Relieved but did get a medical diagnosis, just not a serious one.

[scaredpt]

Thanks all for your help with health anxiety. I am still scared, but I am proud of myself for confronting my fear of medical tests and having a blood test. For those who don't know, I've had a swollen lymph node for a while now and have been very concerned, it was quite painful for some time.

I went to the doctor twice for the lymph nodes, and the second doctor ordered blood tests. I was convinced it would come back that I had leukemia or lymphoma. It turns out I have a weird type of mono infection that causes only mild symptoms, but swollen glands and sore throat are two of them.

So in sum: I (hopefully) don't have the terrible disease I thought I had, but I DO have a little something, the reasonable thing I should've originally suspected.so it is good to listen to the body and im glad i got the medical tests I had to.

[maianixon]

Exact same thing happened to me!! I was freaking out over my unexplained lymph nodes and it turned out it was all due to the virus that causes mono but is not usually checked in basic blood tests.
anyway i'm glad you are fine, take it as reassurance though that there are also non-dangerous explanations for our symptoms

[axolotl]

So in sum: I (hopefully) don't have the terrible disease I thought I had

Good stuff. I think you can reliably remove the "(hopefully)" from that statement.

There's a cognitive distortion known as "all or nothing thinking" which is often at play on these forums - something's either has to be just anxiety and all in your head, or it's a horrible deadly disease. But often when we feel odd symptoms and burps and burbles it is something - just in the hugely vast majority of cases something minor, harmless, unworrying or benign. Part of the healing process of health anxiety - and something I'm not there with when dealing with myself, I must admit - is realising there's a million minor and harmless things to rule out before even entertaining something rare and deadly.

[Drisque]

^ Nice! I like that.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Good stuff. I think you can reliably remove the "(hopefully)" from that statement.

There's a cognitive distortion known as "all or nothing thinking" which is often at play on these forums - something's either has to be just anxiety and all in your head, or it's a horrible deadly disease. But often when we feel odd symptoms and burps and burbles it is something - just in the hugely vast majority of cases something minor, harmless, unworrying or benign. Part of the healing process of health anxiety - and something I'm not there with when dealing with myself, I must admit - is realising there's a million minor and harmless things to rule out before even entertaining something rare and deadly.

Totally agree. The doctor said what he was looking for and he was right. Another one in the eye for HA everywhere! :yesyes::yahoo:

Look how much you worried about cancer when the doctor said mono. Can you see how you Minimised mono an Maximise cancer? And then comes Catastrophising too. That's three more of the Cognitive Distortions.

As axolotl says, these are key to working on anxiety. I've found a lot of gains from knowing mine and having strategies for them. When I used to go to the charity walk-in sessions we would work through a CBT based module each time and we covered these distortions on many occasions as a group discussing each others. It opened my eyes to where I was so often going wrong. Every group I attended agreed they were very helpful and very relevant to us.

Now you know your doctor was right, that consciously you were right. Your anxiety was the one in the wrong. More evidence to fight it going forward. Good luck.

[CHELLEB1017]

So happy to hear you are fine!!!

[scaredpt]

I am going to therapy today and I'm getting some doubts, but I want to use the knowledge I have now to work on my cognitive distortions. I sometimes am having moments where i wonder if the doctor missed something, but I feel like a blood test (with a result for another condition that causes enlarged lymph nodes) and two doctors should be fine