Health Anxiety or Unruptured Brain Aneurysm?

[amrodri2]

It all started about a month ago. My brother in law had a stroke with a major brain bleed. This happened on a Sunday. That next Wednesday, while we were fixing to leave the hospital I felt a pop and then felt really warm and super dizzy. That's when all the symptoms started.

From that day and for the next 5 weeks I had so many horrible physical symptoms. Nausea that caused me to lose 15 pounds for fear of food making things worse. Headaches. Dizziness/lightheadness that make me feel like I was going to fall over. Changes in vision in my left eye, blurriness. And the most worrisome being my entire left side feeling weak/numb (from my face to my toes). The weirdest thing is I could feel myself when I touched my skin. A good nights sleep was non-existent. I also started getting the most horrible panic attacks, two to three per week. For a while I thought it was brain cancer (dr. Google) but they did a CT and ruled that out.

I went to the ER idk how many times thinking I was dying. Blood test came back normal, x-ray of chest and lungs came back normal, cardiac work-up normal, CT normal, EKG normal. From the 3-4 trips they diagnosed me with anxiety and depression and wrote me prescriptions for medication. They refused to do an MRI of my brain as it "wasn't emergent". They told me to get it done through my primary care.

Since they said it wasn't brain cancer I went back to googling what could be causing the symptoms if it wasn't a tumor in my head and all I could find was an unruptured brain aneurysm. Every story that I read from survivors seemed to be taking to me.

I've been getting the worse headaches. Headaches like I've never had in the past and they scare me. They are very localized and intense. They don't quite fit the profile for cluster headaches which makes me freak out even more.

I know people say aneurysms have no symptoms, but there are so many posts I found saying if you have certain symptoms to see your doctor. I have had all of them, including what I believe to be sentinel headaches this past week.

My anxiety has calmed down a bit and i'm not getting all the physical symptoms as much anymore but now I'm just walking around waiting for the worst headache of my life. I'm so scared to be in a room by myself for fear that it's going to rupture and there will be no one there to help me and I'll die.

They scheduled me with a cardiologist just to be on the safe side. I also have an MRA scheduled for next week but I'm so scared I won't make it til then and it'll be too late.

Any one have a similar experience and end up ok? Help, I'm kinda freaking out.

[Fishmanpa]

I see you're new so welcome. There's a LOT of good information here and by searching, you'll find many similar stories to yours.

Sounds like you had a traumatic experience with your brother-in-law and that, combined with what sounds like a panic attack induced by a now determined benign physical symptom has led you to this point and here.

From your post, it appears you've just started meds. They sometimes take a bit to kick in and get used to. Have you spoken to your GP about counseling?

Positive thoughts

[amrodri2]

The meds they gave me just made me drowsy, no reduction in any of the other physical symptoms. I stopped taking them as they just made me feel tired on top of everything else :( Primary doctor okayed me stopping since the diagnosis/prescriptions were through the ER.

Still haven't ruled out everything, waiting on a few dr's appointments next week with my primary for results of MRA and follow-up with cardiologist, but hopefully everything comes out ok.

My doctor said that if all tests come back ok then she would treat me for anxiety by starting with speaking to someone as to not start on meds right away if they aren't 100% necessary.

[Halle0587]

I sort of went down this road after my father in-law had a heart attack, which lead to a PE and after my mom was diagnosed with melanoma. I instantly thought if they had it so did I. I had all the symptoms after each happened to them. After spending quite a bit of time at the doctors and tests ran, my heart is healthy, my labs were fantastic-they even complimented how good my labs were, my soreness in areas where I thought I had melanoma masses went away, EVERYTHING was triggered by my intense fear of having what they had. I started having physical anxiety symptoms years after having GAD. After my mom was diagnosed in 2015 was the first time. Left sided numbness-in my face especially, tingling, nausea, sweating, lack of sleep, and headaches from the back of my neck to my temples-THROBBING. It was all brought on by anxiety. So I started seeing a counselor in February and I have gone weekly since. We work on tapping through EFT and we do a lot of relaxation techniques. I use the Calm app, which is terrific it has music and meditation, even stories that can help you relax. Give it a try. Prayers for a clear MRA.

[amrodri2]

Thank you so much for sharing your story! I really am praying that all of this is just an effect of seeing what has happened with him. If it is just health anxiety it's crazy to think about how it makes everything feel so real..

[Meriland30]

Been there, done that friend! Last year I had horrible, continuous headaches for about 3 weeks. Every day, off and on. Sometimes they crept up, sometimes it just hit like a ton of bricks. I studied just about every nook and cranny in regards to aneurysms. My headaches ended up being a result of overly stressed, specific muscles in my neck (due to tension from anxiety) shooting pains in the back of my head, they were called carcinogenic headaches.. and they hurt, back...pin point exactly where it hurts kinda bad. Most people with a aneurysm do not experience sentinel bleeds, they are extremely rare. All of your symptoms are exclusively due to intense rushes of adrenaline , especially the nausea, odd sensations, and subsequent weight loss. The brain is very powerful and if you believe something hard enough, your body will follow it...guaranteed. If you think your foot hurts, your foot will hurt. If you believe you have stomach cancer, you suddenly cant eat and it hurts. It is only when you truly believe you are okay that you realize all those symptoms miraculously dissipated. It is really weird.

[amrodri2]

Had my MRA yesterday, waiting on results tomorrow. I was told the permanent metal dental retainer that I have would affect the clarity of the images so now I'm freaking out that they are sure to miss something..

[Librella]

I'm sorry about what happened and I hope your brother in law is doing okay!

I had a similar experience after my dad was diagnosed with cancer. I swore I felt a lump on my throat where my dad had cancer and I felt all these symptoms. I went to the doctor and they told me they didn't see anything. After a few weeks my HA just moved on to something else. I've also experienced chronic headaches with no apparent cause. (I want to google sentinel headaches now but I won't...)

I hope everything comes back negative, and that you can give up on this. Massage helps with headaches and I like the Calm app Halle mentioned too.