View Full Version : Update on misreading words and brain tumor anxiety
Hello. I'm new to the forum, but I lurked on it for a long time. I already posted my concerns on Reddit, but I'll just copy it here, because the community here is bigger, and so is the feedback.
A week ago I wrote:
" Hey reddit. I'll start by saying that I'm a huge 22 year old hypochondriac. It started in last December, when I pooped a lot of blood and I was convinced that I've got colon cancer, I couldn't function properly for a whole month before I got my colonoscopy which revealed a small benign polyp which was removed.
Anyways, since yesterday all I've been reading about is brain tumors. The reason of that is, when I was in work yesterday (slept only 6 hours and didn't have breakfast, then worked from 8 am to 2 pm) I kind of tripped twice when I was standing and wanted to turn around. Like, I'm clumsy overall and I sometimes trip or bump onto things, but never so often. Also, when handing the change to the customer (I'm a student but I work part time as a cashier) I dropped a coin twice. Or when he asked me for certain cigarretes, I grabbed the blue instead of red ones etc. After the day of overall lack of concentration I started googling and I found that brain tumor may cause clumsiness, loss of concentration, balance etc. I had a CT scan done 4 years ago due to head trauma but it was clear. However, I've read that tumors can grow fast. Should I go to doctor or observe myself for couple days? I've never had headaches as well. "
Today I wrote:
"Last week I made a thread about my concerns about brain tumor. It basically started when I slightly lost balance and was overall clumsy, but I figured it was due to lack of sleep that day. Anyways, since that friday I "experienced" (putting it in quotation marks because I feel like it was placebo) symptoms like depersonalization, weird vision, lack of coordination etc but they all came and went away quickly. However, I'm experiencing one symptom that sticks around since couple of days- misreading stuff. It started when I was on reddit, and I saw a thread named "this is happening on reddit server" but I read "server" as "silver". Normally I probably wouldn't pay much attention to that, especially that reddit silver is a thing, but I immediately remembered how a brain tumor can impact your speech, writing and reading. So I started to dig through all the sources about aphasia but I couldn't find any information or stories about people who had a brain tumor and their only symptom was misreading things. I also noticed that this happens only when I think about this ("okay, another article, I hope I read everything right... ****, it said "write", not "white"), but when I somehow manage to not think about it, for example yesterday in a cinema on a movie with subtitles, I didn't read anything wrong, or so I think. Sorry for a wall of text! "
Help anyone?
unsure_about_this
06-04-18, 21:50
I often drop things or misread because of my disbaility, Try not to google because everything comes back with cancer.
See your doctor/gp
Hello there,
I have this issue too. However, one of the things that should calm you down the most is that you wrote this whole wall of text without any grammar mistakes I can put my finger on. Brain tumors have a lot of symptoms, and if you are fine other than this, it is probably nothing to worry about. I often misread or spit out the wrong words or jumble up the order of things when I am having bouts of paranoia and anxiety. There really is probably nothing wrong with you. If it continues to worry you, a trip to your doctor should put your mind at ease.
PS: If you have never had a history of brain cancer in your family, that is another good sign there is probably nothing wrong.
Thank you schmol, that's a nice perspective that I didn't see before - if I'm able to write properly and without grammatical errors or jumbling up words, the language comprehension center in my brain isn't probably damaged. I also don't have any history of ANY kind of cancer in my family, but I feel like a black sheep in terms of health, lol. But still, I do realize that reading words wrong is perfectly normal and mostly overlooked by most people, but since a couple of days, literally every word that I read wrong makes my heartbeat go up by 30 bpm. I also mentioned that I had CT done 4 years ago and it was clean - it shifts the odds even more in my favor, right?
I do it all the time! I've never ever worried about it. I just read today 'Scam' instead of 'Scan' - you can understand why I read it like that just like 'Silver' and 'Server' - sometimes I feel like I can't even read, I"ll look at words and my brain will just switch off and I'll have to go and do something else .... I also write words wrong all the time, miss important words out of a sentence, right the wrong word - see what I did there, there's an example ... it should have been write! i do it all the time and never NOT ONCE did I worry about it!
Glad to hear that, however I never had such problems - that's why it's worrying me currently.
I never had them too - don't forget we all start somewhere with this spiral :)
It's not really until you go 'oh I should google this' and normally thats' where it all starts.
It's normal - our brains are amazing things, but they are allowed to mess up every now and then and should = otherwise we'd be robots!
Of course go and see a GP if it worries you but unless you have something else like numb hands, or headaches, feeling dizzy, etc etc they will probably send you away and see it's nothing.
Thank you. I also noticed that the problem didn't start until I actually started reading about it, making it even more plausible that it's anxiety related. I'd love to just get over it without going to the doctor, also in my country the queues to neurologists are long, like 4 months at least. Unless you pay of course, but I'm a student so yeah :D I'd also love to hear from someone who knows about MRI/CT more than me, because I had one 4 years ago and I wonder if that alone doesn't exclude the brain tumor already.
muzicdejay
07-04-18, 18:14
Hi, sounds to me like it's the anxiety. I'm really clumsy and forgetful when I have something on my mind, I put the tea bags in the fridge, loose my car keys, forget if I ate like an hour before etc, I think our minds are so caught up with anxiety and worry it''s normal that we can't fully concentrate on the everyday things we do.
I've even forgot how spell my surname a few times (No joke) because I'm worrying myself about a health issue.
Of course any concerns get checked by your doc but I bet it's all to do with the anxiety.
There's a sign on the pizza place in my town that is advertising "Cinna Squares". I keep misreading it as "China Squares" because my brain keeps trying to correct it to something that makes sense.
