Health Anxiety - Part 4

[polkadotpixie]

I hope no-one minds me starting a follow up thread. I know some people were waiting for me to update so I thought I would but happy to ask MNHQ to delete if one of the long term posters wanted to start it 😊

@tmh88 not sure when the extraction is, I've got to wait for a letter. It isn't painful though, it's a failed root canal so no root there. It's the opposite side of my mouth but a mouth guard wouldn't fit if I measured now and then extracted later.
My ENT appointment is on the 16 and I'm just waiting to speak to my doctor surgery about my thyroid.
Neck is pissing me off. Feels really swollen.

Nurse practitioner is ringing me this afternoon about my thyroid

@stoorimidori excellent news!! You certainly deserve that gin.
Women need to be told about this stuff at school I think. I had no idea that you could have lumpy breasts, dense breasts, 1 painful breast and it not be a bad thing. Only when you go to these appointments do you find out this stuff.

@StooriMidori So pleased for you that everything is okay!

Thanks everyone. I definitely feel much better and a gin is on the cards after the DC go to bed tonight!

@StooriMidori Amazing news and some great info! Thank you so much for sharing. Enjoy the gin!

@Goolies Yay!! You're here!! Glad you found us.

How is everyone today?

I’m doing ok today actually! Wondering whether to retrain in something while I’m off work but not sure what! Love my job but it’s so hard to come by and if I left it would be snapped up by someone else! So unsure of what to do!

@StooriMidori so glad it went well and you can celebrate tonight.

I think we need the opposite health campaigns to the cancer scaring ones, like "Yes it's normal to have lumpy boobs and breast pain" "Yes you are meant to be able to feel your lymph nodes and it's normal for them to get bigger and smaller". "Symptoms of cancer/heart failure/MS are also highly likely to be symptoms of anxiety" etc.

Don't think PHE would be very happy with my anti-health campaigns but I would certainly feel a lot better for them 😊

I was feeling better this morning but then went for a walk and felt dizzy, chest tightness and racing pulse so obviously my brains tells me I am in heart failure rather than suffering from anxiety 🙄

I am counting down the days until its 21 days after my vaccine and I will feel a lot safer seeing the GP. 9 days to go...hopefully I won't die before then...

I've had a really good day, and then thought my nipple looked vaguely weird when I was in the bath. So then I started to pull at it, and I thought that the skin around it felt weird, so I spent about 10 minutes pulling both nipples and seeing if they felt the same. Honestly.

Also spent a little bit of time obsessing over various other lumpy bits, but didn't feel too much like I spiralled. I think I'm at the right stage in my cycle to feel more positive.

Hi everyone, I’ve had a much better day than yesterday thankfully. Kids back at school so kept myself busy with jobs around the house. Going to settle down with some treats for the Meghan and Harry interview tonight so hopefully that will keep me distracted.

@Skyliner001 that scenario sounds so familiar to me. One little doubt about boobs sets off a whole spiral - glad you’ve managed to move out of it.

@Goolies so glad you found us. I thought I had tagged you at the start of this one - sorry. Hope you are doing well x

@MrsWhites Sounds like a good evening, you deserve a treat if you've had such a good day as well!

Hello ladies,
I'm a lurker on here but popping up to say hi. I gave birth last March and 2 weeks later we went into lockdown and that plus postnatal hormones just sent me spiralling into an awful health anxiety state.

I convinced the doctor to do bloods as I was worried I had undiagnosed diabetes. Obviously I didn't have it, but my FBC came back with slightly low white blood cells, so I was then hysterical that I had lymphoma/leukaemia. I have lots of little cherry angiomas which came on in pregnancy too which fuelled this fear and I lost a lot of weight very quickly after birth (stress and breastfeeding probably!). I also noticed lots of lumps and bumps and spots on my skin so was petrified of skin cancer. I also noticed a lump on my neck, so spent the summer having ultrasounds, biopsies which came back as indeterminate, and eventually thyroid surgery to remove a suspicious nodule. Thankfully it wasn't cancer but came back as 'unknown malignant potential' - not very reassuring for a HA sufferer... I also got diagnosed with Hashimoto's at the same time.

