If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’ll know I’m forever urging you to do all you can to keep yourself as fit and healthy as possible.

But this week, I want to draw your attention to those times when you can’t deal with a health problem alone and must seek professional help.  

There is a lot of good information online about conditions which require urgent medical intervention.

Here are some of them: pain on swallowing, persistent vomiting, a fever that won’t go away, a tummy upset lasting more than three days, severe pain anywhere in the body, heavy bleeding, shortness of breath and hitting your head and feeling dizzy or confused afterwards.

You might want to check out the full lists on the NHS website or any other health site you trust.

Today though, I want to highlight four specific situations because I happen to know men and women who believed they were quite healthy, but who experienced these crises in recent months.

I am going to start with eyes which, I’m afraid, most of us take for granted till something goes wrong with them.

Unfortunately, problems do arise as we age, and some of the problems are such that we should see a doctor urgently or even go to A&E.

Certainly, if you have trauma to the eye, or sudden deterioration in vision or painful infection, you must see someone.

One of my friends had a detached retina, which I’m sure was really alarming.

These are the symptoms to look out for: sudden appearance of lots of floaters, loss of peripheral sight, a dark shadow or “curtain” in your vision, and maybe flashing lights in one or both eyes.

If you ever have such symptoms, ring 111 right away.

Another situation which many people ignore is loss of appetite that comes out of nowhere.

If you have no other symptoms, except perhaps an actual aversion to food that you normally like, and it goes on for more than a few days, you should really see a doctor as this change in you could indicate disease of the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, or indeed other internal organs.

Yet another problem that can quickly become serious is high blood pressure or hypertension.  

I’m pretty sure that many folk are walking around oblivious to the fact that they have this.

And because since Covid most of us see doctors in person less often than was customary, it’s often a while till it’s picked up.

I have a relative who had been diagnosed with high blood pressure a while back and had been on hypertensive drugs ever since.

But suddenly he developed extremely severe and disabling headaches and had no idea of the reason.

He took to his bed in an attempt to sleep off the pain, but nothing helped, and this went on day after day and he felt seriously unwell. Eventually, he checked his blood pressure on his home monitor and found it to be dangerously high.   

This sort of thing can happen to us as we grow older, and we should probably all own a blood pressure monitor and use it from time to time.    

My relative was on the verge of becoming seriously ill and might well have had a heart attack or stroke if he hadn’t seen his doctor.

Thankfully, he is fine now but it took a while to get the medication right and it was a scary period.

The last situation did not, alas, have a happy outcome. Indeed, it was tragic.

A man I knew, who was fit and boyish despite his age, and who had no underlying medical conditions, had an accident in the kitchen and cut himself.

He thought nothing of it. But it didn’t heal up. Meanwhile, he became poorly and felt seriously tired.

Not being someone who ever worried about his health he didn’t connect the accident with his sudden sluggishness. And when his family suggested he see a doctor he was adamant that he just needed rest and would be fine.

Shockingly for his wife and family and everyone who knew him, his condition deteriorated and within days he had died of sepsis.

I am sure that many of us get bumps, scratches and scrapes doing DIY, or gardening, or while playing with grandchildren and we never give these abrasions a thought apart from feeling mildly irritated about them.

So, here is an important list of symptoms to be aware of if you sustain a cut or other injury and then start feeling ill.   

  • Pale or blotchy or blue skin,
  • Difficulties in breathing or breathing very fast
  • Feeling confused or disoriented or disinclined to do any normal activities
  • Becoming unusually sleepy
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Feeling clammy and cold
  • Having a high or low temperature.

If you ever experience these symptoms, always call 999. Far better to be wrong about having sepsis than hoping for the best and doing nothing. This is such a rapidly accelerating condition that you need to act fast.

Let’s all file this information away in our minds; it might well save our lives, or someone else’s.