Warning Signs

Warning Signs : A few days after Melissa Daly broke her ankle, the calf above it became tender. Within a week, her foot was dark purple. She saw her doctor, who dismissed it as normal bruising and offered a prescription for painkillers.

The drugs didn't help, and a week later she woke up in the middle of the night gasping for air. "I felt like I was suffocating," she says. Her husband called 911, and within an hour she was on a respirator in the ER. A blood clot had broken off from her calf and lodged in her lungs.

The agony she felt is one of seven pains you should never brush off. Read on to make sure that your nagging aches are as innocent as they seem.