To ask if this is an emergency?

[Soitis83]

Posting here mainly for traffic.

The last week or so I've felt terrible. Finally took an iron tablet and felt so much better.
Problem is that better didn't last very long so I took another one..then another and then another. All together 80mg, one packet is mixed with other things and one is just 20mg.
I've convinced myself I'm going to die. Please someone reassure me I'm going to be okay

She did say she needed to speak to a colleague and put me on hold so I suspect that's what she did. She didn't offer she just said she would send an ambulance and did ask me to confirm my address. But as she said she was sending one I panicked and assumed it was necessary.

Interesting! Could it hit 8 months later though? As I've been absolutely fine up until very recently.
Glad you're feeling much better, what a relief for you x

It does seem bizarre they sent an ambulance for such a small amount?

I remember when I broke my hip and shoulder I had to lie on the floor for fourteen hours waiting for one. My mum had a volvulus but because she was breathing they only sent one when a medic visited the house six hours after she called, it still took 4 hours to arrive!

I hope you're feeling better. Please don't take more that the recommend dose of any medicine.
Iron and multivitamins would not really have any noticeable clinical affect on you, it's not like they make you high etc.

If you got dangerously unwell and couldn't get an ambulance to come then you'd really have something to panic about.

I am sorry you are struggling OP and so sorry for your losses.

I definitely think see GP for some advice on symptoms but also, I think you need to review a bit what happened here. Just so you can proceed carefully around any medications. Most take time to act, some take months to help. Feeling better could have been anything from placebo to coincidence, so it’s important to understand how and when any medication you take might start to relieve symptoms. Also really get to grips with dose schedules, it really isn’t helpful or even safe to just take more of things because they seem to be or even are helping. I know it’s hard, and I hope you get some insight and support from your GP.

Thank goodness you posted this instead of wasting time reading OP's replies - goodness knows where we'd be otherwise.. 🙄

I'm glad you cancelled the ambulance op I had a heart attack 9 weeks ago and there were non available to take me I was very poorly I can't believe 111 sent one if I'm honest, gently I think it would be worth booking a gp to discuss your overall health anxiety to avoid the situation tonight x

I have health anxiety and once panicked after taking too much magnesium in a day. I even made myself throw up a bit (first time I've done that) so I understand the wave of panic when you realise. I blame google that tells you everything is deadly and makes you scared if you go slightly over the RDA. The other stuff could be PMS and/or anxiety related. Apparently heartrate can go up a lot during the time just before a period and palpitations are common also. I find this page super helpful every time I get an unusual symptom (quite often these days!), it lists all anxiety symptoms and dizziness is one- https://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety-guide/symptoms

Sorry you've had a hard time on here, 111 is there to give advice, it's not your fault they sent an ambulance.

The only reason they would have sent an ambulance for that is because they assumed you were in psychosis to be calling about an overdose from taking too many iron supplements 🤨

You need to get on top of your iron as if it is low you will get palpitations and dizziness and feel out of it. Also anxiety goes up because these are the symptoms you get when you feel anxious, and you also feel crap but don’t know why which is anxiety inducing. You need to ask for your ferritin to be checked too because you can have low iron stores but not be anaemic. There is little understanding of this in the medical community and they’ll often check your hb but not do ferritin and if the hb comes back fine they’ll say you have no iron problems even though you have low iron stores which can also make you feel horrible (and eventually leads to anaemia). You really need your ferritin to be at 70 to feel good preferably 100.

if you don’t have low iron it’s likely just sleep deprivation and anxiety - like others have said, anxiety is as real as a physical illness so don’t be ashamed. It’s horrible and spiralling is just terrible. The poster who said their doctor told them to think of it like diabetes how you can have it well managed the majority of the time but still have times when it’s not is a great way of thinking about it.

people are dismissive if they haven’t experienced it but we all underestimate things until we have experienced them ourselves. Think of people who have never had a migraine and think it’s just a bad headache, until they have one and suddenly they’re telling everyone how hideous migraines are. So I like to try to remember people who are critical and mock are just ignorant of the situation.