In the Autumn after the op I was in a terrible state - my heart rate wouldn't come down after the op, obviously anxiety, but I was concerned I was having a heart attack, the doctors did an ECG at the time which was absolutely normal, but I spent the next week constantly checking my pulse. I then spent over £1000 on a private breast exam and scan and on a private dermatology consultation.
I am currently worried about a couple of things, but won't go into those at the minute! It's exhausting isn't it!

I hope you don't mind if I dip in and out when I am feeling brave. It is nice to know I am not alone in this - even though I hate to think other people are feeling this worried too.

Can I join...My health anxiety is exhausting me; I can get a headache- swear it's a tumour. Stomach ache- I'm dying. Any pain- cancer I'm dying. Moles, rash, feel sick, anything!!! It's constant!
I have this feeling that I will die and leave my DC and DH. My chest goes tight when I think of this, I panic, feel dizzy,

Absolutely horrendous feeling rushes over me.
Day time, night time, when I'm in the shower, driving, cooking...anything. I can't breath, I panic, cry, full on panic attack!! I ended up in a&e having a panic attack and to make it worse ECG's always come back abnormal but apparently it's just my heart!

It's relentless and it's ruining my life

@GentlyGentlyOhDear and @OpenTheHairdressers welcome. You're in good company here, we all completely understand and have had the same thoughts and fears. This thread has massively helped reduce my HA so hopefully it will help you too. I feel just saying my fears out loud, well, typing them! has helped xx

Thanks everyone for the lovely responses. I still feel strange, like I don't want to be too happy as fate will just give me something else. DH has had a cough the last few days so naturally I'm now worrying he has lung cancer 🙄

Welcome @gentlygentlyohdear and @openthehairdressers
I totally sympathise with both of you.
Welcome to the thread and dip in and out whenever you like.
I always manage to feel a bit better once I have spoken to someone on here.

Thank you @StooriMidori and @ofwarren

Thank you. It helps just to know there are others like this too

I think I should be getting my results today, apparently the scan report has been done

I'm so scared, I've been awake half the night and have an upset tummy from the nerves

Praying for good news. Please keep your fingers crossed for me

@polkadotpixie keeping my fingers crossed for you x

@polkadotpixie fingers crossed 🤞🏼
Do you have a appointment for results? X

@GentlyGentlyOhDear welcome! Your not alone! I have neck lumps and I’m covered in tiny red pin prick dots! I asked about them a while ago on here think pretty much everyone had them here ha!

@OpenTheHairdressers welcome! Your definitely not alone!

@StooriMidori I know what you mean I get it too! It’s a too good to be true feeling but sometimes life is just perfect and enjoy it while it is ❤️

@polkadotpixie thinking about you!

Morning everyone! Sorry if I’ve missed anyone x

@GentlyGentlyOhDear and @OpenTheHairdressers Just wanted to say hello and welcome you to this thread, gently, just dip in whenever you want! See how it makes you feel, as it might make you feel better to see us discussing some of the symptoms of experience. Just a quick one on the cherry andomers, I have Loads of those, and they've been discussed here before, they properly freaked me out when I noticed them, which was also during a period of health anxiety when I was in my mid 20s. I also went down the leukaemia route, I actually had lymphoma more than 20 years ago, so didn't go down that route, although a lot of us have lymph-node anxiety here! Even I suffer from it sometimes. You are very welcome anyway, we all support each other here, so feel free to drop by whenever you feel like it.

@OpenTheHairdressers I'm sure we all empathise with your post, what you will discover here is that you are not alone, and that what you describe is what we are all going through. It's that difficultness of separating what is happening in our heads, from any physical symptom we have, or feel we have. It's a challenge for all of us, and we are all working on it together. I hope this thread brings you some comfort, I'm sure it will, as it's helped all of us! You are very welcome anyway, just sorry you find yourself in this boat!

@polkadotpixie We're all here with you, hope that everything is okay, and have no doubt it will be! We'll be waiting for your update later, do you have a time for your appointment? I think that's a positive thing that the scan report is done so quickly. What a relief it will be for you if you can get it all sorted out today, rather than having to wait till Thursday or even later X

I had a reasonable day yesterday, apart from the latter nipple anxiety. I had a horrible dream where I had to have a mammogram, and I was crying, and then I couldn't find my coat or my shoes afterwards. I woke up feeling really really stressed, but I will try to remind myself but that was the dream, although I'm sure I'll find something to worry about during the day!