aphid001
01-02-15, 17:41
I just wanted to post on this site as I didn't realise I suffered with health anxiety until I came across this website after frantically googling for information on HIV. This website is brilliant, and it really helped to reassure me when I was awake at 0300 every night panicking that I had contracted the illness.
I am 33 and currently 16 weeks pregnant with my first baby - and I had my routine antenatal screening bloods. I have not had many partners (14), but some of these during my time at university were not as careful as I should have been. I have been with my husband for 6 years and both of us would consider ourselves fit and well. We have both had routine bloods taken in the past 2 years and these were completely normal. We have never taken drugs, had blood transfusions but we have both 'had pasts' as some would say.
I have never felt the need to take an HIV test and have often declined when offered as I didn't want my life insurance premiums to go up or to have to declare it on the mortgage. I suppose the overwhelming urge to protect my baby was a huge deciding factor and I agreed to have the test. The hospital I am with run a no news is good news policy. It was really vague that the 'results would take around 7 days and we will only contact you if there is a problem'.
I was absolutely fine for the first day and then the panic set in. I am not joking when I say that it literally took over my life. In the space of 24 hours I convinced myself I had contracted the disease and that I was going to kill my baby and my husband was going to leave me. The stress was intolerable - I dread to think what it did to the baby. I was sick with the stress (not morning sickness), couldn't eat, couldn't sleep and cried the entire time. My husband was away working and at sea so I couldn't talk to him, and when I tried to talk to a friend, she thought I was mental. I googled everything from regional, national and international statistics; helplines, stories of people with HIV and those without. I made the whole situation much greater than it was. I spent the first 7 days praying for my phone not to ring and it was only after 2 weeks of not hearing anything that I started to relax. One week later, I got the results through the post and they were normal and negative.
My advice to others who are of similar dispositions is:
-DO NOT GOOGLE
-Speak to your midwife and let them know you are anxious and they should be able to reassure you - I didn't do this - I was too 'stiff upper lip' and I wish I had
-After working out the statistics (and I did) there is a really low chance and risk of contracting HIV - it is not an easy thing to catch
-I was told by the Obstetric Consultant that they would contact you asap (within a week) if there was something wrong
-When I got my results, they had been processed 2 days after the bloods were taken, and so they would have let me know way before the 7 day window
-Try not to worry and try not to convince yourself you are sick - it is easy to think you have symptoms when you don't.
-Try to keep yourself busy. I called on a couple of close friends for coffee and spent the afternoon chatting about everything and nothing! Anything rather than GOOGLE!!
Good luck to everyone out there waiting for tests and results. I never thought I could suffer with Health Anxiety but it can creep up on you when you least expect it! Try to relax, stay busy and keep positive.
I am 33 and currently 16 weeks pregnant with my first baby - and I had my routine antenatal screening bloods. I have not had many partners (14), but some of these during my time at university were not as careful as I should have been. I have been with my husband for 6 years and both of us would consider ourselves fit and well. We have both had routine bloods taken in the past 2 years and these were completely normal. We have never taken drugs, had blood transfusions but we have both 'had pasts' as some would say.
I have never felt the need to take an HIV test and have often declined when offered as I didn't want my life insurance premiums to go up or to have to declare it on the mortgage. I suppose the overwhelming urge to protect my baby was a huge deciding factor and I agreed to have the test. The hospital I am with run a no news is good news policy. It was really vague that the 'results would take around 7 days and we will only contact you if there is a problem'.
I was absolutely fine for the first day and then the panic set in. I am not joking when I say that it literally took over my life. In the space of 24 hours I convinced myself I had contracted the disease and that I was going to kill my baby and my husband was going to leave me. The stress was intolerable - I dread to think what it did to the baby. I was sick with the stress (not morning sickness), couldn't eat, couldn't sleep and cried the entire time. My husband was away working and at sea so I couldn't talk to him, and when I tried to talk to a friend, she thought I was mental. I googled everything from regional, national and international statistics; helplines, stories of people with HIV and those without. I made the whole situation much greater than it was. I spent the first 7 days praying for my phone not to ring and it was only after 2 weeks of not hearing anything that I started to relax. One week later, I got the results through the post and they were normal and negative.
My advice to others who are of similar dispositions is:
-DO NOT GOOGLE
-Speak to your midwife and let them know you are anxious and they should be able to reassure you - I didn't do this - I was too 'stiff upper lip' and I wish I had
-After working out the statistics (and I did) there is a really low chance and risk of contracting HIV - it is not an easy thing to catch
-I was told by the Obstetric Consultant that they would contact you asap (within a week) if there was something wrong
-When I got my results, they had been processed 2 days after the bloods were taken, and so they would have let me know way before the 7 day window
-Try not to worry and try not to convince yourself you are sick - it is easy to think you have symptoms when you don't.
-Try to keep yourself busy. I called on a couple of close friends for coffee and spent the afternoon chatting about everything and nothing! Anything rather than GOOGLE!!
Good luck to everyone out there waiting for tests and results. I never thought I could suffer with Health Anxiety but it can creep up on you when you least expect it! Try to relax, stay busy and keep positive.