Before Steve got injected the serum, he suffered from a lot of diseases as you all probably know. But maybe you donāt know all of them or what they really mean for little Stevie.
At first I wanna say Steven Grant Rogers weighed 95 lbs or 43,1 kg. He was 5ā²4ā³ or 162 cm tall.
Now to his diseases. Many people seem to forget that he had more than only asthma and if youāre a writer like me (mostly fanfiction *cough* Stucky *cough*), you probably feel the urge to portray the characters as accurate as possible. So hereās a list of Steveās diseases (of the MCU) so you can do that:
- He had scoliosis. This means his spine bends in a way that isnāt part of the typical S-shaped curve, so his spine wouldāve bent to the side. Itās not a life threatening condition but it can be quite noticeable (like one shoulder is higher than the other, or one hip appears higher than the other one etc.). Pain isnāt a typical symptom.
- He was partially deaf. He could hear but his hearing was restricted so he might doesnāt hear you if you speak quietlyā¦
- Steve had arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeart and he had also heart palpitations and the more generic heart trouble. All these have symptoms like shortness of breath, fainting, chest discomfort, dizziness or feeling light-headed, weakness and fatigue.Ā
- He had high blood pressure. Blood pressure isĀ the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. High blood pressure, sometimes called hypertension, happens when this force is too high. It increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke and can also cause heart and kidney failure.Ā When blood vessels in the eyes burst or bleed, the vision changes or it leads to blindness.
- This may is the reason of his astigatism. It means he had a poor eye sight.
- He had also rheumatic fever at some point. It is most common in 5 to 15 year old children. It can cause permanent damage to the heart (what Steve already had or the reason for his heart problems is the rheumatic fever) and can affect the brain. It is treated with aspirin (or was treated with aspirin at least in the 1930s) and unfortunatelyā¦
- Steve had also stomach ulcers. They are extremely painful and can be caused or made worse by drugs like aspirin.Ā They occur when the thick layer of mucus that protects your stomach from digestive juices is reduced, thus enabling the digestive acids to eat away at the lining tissues of the stomach.Ā The most common symptom is a burning sensation or pain in the area between your chest and belly button. Normally, the pain will be more intense when your stomach is empty and it can last for a few minutes or several hours. Other symptoms can beĀ dull pain in the stomach, weight loss, not wanting to eat because of pain, nausea or vomiting, bloating, burping or acid reflux, heartburn (burning sensation in the chest) and the pain can improve when you eat, drink, or take antacids.
- He had another stomach complication as well: Pernicious arnemia, which until the 20s was basically a death sentence. Itās a condition where an protein called Intrinsic Factor, necessary to absorb vitamin B12 (which is important for cell devision, formation of blood, synthesis of hormones - itās essential), is not produced and the patient becomes progressively more anaemic until they suffer complications such as neurological damage or simply die. Until 1928 the only treatment was to drink copious quantities of the juice from raw liver (more than a pint a day) or eat half a pound of raw liver a day. Poor Stevie!
- Steve had fallen arches. Also called flat feet. Less serious but Iām gonna list everything.Ā Many people have flat feet and notice no problems and require no treatment. But others may experience the following symptoms:Feet tire easily, painful or achy feet, especially in the areas of the arches and heels, the inside bottom of your feet become swollen, foot movement, such as standing on your toes, is difficult or back and leg pain.
- He had scarlet fever as a child, which causes a sore throat, bright red rash and can kill - especially because it can cause heart complications. (Maybe another reason why Steve has themā¦)
- He had a higher risk for diabetes because his admission form states he has a parent or sibling with diabetes. As far as we know Steve had no siblings in the MCU, therefore it has to be his mother because his father has been a soldier (He couldnāt have enlisted with diabetesā¦ well, except he has lied on his enlistment formā¦)
- Generally his respiratory system was struggling. He got sinusitis and frequent colds to go along with hisā¦
- Asthma. Which is pretty dangerous for someone with heart condition since symptoms of a severe attack can include arrhythmia. In the 1930s, inhalers were difficult to use for one person (especially if that person was having an asthma attack), but asthma cigarettes were easily available and consideriably cheaper. But they were hallucinogenic. Beyond this, in the 30s, 40s and 50s asthma was considered a psychosomatic condition, so talking therapy was used as a treatment as well. Steve would have been considered both physically frail and mentally ill because of his asthma.Ā
- He had alsoĀ ānervous trouble of any sortā and easy fatigability. That isnāt a surprise because it has to be tiring to be Steve. So many illnesses to fight withā¦ Itās also no wonder that heās so small, considering that his body was under so much sress while he was growing.
Steve always had been a hero. It hadnāt been the serum that had made him strongā¦
If you want to, I can also write about what it meant to live with so many diseases in the world of the 30s. Because you can probably guess that it wasnāt easy and definetely worse than it would be todayā¦
