Health Anxiety

[chipster]

Hi All
So my symptons seemed to start after Jan this year
I was(am) overweight (240lbs) so I wanted to do a major change to my lifestyle im 48. I had given up cigarettes in Aug which I was over the moon about doing I eat everything in site and wanted to change
What I was doing in the new year.
New year came around and off I trotted going to the Gym and cycling every other day. It lasted about 4 weeks before I had a cold and then I felt I was having a kidney infection or urine infection but it didn’t hurt when I peed.
I put off going to the Dr’s for a week or so then made the appointment.
I had a urine test and she said you have minute blood in there so put me on antibiotics for a week (nitrofurantoin) that seemed to trigger something as I couldn’t stop looking at symptons. A few days after that
My stomach felt bloated and I had abdominal cramps and lose stools (no fever) this went on for a couple of weeks and the Dr said come back and we’ll look at it again. In between my hospital appointment came through
To have a couple of moles on my face checked and they agreed to remove them. My stomach felt like it was on a train ride gurgling fizzing pain in my back kidney area and below shoulder blade.
Visited the Dr who checked my urine again and said its clear. Told her about the other symptons and being I hadn’t had any blood work in 10 years sent me off to the hospital for complete blood work.
Anxiety levels go up and my appetite disappears and I feel I want to go to the toilet every 15 minutes. My sleep is disrupted and I wake up and look at the clock every hour.
My symptons kept going while I waited for the result to come back. I rang a few days after and I got the receptionist saying its abnormal and to come in. im sure everyone says whats abnormal and they then tell me they cant tell my why as they are not qualified. I get a walk in appointment and the dr explains my lft is high on alt 76 I think it was not too worried on anything else. She wants to do a test in a few weeks which I umm an arghh about so she says lets do an ultrasound of my abdomen .
My anxiety is still high as I wonder what it is an google everything and convince myself its cancer and I cant think of anything else and my wife is getting fed up of me speaking about nothing else. I have the ultrasound and the guy says
I cant see anything ominous ( my relief). Whilst im waiting for my Dr to call I still have no appetite eating once in the day as I just don’t feel hungry and still with lose stools. Something which is helping is walking in the evening with my dog
And we will go out maybe an hour to an hour and a half I do that 7 days a week and I have lost about 25 lbs in this time (about 3 months). So this week I go to the Dr and they discovered a polyp (just 1) on my gallbladder and they want to see me for repeat
Scan in 6 months or so and see if it has grown. She sent me today for repeat blood test for liver function and Bone profile and acute LFT (hepatitis ) I am now panicking about cancer again (lung cancer, bone cancer) and never heard of bone profile and all sorts of things come up on
Google (I know but I cant stop). So I assume next week the result will come in and I just feel awful and a tight feeling in my throat all the time.
I know this I long and sorry to bore people but if you made it this far thank you for reading.

[chipster]

has anybody had these kind of symptons - i dont know if the majority is anxiety or something sinister

[Skkyee]

Sounds like there is an awful lot of anxiety in there!! Lack of appetite, constant bowel movements, restlessness, inability to sleep, constant googling searching for reassurance ( you HAVE to stop that) ..... Talking about nothing else and walking it away...... I can identify with every part of that! Clearly u have worries about your tests but u have to try and distract yourself because it sounds like many of your symptoms are anxiety caused!

Hang in there and stuck around here, it's a great place to be when people around you just can't quite understand :-)

Donna (currently with pneumonia!! Not imagined either!! For once, Lol.... Not actually funny really :-( )

[chipster]

Thank you for your reply - i seem to take one step forward and two back.
when i went for a shower yesterday i felt my ribs and they were sore and then saw a bruise

so it was either me poking around so hard i gave myself it or ive had a knock and it took a while to come out.

came home from the Hospital and thought of all the bad things
leukemia

i wasnt sure but giving up smoking seems to increase the blood flow to your gums and more bleeding when you brush or floss (or if you grind your teeth at night)

so i put two and two together and thought the worst.


today i feel a pain around my chest and back that creaks and cracks when i move


i need to stop the urge to go an google it as this seems to happen every hour or so i go and look something up.


but how do you convince yourself the symptons arnt serious?
you have a chest pain that lasts an hour how do you know it isnt a heart attack.

i wish i could stop thinking about this all the time.

