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Thread: Is it Health Anxiety or what?

  1. #1
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    Is it Health Anxiety or what?

    First some background information:

    I've been an OCD sufferer my whole life, of course, didn't know I had OCD until I was a teenager. My mom is a Dentist and she suffers from Health Anxiety, so I grew up in that environment. She had 7 EKG when she was 25, because she was convinced she had heart disease.

    So, I have always worried about things in my life. Me taking a plane to see my fiancée meant that the plane was going to crash. If she did not call me at 10:15 am after she got out of class, then she must have been kidnapped, because some girl was once kidnapped in her college. You know, the usual unreasonable train of thoughts. Of course, since we maintained a long distance relationship for about a year back in 2009, and then three months after we finally moved in together in 2010 I fell from my bike and got a mild concussion, it meant that something bad was meant to happen, because I couldn’t be too happy for too long. Well, in January 2011, I had a Gall Bladder attack, I was only 23 years old, but they took out my gallbladder, it was acute acalculous cholecystitis. That moment rocked my world, because that meant that the next bad thing bound to happen had to be worse than getting a cholecystitis. Because, as usual, I am bound to have bad things to happen to me (That’s how my mind works, never mind I have a successful career, and a beautiful fiancée, and I’m in a happy relationship) Anyhow, I can’t say how terrible I felt when in a matter of a day I had to go from feeling fine, to undergoing surgery, and having general anesthesia for the first time in my life. Before that, my stomach had been fine, never had I had stomach problems, I used to make fun of my girlfriend because she couldn’t eat chocolate or fatty foods, or eat past 9:00 pm. I eat relatively healthy though, i.e. No fast foods, etc.

    After the surgery everything when back to normal, I was in school, studying engineering, so yes life was stressful, but other than the usual stomach cramps whenever I ate fatty foods nothing was out of the ordinary. Not only were the stomach problems rare, but I didn’t even take antacids or anything. Then May 2011 came around, I had some relationship distress, and I became obsess about it, something happened, and it once more kickstarted my obsessions, this time it was about a certain person who almost ruined my relationship being omnipresent, even though I was constantly reassured by my partner that nothing happened, and that the person was no longer living in our town. This lasted until about 2 months ago, when my health anxiety took over my fear of having my fiancée kidnapped.

    Now onto the subject matter, sorry it’s a bit long, how I developed health anxiety, or whatever the hell I have now:

    Then this year 2012, I was in my last semester of Engineering about to graduate, when my grandfather started complaining about having stomach pains, he was 93 years old, I told my parents to take him to the doc, but they didn’t take him right away. He had a pace maker installed not long ago, due to brachycardia, and had some moles, and growings in his skin that turned out to be malignant. Well, when he was finally taken to the ER, a week after I was him during Spring Break, they found he had a 6 inch tumor outside of his stomach, it had spread everywhere, so the docs say, that there was nothing they could do, and my mom decided to just give him morphine, and let it be. He passed in less than three weeks, and I never got to see him again, mainly because I was in finals, in fact the day he passed I had an exam, and the next day I had yet another exam. So I couldn’t even go down for his funeral. Then in April, I started questioning myself, and I became obsessed about the possibility of having stomach cancer. Of course, I had no signs back then, but well my stomach was becoming a little bit more sensitive than before. In fact, the stomach issues intensified a little after a family friend who is a doctor made a comment in December 2011 that he was surprised someone so young could have acute cholecystitis, and why I was not treated first instead of having the surgery. Of course, I did not pay much attention to it. But then when my grandpa passed, I googled cholecystitis without gallstones, and found an entry I did not like, the one where it said that it happened in terminally ill patients.

