Please help!

[Breakaway]

Hi! I’m new to the forum. I really need people to talk to because I feel like no one around me truly understands how bad my health anxiety has become. I have always had some form of health anxiety but it’s gotten pretty bad since my daughter was born 7 months ago.

She’s my first and only baby so I have this HORRIBLE fear that I’m going to be diagnosed with cancer and not see her grow up.

Right now I have a bunch of symptoms that are worrying me such as a pain in my upper back on the left side that I’ve had since she was born and has not gone away. I’ve asked my doctor a few times about it and they said it’s a muscle strain, from carrying her on that side all the time.

But I also have a lymph node behind my ear that keeps swelling. It swelled up for the first time at the end of December, then a week and a half later and again last night. I THINK I may have scratched it right before it swelled but I don’t remember for sure. It starts as a raised looking welt, like when you first get a mosquito bite, and then the lymph node enlarges completely! It’s not painful at all and all three times it went back down within less than a day. I had a CBC done and it seemed fine. I’m going to make an appointment with the ENT doctor, but until then I need to be able to look at my baby without crying because I can’t stop thinking I won’t see her grow up.

Please help!!

[Mindprison]

The important thing to remember here is that you've seen a doctor and they've given you a good reason for the symptoms you're experiencing. The back is one of the easiest places to strain even from just lifting the wrong way. My father for example never had back problems and lifted weights. One day he lifted a heavy suitcase the wrong way and threw his back out despite all that training.

Lymph nodes are extremely sensitive and will swell for even minor infections or if you rub/scratch them. Some nodes will be permanently swollen after a bad infection. For example the ones in my throat and jaw are permanently swollen from tonsillitis when I was a teenager.

I know you probably won't want to hear this...but I think it's important. There is absolutely no point in worrying about getting cancer because the odds are you won't get it under 65. If you're taking every precaution possible to reduce that risk then there's nothing more you can do and worrying won't stop it happening if it's going to happen.

Don't let a disease that you MAY get affect your life NOW. You could spend your entire life worrying about a disease that will never happen to you.

In life, sadly, there is a great degree of uncertainty. It's impossible to predict how long we have on earth. But our chances of living to old age thanks to advances in medicine are extremely high considering how rare cancer is under 65.

It's the anxiety talking, you have no reason to believe you have it and as I said the chances are still extremely low.

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Forgot to ask, are you getting treatment for health anxiety? If not then that's the first step to take. The earlier you start the easier it will be to overcome.

[lior]

Sorry that you're feeling this way.

If you're anything like me, anxiety hits when there are stressful things going on, and it can manifest in ways that are nothing to do with the original cause of the anxiety.

Working out what the root of the problem is, and what can be done about it, may be able to go some way towards reducing how anxious you feel.
If nothing can be done, working on accepting it can help.

Having a baby must be very stressful! And she's your first one, so there's lots to get used to. Is your sleep affected, being a new parent?
Is there any way you can get time alone occasionally to take sanity breaks? Your baby needs you to be as mentally healthy as you can possibly be. Leaving her occasionally with someone else for the benefit of your happiness would surely benefit her in the long term?

[jojo2316]

Do you have a good support network around you?