this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 48 points 7 months ago (1 children)

how long would you have lived

no.

my mother(her anti-bodies) would have killed me in the womb :D

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

TIL that being allergic to your own baby is a thing that can happen

I swear, the more I learn about biology the more shocked I am that we've survived 4 billion years

[–] Scubus 12 points 7 months ago

Fun fact, after you have a kid with someone the mother can no longer receive organs from you, even if you were comparable previously. It's because the baby is partially composed of the fathers proteins, and although the immune system is suppressed during pregnancy, it still recognizes those proteins. So the next time it encounters them, it considers them a foreign invader and attacks them, leading to an automatic rejection of the organ.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Tough to say what I would've contracted without vaccines. But the upper bound is 10, when I had pneumonia and relied on antibiotics.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Yeah I got it and strep real bad at the same time around then, the pneumonia actually turned to pleurisy. Wasn't doing too great for a few days.

Tbh I might not have made it that far, I got sick quite a bit as a kid.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

My upper bound would be age 6, when I got some sort of stomach flu and had to be hospitalized with an IV because I was constantly vomiting and couldn’t even keep liquids down, so I was getting dangerously dehydrated. I was so dehydrated it took 14 tries to find a vein and start the IV (actually, I think the number might be higher, but that’s the number sticking out right now). Even on a good day mine are still hard to find, but that was not a good day.

[–] wander1236 2 points 7 months ago

Psh, they had moldy cheese back then

[–] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago

Childbirth, but my son's birth, not mine. Lost a lot of blood and had to have meds to slow it, surgery to stop it, and a transfusion to replace it.

I don't think anything would have got me before then, but I'm vaccinated, so who knows?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I didn't have anything major, but I got strep a lot as a kid, a couple times a year or so. Without antibiotics, it might've caused permanent damage.

Not life threatening but I have terrible eye sight. Enough that I wouldn't be a good farmer, everything I did would have to be within 2-3 feet of me.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

everything I did would have to be within 2-3 feet of me.

Look at Mr eagle eyes over here. Capable of seeing distances in excess of 5 cm. Show off

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

What can I say, I can vaguely see things at arms length.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I would have probably died at birth. The story I heard was that the doctor's pregnant mistress showed up, they got into a fight, and he was so pissed that he left in the middle of his shift. He eventually came back, but by then I had already swallowed amniotic fluid. I ended up spending a few weeks in another hospital after that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

what? in which country did this happen?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

United States.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

Dead at birth. I was premature and my lungs couldn't inflate.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

Was about to say if make it to adulthood, but then I remembered I was a strep throat and ear infection magnet. Usually requiring antibiotics...

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Two..... three....... days.

I was really, really ill as a baby.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] Japan_50 2 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I almost certainly would have died to "pray the autism/ADHD away" evolving into "kill him, he's a demon" related causes

as for what age I'm not sure but I think saying I'd make it to 12 is optimistic

VERY glad I was born to loving parents who knew I was autistic before I did, followed doctor's advice, and fought to get me accommodations ij school

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

There's much less of that in medieval times than what TV would have you believe. Plenty of people were just labelled "crazy" or "weird" and few made a wide enough impact to attract the ire of people who actually cared enough to kill someone.

The fact that ADHD is hereditary should tell us how few were killed for it.

People forget that humans are social creatures, we don't just up and kill anyone who is different (as a rule). We also have barely changed since medieval times, so sympathy and empathy are just as present now as they were back then - we just have a better understanding of things now and so we think we are labelling things a bit better than we were a few hundred years ago. And in another few hundred years we'll be better at labelling still. But we'll still be labelling.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

nah, medieval europeans (that's a very very very broad terms, just so we're aware) seem to have mostly just viewed noticably neurodivergent people as "mentally challenged" and infantilized them more than anything.

Apparently there was also a good chance that if you were autistic and decent at communicating, you could be taken on as a court jester and given quite free reign to criticize powerful people, because as it turns out having someone who isn't a yes-man is pretty useful when you're a ruler who wants their nation to not collapse under them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f848ejfAFNM

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

love how you said this in past tense like it actually did happen just not in this lifetime

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Did they have C-sections then? Cause I have a feeling either I or my mom would die in childbirth

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Yes they did! There's a reason they're called caesarean sections - the concept has been around for millenia. Now, whether your mother would've survived being stitched back together after that is a WHOLE other story, and whether YOU would've survived is also a different question, but they were known.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Julius Caesar was named after the procedure (or rather, his ancestor was), so yeah.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Dead at childbirth - lack of blood

Dead from infection/cuts so many times over in the following years

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I've been extremely healthy all throughout my life. Although that could be thanks to all the vaccines I've had throughout childhood and the annual "needle-sticking" for 20 years in the military.

If I get sick, it's usually a minor cold, and I only get sick once every 5-6 years, if even that. I've had no major surgeries for issues with my internal organs or anything. Still have my appendix, still have my tonsils. The military did remove all 4 of my wisdom teeth, but only as a precaution, because they said over half of all adults will suffer complications with their wisdom teeth later in life if they're not 100% straight. Oh, my teeth are straight too. Never needed braces or anything. But my wisdom teeth were slightly crooked; enough that the military decided to not take the risk.

My family is also very healthy. My grandparents lived into their late 80s/90s and died of natural causes. Just went to bed and didn't wake up in the morning. No alarming health concerns or surgeries, etc. My grandfather had a major heart attack once, only saved by my mother who was a certified CPR instructor for the Red Cross at the time. The doctors gave him maybe a few months to live. Just to spite them, he lived another decade, healthy as a horse the whole time.

