I don't think humans appreciate or grasp just how quickly a life can change in an instant. Do you realize how fast an instant is? Things can go from calm to outrageously off the rails in a breath. And when that happens we're all just left in a stunned silence. We have to think of life like a roller coaster... we explode from a quick crawl to a flying blast. Now do we get it?
Redditor u/neboi69 wanted to hear about the times when things went off the rails rather quickly by asking... People of Reddit, in which moments of your life did "S**t go from zero to 100 really f**king quick?"I can't count the amount of times my life has gone to one hundred, heck, two hundred before I could even get a good jog going. Mostly, it's happened to me when I was waiting tables. Y'all have no idea. One minute it's quiet and we're going along at a nice glide. Then ten minutes later, you've got ten tables, people are yelling and half the menu is already sold out. I still have nightmares.
Its Coming!!
season 7 labor GIFGiphy36 weeks pregnant. Went from "oh I think my water just broke, yay, time to call my midwife" to "oh crap that's not just fluid it's blood!" Ambulance ride and emergency C section all within a couple of hours.
Health Issues
I was a few months past my 32nd birthday. I went to bed, strong as a bull and literally woke up with cataracts. Not exaggerating; They formed overnight. My wife took me to the hospital and we found out that I had Stage 4 Systemic Sarcoidosis. Legs. Lungs. Liver. Kidneys. Intestines. Spleen. Eyes.
15 years, seven surgeries, bad reactions to meds and tons or rehab later, I'm back to work. I'm only half of what I used to be, but I'm really grateful for that half.
Fine on Paper...
Dad randomly fainted and was unconscious for probably 10 minutes or so. Ambulance came, took him to the E.R., every test was normal. He was fine on paper.
Came home, went back two days later as he was severely septic. Bounced between the hospital, specialty hospital and rehab hospital and nursing home 13 times in a year's time. He was in a coma, every organ shut down and came back to life, he developed a list of infections and problems.
His brain took the biggest hit. He died in the nursing home in his sleep.
He went from respiratory therapist with a high intellect to confusing me for my mother. Broke me so hard. We knew what caused the initial infection but still never found out why he fainted. The two incidents were unrelated but the infection he got came from the hospital during the first stay.
An Asda Night
I was leaving Asda one night after buying a few bits and I heard a loud crash like two cars had hit at the roundabout. Sorta chuckled to myself and thought 'ooft, I'd be annoyed' because I knew two cars hitting on a roundabout in this area likely wouldn't be fast or a risk to life.
I continue walked another 10 seconds or so and notice an old man in the middle of the road.
A guy had come off the roundabout and this old bloke, If I recall right he was 84, was cycling across the road with no reflective gear and he went straight into him.
Driver was in shock and nobody else was around so I dropped my stuff and ran over to do first aid/get help. This was October last year, I still don't know what happened to him but he was barely conscious and couldn't move anything.
It was one of those situations where you always wonder how you'd act if it happened to you and I'm so glad I kept my cool as opposed to panicking.
Blood Work
george clooney er ev shpw GIF by Pop TVGiphyWife was feeling fatigued, got a call from her doctor who ordered blood work saying she was likely in kidney failure.
Later determined to be glomerulonephritis, went to the hospital for an ultrasound of her kidneys and it was confirmed he creatinine level was 12.0. She had to start dialysis the next day and thankfully got a transplant about 8 months later. 7 years later and she is still doing fantastic post transplant.
See there, we're not alone. Life is an erratic gamble on all of us. And there is no amount of planning that can prevent the downturn. Life is gonna life. We can prepare to roll along better. Let's see who else understands...
the money pit...
When I was 12, my parents were considering the possibility of moving to a bigger house for our growing family, not enough to have hired a realtor, but enough that they were casually looking at houses. My mother fell in love with a house above our price range, and went in during an open house.
The agent asked if she wanted to make an offer, and she wistfully threw out an offer she could afford, but was definitely lowballing.
Unbeknownst to my mother, the house was being sold because the family was relocating due to the father's work, and the sale needed to happen urgently so the relocation could happen as quickly as possible.
The agent had been instructed to take the next offer that walked in the door, and the company would make up the difference if it was below market value. The agent accepted my mother's offer.
My father got a phone call while he was work with a frantically excited "Don't spend any money! We just bought a house!"
Detroit
Was like 9 or 10, dropping the mail off at the drop box on the corner in Detroit. Dude came out of his house, I remembered hearing the heavy metal screen door open, and I turned to look just as he jumped off the porch running right at me with a knife.
Never ran so fast in my life.
Felt like an eternity but I finally made it to my house and broke down in front of my mom, who was sitting in our van waiting for me to get back so she could take us to school.
Morning started off like any other, don't even know why he did it. I think he was just freaking with me but holy hell lol.
Grand Canyon
1990 ... I'm 40 ... with climbers on North Rim, Grand Canyon.
Bedded down for the night way down in Saddle Pass.
9:30PM ... all peaceful ...
THEN ... in the pitch dark a flash flood roars through camp. Stones the size of VWs rumbling by.
From that day, I sleep one eye open and ALWAYS pack clean underwear 'cause this will make you crap your pants.
Yeah... crap went too 100 really fast.
The Diagnosis...
Really wasn't that sick but something was bothering me so I went to the doctor. Went in to discuss the lab results and found out I had cancer. Dr. Had already started coordinating with the other doctors/surgeons that had to be in the Operating room, because I had to have major surgery. I had 10 doctors appointments in one week, another procedure and actually forgot to go to work.
