I’m beginning to realize I’m a complete health abnormality. I am 32 years old. Other than contracting colds, the flu, and the occasional sinus infection, my life has been marked by excellent health. I have never broken a bone, had any allergies or other reaction based health problems. I have had no serious disease and have never spent time in a hospital to recover from an ailment. This despite having a somewhat up and down diet (I can eat extremely healthy, and then completely indulge in junk food), and bouncing up from being 50 to 0 pounds overweight.
How abnormal is this? As I enter my thirties and my friends complain about acid reflux, stomach problems, chronic pain, allergies, back pain, etc…I feel I must been dealt a good hand in the health department. Three car accidents too for me and never a scratch. I honestly would like to have more empathy for my friends who are suffering from medical conditions, but sometimes it’s difficult as I have a hard time relating.
Up until I had my thryoid out I was like the OP. OK, I could have stood to lose 20 lbs., but other than that and a bit of osteoarthritis, I was fine.
As my mother once said, “Once you hit your 40s, it’s all downhill. Maybe you’ll luck out, but given my and your father’s genes, you’re going to suddenly run up against things.”
I recently turned 60, and have luckily had few health issues to speak of. I have borderline high cholesterol, which it being treated with a statin, but that’s it. I have never spent a night in a hospital. I get a cold now and then, usually when I travel, but since getting flu shots I haven’t had the flu. I had normal childhood diseases, but my doctor says I am as healthy as anyone he knows who is my age. I thank my father’s genes. He is 88 years old and has never been sick a day in his life (yes, really).
I’ve run the gamut from a broken arm to being on life support for almost a month. In between was cancer, a stroke, and having so many things removed from my trunk we have, as I’ve said before on the Board, started using it for extra storage.
29 years old, mentally afflicted for the most part:
Depression
Anxiety
Alcoholism (recovering)
No broken bones, no surgeries (save for impacted wisdom tooth removal), no physical issues at all, really. The depression, though, can physically manifest in some pretty horrible ways if I don’t manage it properly.
I got the genetic short straw, somehow. We blame my dad’s exposure to Agent Orange (because we don’t have any idea why I got all this crap, and AO is a pretty good thing to blame).
Anyway:
Asthma (moderate-to-severe) – lifelong
Allergies – lifelong
Anaphylactic-level allergy to tree nuts – lifelong
GERD/acid reflux – since I was about 18. It goes with the asthma.
Depression/anxiety – since teen years, I think.
Migraines since I was a teenager. Chronic migraine since 2005.
Weird musculo-skeletal stuff very early in life: Bunions removed in my 20s. Spinal stenosis beginning in my 30s. Chronic knee pain in the past 5 or 6 years, though I suppose running and dancing didn’t help. At any rate, in one knee there’s no cartilage, but I’m not getting a new knee for many years.
Benign esophageal strictures in the past few years. They’re a PITA, but not dangerous.
And finally, one claw toe. I should just go have the stupid tendon cut so it’ll lay down.
It is a bit overwhelming to cope with all of the health issues.
I had no issues until I was in my 40’s. So I wouldn’t call the OP’s experience much of an anomaly. I think plenty of people get through their first four decades relatively unscathed, especially in first world countries. I spent my youth canoeing, hiking, true roughing it camping, and falling off horses, which resulted in a couple occasions of mild limping and and a bloody nose here and there.
I was never hospitalized until I was 43 and needed my gall bladder removed. I’ve still never broken anything (44 now), have sprained an ankle once (at 12 years old) and a knee once (at 42). I started taking one pill a day for GERD about 4 years ago and one for blood pressure 11 months ago. Still no ongoing issues to complain about.
At the OP’s age I had had one broken bone from a childhood accident, and that was it other than typical childhood colds, measles, etc.
I don’t think the OP is unusually healthy at all. He’s probably close to average for his age. What’ll be interesting for him is to see how well that holds up over the next 25-30 years.
I was just the same at that age, I don’t find it remarkable, either.
(It’s a foolish thing to feel pride over lack of any health issues, I believe and I cring when I hear it. Firstly there’s really so much luck keeping you from an illness or injury, and secondly we all grow old and frail. Being pridefull about good health will lead to being really depressed when it’s taken from you, whatever age that may be! )
Broken right wrist, 3 times.
Dislocated left shoulder, 7 times.
Tenodesis, left shoulder, once.
Frozen right shoulder following injury sustained whilst sword fighting.
Osgood Schlatter’s disease, right knee.
Cracked ribs.
Concussion, twice.
Large right inguinal hernia.
Peyronie’s syndrome.
Multiple incidences of sprained ankles, knees & other bumps & bruises.
Measles.
Flu, several times.
Swimmer’s Ear.
Allergic to cats, dogs & dust.
Diabetes, type 2 which transitioned to type 1.
Diabetic ketoacidosis once, necessitating a day in the ICU.
A while back, I was trying to apply to a new insurance company because they could save me money. On the form, they asked me to list all the times I had been to a doctor, and why. They only gave me four lines… I went to get a pad of paper to continue and my wife asked me what I was doing. “Documenting my health history,” I said. A while later, I flipped the page and started writing some more. She asked what I was doing, and I said “Still writing down my health history.” “Stop writing,” she said. “They’re not going to insure you.”
I don’t think the OP is that unusual either for his age.
I’ll be 57 in a couple of months and the only ongoing health issue I have is a bad back, but it’s manageable. I’ve had three colds since 1979, and the flu once. That’s it, really. I eat well and get a fair amount of exercise, although I’m thinking I should do more aerobic exercise. But I also smoked for over 30 years; quit in April 2012.
Everyone I know in my age range has had surgeries for this or that, heart problems, is taking medications, etc. I think I got lucky genes - robust health seems to run in my family. We’re all thin, too. Being overweight seems very risky - I have three friends with diabetes, and two of those have also had heart attacks.
I probably shouldn’t answer, for fear of jinxing myself, but I’m in almost as good a shape as the OP, at 46. I had a broken tooth fixed a few years ago, but aside from that I haven’t had medical treatment, or taken any prescription medication, for a long time—last time I did so was some antibiotics for a sore throat, and that was in a year that started with a 1.
I realize I’m very fortunate. Still, when I hear about all the medical issues other people have, I can’t help wondering:
Am I really that unusual?
Are other people hypersensitive hypochondriacs?
What did people do before the modern era? Were most of them in misery and unable to function most of the time? Were most people healthier than they are today, due perhaps to better diet, exercise, or sleep habits?
Age 60. Up until age 58, my health ‘problems’ were penny-ante stuff:
Tonsils removed at age 6 or 7 (my only overnight hospital stay).
Broke an arm at 13.
Enlarged prostate, first noticed by my doc when I was in my mid-40s.
Assorted tooth extractions; one implant.
In the past two years, I’ve had a ruptured Achilles tendon (surgically repaired and fully healed, thanks), and a rotator cuff problem that was substantially limiting my movement (>95% back to normal with physical therapy). More substantial than the stuff of the first 58 years, but still nothing to gripe much about.
