A bit about myself, my worries and concerns

Hi...
I will try to introduce myself here without being too boring. But fear it could be a longish post. If it is too long for the forum I will understand if it will have to be shortened or deleted.

In December last year I had a urinary catheter removed after an op for a non cancerous enlarged protsate. The catheter was put in about 18 months previous in June 2014. In that 18 months there were times when it had blocked and I had many new ones inserted.

In March 2015 I was beginning to feel pretiy ill and my memory of the pain is very vague. I only knew I had pain as neighbours told me since that I was complaining about it.

One Saturday morning in March I cadged a lift into town to collect a repeat prescription for my diabetes type 2 and the next I cant remember at all. It is only what I am told. I got out of the car by the chemist and collapsed. An ambulance was called and I was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. I was put straight into ICU and was in a coma for about 10 days. At that time I of course did not know the severity of what I had. I am told I had Sepsis and was going into total organ failure. I was on dialysis and life support and some mighty strong drugs. Gradually I improved and after about 8 weeks I was put into a high dependency ward and then a normal ward. After 12 weeks I was discharged.

I am now totally cured and do not have the catheter any more. I was told that the Sepsis was as a direct result of the catheter. While in the ICU I was on a diet of ice cubes and when I came out I had a vile taste when I ate anything. The taste is back to normal now. I do still have an intermittent problem where food can get caught in my throat but that causes no choking. The strength in my legs is back to about 90%. I was told on the day of discharge that when I was admitted I had about a 5% chance of pulling through.

Now... The reason for me joining this forum.
I do get what I believe are anxiety attacks or are they called Panic attacks. Physically I believe I am not too bad at 64yo but fairly often I get a feeling of quite a bad worry. Its hard to explain here but its like I can be quite normal one minute and in a short space of time I get these worries. I don’t even know what the worries are which I know sounds stupid and to an outsider they would not even know this is happening. It can last for anything from a few minutes to a few days but normally half a day or so. I just worry about just about anything. If I have an ache in my arm I worry that I am having a heart attack, I am very overweight and do try to lose weight but if I lose weight I then worry that I might have cancer. If I get a headache I worry that I might have a brain haemorrhage, If I feel tired I worry that I am going downhill and that I might die.

I dont believe that I have depression but much more likely it is anxiety, if there is a difference? I am not in any way liable to top myself, its just these feelings that I get fairly often. I think I have very mild COPD but I often forget about that anyway.

I live on my own though do have many friends and have a Dachshund and 2 parrots. I have a big interest in computers and spend far too much time on them. I also take a full interest in photography and music.

I hope this post is not too long and am looking for advice on what I should do to perhaps ease these worrying phases. I have not been to the doctor about this although I did mention it to them one day on the phone and they did say it could well be anxiety brought on by my extended time in hospital.

One thing I should mention at the end is that while I have been typing this is that it has made me feel somewhat better. Like it is a weight off my mind.

If anyone can reply I look forward to reading them.

Thanks

Nigel

---------- Post added at 22:18 ---------- Previous post was at 22:15 ----------

If I do get any replies I hope I can find them.

Hopefully I can find my way round this site.

Thanks.

Hiya Nigalius and welcome to NMP :welcome:

Why not take a look at our articles on our home page, they contain a wealth of information and are a great starting place for your time on the forum.

I hope you find the as site helpful and informative as I have and that you get the help and support you need here and hope that you meet a few friends along the way :yesyes:

Nigel, thanks for sharing your story, that was very interesting.

First of all, you have been through a lot, and anyone going through that would come out the otherside with some mental stress.

Everything you describe sounds like anxiety brought on by the stress of your hospital experience, and illness.

I would recommend you see your Doctor just to get some professional advice on your situation.

Do you feel like you are back to normal apart from the anxiety? How are you eating/sleeping lately?

Hi SLA, thanks for the reply,

I hope to get an appointment with the doc next week.

Yes, I do feel I am back to normal. I am eating normally (far too much) but sleeping is not good. I am always up until the early hours, like 01.30, last night it was about 05.30 while trying to get some pics of the supermoon. But average is about 3.1/2 hours at night and then 2 x siestas of around 1.1/2 hours each during the day.