Dizziness can seem like no big deal. But if you're a little dizzy sitting down, it can be 10x worse when you stand up. And if you're dizzy walking around, it can get even worse in other situations.

Basically, if you pass out standing up, you're probably going to hit your head on the way down. And despite what you may have learned in the movies, hitting your head is Very Bad For You.

Source: I passed out in the shower once and my dad had to break down the bathroom door and get me sitting upright. Turned out I didn't have enough sodium in my diet and my blood pressure crashed because of the hot water. I'd felt light-headed for days but didn't think it was a big deal.

righthandpulltrigger:
If you're aware that you get dizzy sometimes, you also need to be shameless about sitting down whenever and wherever you are if you feel a bout coming. At least in my experience there's always a buildup before I pass out (fuzzy hearing, vision going white, numb/static-y limbs, coldness) so if the slight dizziness upon standing doesn't go away in a normal amount of time, I get as close to the ground as possible.

Doesn't matter if I'm alone or with friends or with strangers or in public. I'd rather sit on the ground in the supermarket for 2 minutes than pass out, hit my head, and cause a far bigger scene.

I'm pretty sure being in a more horizontal position also helps with the dizziness in general since the blood doesn't have to pump as far to the brain, so sitting on the ground is preferable to sitting in a chair since your feet are closer to your head, if that makes sense.

Unexpected weight loss. Pain. Crushing, unexplained fatigue.
At 31, I was diagnosed with advanced, aggressive Stage IIIB colon cancer.
I knew it was cancer. It took eight doctors and nine months before someone finally listened. That delay nearly cost me my life.

smbpy7:
I've had more Dr's ignore me than listen to me unfortunately. It took me several Dr's and nearly a year to get an ovarian cyst diagnosed. It was MASSIVE, nearly 20cm, and completely blocking my colon so it wasn't exactly excusable to miss. The first Dr who missed it was doing a PELVIC EXAM at the time and literally rolled her eyes at me when I listed the symptoms and begged her to at least feel my abdomen (I find it ridiculous that had to ask MORE THAN ONCE), and just told me to "take Miralax forever." Taking that too long caused the levels of my other medicine to drop in my system and I had my first ever seizure while awake, and DRIVING.
Thankfully, in my case, the mass wasn't cancerous. I still hate that Dr though.

Drinking too much water, can be a sign of diabetes. That’s how we found out my little sister was diabetic.

Exhaustion. You shouldn't just push through.

Galaxy_Hitchhiking:
I assumed I was exhausted being a mom.. but the years went by and I pushed through miserably. Finally got some bloodwork done and my iron was a big ole 4 and I needed infusions badly. My god I had no idea how hard my body was working to pump blood. I now can stand up without feeling dizzy lol

BubonicBabe:
I ended up in the hospital after a month of working 2 jobs, roughly 18 hours a day plus driving back and forth, taking care of my animals when I got home, trying to eat and sleep in 6 hours with only one scheduled day off a week.
Found myself at my job suddenly sweating, my hands drew up into little claws I couldn’t uncurl, shaking all over uncontrollably, and turning so grey my coworkers called an ambulance for me. We all thought I was having a stroke.
Diagnosed with exhaustion and caffeine overdose from crushing Monsters to keep me awake.
Had to take two days off work and sleep.

Two differently sized pupils! Can be a complete emergency.

Think_Shake_1646:
Interestingly my wife has this all the time. She had no other signs of stroke/brain injury, saw an optician. The diagnosis was basically "that's weird."

Spontaneous vomiting and sweat profusely were my symptoms when I had a heart attack. Women’s symptoms are WAY different than men's.

Mother_of_Brains:
My aunt had a heart attack at 44 and was misdiagnosed for over 36h as just a bad acid reflux. She lost 40% of her heart muscle and it was a medical miracle she lived another 15 years. I was a teen and was the only person with her all night long as it was happening. It was so traumatic. But the silver lining is that I have helped identify early signs of heart attack in at least 3 women over the years, because they all had the same symptoms.

For post menopausal folks, don’t ignore bleeding and think it’s just a period! It is a sign of uterine cancer! Getting this checked out saved my mom’s life! It was caught early thank god but it was an extremely aggressive cancer!

Impending doom is tied to severe life-threatening medical emergencies — such as heart attacks, anaphylaxis, pulmonary embolisms, or neurological events.

It signals that the brain is detecting a severe physiological crisis, making it a critical red flag in emergency medicine.


Sun_Bearzerker:
Had this in conjunction with profuse sweating, clamminess, shaking, loss of feeling in my arms, and lightheadnedness.

Told my partner at the time that I need to go to the ER. He didn't listen and told me just calm down, if anything were wrong he'd take me, I remember yelling at him I'M THE CERTIFIED FIRST RESPONDER, YOU'RE NOT, TAKE ME TO THE ER.

He still wouldn't. I couldn't find my phone to call an ambulance. I was afraid if I stood up from the kitchen table I'd lose consciousness and was afraid of fighting more and further elevating my heart rate.

To this day I have no idea what happened. Went to an urgent care the next morning, they ran an EKG and saw nothing out of the norm, but I'm still convinced I had some sort of cardiac event.

I will never, ever, be with someone who doesn't take my health concerns seriously again.

A swollen Lymph node, especially only on one side of your neck. I ended up losing 1/4th of my tongue and part of the tonsil area and had 2 neck dissections to cancer. I had the swollen node for around 3-4 months. It didn’t hurt and I kept forgetting about it. Don’t be me. Go to your doc. Good news I am now totally cancer free but use me as a cautionary tale.

xaniram:
I’ve had a swollen lymph node under my jaw for years. Ive seen multiple drs and had multiple ultrasounds. Referred to an ent who said he sees this all the time and it’s from severe tmj. Referred to an oral surgeon and his suggestion was “just stop clenching your jaw” and gave me muscle relaxers. Once I have new health insurance I plan on going back to my pcp and begging them to cut it open and do a biopsy. I just want to know it is!!

TaniaYukanana:
My husband had that, then got an ulcer that wouldn't heal after around 3 weeks. The first doctor said it was nothing to worry about, but hubby just 'had a feeling'. Second doctor recognised cancer. He [passed] 19 months later.
Also, if you have an ulcer and also a sweet-but-burning scent in your mouth (you'll know it if you've smelt it before) get to a doctor. It's cancer.

Unintended weight loss. If you didn't change anything and the scale drops fast, get checked.

chalk_in_boots:
Dropped 18kg in under 3 months without changing anything. Whaddya know, next time I donate plasma I get flagged for an unexplained low red cell, and very low white cell count. Cue the 5 month process of repeated blood tests to check for bone cancer.

kejudo:
In my case, it was leukemia.

I started sleeping much more than normal. I have a chronic illness and was getting older so I ignored it.

So, about three months ago I’m at my doctor’s and she realizes she hasn’t checked my blood pressure for a long time. Typically, people in my family have abnormally low blood pressure. She takes it three times in a row. I’m getting ready to tell her about the family low blood pressure when she tells me that I have extremely high blood pressure.

This along with me suddenly needing 18 hours of sleep,a day, made her send me for sleep apnea testing. I was so certain that it would be a waste of time, that I apologized to the people at the clinic. The test revealed that I had extremely severe sleep apnoea and was spending most of my sleeping hours with a blood oxygen level around 66%. Given that it was due to neurological damage to the muscles in my throat from my chronic illness, I probably never would have been tested without my doctor putting the clues together.