Fella on way to hospital

[Otter13]

Hallo folks. I know I don't come here much but I would appreciate your thoughts.

My fella and I both have anxiety issues but his are 10 time worse than mine. We have been together over 10 years but we don't live together as he feels safer at his parents.

This time last year he hurt his foot and has been having all sorts of odd symptoms since. Having been checked out by neuro it seems likely he has CRPS (chronic regional pain syndrome) which is all sorts of weird.

A lot of the symptoms could also be because of extreme anxiety and no specialist so far has been able to give him a diagnosis, definitive answer, or any kind of helpful treatment.

Anyway, he came to visit this weekend and had just got home when he started having chest pains and he passed out. He is now on the way to hospital but the ambulance folk say his ECG is totally fine.
So I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this sort of thing. Everyone seems so confused by the whole thing. I'm a bit of a control freak and the total randomness of this is triggering all my problems. I can only imagine what he is feeling like right now.

I don't really have a specific question. more like 'arg! what are we supposed to do to make this less arg?'

Thanks for any advice, pointers, or, well anything really.

[Otter13]

Well, he had ekg, blood tests and constant blood pressure monitoring over night and they have discharged him finding nothing major wrong. The not knowing what this thing is is freaking us both out big time.

[CA88]

I'd suggest it was probably anxiety related. Possibly a big panic attack, which causes you to pass out due to either hyperventilation or just due to brain 'overload'

[Gregor]

I'd agree with the above. It does sound anxiety-related. Without knowing any details it's difficult to say - like, how long was he out for?

I once went to hospital in an ambulance because i came over all dizzy. They gave me an ECG, which came back fine. This was before i knew what panic attacks were.

[Otter13]

Thanks for the reply folks.

Gregor, he said he was only out 'briefly'. He's had generalised anxiety disorder since he was really young but this thing really shook him.

Brain overload is right CA88! We are both reeling from this crazy disease.

Have done some more reading and signed up to a CRPS forum. It looks like the CRPS can actually make you anxious as it messes about with the sympathetic nervous system. He already had really bad anxiety before he got this so it could be this was a massive panic attack out of the blue. CRPS can also affect the heart so he is going to ask his doc for a referral to a cardiovascular person just to be sure. The craziest thing is, hardly anyone has ever heard of this illness yet it's utterly horrendous. It has taken away most of the things he used to do to help him feel better from his anxiety problems.

Does anyone have any useful links or tips for how to cope with such major panic attacks?

Does anyone have any tips for me as I'm not in a brilliant way myself. I'm fairly new to the anxiety thing as I used to be drunk 24/7. I gave up drinking a couple of years ago and since then every little thing has felt razor sharp and terrifying. I can feel my old coping strategies calling. I'm trying to use my DBT skills but it's pretty difficult to keep my head sane while watching the man I love have his whole world torn apart.

Thanks again for replying. I'm all at sea here.

Edit- I've just talk to him. He had another episode this evening. Says he could barely move and was shaking all over, like a seizure. Could this still be a panic attack?

[CA88]

Very much so. Most likely due to hyperventilation which causes weakness, shaking and spasms in the hands and feet at extremes. But always best he gets it all checked out before just dismissing things as anxiety

[Otter13]

I figure I should post an update. The fellas doctors all think he has started having massive panic attacks out of the blue. It's all very odd but at least his heart is fine.
he has been referred to a CPN and might get some DBT.

Has anyone here done DBT for panic? Does it help? How do you cope with the anxiety over going to therapy?

My anxiety is through the roof. I'm house hunting and it's doing my head in. I'm wondering if me being stressed has made his anxiety ramp up a bit. Now I'm stressed about keeping us both sane and calm haha.

Anyhoo, thanks for the replies guys. Calm vibes all round. :-)