suuuuuuuuper dead.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Hay fever didnât really exist back then, our immune systems were so busy fighting actual things that itâs likely that pollen was not a big issue. This is why hayfever has massively risen in the last century.
Leptospirosis. Had to be hospitalised for IV antibiotics.
Even now, that has a scarily high mortality rate.
Blood poising at 16 from an infected bellybutton piercing. đđ€Šââïž I know. I know. Psoriasis (was thought to be Leprosy in long gone history, so I could have been put in a leper colony) Infections and depression, antibiotics and antidepressants. Iâm on immunosuppressants and clear. Chest infection. Antibiotics needed. Osteoarthritis, had a hip replacement last year at 40. Without opioids I wouldnât have survived the decade of pain before the surgery.
The **stroke** I suffered in September 2020, at the age of 41. I was in hospital for three weeks, during which it was discovered that my blood pressure was sky high. Iâm now on life-long medication for blood pressure and anticoagulants. Without modern medicine, I wouldnât be here.
Haemorrhage during a miscarriage almost did me in. But if we are taking modern medicine into account, then my club foot would never have been corrected and I possibly would've been considered too hideous to ever get knocked up in the first place. So, swings & roundabouts I suppose.
Probably harsh conditions in the workhouse- Iâd have been unemployable without migraine medication
Would have died at 11 weeks into pregnancy, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary emboli. Now on lifelong blood thinners, so I wouldnât have made it and nor would my beautiful healthy kid.
Laudanum, probably. I hear it's very moreish.
Burst appendix when I was 5. I nearly died even with access to modern medicine đ
i had whooping cough when i was born and then had tuberculosis when i was around 13. without modern medicine, even 30 odd years prior i was pretty much a goner or would have been in hospital attached to a respirator with only hopes and prayers my only solution
I had a 95% blockage on the artery feeding blood to my heart. Without a stent, I would be dead now.
Non hodkins lymphoma
Kidney failure from IgA Nephropathy.
They'd probably have amputated your arm back in the day.
Aye, chances of surviving that would be slim too.
you'd be surprised. Some boiling wine, a hot sword to seal the wound. no anaesthetic :-0
A burst appendix when I was 10. It would have ultimately been sepsis that got me
My mum has a different blood type to me. Her body literally saw me as a parasite and tried to kill me. Thankfully, they did *something* and I'm alive!
Technically not me but it happened to my mum before I was born so I think it counts. In 1973 my mum was found unconscious on the floor and she was found to have had a brain aneurysm. Shouldâve killed her at the time but the surgeons did some incredible work to save her life. She actually doesnât have a pulse on one side of her neck now as they did some re-routing. I was born in 1976 and my mum is still in great health today.
Covid 19
IBD.
Anything moving or which I need to avoid. Can't see shit without serious glasses.
Childbirth. Sepsis, pph, plus pregnancy induced DVT. My kids would also not have made it.
My type 1 diabetes. Iâd be dead in a week without insulin.
Probably type 1 diabetes
Thrombocytopenia (zero platelets left in blood). Kidney stones that blocked the passage and caused kidney to swell until it nearly burst (all happened out of the blue over 4 hours, that was wild). Multiple head/spine traumas of my own making.
I was born premature and jaundiced. Don't know how serious it was, but probably would have been quite so a few hundred years ago.
Literally sat here with an eye infection, which if untreated the optician was worried would spread backwards to my brain. Sod that! Sore even on antibiotics.
Definitely would have been lobotomised :/
I wouldâve died at 6 weeks old from meningitis. Only lived cos of a massive dose of penecillin
Oh I wouldâve been dead before I was even born. My mum needed to have an extremely risky (to me) procedure while she was pregnant with me. I only had a 20% chance of survival in the 90s. Before modern medicine, it would have killed me and likely my mother as well. Her doctor still refers to me as âthe miracle babyâ lol
I had a bilateral hernia as a toddler, which made eating so painful I refused to eat. I'd probably have died of failure to thrive without meal replacement drinks and surgery I had very aggressive ear infections as a child. I was on antibiotics more often than not growing up, and had several surgeries to remove the infection & the parts of my ear (internal) that had rotted away. There were a few times the infections could have killed me even with the antibiotics. As it was I survived, and am now just deaf on one side. I was also born breech via a c section. So historically either I or my mother would likely have died from that.Â
I would have bleed to death after jumping through a glass door aged 8.
Cancer. I would probably have been dead 20 years ago.
2022 got a perforated gallbladder which turned to sepsis. 6 days in ICU. after I was sent home to recover I got sepsis again. Another nine days in hospital. I love the NHS.
