Health Anxiety - part three!!

[MrsWhites]

Hi ladies, back again for thread number 3!

Ofwaren

I am Duloxetine 30mg.
Dr has booked an appointment in 4 weeks time .

Thank you for . This is torture just on red alert constantly.

I just keep going over and over all is fine Dr said all is fine ......

Ladies you are so wonderful xx

@Soon2BeMrs welcome! As someone who had tumours in their chest, I can definitely tell you that they show up on x-ray.

@MrsWhites thank you so much! I think it's one of those things where the online information is quite misleading really, and it tends to spawn from just a couple of sources. I'm sure some lumps to come and go, but the definition of come and go it's probably not disappear completely! It makes sense in my head when I'm logical, when I had my giant breast cyst there was no way that was going anywhere.

@tmh88 so I managed to have a bath, and use the soap without the sponge and I was actually doing really okay! Then I decided to dig about for underarm lymph-node's, nothing to report there, but concerned that the breast tissue feels slightly lumpier under the left arm… Honestly.

Ladies, I am so glad you're here, you are my people💚

Re boob lumps and ridges being there all the time; that's totally normal. They're made up of lobes of milk producing tissue connected by ducts as well as fat, which can be lumpy too. As our hormones change up and down the tissue develops and regresses. This is why the Doc recommends only checking once per cycle at the same time. The tissue especially develops during pregnancy and never fully regresses back to prepregnancy levels so you may find they get lumpier as you age/after babies. I know this because I work in a womens health related field and while it doesn't stop me checking constantly it does reassure me a tiny bit.

Obviously anything that's new or feels off should be checked out, but I don't have to tell you lot that! 😜

I'm feeling a lot better this evening. Have really focused on distraction and relaxing activities today. Can still feel a bit of chest tightness but I think the fact that it gets worse when I worry and better when I don't suggests its not lung cancer or heart problems! Going to have a relaxing bath now, followed by trash TV and hopefully am early night.

I am now getting extopic heartbeats but that always happens when I have been anxious so I am managing to ignore that. I assume it is something to do with a build up of adrenaline. Had a 24hr ecg a couple of years ago and thought I was having so many episodes of racing heart and ectopics that day but they said it was normal. Again, once I got the results they practically disappeared! So I'm now pretty good at ignoring them (famous last words).

@KasparKat glad you are feeling a bit better. I've calmed down a bit now but still checking heart rate with my fit bit. I think for me lockdown has made my HA worse, I don't ever remember it being this bad.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my previous post I've managed to calm down a bit now x

Yes my HA had been manageable for over a year and actually I was fine in the first lockdown. Then found a breast lump in August and ever since then it has been one thing after the other. I think the winter weather and general air of gloom and groundhog day doesn't help. There are no fun things to look forward to or the usual distractions of racing around taking DC to their activities. Just all stuck at home all day working.

I am avoiding any kind of health related technology as I'm sure if I had something like a fitbit I would overanalyse my heartbeat and end up worrying about something! Or obsess about the hours of sleep I got every night.

The pain in my chest has moved up a bit to the base of my throat so not sure if that is also anxiety related or maybe I am actually coming down with something? But haven't been anywhere to catch anything!

@Skyliner001 my right armpit is lumpier than my left! But they’re both relatively lumpy! I also once thought I had a tumour were the breast and armpit meets but one side is actually just rounder fat..

@kasperkat so glad you’re feeling better xx I think it’s a good call staying away from gadgets, I drive myself crazy with the ones I have!!

A big welcome to the newbies here, so glad you have found your way to this place and I hope it helps you all as much as it does me x

@tmh88 Thank you so much 💚

I am definitely going to try the "egging it on" method for feeling faint next time I am light headed/dizzy. Usually I talk to myself like I would a child "everything's going to be ok, you're not going to faint" but I don't believe myself 🙄 oh lord I know I sound deranged. I've never considered egging it on before as a method of making it stop, will give it a go, hopefully not any time soon I'll need it though 🤞

Great to see lots of others have found the thread like I did yesterday, I can't remember all the names - hi everyone!

Ofwarren I am sorry you've ended up on the floor today to gain some control, I find dizziness a trigger for me as well, I have no idea why as I've not passed out since I was a child but I have this fear that upon passing out I will wake up in hospital being given terrible health news, my anxiety baffles me.

I feel a bit better today compared to yesterday but still not great tbh. I've been so emotional this week and cried about 40 f'ing times.

Here's a mantra I've been using during meditation which has been really peaceful thought you all might like to give it a try - As I surrender to the uncertainty, I am in control, I am safe and I am guided.

@Skyliner001 your welcome! Baths are like the pit of evil really aren’t they! Sometimes dp runs me one with candles and bubbles and tell me to relax? Me.. to relax in the bath.... never going to happen

Does anyone get pain in their upper abdomen? Between where their ribs meet my entire stomach is quite lumpy feeling but I put it down to scar tissue and my stomach muscles coming apart when pregnant! However this morning when I stretch to sort of make my shoulder blades meet I’m getting a shooting pain in my upper stomach between my ribs and it’s freaking me out! About 3 inches above my belly button

Yes I get shooting pains in my abdomen sometimes. On the whole my abdomen is less troublesome than other areas, I had really bad lower abdomen pain late last week, which really freaked me out. It seems to have gone now.

Can anyone else not trust themselves to do a quick check? I just decided to do a quick check, and then stuck in a loop which is just ended after about half an hour. It's so frustrating I just keep revolving round, And going back to the beginning.

Also, does anyone else find that even when they discover that the worst is not there, that they can't help going back repeatedly to check that they haven't made a mistake. Not so much is there a lump? But more does that feel like normal breast issue, yes it does, then back again to check et cetera et cetera

I'm getting little twinging pain is sort of in between where the ribs join at the top, just under the cleavage. I get those all the time I don't know what they are.

Morning everyone 😊

Yes I repeatedly check in case I think I missed something or check to see it was definitely the same lump I was feeling @Skyliner001

I’m worrying because I don’t actually get what I’m feeling when I try see how far apart my stomach is I watch the YouTube videos but I struggle to know what’s what in my stomach!

I get that, through this last period of health anxiety I've tried to learn a little bit more about where things are. In my head the inside of me is just one big splurge. If it wasn't so stressful it would be interesting to learn more about anatomy. I have to say I've never known as much about either my breasts or my vagina…👀👀😳😳

Good morning everyone

Well I calmed down a bit last night after having a panic attack, it was awful. But I've woke up this morning and started Googling again. I'm currently waiting for a heart scan and the wait is horrible, I can't imagine what I'll be like having the scan and then waiting for results 😥

@Skyliner001 yes I’ve just been looking at stomach diagrams and now convinced myself I have either a hernia or gallbladder issues hope my therapy starts helping properly soon! Best way I can describe the pain is the exact same as a stitch

@Soon2BeMrs hope your doing ok! The waiting is the worst bit, it’ll come round quicker than you think