Leukaemia fear

[ShaunRyder]

I can't remember the last time I have posted on here as my HA and anxiety in general has been great for months and months and really thought I'd beaten it, but today it has struck from no where and its a Leukaemia fear!

I was at the gym this evening and when looking in the mirror I thought one side of my neck looked a bit swollen, when I felt I could feel a tiny little movable lump but I also have one in the same place on the other side, this is what set my anxiety off, then it popped into my head that last week I had two bruises, only small but noticeable and then I thought about yesterday when I picked a spot and it bled and yesterday and this morning I felt a bit run down, headache, ache body etc which has gone now (so of course in my HA state mind this means easy bruising and bleeding right :whistles:). Feel annoyed at myself for writing this and posting it but sadly my HA has struck bad! :weep:

[RadioGaGa]

I was at a haematology seminar relatively recently, which was put on by specialist nurses in our cancer hospital. One of the (several) illnesses covered was acute myeloid leukaemia.

People may be wondering "why is the Pharmacy Department invited to that?" Several reasons really:

* Although we have the knowledge of the drugs, their side effects, interactions, prescribing bla bla, we don't have the same "patient interaction" that the nurses and doctors do. Yes, we counsel and take medication histories, but we're not involved in the patients journey to the same degree as the previously mentioned professionals.
* We're not diagnosticians. And we don't plan to be. But, in plain English, this furthers our knowledge of the conditions which the drugs are used for.
* We also get to hear about "local celebrity" cases where patients have had excellent results from their treatment - in other words, they've surprised their doctors and nurses.

Back to my answer:

We had the (fortune or misfortune) of being able to hear many case presentations, and one thing that really stood out was the sheer rapidity with which the illness can progress. For example, there was one report of a patient who felt well at 08:00hrs, started feeling unwell at 10:00am. Long story short, an emergency GP appointment followed, followed by immediate admission to the haematology unit. Sadly, this patient actually passed away less than 12hours later from the onset of their symptoms that morning.

The above shook/scared me, but my point is (and this was made by the Specialist Nurse that was speaking at this point) is that patients with leukaemias (there's not just "one" leukaemia, it's a group) do not present feeling a bit unwell. It's often very obvious there's something very wrong (e.g. case report above).

Certainly, none of them are posting on forums asking strangers on the internet if they think they have leukaemia.

IMHO, there's nothing wrong with you except for anxiety... What are you doing to combat this?

Good luck

(I know people might criticize me for posting the above case, but I have/had terrible health anxiety and dealt with hearing about things like this on a very regular - almost daily - basis. The rationale behind my disclosure of this was to highlight it is very clear the OP is not suffering from leukaemia. Yes, it was an extreme example, but all of them are clearly unwell when they present)