Chest Aches and Pains

[dizzydruid]

Hi all,
great to see the site up and running again :D
I have woken up once again to my upper chest feeling very tight and a bit painful and of course I'm thinking cancer or something :(
I am so miserable thinking that every little pain or minor illness is something major. The last month I have had brain tumor ( headache for a week) breast cancer (pain in left breast still comes and goes) bowel cancer ( TMI but bloated feeling and change in stools all the time from constipation to the other etc), throat cancer ( this comes and goes but sore achy throat and food sticking in throat) and several bouts of potential thrombosis ( leg pains)
Then I get onto thinking that maybe there is something wrong and that is why my body keep getting all these problems, I keep visualising my body riddled with cancer and I cant seem to stop my head from thinking these things.
If I had the time before christmas to see the doctor I would at this point have to have him check all of the above problems and would be there for hours :(
On a plus side I have my first appointment with my trainee clinical psychologist this afternoon. I'm not sure he's going to know whats hit him after spending an hour with me. I'm feeling a bit of a hopeless case right now and I have no idea how he is going to help me get over this health anxiety.
anyway sorry for rambling on as usual
hope everyone is feeling ok and happy christmas to you all

lucy xx

[nell1965]

Hi Lucy
Not sure if it will help you in anyway to know that right at this moment i feel exactly the same, apart from the thrombosis bit.
I too go through phases where i feel like i must be riddled,my symptoms tend to focus around the area that i am worried about and as at the moment it is my oesophagus/stomachi am having every symptom from tight/sore throat, mild globus hystericus to heartburn/acidreflux, stomach and chest pains, ibs symptoms,i am a walking miracle,i have just been to tesco to do my x mas food shop,put it all away and sat down to have breakfast,not bad for someone as "seriously ill" as me. Lucy you are definately not alone in how you feel but rest assured it is the evil monster anxiety that is making you feel this way, try your very best to divert yourself so as not to allow the evil thing to ruin your x mas,banish it to a planet far far away,with appropriate help from medical profession, each other and a lot of inner strength together we CAN slay this monster for good
let us know how you get on this afternoon, we are always interested

I just want my life back
nell
x

[Meg]

This is classic health anxiety - hopefully when you get working with him he will take you through some CBT steps so you can start to tackle this underlying fear.


First Steps to overcoming Panic and Anxiety (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=942)

contiuously obsessed with dying (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2691)
'what if this is it this time thoughts' (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4694)
CONSTANT CHECKING (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4795)
can someone reasure me? (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3931)
Fear of tumour... (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4890)
25, new to the site & would LOVE SOME ADVICE ! (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5171)
Holiday broke the vicious cycle (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5181)
health anxiety sucks!! (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5723)
Reassurance Seeking - Is it Ok?? (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6042)
lymphoma at 17? unlikely i know...but still... (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6584)
Having one right now (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6934)



Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Your anxiety is the human representation of the pictures that you paint using your many vivid colours of revolving and reoccurring thoughts.
How big is your gallery ?

[Canada Girl]

Ladies I feel the exact same way. It is such a relief when you see someone whose life is exactly like yours. It makes me feel "normal" and not so alone. One thing though - I am finding it really hard at times to keep my anxiety from showing at home. I don't want my kids to see how stressed I feel and the symptoms I have. Sometimes I think that leads to more anxiety trying to "act" through it. Does anyone else find that. Also, is anxiety hereditary?? I would hate to see my kids go through this.

[nell1965]

yes, i do find it hard hiding it from my kids especially the older they are getting, in particular my daughter who is 13 and very astute, and i hope none of them turn out to be worriers like me........[Sigh...]

I just want my life back
nell
x

[polly a]

hi lucy,i too have all the symptoms you have had especially the bad leg pains,ive had a cough for about 10 week terrified its lung cancer,had antibiotics and its still there,but you always think this time its real im not imagining it,ille be over the moon if it goes before the new year and i dont have to worry about it,but there again ille probabally have something else seriously wrong with me i always get worse at xmax your not alone pollyxx

p appleyard

[Piglet]

Lucy I too have had all the medical business that you have - I have been through the medical encyclopedia and I'm starting all over again lol!!