    Then one day of April I was reading an article about 10 signs that people have months before having a heart attack, and well, I had them!!! So I had my very first panic attack, of course, I had the palpitations, etc before, but they usually had a reason (i.e. My girlfriend had been kidnapped, my parents aren’t picking up the phone while on a trip, maybe they were in a car crash), this time, it was the panic attack. I took some tea, my girlfriend took my blood pressure, and it went away. Still, I went to the doc at my school, and told her about it, she almost laugh at me, because I was young, relatively fit, and nonsmoker, or drinker, and no history of heart disease in my family, not at least before 50 or 60. Then I noticed my right supraclavicular (sic) lymph node swollen, well, it was about 1cm, so I googled it, and then the causes where Lung Cancer, Esophageal Cancer, or Mediastal (sic) Cancer. I was home, recently graduated and unemployed, so I spent the whole months of May googling and reading in forums about the lymph node. Finally went to see a Doc at the end of may, she took a look at it, and said it looked pretty benign, but for peace of mind, she ordered some bloodwork. Since my stomach was acting up a little bit(mind you nowhere near as bad as it got in September) , she prescribed fammotidine, and told me to take it twice daily. I had a good anxious week waiting for test results, and then a letter through the mail, blood work was normal, thyroid function normal, liver, and kidneys check out normal, cholesterol at 155, HDL was 44, and LDL was 96, triglycerides were 79. Anyone would be happy with that, not this guy, I kept checking my lymph node every day. Then had another panic attack in the middle of July, again, it went away after a while.

    I started working at a local College as a Math tutor, so that took care of the bills, of course I was still barely making ends meet, but it brought some relief, and helped me look for a Mechanical Engineering job more calmly. Then we had a week off in August, and we decided to go to the Caribbean, the week before going, my stomach acted up a little bit, but while I was on the trip, no symptoms, well other than my allergies, which is something expected. Came back to work, and in the second week in, I had some diarrhea, dizziness and nausea, so I decided to go to the infirmary at my work. The Nurse said that my so called chest flutters were likely esophageal spasms, and my stomach acting up was because the fammotide wasn’t strong enough. So he told me to take omeprazole 20 mg, twice daily, and gas-x for gas.

    Well folks, then my real hell started.


    A week and a half into taking omeprazole, I started feeling dizzy, worn out, without energy. I kept wondering why I was so tired if I had a good night sleep. Then on Friday August 31st 2012 I started getting a stomach crisis that lasted all weekend, in fact only when I went to see a movie on Saturday did the symptoms go away. On Monday I woke up at 4:00 am, with hunger pangs, and I couldn’t go back to sleep, so after rolling around the bed for like an hour, I stood up, when to the kitchen and made myself a quick snack, that was enough to help me go back to sleep. Then on Wednesday (I work on Monday and Wednesday, and Friday so it was usually the night before going to work) again woke up at 4:00 am, but hunger pangs, and chest discomfort, so I did what I did before, and had some milk, but, well this time, I got a full blown panic attack at 4:00 am, I have had it with it, so I went to the ER, even if it cost me a load of money I wanted to know what was wrong with my stomach or my heart. Funny enough, on Tuesday before Wednesday, I had seen my Doc at the time, she is a PA(Physician Assistant) who told me she was ok with the omeprazole, and after telling her about a few scary episodes I had, where after constantly checking my heart rate, I could feel my pulse once, which sent my heart racing afterwards. She told me, it was likely anxiety, and prescribed Buspar, and Celexa. Of course after reading the side effects of Celexa, and the major drug interaction between it, and omeprazole, I did not take it. She also said that if I didn’t have a pulse, I wouldn’t notice it, because I would be out cold before I could realize it. Well, back to the ER, they did the EKG, some blood work, two x-ray, everything came back good. My heart wasn’t strained (Dr’s exact words), and my liver and pancreas, etc.. were functioning beautiful. Well, after that, I started getting daily panic attacks, and I developed insomnia. I was waking up at 4:00 am with hunger pangs, if I didn’t eat something right before going to sleep, or if I wasn’t too tired from working that day.