Thanks for this information, my ferritin is 35 which they said is normal but I do experience some anaemia symptoms.

You can refuse an ambulance.

I have done this when asking for advice and took my DH in because there is no way an ambulance could have got to our house.

You do not have to accept it and they will not send it.

You are having the placebo effect if you think it helped straight away. It's not in a form that can work straight away.

It will be the placebo effect I imagine.

Low iron is very common in pregnancy, doesn’t necessarily mean you will still have low iron now that you are no longer pregnant (I assume). Definitely worth getting checked by the GP.

I just took a spoon of the Feraglobin iron liquid, OP has the tablet version and the marketing on the box is quite clever and if you were susceptible it would make you think that if you take it you will feel well immediately. The liquid is even more marketed as it has a picture of a happy well family on the box.

111 are an absolute joke, don't bother ringing them unless you want to be told to go to A&E (or worse - have an ambulance sent) for the smallest of things. They really need to sort it out as lives are put at risk by this nonsense.

This.

And stay away from Google if you don't know the difference between 60mg and 60mg/kg.

I was blunt about the iron tablet but I really do sympathise with PND/PNA. Mine peaked around the 8 month mark too. If I were you, I'd speak to your GP/health visitor for support on this. I'd also get your bloods done as well

You’ve said you’re vegan. You need your vit b12 checked for sure.

It wouldn't work like that with Iron tablets. You need to be taking them for a prolonged period to notice any improvements.

Ask about an iron infusion

But you knew you overdosed? Bonkers

You’ll be fine. You may have gastro symptoms but you’ll be fine. I’ve had people in the past on 4 tabs a day regularly. I take 2 a day myself.

However iron doesn’t work that quickly, so your relief is psychosomatic.

OP my love you may well have a deficiency of some sort and absolutely get it checked out but YES anxiety can make you feel sick, dizzy, sore, exhausted...all of that. I get horrendous anxiety flare ups every few years and I always get my vitamins checked, my thyroid.. each time thinking surely it's impossible to feel this physically unwell with"just" anxiety, but it turns out that's what it is. Google "derealization".if you're feeling intensely "out of it" the whole time, this is what I experience and the first few times I honestly thought I was dying. As I said, by all means get checked but if everything is normal trying to accept "yes this is horribly uncomfortable and frightening but I am safe and I am well" will make your symptoms calm down a lot faster.

But you knew you overdosed? Bonkers

This is the part I can't quite get my head around. Someone with such anxiety just taking more tablets, knowing it was too many.

Then you clearly haven't read the whole thread

I hope you've managed to sleep and are feeling better this morning OP.

I've struggled with health anxiety a lot at times, especially in my 20s and early 30s, so I really empathise. It's truly horrible to feel so panicked. Mine definitely peaked again when my son was little, and I can feel it again now my parents are elderly and unwell.

This probably isn't of help right now when your feelings are so intense, but I wanted to share a few things that have helped me to feel much better for the last decade or so.

CBT helped me a lot, as did an amazing mindfulness course (before it was trendy!). If you look up John Kabbat Zinn online, he has some things you can listen to and do at home which I found v helpful.

I've learned that keeping my blood sugar as stable as possible helps me to feel less anxious. It's really difficult, especially when you're exhausted and feeling under the weather and reaching for sugary food is all you want to do. But I know if I have a day when I eat erratically and my blood sugar yo yos around, that I'll feel panicky by the end of it.

I was in a pattern where if I felt any slightly odd physical sensation, I'd freak out about it, which would make lots of other anxiety symptoms start, and I'd start to feel I was dying of something and need medical reassurance. So a moment of dizziness for example, could send me into a spiral for weeks - and once I was worried about it, the symptom would stay, even through it was nothing really. I've very slowly learned to accept that my brain is just oversensitive to fairly normal sensations, and I can usually let them come and go.

The vitamin levels are definitely worth checking, as a B12 deficiency recently made me feel under the weather. And again, once there's something like that, until I know what it is it's easy to start catastrophising again.

I hope there might be a helpful thought somewhere in there OP. And good luck speaking to your GP tomorrow. Sending lots of supportive thoughts your way.