being ill

My mother told me you got sick "from things in your blood." I figured this must be like dirt and settled on the idea that it must be bread crumbs from toast, since this is the dirt I always got in trouble for. When I went to have my finger pierced for a blood test, I was watching very carefully as the blood went up the little glass tube-- looking for any breadcrumbs in my blood.

crumz

When I was about 8 years old, I used to talk to myself in the shower and make up stories with bath toys...well one night I was totally silent in the shower, and that night I got very sick...and from that point on I believed that if I didn't talk in the shower that I would get sick...I didn't stop believing that until I was about 13 years old when I forced myself to stay quiet because I didn't want to to go school the next day.

Yours Truely

My grandma was always warning me about the horrors of ingrown toenails. I thought she meant a toenail that would travel up your leg and twist around the inside of your body.

bixdog

When I was little, I didn't know that having butterflies in your stomach meant you were nervous. One morning I had a tummy ache, and told my mom I had butterflies in my stomach. My sister overheard, and thought I'd swallowed butterflies. My misunderstanding lasted until I was 8. My sister thought I was a butterfly murderer until she was 10.

Alex Hagen

I used to believe when someone said they broke their leg, their leg actually fell off and they had to get a fake one. One day when my mom told me my grandma broke her leg I started crying thinking she wouldn't have a leg anymore.

Dreamer

When i was younger i had my TB injection when i was born as did my sister.
One afternoon when i was about 5 years old, i was watching TV with my little sister and some of my older cousins. Suddenly i turned to my teenage cousin and said ''Its ok she can watch it...Shes had her TV Jab''
they all started laughing i didnt understand, i believed that a ''TV'' injection was given to you at birth so u could watch television!!!
At Every oppurtunity my parents bring this up just to embarrass me!

Amy

I used to believe that taking medicine when you weren't sick would make you sick (cold medicine would give you a cold, headache medicine would give you a headache, etc.) I didn't even like to touch the bottles for fear of getting sick.

Anon

When I was young I saw an anti drug commercial warning viewers about "sniffing". I thought this mean sniffing when you had a cold so I was always worried to "sniff" too much until I was about 15

Kelly

When I was little I did not know that when you throw up you are throwing up food that you ate previously. I thought it was just nasty junk coming out. It wasn't until age 8-9 and I got a stomach bug that I realized that what I was throwing up was that afternoon's lunch. It was even more revolting when I figured that out.

Anon

when i was in first grade a classmate of mine broke his arm rather badly, and was hospitalized for about a week a a result. it had happened on a sunday, needless to say, he wasn't at school the next day. all the kids notived something was different, and the undercurrent of conversation in he class was "why isn't todd here?" then my teacher got up and made an annoucment. "Todd's mother has mjust called to inform me that Todd won't be here for several days, he accidently rode his bicycle of the porch, and broke his arm. Why don't we all make some cards for him? I'm sure it's very lonely for him in the hospital."
Well, i, having heard that assumed hat Todd;s arm was broken OFF and on my card was a picture of him in a hospital bed, minus an arm, and the arm in a smaller ber next to him. When Todd returned the following week and told us about the pins they'd put in his shoulder and showed his cast, and i figured the 2 togerther were holding his arm in place. "how awful" i though, he'll have to wear that thing forever" luckily, i found out he truth when Todd's cast was removed 6 weeks later.

tigerlily

This wasn't me, it was my cousin, who is the same age as me. We were both 7 at the time

She came to visit one summer, and towards the end of the 3 week visit, we were pretty sick of each other. We got into a scuffle and I punched her in the boob. She cried and wailed, not because it hurt, but because it gave her breast cancer, and now she would surely die.

M

I thought that you could only catch a cold in the winter. I knew that germs made you catch colds and that being cold alone doesn't make you catch a cold, but because it was called a "cold", I thought you could only catch one in winter. Then, Dad caught a cold in summer and explained that you could actually catch colds in the summer. P.S. he's fine now.

Anon

When i was little i used to think girls had cooties. well i being very gullable stayed with that belief until the age of 12. A girl asked me out and i replied "no way, girls have cooties.". the embarasment was unreal

Anon

I used to think that if I hurt myself and then made it hurt more, it would heal faster. The logic was, it would be more painful for a shorter amount of time rather than less painful for a longer amount of time. Go figure.

Anon

i remember my parents referring to someone as ending up in the hospital and being a vegetable. I remember imagining for years afterwards these giant carrots or celeries in hospital beds and i couldn't for the life of me figure out why they would turn into vegetables.

Alicia

I used to believe that if you were allergic to something, you would sneeze whenever you got near it. No other symptoms, just sneezing. I also used to believe that you could be allergic to objects like floors or books or plates.

Anon

When I was about 4 years old, my brother was swinging me around and he accidentally(?) let go and I flew into a redwood chair, broke my leg, and got knocked out. I woke up in the doctor's office with a cast on my leg and spent the next several months on crutches. My brother got the bright idea to inform me that I had "caught" the broken leg like a sickness. Because I was too young to make the connection, I believed him. Once I recovered, I was terrified of people with broken legs or arms, for fear of a relapse. Then to make matters worse, he'd have friends at school, with casts on, chase me and I'd run all the way home. Finally when I was a few years older, I walked into a barber shop and a guy was in a chair with a cast on his leg, getting a hair cut. I backed away for a second, but then, right there, it dawned on me that "catching" a broken leg was ridiculous. I was instantly over my phobia.
Big brothers can be such shits.

Patrick

my imagination about how an operation was done: They cut open the tummy of the person to be operated and then give it good stir with a huge wooden spoon :-D

Anon

When I was a child I had pneumonia, I used to believe that AMONIA was a milder form of pneumonia. I told all my friends at school this.

Marcella Nagle

When I was five years old, I was rushed into hospital with pneumonia.
As I was recovering, I asked the doctor what had been wrong with me. He began his answer with the phrase "Our physical findings show ...". Well, I was only five and had no idea what those big words meant.
For years afterwards, I believed I had been seriously ill with "physical findings", a very nasty disease indeed!

Big J