Health Anxiety - Part two

[MrsWhites]

Hi everyone, it seems we have reached 1000 posts on our original thread which is amazing, just shows how much support we have been able to give each other.

I thought we would benefit from part two!

@tmh88

Yes like *@Skyliner001 & @MrsWhites* I had quite general anxiety and ocd before health anxiety! I could turn my straighteners off for example know 100% I did.. but have to go back to check anyway! I also worry about things I say to people and think hope that didn’t come across wrong etc!

Oh lordy yes. I insist on turning the gas off at the mains at night and if I'm going anywhere I need to check the door eleventy billion times. I think this all stems from when I was about 12 and left the door unlocked at home. Part of my job is potentially having to set the alarm at night. It will never happen because I would end up sleeping on the bloody porch. I am also obsessive about weeing. I can literally wee at will (unless of course I'm on a plane and there's a queue outside) and will go maybe 8-9 times before bed. When I had a UTI and the GP asked me how many times I was weeing, I answered 30-40 times a day and she was wtf? But that's normal for me unless there isn't a nice toilet nearby. In which case I can go 12 hours without. I may be out of control of my thoughts and body in many cases but I'm in charge of the urine output!

@Goolies

Hi ladies so I’ve been stressing about my heart, I’ve had on and off rib pain now I’m worried it could be my heart. I’m tempted to buy one of them home Ecg monitor things. Has anyone got experience with them? Is it a bad idea to buy it? Honestly have no idea if it’s my ribs heart breast it’s really stressing me out.

Could the rib pain be a strain? I didn't realize until I realized (if that makes any sense) how much poor posture and general moving after sitting still has an effect. I walked to school for a few months carrying books and suddenly had a rotten shoulder. All because of that. I sit funny at the PC I realise, with my wrist on the table edge....carpal tunnel now. I think heart issues feel more fluttery than stabby but am no expert.

@StepOutOfLine thank you. Honestly I have no idea if it could be a strain. I’m so tired of this. Exhausted. It’s been literally one thing after the other recently

It was me who asked about OCD so thank
you all for your thoughts and experiences

@Lib3rtine no idea! I do sleep more on the left and it’s the left where the pain is. So many awful thoughts go through my head wish I just what a bit of peace of mind

@TheSilentStars oh my gosh, I’m the same with weeing!! I go all the time it’s crazy and I have such a thing about going at night and making sure I’ve been a million times before I fall asleep!!

@Goolies it definitely could be that, I sleep mainly on my right and often wake up with aches in my armpit or rib where I’ve had all my weight on it. I know what you mean though, it’s like we can never accept an innocent explanation, we always have to pick the worst explanation however obscure it is x

@Goolies It sounds like a muscle strain to me too.

I think like @Lib3rtine days, there are so many symptoms for cancers that we literally connect any obscure pain/lumpy bit to It. I said to my husband a few weeks ago ‘what do you think when you get a bruise‘, he answered ‘that I must have knocked myself without noticing’ and I was like ‘oh that’s how normal people think’ because I would automatically think ‘it could be cancer’ 🙈

Thanks so much ladies honestly don’t know what id do without you. Yeah I think any normal person would look for the most obvious thing, I remember a friend of mine bled mid period and straight away without giving it a second thought casually said ‘yeah I’ve had a very stressful month it’s evident as I bled mid period’ if that was me omg .. very different story.

@Goolies could you have knocked yourself by accident doing something? Or even lifted something that could have knocked you. I wouldn't buy a monitor purely because I think it could cause someone with HA to become obsessive over it and it would cause you more worry which we don't want

I've been prodding and poking again. Early hours when I was awake I felt like now and again I was getting a sharp pain in my boob, but I also remember when I was panicking with my lymph node I would get random sharp pains in that too when I hadn't been touching it and I think it was purely down to me aggravating it. I'm just obsessing - I can feel the 'lump' when I raise my arm without digging for it whereas on the other side I have to dig to feel it - I wish I was obsessive over other things like cleaning the windows or organising socks or something!

@Goolies I went tk A&E with chest pains pre covid and the doctor cheerfully told me that you don’t get any pre warnings with your heart when you’re young. You just drop down dead (SADS)!

Strangely that was quite comforting.

Turned out like was reflux. But it could also be anxiety / muscle strain / sitting in a weird position

@MrsSmith2021 I love that! Sometimes that's what you need to hear.

Hey @dillydallydollydaydream7 I don’t think I’ve knocked it, I just worry what if it’s my heart packing up?! Or a breast thing, if it’s just rib cartilage that’s playing up I’m not overly bothered.

Sorry to hear you’ve been prodding too. I get sharp pains too, do you get them in both breasts? Where about do you feel them? I feel them in different places around the breast but mainly on the left.

I would give this up for being a neat freak any day! This is mentally exhausting. There’s no getting away from it.

@MrsSmith2021 thank you, that’s so comforting! As strange as it may sound!!

I do worry so so much. Look at my little boy and the thought of not being here for him... I’ve started therapy last week so really hoping that will help.