Surgery was less than 2 weeks after diagnosis. Got a major infection within a week and back in the hospital. Started chemo six weeks after surgery Which rolled into radiation. An intense nine months.
I've been cleared but dealing with the aftereffects I have from chemo and radiation was not something I expected and is seriously taking a physical and mental health toll on me.
Grandma
I was just sitting on a couch watching tv then i heard my grandma fall, and she literally ripped open her entire knee somehow. I had to call 911 and it was horrible.
About three days later they released her and as soon as she got home she passed out, I was the only one home with her and i had to call 911 again.
A week later she gets released and she has a SEIZURE and I had to call 911 AGAIN.
She fell a few times after that but nowhere near as bad as the first times, we still don't really know whats wrong.
When in June...
Sometime in June, rather hot weather, the eldest daughter got a mild case of a stomach bug. Wasn't anything we haven't dealt with before, she wasn't even throwing up anymore, just mild fever. At one point she falls asleep and I think, okay, let her sleep it off.
She wakes up 30 minutes later and I go check her temp. She went from 98.6 to nearly 104 during those 30 minutes of sleep. And as I am taking the thermometer away, her eyes just roll back in her head, and she keels over.
Massive seizure, bloody foam at her mouth, bitten through her tongue. Completely unresponsive, just trashing and convulsing. Call the ambulance, they arrive within 10 minutes, they sedate her and start to pack her up for the ride to the hospital. She goes into another seizure just as they're loading her into the back of the ambulance, despite being already sedated.
Spent 4 days in the hospital, multiple scans, the works. Turns out she has epilepsy and the seizures can be triggered by rapid fever.
The Dead
My roommate had some friends over but my fiancé and I went to bed. I was dead asleep and about 3am my roommate bursts into my room and shouts RUSTY WAKE UP FRIEND JUST OD'D and runs out. I immediately jump up and sprint after him to find friend unresponsive on the floor of my roommates bathroom. We drag him out of the bathroom so I could lay him flat and oh damn he's not breathing. I shout back to my fiancé to call 911 right now and tell them Friend OD and he's not breathing.
So I give him a couple of rescue breaths and oh damn I can't find a pulse. He's freaking dead. So I initiate chest compressions. After a couple of rounds oh thank God he's got a pulse now, but still isn't breathing, so I switch to rescue breaths. The paramedics arrive and he sort of gasps for a breath but not effectively. So the medics slam him full of Narcan and he lived.
Not Funny
Watching a funny bar argument turn into a not funny bar shooting because one of the guy's girlfriend couldn't keep her mouth shut. Every time security calmed the two guys down she would get it started back up.
Flipped...
One minute I'm taking the back roads to work, come over a small rise, and hit a stretch where they had just laid gravel.
Next thing I know, my car is flipping through the air. According to a witness, did 3 complete flips. Utterly destroyed the car, front wheel torn and hatchback torn off, engine knocked loose, all the seats but the driver's broke free.
I cut my hand.
Alone
Parents took me involuntarily to the middle of nowhere for a year, led to me being a year behind my peers back home, and was threatened to leave us there to fend for ourselves, and that our mom would walk out on us if we didn't behave.
Buckle Up
A fair ground ride malfunctioned and I was in the malfunctioning seat. It was summer so a lot of the employees were teenagers who just seemed to be glued to their phones in the control booth.
We're going up on a drop tower ready for the drop when suddenly the lock on my seat unlatched. The only thing keeping it from bursting fully up was the belt buckle which I believe was way too long.
I'm unfortunately a short dude so the moment it dropped I slipped out of the side and found myself gripping the handles for dear life. Guy next to me noticed and moved his leg twisting it like he was a mountain climber to keep me from falling further, person on the other side is holding my arm.
The freaking employee was on his phone with most of his back to the ride. People on the ground began to notice and got his attention even then it took him a minute to realise. Ride was cut short and we were let off so they could run maintenance.
It was fixed within a few hours though so I went back on it.
Baby Baby Baby
Super chill pregnancy. Mild morning sickness, a little back pain, everything else downright boringly normal. One lovely Thursday, we go for the routine 20-week ultrasound. Cute pics!
Not half an hour later, we get a call—there's an abnormality. They're referring us to a specialist. Half an hour after that, we get a call from the specialist.
She gives us the next available appointment; she apologizes that that's not until Monday. Monday rolls around. Baby has a great big tumor hanging off its lower back.
Life's kind of crazy now. Baby might die. My chances are better, but I might die, too. High-risk pregnancies are terrifying.
Hey Cuz...
No Way Reaction GIF by OriginalsGiphyChecked FB on a break at work and had a message from my cousin "Sorry to hear about your dad, he was a good man" That's how I found out my father died. 66 days later I get a phone call from the police dept. that they found my mother deceased in her apt.
Timelines...
May 2017: Came home from work early to find that my husband was/had been cheating on me. Knew at that moment that my life as I knew it for the last 20 years was over.
June 2017: Had to put the house on the market as I couldn't afford it by myself.
July 2017: Boss told all of us that he was selling the business and we were all out of a job.
August 2017: Moved into a condo and started a new job the very next day.
If it wasn't for needing to be strong for the kids I don't know how I would of made it.
Buckle up kiddies. It's going to be a bumpy life. You just have to learn to love life at one hundred miles an hour. At least when it doesn't revolve around tragedy.
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.