Health anxiety issues, ovary problems.

[Letitallout]

Name changed....
Im 31 and have pcos and last had scans oct 2013 all fine, but the last few weeks I have been getting pain in ovaries, my health anxiety is steering my mind into thinking the worst :( (ovarian c) seen my gp 2 weeks ago and she didn't seem concerned and since then I have been getting more symptoms such as pains in both thighs then I woke up yesterday feeling bloated and full and have had 2 bouts of diarrhea in that time.
I do however have ibs but it's never like this :(
Can't see the gp untill week after next, I'm ill with worrying which is making my bowels worse, also the top part of my stomach feels like I need to burp but can't, it is also making weird noises.
I am crying as I type this, and can't stop googling :(

Yes I agree with that.

The thing is OP you need to start owning your HA issue more than you are.

You are typical of the sort of person with HA who will go through test after test searching for something 'wrong with them' when the real problem is psychological.

Once you get the ok from the scans you will then be focusing on another ache or pain convinced you have something else, or saying you must have stomach cancer, or whatever.

I really advise you to cancel the scan and trust your dr to arrange any tests they think you need.

I think if it will put you're mind at rest, have the scan.

However it's far more likely to be a gluten problem. Try going gluten free for 2 weeks and see how you feel

When the scan comes back that you don't have cancer, what then?! How many scans will it take to convince you, because it's not been that long since your last one? I imagine you will develop the symptoms of another scary illness and wind yourself into another frenzy.

If you really want to change, then you'll cancel the scan and spend that money dealing with your anxiety.

It is a trained sonographer or radiologist that performs the scans.
I would rather get a private one as my gp will just tell me to check on my symptoms and report back to her after several weeks, then the nhs waiting is @ 6 weeks. Also you are given results on the day and told if you need to have a follow up or need medical advice.
I would rather know sooner than later.

OP you're looking for what's wrong with you. You have a mentAl health problem and quite a serious one at that. This thread is frustrating for me because I've been where you are but I think I was always more self aware. You just don't seem to be realising at all how unreasonable you're being and how this is all entirely futile. If (when ) the scan shows nothing I can predict what will happen;

*something about the scan or sonographer will make you question whether it's accurate
*youll start thinking a private scan isn't reliable
*you'll go back to your GP who will dismiss scan as a waste of money and you then won't trust them
OR

• you'll feel relieved for 5 minutes and then notice a new 'symptom' and will 'need' another scan / more investigations because you're worried sick.
• you will continue on in this way for the rest of your life.

Please please please get help.

OP- if you had late stage ovarian cancer you would be aged 45+
You would have put weight on round your waist- the weight of the tumour- and have an extended stomach.
You would have bladder and bowel issues due the weight of the tumour
You have none of these.
You also have 3 children which reduces your risks anyway.

Your GP can carry out a simple internal exam for ovarian cancer. If it was there they would feel the lump.
They can also do a simple blood test C125 which will show advanced ovarian cancer.

The scan you have booked is a waste o f money. Any decent GP would be able to examine you - or refer you within 2 weeks to a consultant- if they suspected cancer.

You are trying to justify your actions saying you want a result more quickly but the NHS would jump into action if they thought you had a real issue.

The point is that by pinning your hopes on the scan you are wasting time treating the real issue- your mental health- and taking up valuable time at the drs with your symptoms when what they ought to deal with is your mental health.

Appreciate all of the replies.
The reason I am wanting to get a private scan is because oc is nearly often misdiagnosed for ibs. And with oc being poor prognosis I would rather get seen ASAP to rule it out, I have never paid in the past for any kind of scan/treatment apart from when I mentioned I went to see a homeopathist to treat my ha.
I do have really bad health anxiety but I only get like this every few month.
My mind just can't accept that ibs is causing all of this when iv had it for a couple of year .
I am sorry if people think I'm frustrating them but I don't really have many people I can talk to about it in rl.

I will look into cutting gluten out of my diet also.
Thanks :)

Ok but the reason you're having the scan isn't because ovarian cancer is often misdiagnosed it's because you have health anxiety. I think this is something you need to remind yourself.

so is the real reason you are paying for a private scan because you know your dr will not take you seriously?

in other words, you know deep down that your symptoms are not those of OC and you are don't want to bother your dr?

