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After a conversation with someone whose identity shall be unmentioned lest I embarrass them......
If you, that is any of you who are reading this, ever feel sufficiently ill, SEEK IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION. If you feel uncertain about going to the emergency department, go to your GP or a medical centre.
Being sufficiently ill includes but is not limited to:
1. Bleeding from any orifice except during menstruation.
Blood is meant to stay on the inside of the body - the body goes to great length to ensure that, so if it ever appears on the outside, there's something wrong. Apart from periods in girls, the only few "normal" bleeding occurrences I can think of at the moment are from the nose, gums and haemorrhoids, but even within those if you're bleeding more than usual or more than expected, you should talk to a medical professional. DON'T WAIT A FEW DAYS BEFORE YOU SEEK HELP. Haemorrhoids should be just spots of blood on the toilet tissue, by the way. Any more than that when you go to the loo is wrong.
2. If you ever faint and wake up confused and disoriented.
In fact, you should seek medical attention if you have any fainting spell because I think it's technically illegal for you to drive within 6 months of a loss of consciousness, but I'm not sure about the exact law of that. Some people faint without any underlying malignant cause (the so-called "vasovagal syncope" where people swoon from something that freaked them out), but in these cases you should wake up and immediately know where you are and what happened. Any confusion often indicates a malignant cause, whether it's a mild heart attack (can also come without confusion) or a seizure. Seizures don't have to occur with jerking muscle movements, so don't let that distract you. And yes, young people can get heart attacks as well! Usually it's because they were born with the problem...and you can not find out until you're in your teens or twenties!
3. If your temperature rises above 39 degrees Celsius.
You really should be seeing a doctor long before then, but I know especially if you're young, you think it will go away in time (and it usually does). But if the temperature is that high, you're going to be losing a lot of fluid, and you might need some outside help to fight the infection or else your body will cook itself. If you ever get a fever with neck stiffness and photophobia (shy of light), you should immediately seek medical help because it can be meningitis, which is always a medical emergency and tends to kill a lot more young people.
4. Unplanned and significant (more than 10%) changes to your weight within a time shorter than 6 months.
Weight loss is usually the one that people worry about most because it means your body needs so much energy doing something that it's actually breaking itself down to make the energy. Sudden and significant weight loss in older people could mean cancer, but that's not to say it doesn't happen in young people - bone cancers, brain cancers and various leukaemias/lymphomas can occur in the young. Apart from cancers it can also be a slow infection, as well as other chronic diseases. Waking up at night with your sheets literally soaked in sweat is often another sign of cancer (usually blood cancers) or chronic infection. Weight gain is something people might be too embarrassed to talk to doctors about, but there are diseases that cause abrupt weight gain.
If you're losing fluid through any means - blood, sweat (fever), diarrhoea, urine - the first and simplest thing you can do for yourself is to replace it. That means not to drink water, but to drink water WITH SALT. The salt is the important bit.
If you, that is any of you who are reading this, ever feel sufficiently ill, SEEK IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION. If you feel uncertain about going to the emergency department, go to your GP or a medical centre.
Being sufficiently ill includes but is not limited to:
1. Bleeding from any orifice except during menstruation.
Blood is meant to stay on the inside of the body - the body goes to great length to ensure that, so if it ever appears on the outside, there's something wrong. Apart from periods in girls, the only few "normal" bleeding occurrences I can think of at the moment are from the nose, gums and haemorrhoids, but even within those if you're bleeding more than usual or more than expected, you should talk to a medical professional. DON'T WAIT A FEW DAYS BEFORE YOU SEEK HELP. Haemorrhoids should be just spots of blood on the toilet tissue, by the way. Any more than that when you go to the loo is wrong.
2. If you ever faint and wake up confused and disoriented.
In fact, you should seek medical attention if you have any fainting spell because I think it's technically illegal for you to drive within 6 months of a loss of consciousness, but I'm not sure about the exact law of that. Some people faint without any underlying malignant cause (the so-called "vasovagal syncope" where people swoon from something that freaked them out), but in these cases you should wake up and immediately know where you are and what happened. Any confusion often indicates a malignant cause, whether it's a mild heart attack (can also come without confusion) or a seizure. Seizures don't have to occur with jerking muscle movements, so don't let that distract you. And yes, young people can get heart attacks as well! Usually it's because they were born with the problem...and you can not find out until you're in your teens or twenties!
3. If your temperature rises above 39 degrees Celsius.
You really should be seeing a doctor long before then, but I know especially if you're young, you think it will go away in time (and it usually does). But if the temperature is that high, you're going to be losing a lot of fluid, and you might need some outside help to fight the infection or else your body will cook itself. If you ever get a fever with neck stiffness and photophobia (shy of light), you should immediately seek medical help because it can be meningitis, which is always a medical emergency and tends to kill a lot more young people.
4. Unplanned and significant (more than 10%) changes to your weight within a time shorter than 6 months.
Weight loss is usually the one that people worry about most because it means your body needs so much energy doing something that it's actually breaking itself down to make the energy. Sudden and significant weight loss in older people could mean cancer, but that's not to say it doesn't happen in young people - bone cancers, brain cancers and various leukaemias/lymphomas can occur in the young. Apart from cancers it can also be a slow infection, as well as other chronic diseases. Waking up at night with your sheets literally soaked in sweat is often another sign of cancer (usually blood cancers) or chronic infection. Weight gain is something people might be too embarrassed to talk to doctors about, but there are diseases that cause abrupt weight gain.
If you're losing fluid through any means - blood, sweat (fever), diarrhoea, urine - the first and simplest thing you can do for yourself is to replace it. That means not to drink water, but to drink water WITH SALT. The salt is the important bit.