    Then we had some visitors on Thrusday, and on Friday, after talking to two different family friends who are doctors, one a radiologist, the other an endocrinologist, they both recommended I stopped taking the omeprazole, as it seemed I had developed side effects. Back then, I was diagnosed at the ER with GERD. I also had shortness of breath, because one of the reasons I couldn’t go to sleep was because I felt like I couldn’t catch a good breath, or if I went to sleep I would stop breathing. Well after I stopped taking the omeprazole the fatigue lifted, I didn’t feel tired, in fact as early as the next day, but then on Monday I was back to having the symptoms. Back to the panic attacks, back to conscious breathing, I couldn’t sleep well, my worse case, was the Friday right before I had to go down to Miami to pick up my brother in law, I only sleep for 2 hours. Then I went to work, and I was told by a friend to go see the Nurse at the infirmary, well, went to see nurse to seek some reassurance, my stomach problems (which didn’t improve with omeprazole, if anything, got a whole lot worse) weren’t stomach cancer. He said, that I could have some dark and rare, but it was unlikely, he however said that if I was having hunger pains waking up, it was signs of an ulcer, and if I vomited coffee grounds, or had foul smelling black stool I should call 911. Of course, that was a powershot for my anxiety. I had already seen a counselor the day before, and she gave me some advice. Whole trip to Miami(6 hours) was me having panic attacks, and swearing I was having a heart attack, and was going to kick it at anytime. My fiancée’s friend was also with us in the car, which was very shameful to me. While in Miami, being next to my hypochondriac mother didn’t help, she was the one who told me to go to the ER in the first place, when I told her that I hadn’t gotten better, so I decided not to keep her up to date on the phone, as it seemed she couldn’t help but make things worse. My dad was more reassuring.

    I started taking Tamazapan (sic), and it help me sleep, but it make me drowsy, still, while coming back from Miami, had the worse panic attack ever, it lasted for six hours, it felt like I was about to pass out, my arms were tingling, my heart was racing, my esophagus felt like It had been blown to pieces, my stomach too, I was certain I was going to die. Well, got home, took the Tamazapan, went to sleep, woke up the next day, I was just crying, I was having suicidal thoughts, my life had never been so dark, I couldn’t take it. So I called an Anxiety hot line, and started looking for solutions. I only took Tamazapan for that week, I still had equally potent panic attacks during work that week, and finally learned about GAD during that week, and had some mild relief, from seeing how all of my symptoms matched those of GAD. That was my rock bottom when it came to Panic attacks. Then after that I started seeing a Psychologist, who does alternative medicine, and is an Acupuncturist, he told me to take Calm Spirit, of course initially I was talking a dose lower than what I was meant to, so I started freaking out, because it had no effect.

    All that time, I was still obsessing about the possibility of stomach cancer, and esophageal cancer, because I hadn’t gotten and endoscopy to rule it out. The Psychologist told me, I had nothing, but I of course wasn’t convinced. My heart issues came every now and then. But they actually got a lot better, the calm spirit helped reduce my heart rate, and completely diminished the anxiety attacks. I have been anxiety attack free for weeks now. Well still, now I was worried because my heart rate was too low, in the low 60s, high 50s at night, and I felt dizzy, of course, I felt dizzy before everyday. Since I had gotten insurance, I changed doctors, and went to see a new Doctor. He ordered a bunch of new tests, CBC, complete metabolic panel, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, H.Pylori, Candida Albicans, and referred me to a GI. The GI PA saw me, and schedule an endoscopy for November 5, the weekend before the endoscopy I my anxiety acted up a little bit, my heartburn was up too. Well, finally had the endoscopy, and my esophagus wasn’t even irritated, nothing, even if at times it felt like it was about to break in half. My stomach was a little irritated, but the GI said he felt that it wasn’t of clinical significance, and the it was unlikely to be causing the havoc, my duodenum was also AOK. So, months of fearing going to the bathroom because I had an ulcer for sure, which was about to bleed out, and the massive stomach cramps, and heartburn was nothing.

