Red Dick? Is that you? We thought you were dead!
I did something to my left foot a few years ago.
I was sitting on my sofa with it tucked up underneath me. I stood up to walk to the bathroom and the foot had fallen asleep. I managed to do something to it that hurt like hell. I had bruising just below the outermost 3 toes for a couple of weeks, and even now it will just ache in that area at times, and the foot is likely to give me pain.
One of these days I’ll bring it up to my doctor. Perhaps this month, when I see her on the 24th,
Stomach flu. I couldn’t keep any liquids down for about 36 hours and by the end was so thirsty, dizzy, and weak I thought I might go mad. It took four days before my resting heart rate dropped below 120 because I was so dehydrated and took such a long time to bounce back. Should have gone to get IV fluids.
Sprained thumb. There was a snapping sound, the base joint and half of my palm swelled and turned purple, but since I could still move it I figured it wasn’t broken so whatever. It took 2 weeks before I could grasp anything with that hand, 2 months to get acceptable functionality back, and now 7 years later it’s still stiffer than the other one. I think I probably should have gone to the doctor to actually find out what was wrong with it and if I should have gotten it immobilized or done exercises with it or something.
I also have a 3-inch long bluish scar on my lower leg from gashing it open badly with the corner of a car door and doing nothing about it except wiping it with wet paper towels.
Cycling barefoot in shorts & tank top, fell off my bike just as I crested a hill. Got road rash on a foot, knee, and shoulder. Walked home with the bike, put the bike in the garage and jumped in the tub.
As a kid I hopped over a wooden fence and slid my bare foot down the other side. I did not notice the hundreds of splinters for a few minutes. My mother spend about an hour pulling them out with tweezers, but many remained for quite some time. Not really painful, but the risk of infection was probably serious.
As an adult, I was scrubbing a colander with some dried spaghetti noodles, and one piece slid under my thumbnail about a quarter inch. When I tried to pull it out (like a matchstick), it broke. I could still see the noodle under my nail, but no way to get it out. Eventually it turned cloudy and swollen and painful and I knew infection was occurring. I looked online and saw suggestions for infections under nails that involved a flame, hot paper clip and poking a hole in your nail to drain the pus. Good times! Probably another time I should have sought professional help, but the treatment did work and no ill effects. A few days later I completed a 100 mile bike ride and the hand was no issue.
Next time use Brillo or one of those scrunge things. Also, was it a plastic or stainless steel colander?
Eep, some of you are making me queasy. I too have broken a couple of toes; the worst part was having to wear unattractive shoes for several months. I also got a sizable gash just below my elbow - I was fleeing a giant cockroach and cut it on a jagged piece of tile from the mosaic table top I was working on- and stupidly didn’t go to the ER. In a matter of days the gaping hole was oozing green stuff :eek: It was fun grossing my coworkers out but alas, I never finished the table. I think I ended up curing the infection with some Cipro (?) I had for some reason I cannot recall.
Trust me. I wont be making the same mistake again. I am very conscious of my little mishap each time this chore comes my way. Of course, the best answer is not leaving pasta in the colander - but not everyone abides. It was metal.
Someone upthread beat me to it, but: had a kidney stone, and went to the hospital because I assumed I was dying; got another kidney stone years later, knew what I was up against, passed it at home because, hey, it’s insane agony either way, right?
The odd broken toe, several. The rest of my non-looked at injuries tend to be consequences of not having a left ACL any more.
A couple years ago, I bumped my hand against the oven grate and burned it. No big deal, people do that all the time, but unlike the other times I’ve done it, the scar has not disappeared and I wonder if there was some 3rd degree burn in there.
The scar is probably 2 centimeters long and a few millimeters wide.
Broken nose, ribs, fingers, toes, concussion, cuts that should have had stitches, busted up face. And broken teeth but I don’t know if that counts.
I stumbled and ran my foot against an outside wall corner, between my great toe and the second toe, it hurt like hell every step for about 6 weeks. I am fairly sure SOMETHING broke in my foot. The kicker is: I am an RN. We only go to the ER for arterial bleeding. 
About 3 years ago I had some GI illness had bad things coming out of both ends. Once I got home, I holed up for 3 days until I felt better. I had some friends leave anti diarrheal meds on my porch, then retreat to their car. No human contact!
I am kind of like you, I never even thought things like that would qualify for the post.
I had a few things I ignored that eventually turned into medical emergencies where I was carted off in an ambulance. I had a bad cut on my foot as a kid that got infected and I ended up passing out in school with a high fever.
Another time I collapsed at a customers residence from pneumonia. I just felt tired and weak but didn't realize how sick I was.
The last time was when my appendix burst. I knew what it was but was in denial until I passed out. I thought I was being a hypochondriac.
Broken toes, broken fingers, broken ribs (falling off a mountain bike hurts)
The worst was in 1968 I had the Hong Kong flu. I was sick as a dog for two weeks. I would cough all day by night time every time I would go to cough all the muscles in my stomach would start to cramp. I was afraid they would cramp and I would die from being unable to breathe. Mom called the doctor who said to give me a sleeping pill. Out like a light for 12 hours. Wake up and crawl to the bathroom. Too weak to walk.
This went on for two weeks. I lost 20 lbs. In retrospect I should have been in a hospital. I was a junior in HS and in the best shape of my life. It damn near killed me. That’s when I learned the difference between people saying I had the flu yesterday and what the flu really is.
I had the swine flu in 2009 and it was awful. There’s the flu, then there’s THE FLU. It sucked tremendously.
Life itself is a terminal disease. Who here has sought treatment for that?
Heh. My father did something like this recently. He startled awake in his chair and jumped up, spraining the ankle of the sleeping foot. Later that evening I say, hey, how does the foot look compared to the other one? He balanced on one foot to take off his sock and in the process managed to hurt his knee. :smack:
I’m a wuss – I was away from home when I got a stomach bug and got so dehydrated I would pitch to the side when trying to walk. IV fluids and Compazine were a beautiful thing.
That’s what my therapist was for! 
When I was a kid my folks would occasionally have weird gaps in what they would take me to a doctor for. Gash on my scalp got me to the ER, scratched cornea got a visit to the eye doc. But then there was the mouth infection, which was so painful I couldn’t open my mouth wide enough to put anything bigger than a straw in, so I lost something like 9 pounds subsisting on a liquid diet for a solid two weeks until it cleared up on its own. I was around 10 years old. No treatment sought for that.
The weirdest thing – and the thing that in retrospect, I can’t even begin to understand why they never even mentioned it to a doctor in passing, much less rush me to the ER – was the chest pains. For a few years when I was a pre-teen, I would semi-regularly get crippling pain in my chest, bad enough that I couldn’t do anything but curl up and moan, for HOURS. It didn’t happen super often, but it was several times a year. For the first couple years, the pain was central and felt pretty much like someone crushing my heart in their fist. Then it changed character and felt like someone was trying to pull two of my ribs apart.
I was never taken to a doctor for this. I just had to ride it out until the pain passed on its own. I still have NO idea why chest pains didn’t freak my parents right the fuck out. Eventually I outgrew them, and I’ve never had them since I was old enough to ask these sorts of questions. I still have no idea what caused it. (I will entertain guesses if anyone has any…)
Broken fingers and toes; I’ve had enough of both to know how to set and buddy-tape them. Also some bad cuts that probably should have been stitched.