Trying Statistics

[CoraB]

So, as many of you know I've been getting a lot of pain and aching in my arms and legs as well as my neck and shoulders. Pretty much all over.

My main worry is MS but now thanks to google I am also worried about bone cancer, brain tumour and ALS.

I've decided to take a new approach to googling as I can't seem to stop wanting to find out if i definitely have these things. I just really struggle with uncertainty - its ok for a dr to say "come again in two weeks if nothing has changed" but when you are struggling through each hour, each day its a tough ask.

So, i'm now looking up probabilities of getting these diseases in my age group (I am 30) instead of symptoms. And this is what I have found:

Bone Cancer
- accounts for less than 1% of all cancers diagnosed
- I am not in an at risk group for ANY type of bone cancer
Reference: http://www.cancer.gov/types/bone/bone-fact-sheet#q4

MS
- the normal risk for someone with no relatives is way less than 1%
- however if you have a close relative this rises to 2.5% - still pretty low and this is where I fall
- I have also never smoked which is also a risk factor both my relatives with MS shared
- unfortunately I am female and in the right age group for diagnosis which puts me at more risk - but still only within the 2.5% range
Ref: http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20862965,00.html

Does anyone else find this reassuring? I did. What are the stats for your most feared diseases?

[daisyflower]

That is reassuring, thanks for the post. My worry is cancer, I never ever worry about things like ms. My sister In law has that and lives a completely normal life. Btw, her symptoms when she was diagnosed were certainly not aches and pains, her legs went temporarily completely numb so she couldn't walk and she went temporarily blind. Hope that reassures you instead of worrying you X

[Randara]

What a great post!! So today I was having a blip and worrying about Hodgkin's lymphoma.

There are on average 96 females ages 20-24 diagnosed with it in Britain each year. Doesn't sound so bad when you think that there are around 2 million women in this age bracket in this country!

Hoping I worked the stats out right!

[CoraB]

What a great post!! So today I was having a blip and worrying about Hodgkin's lymphoma.

There are on average 96 females ages 20-24 diagnosed with it in Britain each year. Doesn't sound so bad when you think that there are around 2 million women in this age bracket in this country!

Hoping I worked the stats out right!

That makes your chances a really really tiny, barely worth measuring 0.0048% - way way way less than 1%!

So, if my maths is correct (and my mind is a bit sludgy at the moment with worrying) that would mean if you lined up 40,000 people only 2 of them would get it. That's like more chance of being selected for the hunger games!

Yay for you :-)

---------- Post added at 14:23 ---------- Previous post was at 14:21 ----------

That is reassuring, thanks for the post. My worry is cancer, I never ever worry about things like ms. My sister In law has that and lives a completely normal life. Btw, her symptoms when she was diagnosed were certainly not aches and pains, her legs went temporarily completely numb so she couldn't walk and she went temporarily blind. Hope that reassures you instead of worrying you X

Thanks diasyflower that does reassure me :-)