It turns out I've had a urinary tract infection for the better part of a week. Each day I felt like I was getting a little better, and I remembered that every time I thought about going to a doctor. On Thursday and Friday I started with horrible abdominal/kidney pain, which finally pushed me into going to a clinic. After an hour-and-a-half wait (I shouldn't have gone on the Friday before a long weekend... when at least two other clinics in town had closed early), finally got a diagnosis and some antibiotics. I'm feeling significantly better today, but I'm kicking myself for not going to a doctor sooner because I thought I could beat it on my own.
This isn't even the worst thing I've ignored though. A few years ago, I had what I thought was a cold and a nasty fever. I started coughing all the time. It got worse and worse, I could hardly breathe, my stomach muscles hurt, there was a sucking feeling in my chest whenever I breathed in, and I had a fever, so I was constantly freezing. I tried to take it easy and continue as normal, and because I didn't have any other flu-like symptoms, I didn't think I was contagious either. The day before I saw a doctor, I had a shift to TA a computer science lab. I was feeling a little better, so I decided to do it instead of having someone cover for me. The moment I got off the bus, I started feeling ill again. I spent the entire 2 1/2 hour lab coughing violently on my students. At the end, one of them actually came up to me and said, quite earnestly, "Don't die".
I went to the university medical centre the next day, which referred me to a clinic down the street for a chest x-ray. I found out later that day that I had pneumonia. OOoops.
So, Hubski. What's your "I should've gotten help for this long ago" moment?