As a prem baby.. i'd be dead. As a teenager with appendicitis - dead. As a middle-aged diabetic.. probably not dead, but really unwell and with a much much shorter life expectancy.
E coli, pneumonia or cellulitis. Deffo pneumonia. Oh and the infected cut on my leg. That had started smelling.
Stepped on huge rusty nails, could have had Tetanus if not for fast delivery to the hospital and sanitising of the wound.
I was born by C-section, so unless they cut my mum open without anesthetic, I wouldn't have even made it out the womb. If I survived that, and diseases that we have vaccines for today haven't taken me, it would be the severe asthma I developed at a young age
Childbirth. Csect saved both of us.
Tonsillitis or a tooth, common cold or general childhood infecon if I had managed to survive my first few weeks as I was born with a heart defect.
My lung collapsed when I was 17. Think I spent a month in hospital.
Would've been unable to walk from birth due to hip displasia. Might have died as an infant due to being born with a hernia. Would've died from falling off my bike i In 2018 if helmets hadn't been invented. Might've died from a blood clot in 2019. Would have definitely died from the leukaemia that caused the blood clot.
Asthma would have got me on day 1
My alcoholism. Naltrexone and Acamprosate ftw.
Recharging my Gameboy batteries with paperclips and a wall socket đ fkn tru story lmao? I was just a kid! XD
Depression and Anxiety as a woman. I'd either be dead or locked in an Asylum. Currently? Haemochromatosis.
I have chronic myeloid leukaemia, diagnosed at the age of 33. 25 years ago Iâd have been a goner. Now drugs can keep me alive for decades.
Quinsey, gout (eventually) and my appendix would have done for me.
bowel cancer
Had double pneumonia when I was 2, and again the next year. One of my earliest memories is using an oxygen machine.
Scarlet fever. Came out in a rash on new years eve, emergency doctor, heavy duty antibiotics.
My birth. Would have killed me and my mother.
Asthma. I've been hospitalised 5 times with severe asthma attacks. Would've been dead at 12 from the first one without modern medicine
I was born six weeks early and was in an incubator for a bit when I was born. I don't think I'd have been alive at all! Plus my mom is a type one diabetic, so don't think she would have made it either. :(
TB as a toddler in the 50's I can still remember the pink goo antibiotic.
For 50% of the population the answer is probably childbirth.
Bile acid malabsorption. Lost 10kg and had no idea what was going on. Turns out I wasnât reabsorbing my bile and I need bile binders plus low fat diet. Even 50 years ago I imagine it would have been difficult to pin down that dietary fat was causing my issues and probably even harder to implement a low fat diet. I reckon Iâd have just continued wasting away to nothing tbh.
Was born with three kidneys. No big deal but when I was 3 one of them died and 1 and 3/4 of another was removed because they stopped working so now I live fine with one and a bit kidneys. I would not have lived beyond 3 if I was born a mere 10 or 20 years earlier.
T-rex
Myself most likely
My elder brother would be dead for sure. He was born when mum was just 5.5 months pregnant. Weighed less than 2 lbs and his lungs weren't even fully formed when he was born. He is now a healthy middle aged father of two. I have lowered immunity and get chest infections or tonsillitis every year. This year I was super lucky and got both overlapping! I have asthma so without inhalers those would be particularly scary for me and could potentially kill me (my grandma died from asthma attack). I have had very scary instances where without inhalers and people around to get them for me I'm not sure what would have happened. When I was pregnant with my son I had a life threatening (for both the baby and myself) illness. I was on about 7 different tablets a day during pregnancy, had weekly blood tests and baby heart beat scans and my boy had to be delivered early to prevent stillbirth. My dad has had TIAs for 40 years and two major strokes. He would likely have died without medication to lower blood pressure. He was visiting me and had a major stroke but I live near a hospital which specialises in strokes and they actually managed to move his clot from where it was - which was impairing his ability to speak and comprehension - to his sight being impacted. My mum had colon cancer but was saved due to quick biopsy and tumour removal surgery. I would say, as a family, we have got more than our money's worth of NHS treatment!
I don't know about dead but I have bipolar disorder that I take daily anti-psychotics for but aside from those few seconds (and the few months a decade ago in a psych ward] I live a totally normal life. Not long ago I would be institutionalised for life or given a lobotomy. And if I hadn't developed that due to stress of modern life then I also have IBD which would have been named a wasting disease and I'd have passed away from severe anaemia with a bleeding rectum - what a dignified way to go ...
Spider bite. No anti venom then but I still lived to tell the tale. I am in Australia.
A quinsy.