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 😊

@TheSilentStars don't forget your muscles are also like bands all round your stomach, and your dominant side will have more prominent muscles due to bending, lifting, turning etc. So both sides will feel slightly different. Even the position you are in when feeling will effect it.

@KAP232 I'm the same, I think it opens your eyes a lot more.

@argueifnecessary yes I've always been fascinated and exactly the same with knowing things but not quite enough, that's definitely my downfall a lot of the time.

[quote AJ297]@TheSilentStars don't forget your muscles are also like bands all round your stomach, and your dominant side will have more prominent muscles due to bending, lifting, turning etc. So both sides will feel slightly different. Even the position you are in when feeling will effect it.[/quote]
Thank you the lumpy bumpy side is definitely my right side which is my dominant one.

Didn't help yesterday that DD had biology lesson on how to spot colon cancer.

Hello everyone I was wondering if I might join? I'm having nerve issues, with tingling hands and feet since December. They seem to be connected with eating a lot of histamine containing food.

Anyway in the last few days I've had a pinched nerve feeling in my shoulder. After a cold walk I totally lost my thumb grip. It's really frightening me and now I'm having insomnia and afraid I've got MND and am going to die soon. I'm really struggling to stay in control.

Sorry bit behind now, I don’t usually have anxiety in the morning but I’ve woken up with it again it’s usually in an evening when I don’t have anything to do! I don’t work in a medical field at all, but when I was a teenager I did work in a care home which I think started my general anxiety! My health anxiety only started last September when I found lymph nodes in my neck! I’ve diagnosed something every day since!

I don't work in any thing medical. I think I have always been a little like this even as a kid but my health anxiety really kicked off when I had my first baby 7 years ago. I think it started because I had a lot of miscarriages I lost 8 babies before having my kids so I think that is how it started and then once I had had my kids I moved on to worrying about something happening to me or them or my partner. Its a never ending battle with my mind x

@Goolies thank you for the reassurance. Hope you are doing ok. I’ve had burning sensations in the past, have you used anything different like a shower gel or something?

@Skyliner001 I do the body scan thing you talk about when I wake up!

@TheSilentStars sorry to hear you are struggling! Our abdomen isn’t symmetrical on each side, we have different organs on the left and right sides so it probably feels different because of that x

@AJ297, yes another one who works in the NHS. This has definitely ramped up my HA and am faced every day with patients with various symptoms! Hello @BigGreen, what do you normally do when you think you have an issue? You must know that the possibility of MND is extremely remote and please don’t google. I normally run straight to my GP (they are lovely) to get reassurance but I know I shouldn’t be doing that so much. I reckon I’m contacting them st least once a month and feel really embarrassed.

Thank you everyone. I feel a bit less hysterical today but only a bit.

@BigGreen, welcome. I'm sitting here tingling as well if it's any consolation. I was reading on a Gallbladder group that tingling can be due to poor vitamin absorption due to gallbladder not functioning properly (I have sand sized stones)

I am the opposite to some of you as I avoid the doctor at all costs. Stupid I know. It kind of makes it real if I go iyswim? There's a sort of line in my head. If I sit poking and prodding and googling it's not quite real but if I go to the GP she's definitely going to tell me I'm on my way out.

Thanks for the welcome :)

@HildegardeCrowe I know - it's such a rare disease, I can rationalise really easily in the daytime, it's at night that I wake up and then seem to go down the anxiety vortex. I usually read a bit of MN and do my Headspace meditation and sleep casts. I love them, they've been life-changing. But lately I've been letting myself Google at 4am and that needs to stop.

@TheSilentStars ah no I'm sorry you're tingling too! It's very annoying. I'm not a huge fan of the Drs either tbh but do go when I need to. Have you ever taken those spray or liquid vitamins that get absorbed in your mouth? I'm a long-time IBS sufferer and they are great. Sending you a handhold.

Have managed to get opticians appointment for Saturday with scans where they look right in to the back of your eye/brain. Have now developed tinnitus and ear pressure aswell as weakness and numbness in arm and leg, headache, brain fog and pressure. Back at work in 2 days and not sure how I am going to manage

I wonder if the tingling and numbness comes with anxiety because a lot of us seem to have it. I mean I know it does but I was always under the impression that it only happens during a panic/anxiety attack. I seem to get mine randomly, at the tip of my nose and scalp. Buy I know these could also be the symptoms of MS so I'm still waiting to be sent for an MRI.
@BigGreen have you looked into MCAS? I believe the symptoms might be similar but then I think you would also have bad allergies.

@TheSilentStars
I also avoid the doctors. In fact I have had a morning long anxiety attack because I have to call in the afternoon to find out my Holter monitor test results.