My dad just passed away a few months ago, in his late 70s, but it was Parkinson's that took him down. He was so healthy otherwise, he would've lasted another decade or two easily. He never had so much as a heart palpitation; no stroke or heart attack, no major surgeries, etc. He almost never brushed his teeth, yet he still had all his original teeth. (Definitely got some dental work recently, though, to patch them up after 50+ years avoiding the dentist)

My mother is still alive in her mid-70s and fully autonomous; living on her own in a cabin on a lake. Despite gray hair and a few subtle wrinkles, she still looks like the mother I grew up with for the past 40 years; the years have been very kind to her.

I was bursting at the seams with energy all throughout my childhood, so I was always running around, climbing trees, challenging people to obstacle courses, and doing parkour long before we had a name for it. I was so physically active, I was the only kid I knew who had 8-pack abs and actual bicep muscles. If American Ninja Warrior was a thing when I was a kid, I would've dominated that show. I never met a person who I couldn't beat. Found out in my late 30s that I have a bad case of ADHD, which is probably why I couldn't sit still as a kid.

However. The one fatal flaw (literally) I have going for me is that I was so active, I actually broke a bunch of bones in my life. I've broken 8 bones within about 2 decades or so. If this were medieval times, if I was lucky, I'd just be gimpy. At worst, I likely would've died very young of sepsis or attempted amputation or something. My first break was when I was 10 years old, falling out of a tree and breaking my wrist. My worst break was when I shattered my ankle in my late 20s. I would've been hobbled for life if I lived in medieval times.

I found out recently, those "milk is good for strong bones" ads in the '80s and '90s were completely fabricated; there's no science to support them. Actually, the science shows the opposite effect. Milk makes your bones brittle. Which explains my childhood; milk was my favorite drink and I consumed multiple glasses a day. Yet I broke more bones than anyone I knew. Maybe I would've been okay in medieval times, if I didn't have easy access to milk everyday.

Also, I had 20/10 vision as a kid (better than perfect vision), but in the 9th grade, I woke up one day and couldn't get my eyes to focus anymore. Ever since then, I've needed glasses. My eyesight isn't terrible, I just can't see fine details more than 5 feet away. In medieval times, I'd have to live with everything in my life being blurry unless it was right in front of my face. That could significantly shorten my lifespan if I couldn't clearly see threats until they were close.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Likely something upper respiratory in my early years, otherwise at 43 from gastro issues.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Broke my arm at 12, not sure how well it would've healed

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Maybe during one of the first years following high school. I'd have probably died of cardiac arrest after going into supraventricular tachycardia for the dozenth time with no way of stopping it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I'd have no teeth and probably would have died from malnutrition by now. Also Smallpox, Polio, Mumps, Measles etc. People have no idea how many lives vaccines have saved

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I think she's wrong in one way, and most modern women, if thrown back to the middle ages, would be labeled witches. I'm like 5'9", think that would make me too obvious.

But if born there, I'd most likely have bled to death with my firstborn, so 22, unless mumps was fatal back then, that would put me dead at 4. Also would have been functionally blind, profoundly nearsighted.

Though thinking about it another way, I am descended from so many people who survived back then, so maybe would be fine, at least to that first childbirth, and with a good midwife maybe longer.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Recent findings have revealed that women who were accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake were actually homeowners, and the town authorities were using those threats of witchcraft accusations as an excuse to shoink the homes and make sure only men would be homeowners.

Source: I read it on reddit 🤷🏻‍♀️

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

You would likely be shorter due to malnourishment during childhood

However people overvalue height differences, you would find tall people still

unless mumps was fatal back then

Still can be fatal today depending on what swells, but we have the vaccine to prevent it

Also would have been functionally blind, profoundly nearsighted

Glasses were invented in the middle ages so you might have been saved

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Toss up between asthma in early years or thyroid tumor at ~18. Certainly would have bit it by 20.

[–] TheMightyCanuck 5 points 7 months ago

Would have died young of scarlet fever most likely... that or the skull fracture in middle school

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I haven't had any major physical health issues, but I'd probably be stuck at camp because I am very nearsighted

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Would probably die early due to my heart condition. Probably would have died from a back bleeding valve in early childhood.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Bronchitis in childhood and if I survived that, pancreatitis in my mid 20s

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Would have been born and died from not breathing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Same. I'm a DOA baby.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

That UTI I got in my 20s probably would have done me in

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Asthma age 4

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I would have died at 10 from appendicitis.

[–] southsamurai 2 points 7 months ago

Hmmm, realistically, I'd say I would probably still be alive at the age I am, barring the conditions of the era changing things at the small scale.

The only injuries I've had that were life threatening would have been within the capabilities of being taken care of even in more primitive conditions. No major arterial bleeds, no organ injuries or that kind of thing, just severe enough wounds that without a little help, I would have bled out.

Illness wise, it's a guess at best. Vaccines prevent most of the really nasty viruses, so how can I tell if I might have caught one of those? I had measles as kid, and it didn't kill me, nor did chicken pox. The one bad bout of bronchitis I had would have resolved without antibiotics, though I might have been more open to opportunistic infections along with it back then.

But, I wouldn't have had the same life either. Most of the bad injuries were doing things you wouldn't do back then. Bicycle injuries, in particular, might have an equivalent in horse riding, but how close? The fights where I got cut would have equivalents, and I didn't have antibiotics with those, so maybe I would have been fine back then too.

What I am confident in saying is that I would have probably killed myself after my first bad back injury. Unable to walk, little access to pain control, no knowledge that I could recover most of my mobility, I likely would have taken myself out rather than just strongly considering it like I did in reality. So maybe I wouldn't have made it to forty at all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Well I can't see anything without glasses so I probably would have fallen in a hole at some point. Then at 6 I got meningitis so if I'd survived my clumsiness that would have killed me.

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