Pain you should never ignore

When is pain something serious, something you shouldn’t ignore? I know most of us have had at least one time when something hurt and we’ve wondered about the seriousness of it; is it something to shake off or something to get checked?

There are some types of pain you should never put off. A false alarm is better than ignoring a potentially fatal health issue.

1 – Chest pain

Although heart attacks can be felt differently between men and women, chest pain is nothing to fool around with and if you even have an inkling that you may be having chest pain due to your heart – get this checked. Right away.

Signs and symptoms of a heart attack include:

• Discomfort in the chest – this could be a feeling of pressure or squeezing, or outright pain. It can be constant or transient (coming and going)
• Discomfort from the chest that spreads to one arm (particularly the left), the jaw, the back, or down to the stomach
• Feeling short of breath, unable to catch your breath

For more signs and symptoms, check out the list at the American Heart Association.

2 – Pain in the calf of the leg

Blood clots can form in the deep veins of the body, but most often in the calf of your leg – these clots, called DVTs (deep vein thrombosis) occur most often in people who have had a history of DVT, had recently had surgery, trauma or broken bone, and those who are unable to move about or who have restricted movement. More risk factors can be found on this National Heart and Lung Institute page.

The signs and symptoms include:

• Sudden pain or tenderness in the leg, may appear or increase when you are walking
• Swelling in the leg Redness or swelling over one spot on the leg

This is an emergency and needs to be attended to as soon as possible. If not, the clot can move from the leg and go to the lung – this can be fatal.

The signs and symptoms of a pulmonary embolism, when the clot gets to the lungs are:

• Sudden shortness of breath
• Pain when breathing, especially deep breaths
• Coughing up blood

3 – A headache like you’ve never felt before

While most headaches are benign (harmless other than the pain), severe sudden headaches, could be the sign of something serious, such as an aneurysm, a bulging of an artery in the brain that can burst.

Brain Aneurysm Resources is a good site for reading up on more information on this topic.

Don’t take chances with your life. Get that pain checked. We want to see you back here!

Images: iStock

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