Hi everyone,

I have had a long history of health anxiety for the last 12 years. I am 28 years old.

Recently I have been having some right upper abdominal pain and then migrated to right lower pain. The pain is very subtle, almost just feels like fullness and pressure. I had a MRI Enterography two days ago because my doctor wanted to rule out Crohn's disease. Yesterday my doctor's office called me and wanted to see me today for a consultation.

So today I saw him. He firstly told me that my intestines and colon seemed ok. Then he told me that the image however showed that I have a artery clogged of which supplies blood to the intestine and other organs. The condition is called celiac artery dissection. Upon research, it is apparently an exceedingly rare disease. He made an urgent referral for me to have a CTA scan tomorrow and to meet a vascular surgeon.

I asked him if this is life threatening, he said not at the moment but he wants to investigate and take care of this as soon as possible.

I am sitting at home right now petrified if there could be other complications as I read that isolated celiac artery dissection is rare and it is usually accompanied by other vascular abnormalities. Vascular abnormalities can be debilitating or even fatal. I am only 28 years old and now I am in this cycle of thinking how long I have to live and how I have to go through many possible interventions in the future and all the treatments that could have negative effects on my body.

How do I mentally prepare? How do I comfort myself that I'm not going to drop dead? Can I still have a normal life without always fearing?