please help!

[MT1403]

Hi everyone,

I know that I have really bad health anxiety and I will soon be starting CBT to see if it will help but I am having a really hard time right now. For about the past 3 years, everytime I stand or sit for long periods of time, my ankles get really swollen. I have spoken to my doctor about this and he says its probably due to gravity and said swelling will happen when you stand or sit for a long time without moving around. I never used to worry about it before, but my anxiety started when my brother passed away from an undetected heart condition and he had swelling in his legs before he died. I'm just always worried now that I might have the same thing or some other condition, because I know that swelling of the ankles can also mean bad circulation. I am now convincing myself that I am having heart failure, have DVT, or a blood clot. Its both my legs but the swelling goes down once I elevate my feet. It probably is just from sitting at school all day but this anxiety won't let me think positive thoughts. I am so scared that I am going to die and cause my family pain. Please help me!

[nell1965]

Hi
Firstly, i am sorry about your brother and i understand your anxiety but there are several things that you have to understand. Heart conditions undetected or not never just present with bilateral ankle swelling,there are other symptoms which make up a clinical picture, without knowing the exact details i cannot comment more about the condition your brother died from but can tell you that if your physician who will be aware of your family history thought for one minute that there was a hereditory congenital condition present you would be getting tested and examined. Dvt's in legs present with different symptoms to those of which you describe so im pretty sure you dont have clots in both legs.
Im not sure how old you are but i can tell you that if i sit around all day in one position then my ankles have been known to swell up (particularly if i dont pass urine all day either) and dont go down until i keep them elevated or at least move around some more (this is very common) and i dont have heart failure,if youhad heart failure you would have other symptoms. If you feel so bad about this then you need to tell your doctor how worried you are, i hope this helps

I just want my life back
nell
x

[eeyorelover]

Hi MT,
I am sorry to hear about the loss of your brother. It is completely understandable that you would be worried about the possibility of you having the same as your brother did but don't what if yourself to much about it. I am sure that if you explain how you feel to your doc that there is a test that will let you know if it is your heart or not. That would really help to set your mind at ease. Also I had to cut way back on my salt intake cuz it caused my ankles to swell horrible after I started a job where I stand alot. It has helped alot.
Hope you feel better real soon :)


Sandy
(eeyorelover)

If the world didn't suck... we'd all fall off :)