What's your greatest medical surprise?

Just a few months ago, I finally had my first, and long overdue, colonoscopy. My results were so spectacularly excellent, I don’t need to repeat for 10 years. Why was this such an amazing surprise? My father died from colon cancer, when he was just 3 years older than my current age.

@syz I donated a kidney. Over the years, at that hospital they have had five people volunteer to donate, show up for testing, and discover they don’t have a spare.

My biggest surprises were not about me, but about close friends who discovered they had late stage cancer. One lived two years, one lived three weeks.

My mother was told by Dr. Springsteen that I was born to run, surprising only because, well…my legs were too small surely.

The last time I saw a dentist, when I was about nine or ten, I had a full mouth X-ray done. The roots of my teeth all grew at about a 90 degree angle, parallel with my gums. The dentist said he’d never seen anything like it, and asked permission to share my X-ray at a trade convention.

Getting the high PSA result from my routine, age 55, blood screening.
When the doc called in the evening and told me the number, I said: “Oh sh*t.” He replied, “Under the circumstances, that is a perfectly reasonable response.”

My dad died of esophageal cancer 3 years ago and my doc said I should get scoped as he said my dad probably had signs of an issue at my age. Sure enough I have pre-cancerous lesions on my esophagus.

Also when I herniated a disc in my back the MRI revealed I had 3 other bulging disc I did not know I had. That explained a lot.

I thought I was going through a very stressful time in 1997 and was experiencing what I thought were symptoms of stress. A friend finally convinced me to see my regular GP about it instead of going to a quack counsellor. After a blood test, the doctor said, ‘You have an over active thyroid. Your levels are so high, we can’t measure them. I think it is Graves, but we will have to have it confirmed and check to see it isn’t cancer or something else causing it. I’ve never see it before so I’m sending you today, right now, immediately, to a colleague who knows more about it and he can explain it to you.’ ‘Is there a cure for Graves?’ I asked. ‘No.’ was the answer. I was both terrified and relieved. I was relieved that it wasn’t all in my head and it had a physical cause. I was terrified because I probably had something with no cure.

I went for an endometrial biopsy test because I was having trouble conceiving and when I was given the results, it turned out I was pregnant.

That the weird pimples I had between my butt cheeks was MRSA!

In my 40s, following a bout with kidney stones, I was told I had only one functioning kidney. A TOTAL shock! No one had ever diagnosed that previously.

When in my mid 40’s, I was told I have had a heart defect since birth.

This is not as dramatic as many of the stories above, but here’s my story:

When I was about ten, I had developed a chronic limp. The arch of my left foot hurt—when I jumped, when I took a step, when I put on shoes, when it was touched. We went to the podiatrist, and the diagnosis was simple enough: I had an accessory navicular bone, an extra bone chip about the size of an M&M pressing up against my navicular bone and irritating my foot, exacerbated by my pronation. My podiatrist said I had been compensating for years without even realizing it, but now that I was older and more active it started making itself known. That wasn’t the surprise.

After about a year I had a surgery to remove the bone chip. After I had recovered—cast gone, crutches gone—I could run, fast, and I liked it. All I had ever remembered was hating to run, even before I registered any pain in my foot. But when I told my parents, “wow, I like to run now, who would’ve guessed?” they responded “you used to when you were little, you would run circles in the yard or the playground.” That was the surprise: that I could have compensated for my foot so completely I didn’t even remember liking something I used to love. It made me feel much more malleable than I would have liked.

Just last night I logged into my phone medical record app. I had an alert for my eye exam that is coming up. While I was in there, I looked back at my old lab results and mentally compared them to ones my new doctor recently ordered. I found a pathology report of the placenta from my last pregnancy. There were multiple blood clots and infarctions found in the placenta. This was a shock to me, as (1) no one ever mentioned it and (2) I was on blood thinners throughout my pregnancy. There was even a note that an extra consult was obtained for the placental pathology and it was discussed at pathology rounds… which would indicate that what was found was rare and of educational value.

There were some terms in the report that I am no familiar with, so I need to make a mental note to discuss at my next OB visit.

My mother had several miscarriages and all of her children were premature. The underlying cause is probably linked with my history of blood clots and placental clots/infarctions (even while on blood thinners! I am blown away).

Today, I am tremendously grateful that my kids and I are all healthy. I came close to dying when I had blood clots in both lungs. My little ones and/or I could have been in danger during pregnancy/delivery/postpartum. And I never knew.

When I found out I was pregnant. I went to the doctor and she said “you’re VERY pregnant.” I was 10 weeks at the time. That was a wonderful surprise and I cried tears of joy.

When I found out I had Guillain Barre Syndrome. I was pleasantly relieved that I didn’t have something incurable, like MS. After almost a month in the hospital with medication and intensive physical therapy, I was on the road to recovery.

@jca My partner’s (skinny) cousin was 6 months pregnant when she found out.

Eleven years ago, almost exactly to the day, I had laser eye surgery. Before: 20/600 vision. After: 20/24 vision. Since my mid-teenage years, I’d been unable to function without contact lenses or eyeglasses. After just a minute or so on that operating table, I got up and could clearly read the clock on the wall.

I grabbed the ophthalmologist and hugged him. Fortunately, he didn’t mind at all! He’s an interesting guy; he had performed the same procedure on Patrick Ewing and Tiger Woods.