    Then my tests started coming back, CBC ok, Vitamin B12 ok, Candida negative, metabolic ok, Thyroid ok, Liver ok, Glucose ok, I tested positive for H.Pylori though, and my Vitamin D level was low 27 mg/dL, so doc told me to start taking 1000 IU a day. Doc wanted to put me on Aciphex, and triple antibiotics right away, but I told him I wanted to stay away from Aciphex, or any PPI, given that it was the Omeprazole what kicked started my crisis. He was ok with it, I also told him that I have been having random pains, joints, back, chest, some feel like needles are going through my veins in my hand. He tested for Magnesium, and the IBD Panel, also because I told him about my dizziness and brachycardia, he recommended I wore a Holter monitor for 48 hours. I wore the holter for a day, and it died, so I had to go back a replace it, but they managed to get 19 hours of recording, so I wore the other one for 25 hours, while wearing it, I had all sorts of symptoms, so if it was cardiac, it would show up. He went over them, and say that a had a few benign PAC and PVCs, but they were sore scattered that it was normal. He gave me the paperwork though, big mistake, I looked I saw there was a SV event lasting for 136 beats at 100 bpm, and on the previous day the same thing lasting for 27 beats at 88 bpm, so I thought I had atrial fibrillation. Again, freaking out about it, call my friend who is a radiologist, she told me AF was serious, so go get my PCP to look over it again, so when back, turns out, the holter read the 136 beats as a Supra ventricular tachycardia, because my heart rate had been 60 bpm, and it double in a second, so it took the 60 bpm as baseline, and the other thing as tachy. He laugh when I told him I thought it was AF, and then he showed me why it couldn’t have been AF, the intervals, and everything looked ok, I also had no ST incidents, and in over 48 hours worth of recording no arrhythmia or event. He said if I was too concerned about tachy, he could do beta blockers, but that since my heart rate dropped down to the 40s while I was sleeping, he didn’t think it was a good idea, plus my tachy usually lasted less than 15 minutes, and it was only during the early hours of the day, or when under stress. Incidentally every time where I swore I was having the symptoms of a heart attack or arrhythmia, i.e. chest pressure, chest pain, shortness of breath, my heart was beating AOK, so my symptoms didn’t event match the very few events i.e. PAC or PVCs that I had.

    Serum Magnesium levels checked out fine 2.0, normal is from 1.5 to 2.5. B12 is also ok, D is slightly deficient. I’m seeing the acupuncturist, who is kind of expensive $60/ per visit, and taking Calm Spirit, and doing a course of Phellostatin, I’ll be done with the Phellostatin this week, I stopped taking Heartburn Ease because the Phellostatin’s got Licorice. Taking a Multivitamin “Innate Response One Daily”, and taking some Probiotics from Enzymatic Therapies. My stomach symptoms have improved a lot, I still get the occasional heartburn, but the intensity has subsided a whole lot. Now the issue seems to be the pains, back pain, chest tightness, still get the shortness of breath, or rather the feeling of not being able to get a good breath, oddly enough, I’m no longer anxious, as in having a lot of energy, but I’m constantly fatigued, and still get dizzy.

    My sleeping has improved a whole lot, I still wake up some days in the middle of the night, but I drink some tea, and I’m able to go back to sleep, sometimes I don’t even need to drink tea, sometimes I don’t even wake up, and I’m able to sleep 7-8 hours straight. Now when I do wake up, and I’m up for a while(i.e. 20 minutes vs. hours before) is usually concerned about some pain that I’m having. I’m still frustrated because every day I still think that I am going to die, but I’m able to do a lot more than before. My Acupunturist says I’m doing a whole lot better, but I’m still fatigued and dizzy. Since my IBD panel came negative that means that Chron’s Disease or IBD is highly unlikely. Dr also laugh when I told him I thought I had MS because of the muscle spasms, and the pains.

