Caseyg89
05-01-19, 02:01
Hi everyone,
It has been months since I have posted on here. For a quick backstory, in January 2017 (two years ago) I sufffered very serious food poisoning and was hospitalized. Low and behold, one month later I also found out I was pregnant. At this point I had developed health anxiety and had already worried about infertility, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer and ovarian cancer. I woke up one day with heartburn/reflux and excessive belching (hundreds of times a day) so I naturally convinced myself it was stomach cancer. In the past two years, I have had 4 endoscopes, 2 barium swallows, 2 CT scans, 3 MRI's, 10+ abdominal ultrasounds, 2 colonoscopies and a gastric emptying study. Nothing has been found (aside from the odd incidental). Here I am, two years with these symptoms, all these tests later and I am still very worried it is stomach cancer.
So here is my question to you. I was actually diagnosed with OCD, with my obsessions being cancer (I never worry about any other health condition) and have spent EXTENSIVE amounts of time googling. Because my symptoms have never gone away, I convinced myself something was missed and have read hundreds of studies on the inaccuracies of endoscopes and reading stories about people that had stomach cancer missed. For those of you that do the same, how do you undo the thinking???
I have a psychiatrist, psychologist and a social worker for my mental health. The psychologist specialized in Health based OCD. One huge thing I learned along the way is that the main issue with people with HA is that we cannot tolerate uncertainty. Nothing will give us certainty. 100 endoscopes will never be able to tell me with 100% certainty I do not have stomach cancer, but instead we need to find ways to cope (as people without HA do).
It has been months since I have posted on here. For a quick backstory, in January 2017 (two years ago) I sufffered very serious food poisoning and was hospitalized. Low and behold, one month later I also found out I was pregnant. At this point I had developed health anxiety and had already worried about infertility, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer and ovarian cancer. I woke up one day with heartburn/reflux and excessive belching (hundreds of times a day) so I naturally convinced myself it was stomach cancer. In the past two years, I have had 4 endoscopes, 2 barium swallows, 2 CT scans, 3 MRI's, 10+ abdominal ultrasounds, 2 colonoscopies and a gastric emptying study. Nothing has been found (aside from the odd incidental). Here I am, two years with these symptoms, all these tests later and I am still very worried it is stomach cancer.
So here is my question to you. I was actually diagnosed with OCD, with my obsessions being cancer (I never worry about any other health condition) and have spent EXTENSIVE amounts of time googling. Because my symptoms have never gone away, I convinced myself something was missed and have read hundreds of studies on the inaccuracies of endoscopes and reading stories about people that had stomach cancer missed. For those of you that do the same, how do you undo the thinking???
I have a psychiatrist, psychologist and a social worker for my mental health. The psychologist specialized in Health based OCD. One huge thing I learned along the way is that the main issue with people with HA is that we cannot tolerate uncertainty. Nothing will give us certainty. 100 endoscopes will never be able to tell me with 100% certainty I do not have stomach cancer, but instead we need to find ways to cope (as people without HA do).