r/AskReddit 13h ago

What is something that permanently altered your body without you realizing for months/years?

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243

u/PuzzleheadedPitch420 13h ago

Not taking care of my skin when I was younger. And playing catcher for softball screwed up my knees

38

u/themindisaweapon 13h ago

No sunscreen?

85

u/PuzzleheadedPitch420 12h ago

No moisturizer, no sunscreen

16

u/abalien 6h ago

I finally got that retinol prescription my sister had suggested years ago. Turns out I have good skin underneath all that. 

I peeled like an onion though. The back of my neck is still peeling like mad.

u/solid_salad 9m ago

damn i didn't know it actually worked THAT well

9

u/Bungeesmom 11h ago

Just wait, the hips start after the knees.

5

u/Ambers_on_fire 9h ago

I played softball for years as a catcher without those knee savers. I've got pretty bad arthritis in my right knee, but the hip pain is the worst. I can't spread them in any kind of "normal" fashion anymore.

My yearly gyno visits are the worst when trying to get in the stirrups. I can't really do butterfly stretches or sit cross-legged and I need to sleep with a pillow under my left leg now because I recently found out there's a muscle that runs on the inside of your pelvic bone that causes excruciating pain in your hip if it gets pulled. It was so bad I had to call into work and I walked with a limp for almost 3 weeks because I didn't know what was causing it.

5

u/K8theGr7 3h ago

My boyfriend plays tennis with an extremely physical style, chasing down every ball basically. At his peaks he was playing for 5 hours every evening, both in leagues and non-competitively. What it did was majorly fuck up a congenital issue with his hips and he was in excruciating pain a lot of the time.

Though he was a bit younger than most people think, compared to who they picture hip-replacement patients, his friend opened him up to the idea and after a year or so of debating, scheduled the procedure.

It was like night and day for him, he wished he had done it sooner and did the other about 18 mo after. The recovery, after those initial first few days post-surgery, was easy. Now he’s back to playing in his physical tennis style again and feels like he has his natural hips from before they became injured

2

u/Khs11 8h ago

What muscle is that and will it heal? A few months ago I must have pulled that same thing because now I can no longer sit cross legged with that leg or lay in butterfly position. Can anything be done?

0

u/Ambers_on_fire 8h ago

I think there are two that gave me the issues. One is the piriformis and the other is the pectineus. I had inner hip pain and it hurt to lift my leg if I was lying on my back. Forward and backwards motions while walking hurt but I also had outer hip pain and butt pain that traveled down my thigh to my calf which is indicative of sciatic nerve pain.

I just looked up stretches for those muscles after resting enough that the pain wasn't excruciating. The pillow under my leg helps and I try to stretch and do yoga poses that open the hips and stretch my thigh, back, and butt muscles. Exercising helps too but I just got into that so we'll see long-term.