    And that brings us to Today:

    My current obsessions revolve around getting an MRI of my head because of the headache and the fatigue, and also getting an abdominal ultrasound because of the pains I feel in my back, and in the upper portions of my abdomen. Doc feels like I shouldn’t go back in 2 or three months. I’m still trying to self diagnose myself, everyday I go from thinking I have a brain tumor, to pancreatic cancer, to some obscure disease, I even thought today it could be diabetes because I’m usually thirsty after eating, but since my glucose level have always checked out fine in the past few months, I was able to quickly ignore that. My lymph node is still there, is still about 1 cm, and every Doc that sees it tells me not to worry about it.

    So it is Health Anxiety? If so, why do I feel so worn out, so fatigued, even though all tests come back normal, I sometimes feel as if normal bodily sensations are interpreted by my brain as abnormal. I had back pain before, I didn’t give a damn about it, but now, if I get mid back pain, is either a kidney stone or failure(My Kidneys work perfect according to my multiple bloodworks), if I get chest tightness I start thinking what if is really my heart, if I get a headache, then brain tumor.
    Any advices, suggestions, inputs are very appreciated.
    Last edited by ashurrutia; 26-11-12 at 02:38.

  2. #2
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    Re: Is it Health Anxiety or what?

    Hi and to NMP

    Can I please ask that you add some paragraphs into that as it is very hard to read on the eyes.

    Then you may get more replies as for me it was too much to read. Sorry
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  3. #3
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    Re: Is it Health Anxiety or what?

    Awwwww I'm sorry you do not feel well, and I'm sorry about your Grandfather, that had to be hard on you. You have been bitten by health anxiety, I also suffer from HA and it stinks. (my biggest worry is my heart) and like you I have had many test, all coming back fine. (now I haven't had any test in a couple of months, so of course I think something has developed) or they missed something, and I should be tested again. you are lucky my friend, you are surrounded by Doctors, and can get much advise. (stay away from google, it only makes people like us feel worse) We are truly never satisfied with what doctors have to say, but we have to learn to trust them. Rest assure, you have had every test under the sun, and you are soooooooooo healthy. You will find many people on here that are just like you, and you will feel better knowing you are by far not alone. Read some post, you will feel so much better. Hope this helps. Debbi

  4. #4
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    Re: Is it Health Anxiety or what?

    Quote Originally Posted by panickyme View Post
    Awwwww I'm sorry you do not feel well, and I'm sorry about your Grandfather, that had to be hard on you. You have been bitten by health anxiety, I also suffer from HA and it stinks. (my biggest worry is my heart) and like you I have had many test, all coming back fine. (now I haven't had any test in a couple of months, so of course I think something has developed) or they missed something, and I should be tested again. you are lucky my friend, you are surrounded by Doctors, and can get much advise. (stay away from google, it only makes people like us feel worse) We are truly never satisfied with what doctors have to say, but we have to learn to trust them. Rest assure, you have had every test under the sun, and you are soooooooooo healthy. You will find many people on here that are just like you, and you will feel better knowing you are by far not alone. Read some post, you will feel so much better. Hope this helps. Debbi
    Well thank you very much. I too keep worrying about my heart, even though it checks out fine in every test. I guess it is because, a heart attack is one of the few things that can kill you instantly, so maybe that's why we worry about it so much. Hang in there.

  5. #5
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    Oct 2012
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    Re: Is it Health Anxiety or what?

    Well, welcome to NMP!

    I guess we are all on the same boat my friend, the HA cruise ride! Like debbie said, take a look around the forum, you'll find alot of similar experiences, so you'll notice that some of stuff you've been through is pretty normal for HA, everyone has it's own personal daily hells built on their minds and struggle to overcome them.

    There are some excellent articles here on the site with some great advice, you should read them a couple of times and let the information sink in. You'll find them on the stickys of this forum or on the health worries section. There is also some helpfull information on the anxiety section.

    I'm documenting my plight against HA/ anxiety on this forum and also seeking help from the experience of others. So far it's going well thanks to NMP and a lot of willpower, maybe it could be helpfull if you gave a read to a couple of my threads, I'm approaching my condition as a project and in the most factual way possible, separating sympthoms, possible causes, direct observation, impact of my daily events/routines, etc. so there might be some usefull pointers there.