[Skkyee]

U have to try and stop googling! I get it... I do it to, think we all do sometimes, we don't want the bad stuff, we want to read that it's ok. But no one puts the ok stuff on the internet, only the warnings and horror stories.

It's hard to get your head around the 'what if it's serious' .... That's the main problem with HA. We can tell ourselves it's ok, it's anxiety, but then the devil on our shoulders says 'but what if it's not?' .. But u have to look at the other anxiety symptoms you are experiencing and the fact that none of the symptoms have actually hurt you.

So hard to deal with, you are quite new to the whole HA thing, it gets easier to manage in time, especially after you accept that your symptoms really are anxiety based!

The only place I allow myself to search for symptoms is on this forum, I do that a lot! .... There is always someone else having/had your symptom, always!

Donna x

[Gary A]

Leukaemia bruising is not painful. As for having a heart attack, that's a tougher call because only you really know how severe the pain is, and it would be utterly reckless of anyone here to tell you that something isn't a heart attack. Granted, you'd probably be in severe distress, your chest would feel like an elephant was sitting on it, the pain would radiate toward your left arm, you'd be sweaty, nuaseas and you probably wouldn't really be in much doubt that you need to call for an ambulance.

You mention a "creaking and cracking" coming from your chest area. Isn't it just common sense, then, to say that surely to goodness a heart attack doesn't cause your bones to do this? Wouldn't it be an absolutely absurd coincidence that the area of your pain just so happens to be the same area making these sounds?

If you want to overcome health anxiety then learning how to think critically is a good key. What's the evidence for what you think? You have one symptom (chest pain) that of course could be a sign of a heart attack, yet to go along with that symptom you have this creaking cracking sound in the SAME AREA. You have no other visible symptoms of a heart attack, and you yourself admit that you think the worst of everything when it comes to your health.

So what's more likely here? You really are having the worlds most silent heart attack, or that you have a minor discomfort in your bones, which you've focused on to the point that you're exagerating the pain you feel?

[Emilym80]

but how do you convince yourself the symptons arnt serious?
you have a chest pain that lasts an hour how do you know it isnt a heart attack.

i wish i could stop thinking about this all the time.

The only way you can know for sure is by having tests done. That sounds a lot like anxiety-related chest pain in my experience but I think with chest pain you should always get it checked out by a doctor to be sure; that way you can be sure. While it's not healthy or productive to need reassurance for every symptom you get (please stop googling!!!) something that can be potentially serious like chest pain should be checked out to be sure.

As for what you were saying more generally, anxiety can cause all kinds of physical symptoms and if your doctors think there's nothing wrong then you should believe them and rest assured that it's caused by anxiety.

Best wishes :)

[chipster]

thank you for your replies again.
and if this helps anyone.
I tried not to think about the pain and think about something else (work!)
its still on and off at the moment.
i think its like being on a plane where you hear every noise, creek, bump and think the plane is going to crash. And googling every thing has been my downfall.

i obviously do have symptons but my anxiety has taken over to the point of not concentrating on anything else. i have read others peoples posts and think how did you let that happend or what your saying doesnt make sense. And i seem to be falling into the same trap without realising it. I tried writing it down to try an make some logic out of it. Started with shoulder and back problems (torn rotator cuff).

whatever the blood in my urine was cleared up and no sign of infection from the lab.

that seemd to be a trigger for me that blood shouldn't be there and the whole cycle has started.

the polyp they found on my gallbladder can be dealt with in 6 months if if was serious they would do it now. if it hasnt grown they will monitor if it does they can take it away.


i have an appointment on Tue with the Dr and my blood work may have come back by then

she asked me to fill out a GAD and depression evaluation form to take back with me. (which i guess is a good sign)

so i feel a little calmer as i try to work out each thing seperatley.

i have a little trouble that my back/shoulder pain isnt cancer of some sort
but the Dr said i dont show any red flag symptons and she isnt overly concerned on anything and my blood counts were normal. ( which i know people with HA have trouble believing dont they)

so i have a wait for a few days to see whats happening.