Because all your dr has to do is feel your tummy for a growth and take a blood sample. why don't go go down that route?

im at the dr on Monday so will ask her opinion :)

The others are right and I know deep down you know that too.

You know my story, 3 weeks ago I was given the all clear on a perfectly healthy mole. I walked out happy, a day later my mole started to hurt, or so I thought! I gave in to the HA as you know and went to see a gp yesterday who also gave my mole the all clear.. the 6th gp in total who has see the mole over the years, which has not changed.

Today, I still feel like my mole hurts! suddenly I can feel it catching on tops but in the 5 years or more I have had it it has never done that. Deep down I know it is not a coincidence that I have only started to feel pain when I started worrying about it.

While my HA is awful I have never asked for tests, I have always just went with what my gp said. If they say my mole is fine I won't pay to see a dermatologist because that is a dangers route for us to take . I know that the second I go there my need for more reassurance will crank up and I will end up skint in private clinics every week. Of course I sometimes wonder if the gp has missed something or got it wrong but I aim to react how people without HA would. If my husband got the all clear on a mole he would accept it, continue to monitor it but he wouldn't pay to go privately. Of course my husband wouldn't have gone back 3 weeks later like I did but I always ask myself 'how would a non anxious person deal with this' and aim to do the same thing.

You don't need the scan and while it may put your mind at rest it will just transfer onto something else; you know this too.

I know you feel dreadful, I am right there with you, living in fear. I take a shower in the dark so I can't see my body, I am scared of any and every physical sensation I have. I know the pain of having this illness but going for this can will prolong it in the long run. The fear takes over your life, it makes you scared to live and scared to die. It is mental torture.

And the only way for us to stop this is to tackle the real issue. Sometimes I can do that and other times I can't. We need to keep trying though, we need to fight as hard as we can fight because we deserve good mental health, we deserve to LIVE. We worry about dying but are we actually living a full life right now? we aren't are we? our relationships are suffering, we can't be fully in the moment with our kids because we are too absorbed in our own bodies.

We need to fight the real illness and maybe together we can both focus on that side of things starting from today?

Wake up in a fab mood today, however come 11am I ended u going to a&e as I had a black bowel movement !
Prescribed lansoprazole from doc and need to ask my doc for various testing to see what's going in in there.
He said maybe ulcer or other gastric problems.

The odd black bowel movement happens, especially when I haven't eaten as much.

Really, going to A&E over ONE black bm is overkill. I know how worried you are, you know I do, but you need to fight this

Do you feel better that there may be gastric issues going on and not OC?

You just don't seem to understand or be vaguely aware thatA&E for a black bowel movement is totally inappropriate.

Gosh, what a waste of these doctors time

I'm not being sarky but what was the point of this thread? You've clearly decided to ignore all advice and seek as much medical attention as possible for every issue except the real one.

OP - You said upthread that you had all the symptoms of ovarian cancer. Nearly everyone has all the symptoms of ovca. (Bar bleeding, which is anyway unusual.) A bit of indigestion, occasional loose bowels/constipation, perhaps some stress incontinence. Everyone has those. That's why it's difficult to diagnose.

I've just had a huge ovarian tumour removed, which the first consultant I saw did think was cancer, because I'm postmenopausal. (Thankfully, it wasn't.)

I'm the opposite to you. I minimise. So there I was ignoring my distended- rock-hard - abdomen, dismissing it as 'getting a bit of a tummy'. Apart from that, I had no symptoms. Even up to the day of my op, I did not feel ill. And if my tumour had been malignant, it would have been very late stage, it was so big.

You do feel ill and I'm guessing a lot of your symptoms are due to anxiety. When I am anxious, I can't eat and my digestive system goes to pot.

Don't know if there's anything here that will reassure you re ov.ca. I guess not. (Instead, I've probably got half of Mumsnet thinking they have ov.ca.) But please, as others have said, spend your money on CBT, if there's a waiting list. Not private endoscopies, which I fear will be your next worry.

Been watching the news and just seen how A&E is overstretched- mainly by people who ought not to be there but who cannot wait to see a GP.

Ring a bell?

You have a GP appt Monday yet you went to A&E over a bowel movement- one?

I hope they sent you away with a flea in your ear.
What a complete waste of drs' time.

Meanwhile people who are dying are taken to A&E and may die while they wait.

And you go along to talk about a funny coloured poo.
I hope you can see how mad that was.

Ask your dr for help for your mental health issues.

