Non Hodgkins Lymphoma fear

[jenza20]

Lately I've posted saying I was scared of exercising in case I dropped dead.

I was getting breathless, palpitations and horrendous aches and pains which are still there.

In the end I bit the bullet and went to my GP. I actually admitted it is probably stress and anxiety but that the symptoms were so real I couldn't leave it any longer.

To cut a long story short, last Friday I had blood tests including FBC, thyroid, glucose etc. I was also put on citalopram which I only had the guys to start last night.

This morning that dreaded call from the GP surgery arrived asking me to go up. It turns out I am anaemic which explains some of symptoms I am getting. I asked why I'm in so much pain (legs very painful in particular) and was just told it was likely because of the anaemia so I've been put on iron tablets for a few months.

My health anxiety has crippled me today. I have spent a ridiculous amount of the day researching online if the pain I'm in is related to anaemia. It seems pain and anaemia are linked to Non Hodgkins as well as other cancers. Can you imagine how I am feeling? I am terrified. My legs (one in particular) are in agony. I feel that this unexplained anaemia and lack of knowing what's causing it must be serious but the Dr just said it was probably due to periods and told me to eat more iron rich foods.

Does anyone have anaemia and if so, did you get the symptoms of extreme pain in limbs? I am lethargic and know this is related but the pain is so unexplained. I'm terrified.

I'm sincerely hoping the citalipram kicks in soon as I can't cope with this daily fear.

[Light_Bringer777]

Not anemic but I've had similar symptoms with leg pain and all, for me it happened after a change in my thyroid medications. Was pretty bad and lasted for almost 2 months, and just like you I went for the scariest, most unlikely cause I could find.

Don't look online. Anything pair of symptom<->disease you look up WILL give you results. You could stub your toe, google "toe pain cancer" and I'm almost sure you could convince yourself you'll die.

That being said, what kind of pain are you dealing with? You say "extreme pain", does it stops you from sleeping or wake you in the night? Is it worst from sitting, standing, walking, anything?

A few things come to mind like pinched nerve (e.g. sciatica), heavy legs from poor circulation, muscle injury, anemia which you have (and by no means equals lymphoma)... a lot of things really.

I'm totally with you on unexplained pains being really scary, but >99.9% of the time there is a simple, not-scary-at-all explanation, it's just that our brain doesn't think it's as interesting as that deadly disease 1 person on 100,000 gets once in a blue moon.

Hang in there until the anemia gets better, and try to keep your mind off worrying stuff as best as you can! Discuss it with your doctor if you want, there is often times many argument against our worries they can explain to us to disprove our wild theories.

[popejoan]

I had anemia before, it was due to lack of iron in my diet, I recently had low ferritin levels which is an iron deficiency and again it was because of my diet. I was pretty tired then and I'm still tired.

Could the pain you're experiencing be due to tensing your muscles too much? It's a common anxiety symptom.

Non-Hodgkin's presents itself with a hard fixed swollen lymph node, night sweats and unexplained weight loss.

[jenza20]

Thank you for your replies. I stopped the gym for a while (partly due to fear of dropping dead) and my legs have improved. In fact so has most of the tiredness but in true health anxiety fashion, my fears have been replaced with new ones... Never ending fears...