So recently I posted a thread about my anxiety of having a brain tumor, because I started to notice that I'm misreading words lately. Here's some of my conclusions about the whole thing:
It all started when I actually started reading about the symptoms - so it might be placebo
It happens mostly when I have the stress of misreading things in the back of my head - I focus too much on reading perfectly, and that's probably why I'm making mistakes
About 2 days ago after SAYING stuff wrong, I automatically assumed that I surely have brain cancer, because even if my speech is failing me, then it's SURELY tumor, since then I noticed that my tongue slips more often, however when I had a gaming night yesterday and I wasn't focused on the anxiety, I communicated without any slurring or slipping tongue
All the sites that list brain tumor symptoms are often written like that: "Parietal lobe: Difficulty speaking, problems with reading and writing", and that's what set me off from day one, but little did I know that they don't mean an occasional slip of tongue or misreading a single word, they mean full on being unable to speak/read/write fluently, I'll elaborate on that in the next point
There's a condition called aphasia(inability to comprehend and formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions), but I figured that I'm not suffering from it, because when you search aphasia on youtube it looks totally cruel, and it's not what I have, but further in the wikipedia article you can notice that there's a condition called alexia, which is also caused by a tumor or a stroke, and alexia is basically acquired dyslexia, which is the reason of why I'm still having the anxiety
From what I gathered, acquired dyslexia is basically a dyslexia that happens due to a stroke or tumor. And now I'm worried that I have that acquired dyslexia. I couldn't gather much information about how often do dyslexiacs misread words, that's why I'm posting here. Does anyone know if occasional misreading of a word for a similar looking word (those instead of these, streaming instead of strumming etc) might mean acquired dyslexia? By occasional, I mean that in this whole post I would misread about 2-3 words. Thank you!
nomorepanic
10-04-18, 18:26
Hi
This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your thread was merged with another of your threads.
Please when posting on similar topics add it onto your previous post rather than starting a new one.
It is nothing personal it is just to make it easier for people to follow your story and to give you advice as a whole.
Today I've been at work from 8 to 15, then went shopping, and when I came home and walked into my room, it was really hot, because the windows were closed all the time. I went to open the window to ventilate the room a little bit, and suddenly my head started pulsating on both sides and I got dizzy. It cleared up after like 10 seconds. What could that be?
A head rush.
Positive thoughts
Do you mean "Orthostatic hypotension (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthostatic_hypotension), a sudden drop in blood pressure and coordination when a person stands up too quickly"? I was standing all the time so it doesn't really apply here I suppose...
No, IMO, just a normal, run of the mill head rush. Heat, dehydration and a myriad of benign reasons.
Positive thoughts
Mindprison
14-04-18, 16:57
Agreed with FMP. I have these head rushes daily from a combination of allergies, heat intolerance and the medication i'm on.
Totally benign. I also suffer astigmatism and retinal migraines which don't help. Harmless though so don't worry so much. Make sure you're keeping hydrated especially if it's warm.
Thank you guys/gals! I didn't drink anything today, and I also have allergies and astigmatism. Hope you're right!
I didn't drink anything today, and I also have allergies and astigmatism.
Bingo! :winks:
Positive thoughts
Hey. For the last three days I had a really mild flu. Since yesterday however, whenever I swallowed anything,food or even saliva, I felt like there's something stuck on the right side of my throat. It's still there after 24 hours and I'm getting concerned. May it be cancer? It's irritating whenever I swallow, and causes me to clear my throat and cough a lot. I never smoked and I don't drink much. Help?
I'm a Stage 4a Head and Neck cancer survivor. Non-smoking, non-drinking 22 years old? Just had the flu?
Nope! No chance.
Positive thoughts
Thank you. But what could that be though?
Annaboodle
04-05-18, 17:14
A sore throat as part of your flu bug. Or maybe a throat infection. It sounds like you had a cold rather than flu anyway, due to whatever you had only lasting 3 days.
I'm a 22 years old nonsmoking male.
First it started with a colon cancer scare, which luckily turned out to be a benign polyp after a colonoscopy. After a month free of anxiety, I suddenly developed a new one - brain tumor. I was convinced that I have a brain tumor because of not feeling right for some time, but that passed and I realized that I'm probably fine.
However, since a week I've got a new anxiety which is more physical than the brain tumor symptoms. A week ago I had a flu, after 3 days it passed, but I felt like there's something stuck on the right side of my throat. Even when I swallowed, it felt like everything went along the left side of my throat. Anyway, after coughing a lot and drinking water, the feeling of something being stuck passed, but I kept coughing the next few days. Yesterday I also had my first ever heartburn after eating chocolate. Then while I was at work the feeling of something sharp when swallowing was there again, in the same place just below my Adam's apple on the right. I guess it might be a sunflower seed shell because I ate those a week ago, and I ate them kinda carelessly and kept swallowing those shells by accident. Today when I woke up I felt a little nauseous but I guess that's from anxiety. I also felt burning behind my right shoulder blade. I don't really know what to think anymore. I called an ENT today and I'm having an appointment tomorrow, and I'm really scared. I'm thinking about outcomes and that's what I came up with:
1) she tells me that it's something benign and that it'll pass with/without medication
2) she tells me that she sees something malicious and I'll probably die soon
3) she tells me that she doesn't see anything and refers me to other doctors, who eventually find out that I have a brain tumor or cancer
Help
http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1760556#post1760556
Please read the below post from Admin. You are posting about a lot of different things frequently. Perhaps start a thread where you can keep all of your worries in one place.
Can posters, especially those who are posting a lot about a variety of fears please confine their posts to one thread.
This helps others to build up a clear picture of what is happening and makes it easier to offer suitable advice.
You may not see the pattern but usually it is there, especially if you are posting frequently about different things.
Your co-operation with this would be greatly appreciated.
Elen
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