    The bottom line is that 99% of HA is on your mind, the rest is your body's way of complaining about the ungodly ammount of stress it's under. The effects may vary from person to person, from condition to condition, but if we boil it down to the essential we all make the same mistakes, keep having the same dark thoughts and feeding the same fears!

    Hang in there and let us know what on your mind, we all can fight and win this

  6. #6
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    Re: Is it Health Anxiety or what?

    Quote Originally Posted by JackInTheBox View Post
    Well, welcome to NMP!

    I guess we are all on the same boat my friend, the HA cruise ride! Like debbie said, take a look around the forum, you'll find alot of similar experiences, so you'll notice that some of stuff you've been through is pretty normal for HA, everyone has it's own personal daily hells built on their minds and struggle to overcome them.

    There are some excellent articles here on the site with some great advice, you should read them a couple of times and let the information sink in. You'll find them on the stickys of this forum or on the health worries section. There is also some helpfull information on the anxiety section.

    I'm documenting my plight against HA/ anxiety on this forum and also seeking help from the experience of others. So far it's going well thanks to NMP and a lot of willpower, maybe it could be helpfull if you gave a read to a couple of my threads, I'm approaching my condition as a project and in the most factual way possible, separating sympthoms, possible causes, direct observation, impact of my daily events/routines, etc. so there might be some usefull pointers there.

    The bottom line is that 99% of HA is on your mind, the rest is your body's way of complaining about the ungodly ammount of stress it's under. The effects may vary from person to person, from condition to condition, but if we boil it down to the essential we all make the same mistakes, keep having the same dark thoughts and feeding the same fears!

    Hang in there and let us know what on your mind, we all can fight and win this
    Thanks,

    Yeah, I noticed a lot of us get the same symptoms, and usually the same non-catastrophic problems, which we make ourselves think is catastrophic.

    Just today I was working, and I had lunch around 2:30 pm, I had a little bit of anxiety(As in racing heart, because was worried about significant other) from 4:00 pm to 4:30 pm. But then by 5:00 pm I started feeling that weird feeling, it is as if I couldn’t catch a good breath, or as if I let my body continue with the breathing I’m going to pass out, of course since, I did let my body continue with the breathing, even if shallow, and I’m still here, it goes to show that it is yet another symptom of Health Anxiety. I kind of have been coming down with a cold lately, or at least that is how I feel, I have some nose secretions when I wake up in the morning, and my throat hurts from time to time. Now, but really bugs me, is the extreme fatigue I get, but then again, I used to be fatigued before, especially after I worked for 8 hours standing up, but I feel everything gets maximized with the anxiety. My fatigue feels like I’m about to pass out, my chest feels tight, but my heart rate is fine, thanks to the anxiety medicine though. I actually get shortness of breath when my stomach is empty, because it produces too much gas when empty. Anyhow, my only actual health problems are:

    Somewhat low Vitamin D levels, I started taking 1000 IU yesterday, so we’ll see. H.Pylori in my stomach, but no ulcers, and only mild gastritis, I got to take care of that suxer though. Well two different doctors told me that I got a lot of ear wax in my ears, I already did some four days worth of putting ear drops, but then got it checked out again, and it didn’t do much. So I guess that could explain the dizzy spells, and the off-balance feelings. Now in the two months that I have been having full on Health Anxiety, I have never fainted, I have never vomited, I have never had blood come out through either side of the body.

    Just to give you an idea of how bad hypersensitive feels to me, at night I was driving and I was able to visualize traffic signs from far away in the dark, only that at first they appear like people to me, or animals, only when I got close did I notice it was a traffic sign. Also my smell gets crazy, for example right now we are cooking fish, and I can barely stand the smell, it just too strong.

    So anyone here get the dizzy spells, the extreme fatigue, and shortness of breath combo? Any tip to deal with those symptoms, I had them almost daily for the past two months, and it ain’t my heart. Lungs are clear as I had x-ray less than a month ago.

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