A bit over a year ago, I felt like there was something in my eye. It was irritated and red, and nothing I did seemed to take care of it. After about 4 days, one of my co-workers told me that she couldn't stand talking to me, because by that time, my eye was completely blood red. So I went to one of those "urgent care" walking places at a local mall, to have them look at it. While checking in, the nurse took my blood pressure and walked out of the room without saying anything. She came back in with another woman, who took my blood pressure again, and she told me that my blood pressure was critically high, and they needed to get me to the emergency room immediately. I don't remember the numbers, but the first one was about 210. They told me that they needed to call an ambulance, and that I was in danger of a heart attack or a stroke at any moment. Anyway, I didn't want to leave my car at the mall, so I drove myself to the hospital, where I waited in the ER waiting room for well over an hour... Anyway, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and put on medication, and now my bp is under control. But it had been about 3 years since I had seen a doctor. Oh, and the problem with my eye was a torn cornea, which was fixed with some eye drops after about 2 weeks.
And just a few months ago, I wasn't feeling well, I was really tired, and my foot was a bit sore and swollen. By the end of the day, my foot and leg were inflamed to just above the ankle. By the next morning, my leg was really sore, I felt REALLY tired, it was all I could do to stay awake and keep from going back to bed, but my leg was now inflamed to past my knee. So I called a "dial a nurse" and they told me to get to an ER right away. So I drove myself to the nearest hospital, and they took a look at me and got me right into the ER. My blood pressure was 70/45, and I was so drowsy I could hardly make sense. It turned out that I had a terrible case of cellulitus, and the infection was really severe. I wound up in the hospital for 6 days on IV antibiotics, and my white blood cell count still hasn't made it back to normal yet. I was told that had I not gotten myself to the hospital, I would have passed out, and would have died of the infection. So I'm going to be better about going to seek medical help before terrible things actually happen.
Wuss. That's what duct tape and whiskey are for.