You lot really know how to kick someone when there feeling down.
Health anxiety is an AWFUL illness I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Thanks for making me feel shit !!!!

I agree health anxiety is beyond awful and extremely debilitating and there have been some harsh comments here but I think people Are trying to shock you into recognition of your problems.

Your main health concern is anxiety, pure and simple. You've got to face up to it and you've got To fight it.

I agree.

The reason you are getting a hard time is because you aren't facing up to your problem.

The main news last night was the dire state of A&E and how they are not coping.

The fact you can post about going to A&E (ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY) and not see how your behaviour was completely wrong, shows you have lost perspective.

You had not had a life threatening accident and it wasn't an emergency.

You had a funny coloured poo. What did you think they could possibly do for you in A&E? Investigations into something like that takes time- you join a waiting list.

Please face up to your issues and talk to your GP about it instead of putting other people's lives at risk by using up valuable time at the hospital and drs.

OP have you gone gluten free yet? No wheat, no rye, no oats, no barley? You need to try it for 2 weeks as it may resolve all your issues

You've had a hard time because you've been given support and advice and ignored it. It gives me an ache to see people misusing A&Es, especially at this time of year when hospitals are in crisis. My job involves hospital discharges, I am not exaggerating when I say that genuine people are not being seen.

We have all acknowledged that you have a genuine problem and need support for it. Health anxiety is an illness, so why did you go to A&E for one concerning bowel movement?

I hope your GP is decent and can offer you MH support. I know it's a tough time of year for people with MH problems, so hopefully s/he will be on the ball.

Have to chip in here, as I myself have had HA issues, although am over it now. Thank god. I know how all consuming they are. During my 2 years of having them I ended up having a scan to rule out ovarian cancer, a mammogram to rule out breast cancer, and a one of those tunnelly scans to rule out a brain tumour! Thank god I had private medical insurance so I wasn't wasting nhs money. Not that it is any excuse...but I feel v embarrassed looking back. It was only CBT that stopped the cycle, otherwise I'd still be in it now. I knew it was mental health issues deep down but I just couldn't convince myself. The anxiety actually triggered all the symptoms that lead to the scans. Anxiety caused IBS, I had the most god awful pelvic pains, pains in my thighs, couldn't bend over due to pain. It was all caused by tightening my muscles due to anxiety. I could never convince myself that it was me tensing my muscles, cause it's quite a subtle thing you are doing but it's a constant thing. When you are doing that all day and night, it is painful. I have no doubt you are doing something similar, not identical but similar and whilst you are having symptoms you can't relax, so those symptoms are not going anywhere for now.

The brain scan was because I had a raging headache for 3 weeks...again because I was tensing my head muscles and constant googling. I then noticed that one of my pupils seemed bigger than another, I think I had read this could be a tumour. My gp also could see a slight difference in pupil size, so he agreed to refer me privately. It sort of makes me laugh looking back, but also feel very ashamed too. Over the past 3 years the only reason I can remember going to the doctor is for a painful bunion. So I have come a long way!! I doubt my experience is going to convince you to just stop it, but I wish it would!!

PInk Frock's urges to tell to you to get a grip...is actually a very normal response and actually it isn't unhelpful to hear that. This is what all people, who don't have HA would tell you and actually what people who do have HA would probably tell you too. When I had it I used to read No More Panic and the reason, why it helped me, was how nuts everyone else sounded! I used to think...why can't she or he see, that they are fine..? They've had all these tests and they still can't let it drop? Then I'd think, I'm exactly like them...I'm fine but I just won't let myself live and be happy. I was only half a mum and half a wife during that period. It's blatantly obvious from all your posts that there is nothing physically wrong. Clearly, if you could just stop the worrying, theN you would. you have, by booking that scan condemned yourself to a whole Christmas and new year of anxiety, until you get seen.

You would be so much wiser investing that money into private counselling instead. Then maybe your family would have a happier Christmas too? Google private CBT local to you. Take control of what is happening to you and stay busy too.

Whenever I have time off from work and head space to think about anything at all, that's when I start getting the beginnings of HA back again. Fortunately, I am able to talk myself out of it more effectively now.

Btw, re. The black stool. I have also indulged myself in lots of still gazing in the past too. Honestly, it is pointless. Food colours your faeces every which way.

Good luck to you. Please listen to that inner sensible voice and not the crazy one.