@Goolies I know exactly how you feel. You’re not alone x

Hello . Ladies can I come and join you . Where have you been all these years . So glad there are others that are like me ( I am not glad maybe relieved ) there are some days where I am so exhausted with my thinking .

I had a fright last year after an X-ray a mass was seen in my midsternum after CT - MRI along with abdomen and pelvis . It is a large cyst very unusual . I have had it drained many times and now waiting for another DR to try something else before surgery .
I was so bad in October unable to swallow - talk - staggered breathing I went to A&E where they kept me in a for a week - in A&E they took bloods then when I was transferred to ward . ENT as cyst is in neck going down into chest . The DRs in the ward whisked me off for more bloods another CT scan as pathology were concerned 😟. So upset 😭. Luckily everything was ok as the DR came to find me ..... I said I was really worried .
I saw the consultant in clinic after discharge and he said it is not cancer is benign . (Breathe)
I am now waiting for appointment to have the cyst drained and filled . The cyst is filing again ..... dreading that is get thy bad the. Will have to drag myself to A&E..... knowing that NHS is severely overwhelmed.

Just keep thinking that It will turn sinister or they will drain and fill it . Then they say we have found something else . Even though all investigation CT and MRI were clear .

Thanks ladies for reading this thread really is a life line .

I am teacher as well and working with vulnerable children thinking about Covid how will I breath if cyst is filling putting pressure on my wind pipe I am asthmatic as well .
Anxiety is through the roof .

Gosh doner I've no words for what is such a scary experience

I have slept 8hours
Sad thing is,as a raging insomniac since August 2019 with at best 4-6 hours a nightI'm now worried it's a bad thing...
I really wish anxiety had an off switch

@donerwillbehere welcome to the thread, that sounds incredibly scary!

I get sharp pains in my breasts too, mostly before period but some all month too. They are worst in my left breast which worries me sometimes.

I get a burning pain that I seem to feel in the far side of my left breast too but I think it’s heartburn that’s actually under my breast because it happens more in the morning and when I drink fizzy drinks (I think but in my most anxious moments I can’t seem to find that reasoning), sometimes I even feel it in my armpit or arm.

I think like @Goolies said, we don’t seem to be able to see the most obvious reason for a pain or symptom, we just jump to the worse case scenario 😢

@donerwillbehere welcome to the thread! How are you got through that with your sanity intact is amazing, that must've been incredibly incredibly scary!

I completely sympathise with the worry that if it's not the thing that you have discovered is benign that they will find something else! Probably everyone here have a similar type of anxiety like that. I'm so glad that your lamp was benign though, and I hope they can sort it out for good.

We are all in the same boat here, and it is a lovely supportive thread. You are very welcome X

I've spent a week on the lymph-node above my collarbone, which has been there for 12 years…

Yesterday I suddenly decided to move onto a small cyst on my right breast, which the doctor said was a small cyst. For some reason it made me anxious just before bed, and then I woke up five times in the night with a weird dream/real worry. It was really strange

However, this morning I have done a breast exam, and checked all of my pet lumps and I'm determined to have a good day after such a bad night. It's funny how it flows.

One thing I am really trying to get to the bottom of is how I cannot be worried at all about one thing, and then I can sort of move back onto it. It's like I have to worry about something.

Also, about burning, or stabbing pains, I get some stabbing pains at various times during the month, both under my breasts and in it, and also what seems to be in the ribs. I also get a burning light pain in the ribs underneath my breast, which seems to move from side-by-side. My left breast on the whole causes me more trouble, it's probably slightly bigger, and it's where the really big cyst was.

Welcome Donor. That sounds very scary.
I so agree @Skyliner001, I move round my body.
The only bit I no longer worry about is uterus, ovaries and cervix as I had them scanned in Nov. That said, I had a nightmare last night involving the gynaecologist (who is a private one, so did actually freak me out by sending my results via WhatsApp at 10.30 on a Monday night ) ringing me, again late at night to tell me to come in urgently.
Gah.

@Skyliner001 I do that too, if I stop worrying about one thing, my brain will search for something else, usually finding an old worry about a different body part and drag that out again. I have likened it to having a little bored gremlin in my brain who constantly needs something to do! It’s like being on a hamster wheel and never being able to get off!

@MrsWhites Tgsts so true, good Analogy! 😂

@MrsWhites @Skyliner001 I’m with you guys with the burning stabling pain, sometimes during ovulation, sometimes before period and sometimes just, random times! And yes I also can feel it in the ribs and under the arms sometimes!!! It drives me crazy. After worrying about my heart all day yesterday and ruining a walk we went in because I was in a daze, I managed to switch off somewhat in the evening.

Binge watched mad men and that distracted me. Woke up this morning and started prodding around like a maniac have made my left boob very sore again!!! Thought I felt something through my t shirt, felt again and think it’s my rib! Felt again and can’t find it! Drive myself nuts.

Now too sore to prod! :/