honeybun44
14-09-17, 12:51
Hi--
This may be long...I apologize in advance. I've been dealing with anxiety/OCD my whole life, but in the last 10 years it's been about health health health. I have SEVERE health anxiety and white coat syndrome.
This summer I got to the point where I could barely function, and my doctor decided Effexor wasn't working. She started to wean me off, and weirdly, as the dose went down (300 to 225) I felt better...not nearly as anxious.
However, my yearly physical is coming up. I have to get bloodwork, and waiting for the results about kills me.
I've always had a sensitive liver (gall bladder out when I was 16), that swelled during my pregnancies. Almost 5 years ago, I went to the hospital with debilitating pain and my enzymes were near 2000 (not a typo!). They tested me for everything, including autoimmune hepatitis. Blood work, ultrasounds (I do have a hemangioma, which we knew about and had grown a bit), ERCP...found nothing. Enzymes returned to normal within a week, have been normal ever since.
But are they normal now?? Do I have some kind of liver disease that is dormant? Do all those episodes cause scarring, leading to cirrhosis? I hate to even mention that in case they want another ultrasound!
So, I started going through all my old records from that liver flare...records that I never really "analyzed". They tested me for autoimmune diseases....my ANA was as high as it can go >1:2650, but autoimmune hep was negative and they ruled out Lupus.
But no one ever told me to follow up on that ANA! I never even knew what that test meant until a week ago! Everything I read tells me that a score that high means I probably have an autoimmune disease 'lurking'. Do I bring up a 4 year old score at my upcoming physical? I had a zillion doctors appointments when this liver scare happened. Why did no one refer me to a rheumatologist?
Now I'm feeling like I have liver issues. I found a few broken capillaries on my face that I never saw before. I've had some very weird rashes this summer that had to be treated by a dermatologist. Is it all related?
Even more, the past few weeks I've noticed that the back of my head seems to shake "no" involuntarily. Like, the back of my head feels "heavy". I can't even deal with what that could be about.
Finally, I always worry that I'm going to have some other kind of blood work problem and I dread this time more than I can say.
Thanks if you've read this far. I'm so grateful for this website!
Mary
This may be long...I apologize in advance. I've been dealing with anxiety/OCD my whole life, but in the last 10 years it's been about health health health. I have SEVERE health anxiety and white coat syndrome.
This summer I got to the point where I could barely function, and my doctor decided Effexor wasn't working. She started to wean me off, and weirdly, as the dose went down (300 to 225) I felt better...not nearly as anxious.
However, my yearly physical is coming up. I have to get bloodwork, and waiting for the results about kills me.
I've always had a sensitive liver (gall bladder out when I was 16), that swelled during my pregnancies. Almost 5 years ago, I went to the hospital with debilitating pain and my enzymes were near 2000 (not a typo!). They tested me for everything, including autoimmune hepatitis. Blood work, ultrasounds (I do have a hemangioma, which we knew about and had grown a bit), ERCP...found nothing. Enzymes returned to normal within a week, have been normal ever since.
But are they normal now?? Do I have some kind of liver disease that is dormant? Do all those episodes cause scarring, leading to cirrhosis? I hate to even mention that in case they want another ultrasound!
So, I started going through all my old records from that liver flare...records that I never really "analyzed". They tested me for autoimmune diseases....my ANA was as high as it can go >1:2650, but autoimmune hep was negative and they ruled out Lupus.
But no one ever told me to follow up on that ANA! I never even knew what that test meant until a week ago! Everything I read tells me that a score that high means I probably have an autoimmune disease 'lurking'. Do I bring up a 4 year old score at my upcoming physical? I had a zillion doctors appointments when this liver scare happened. Why did no one refer me to a rheumatologist?
Now I'm feeling like I have liver issues. I found a few broken capillaries on my face that I never saw before. I've had some very weird rashes this summer that had to be treated by a dermatologist. Is it all related?
Even more, the past few weeks I've noticed that the back of my head seems to shake "no" involuntarily. Like, the back of my head feels "heavy". I can't even deal with what that could be about.
Finally, I always worry that I'm going to have some other kind of blood work problem and I dread this time more than I can say.
Thanks if you've read this far. I'm so grateful for this website!
Mary