Health- To ask you to share a time you've been sure there's something seriously wrong, and there wasn't?

[heliocentric]

Sorry to hijack AIBU, I'm in absolutely panic central.

Please please tell me about a time you've been waiting for assessment or tests results and you've been so sure it's something horrendous, but it's been ok.

I am so far down the rabbit hole in my head of it being bad. Struggling to function.

DOI have health anxiety, on treatment and recently started therapy but seen no benefits yet.

Red, hot and sore boob - was in absolute agony and terrified. Managed to get a next day appointment at the GP but spoke to woman opposite about it. She told me to put cabbage in my bra and handed over a few leaves. She's a bit 'woo' but thought there was nothing to lose, cabbage can't kill me so stuffed it all in. Woke up next day, boob was absolutely fine. Went to GP anyway - it was just mastitis and I felt like a proper silly sausage! Honestly, I'd convinced myself this was IT and it was all sorted out with cabbage!

@heliocentric

Sorry to hijack AIBU, I'm in absolutely panic central.

Please please tell me about a time you've been waiting for assessment or tests results and you've been so sure it's something horrendous, but it's been ok.

I am so far down the rabbit hole in my head of it being bad. Struggling to function.

DOI have health anxiety, on treatment and recently started therapy but seen no benefits yet.

An important part of your therapy will be to stop reassurance-seeking (which is what this thread is).

@rmummyofone
I hope it all goes well and you get the all clear

I’m so grateful to you for starting this thread op and to all the posters on here, all of you have resonated with me. I have died a thousand deaths from my consultations with dr Google (I’ve fired them now and never contact them again forever). It’s amazing how strong the symptoms can present themselves, like text book to fit the terrible illness you believe you have, the mind is a powerful thing.

I’ve had many invasive procedures done to rule out the conditions I thought I had and all turned out fine. I worry about the amount of happiness I’ve sacrificed with all the worrying. I think health anxiety isn’t really spoken about enough, it really is all consuming and I find it helps to talk, even laugh about it with people who understand. Wish you well op.

Cough that lasted for three months got referred for a chest X-ray after three lots of antibiotics didn't work. Was convinced I had lung cancer. As a single parent with two young boys I quickly put my affairs in order. Result came back as consolidated lobe in lung which further fuelled my fear. Dr said try different antibiotics if doesn't work will refer for biopsy. Thought I was as good as a goner. Antibiotics worked... I had walking pneumonia.

Not me but my mother.

Called an ambulance for a suspected heart attack. Turned out to be trapped wind.

At another time, while in hospital for a diagnosed illness, called the doctor to her bedside for extreme abdominal pain. Turned out her bladder was full and she should get up and pee, which resolved the problem.

I once realised that I had diagnosed myself with at least one major illness for almost every letter of the alphabet!

However, the one that scared me for longest, was when I thought I had MS. Numbness, tingling, weakness, twitching muscles, poor balance...the list went on. I eventually plucked up the courage to see my GP, who diagnosed...hypothyroidism. I've been on one tablet of thyroxine a day for years now. All my "MS" symptoms disappeared very quickly once I started medication and I quickly recovered.

I was driving down the motorway feeling perfectly fine when suddenly I lost all use of my right arm - it just fell off the steering wheel and lay in my lap like it belonged to someone else. I then suddenly started feeling awful. I was certain I was having a stroke so I veered off up a slipway I happened to be passing and parked on the grass verge at the top and called a taxi to take me straight to hospital, whilst filming myself reciting poetry etc to see if I was getting words wrong/my face was slipping.

It was a migraine.
I had lots of tests and got banned from driving for several months but it never recurred. The use of my arm came back fully a couple of hours later.

An interesting thing about Dr Google, and why he's such a shit doctor--

Google (search) prioritises things that it thinks you might find interesting. It does this, in part, by looking at your search history -- both on the device you're using and your ISP log.

So if you have previously had a habit of searching for health things and clicking on the frightening stuff, Google will prioritise that kind of stuff next time you search.

So if you're like me, and have in the past wondered why Google was forever presenting links to dreadful illnesses and thinking it must mean they're more likely -- no. It's just Google trying to be useful and upranking things like things you've clicked on before.

It's the internet equivalent of a GP going, 'well, you came in last time with a sore foot, so that headache you've got must also be a sore foot'.

That's interesting @AwaitingSueGraysInvestigation, thanks for sharing.

I'm just absolutely done with being me right now, symptoms of 1 of my cancers are settling but I'm just replacing them with another :( it's bloody endless.