@Iamsodonewith2020

Your symptoms still resonate with mine. I get the pressure too but so think mine is from my neck because when I make my husband give me a massage, it kind of goes away.
I have occasional brain fog, I am trilingual at the moment and I start mixing the languages or feel like I speak slowly. It does pass though. Try hydrating and see if it helps

@MrsWhites when I had this before I stopped using all products down there and. It sure if it’s a coincidence but it went away. Then of course I got lazy and started using everything again so it could be that. I’ve stopped now but it’s still there, maybe it takes time to go, I do wonder if it’s perimenopause related as I’m approaching 40?!

@Goolies I might be wrong but I believe as we approach pre-menopause the PH balance down there can change a little so we can become more sensitive to things. I only use femfresh wash down there now and touch wood have no irritations now. I’d recommend giving that a go!

@TheSilentStars I avoid doctors too! Glad to hear you are feeling a bit calmer today!

@BigGreen, I take vit D in the spray, I hadn't thought about others like that- d'oh.

I'm also one of those people with an enormous box full of vitamins and supplements that I take when I'm feeling ok, but just dismiss when I'm on a spiral.

Re: down below, when I had my gynae MOT in December the lovely doctor said "do you get sore and tight" (I do) and she told me to get these pessary things (fun moment in the chemists "do you want the VAGINAL EGGS OR THE CREAM?" Actually, I want you to say it a bit quieter rather than tell the people next door I have a shrivelled fanjo They definitely help with soreness (I am post meno) and are hyaluronic acid based. She also told me to get vagisil as well but I find that stings terribly, and a lavender wash with bottles and tubes to poke up but it made me feel like I was doing a DIY hysterectomy so I stopped.

I've just had a lovely attack of proctalgia fugax (tmi) but at least Google tells me that's not linked to any known diseases. Difficult to teach abstract nouns when you've got javelin arse though.

@argueifnecessary yes you're dead right, my face swelled up last week and I made the connection with histamine. I'm off choc and booze as all high histamine 

@TheSilentStars poor you that did give me a chuckle!

Just heard from the Drs, he thinks I just sprained the funny arm and is giving me anti histamine for the tingling. Fingers crossed it all goes away.

So the results of my ECG are finally in as well as the blood test results they took at the a&e. I have to go in tomorrow morning to discuss them. I am beyond anxious right now, don't know what to do with myself.

I don't even though what that blood test was supposed to be for because I already got the other things back straight away (the
normal panel).Healthcare in Germany is so weird and secretive compared to the way it is in the UK. Not helping

I do think that they don't think when they say "come in tomorrow and we'll tell you" what it's going to put you through.

All the best for you today @argueifnecessary. Let us know how you get on.

Thats’s good news @BigGreen.

What job do you @Iamsodonewith2020? Do they know you have anxiety and have you had time off before? I’ve had loads of time off but have been very open with my employers (GP practice) and they’ve been beyond supportive.

My anxiety is under control ATM but it’s because I’m taking huge doses of Pregabalin (was slowly weaning off and then for some reason decided to ramp to ramp the dose right up again) and am also on Citalopram 20mg. The real problem is that these drugs have an unfortunate side effect; they make me crave alcohol and I’ve drunk a whole bottle of wine every day for the past week. I know this has to stop. I’d rather be anxious than a high functioning alcoholic 🙁

OK so it was pointless. The ECG results are apparently fine although the pulse was often 150?!? I kept repeating it is from just standing up but the doctor was very young and had no idea what it could be and for some reason I couldn't make myself suggest that it might be POTs . She also then sent me for psychotherapy but I might not find a provider.
When I mentioned the neurosymptoms she just said I need to do yoga and then come back if they don't go away. I spoke about my tremor and vibration in the night and she wrote it down but had absolutely no idea what it could be.
Liver, thyroid and kidneys were OK from the blood test and I asked to be tested for D and B12 vitamin.

So I should get the results on Monday and then see...

I feel a bit fobbed off to be honest.

@argueifnecessary sorry to hear your appointment hasn’t made you feel better. Hopefully Monday will bring you better reassurance.

Does anyone else ever have a freak out about family history of certain things? I was watching a programme last night in which a character is dealing with being diagnosed as a carrier of the BRCA gene. It’s sent me into a massive spiral, obsessing about the history of cancers on both sides of my family but equally I don’t feel ready or strong enough to think about having the gene test myself. I need to calm myself down or I just know I’m going to have a terrible weekend overthinking it all!

@MrsWhites
My Great Aunt died of brain cancer but she was 87. As far as I know she is the only one who has had cancer, but she was deported to a gulag and had to work in some factory making aircraft bombs so might have been exposed to chemicals etc (vaguely remember grandmother of my granny also having had breast cancer) BUT my granny from my dad's side and her mum both died of a heart attack at the grand old age of 50 so who knows what other conditions they might have had.

Had a really good day and then just sat down and decided to feel my collar bones again! Convinced myself they must me lumps not muscles 😫 so annoyed at myself! Hope everyone else is having an ok day?