How did todays appointment go???

Love Piglet x



"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?" said Piglet.
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh after careful thought.

[Sheik N Shimmy]

<b id="quote">quote:</b id="quote"><table border="0" id="quote"><tr id="quote"><td class="quote" id="quote"> Also, is anxiety hereditary?? I would hate to see my kids go through this.
<div align="right">Originally posted by Canada Girl - 21 December 2005 : 15:52:50</div id="right">
</td id="quote"></tr id="quote"></table id="quote">

I think it's hereditary..... or partly so. I'm a worrier and for the last while I've had a severe health anxiety thing going on.

While chatting with my mum yesterday it became apparent to me that she suspected I was suffering with stress/anxiety. I have never mentioned it to her but mothers know these things.

She described temporarily losing the power of her left arm from stress when she was my age. She said 'I know you take on too much sometimes and it gets you down - only do one thing at a time son'. I told her that I've recently discovered that I can't manage stress very well.

She said 'be careful son - that can kill you'.

Bless her.....

Keep On Keepin On

[Quirky]

<b id="quote">quote:</b id="quote"><table border="0" id="quote"><tr id="quote"><td class="quote" id="quote"> I too have had all the medical business that you have - I have been through the medical encyclopedia and I'm starting all over again lol!!
<div align="right">Originally posted by Piglet - 21 December 2005 : 21:34:35</div id="right">
</td id="quote"></tr id="quote"></table id="quote">

Me too Piglet! I think I've even invented some things not in the medical encyclopedias too! Lol.

Hope you're feeling better Lucy.

Lisa

[Dan]

hey thats me aswell lucy
i worry that as the doctors see me as someone with anxiety disorder that if i go they dismiss me and eventually there really will be something terminal wrong with me ie at mo i have blood clot or tumour on brain and pos heart or lung probs recently i have heard of about 4 reasonlbly young people dying suddenly or quickly so i think this has made my health anxiety come back in force and after improving feel back to square one but the show must go on but lucy i think we realise we are not alone ( judging by replies haha)
piglet my boyfriend would not let me get medical encyclopedia i wonder why...
and nell i want my life back too (if any one noes whos got it can you ask them to send it back)
Dan

[dizzydruid]

Hi all,
well todays medical emergency is thrombosis as i have leg pains, god knows why I keep getting pains in my legs but being a smoker and on the pill I am all too aware that I am at an increased risk.
I think my main concern is all down to the fact that i smoke, otherwise I dont think I would worry so much about throat and lung cancer. I desperately need to give up :(
anyway it went really well yesterday. He is really lovely bloke, very charming and funny and easy on the eye as well :D
As it was the first time we have met he wanted to get the whole story so it was just me telling him exactly what was wrong and the events I think may have contributed to me becoming increasingly anxious. He hinted at some of the plans he has to bring down my health anxiety including scaling my various pains on a level of 1 to 10 and therefore eventually reseting my anxiety levels to normal.
So I have another appoinment on te 11 of jan and I'm looking forward to it :)

thanks for all the replys its nice to know I'm not the only one who is a walking medical encyclopeadia.

take care all,
lucy xxx

[nell1965]

Hi Lucy

Glad it all went well, hopefully this will be the start of your road to recovery,today i have bowel cancer and i am probably having one of the worse days i have had in a long time, so i know where you are coming from.
take care

I just want my life back
nell
x

[Sheik N Shimmy]

I can identify strongly with your current worries.

This anxiety thing would be hilarious if it wasn't so scary :(

If I'm feeling really scared I just read some of Meg's posts.

E

Keep On Keepin On

[tt]

I have been through all of those and still sits on my mind. I am now doing CBt and recording all my illness and the symptoms. I review them when they come to mind. I now can rate them and know that I survived the last time and I will survive again. The panic does slowly diminish.
Hope this helps,

TT:)



TT:)