anxiety and health

[Jeff California]

Hi all, today I turned 33 and the fact that it is my birthday has me looking at my health.

I am anxious to go to the doc. For the past couple months I have had a sensation like there is something in the right side of my throat. I can feel it with my toungue. I have smoked or chewed most of my life since age 16 until a few months ago. Those who know me know that I enjoy beer as well.

Why I am posting. I am scared to go to the doc because of anxiety. This i so stupid and unwise. I am better off not knowing if something is wrong and maybe it will go away. WHAT KIND OF LAME ASS THINKING IS THAT! I know the odds are it being nothing.. I know if it is something, earlier found the better.. Again, why I am posting. This post will make me accountable to call the doc tomorrow and make an appointment.

This is driving me crazy and until now, I have kept it to myself. Tomorrow I stop being stuck on stupid and make an appointment.

I find myself wanting to delete this before I post it!

[Agne]

Jeff, I understand so well. I am a hypochondriac and making an appointment to the doctor is worse than booking a flight for me. And when that day comes I feel really bad until I have the results. I do a breast screening and blood tests each year in late April, due to a hormonal treatment I'm doing, and each year it takes me one week to decide to make the appointment. I choose one day, and that day I call the doctor. It's like booking a flight.
It's surprising how much in common we fearful flier have (roller coasters, bridges, doctors..).:)

[WillFlyToDisney]

Do it, Jeff. If you don't call then I will call Andrea. :D

How is my favorite redheaded navigator anyway?? Tell her HELLO!

Need another reason to go to the doctor? Take a look at that cutie little violin player in your house. Don't you want to stay healthy for her?

Is that enough threats and guilt to make you call or do I need to keep going???

Kel

[Lynda]

JEFF, GO TO THE DOCTORS!!!! YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID AS YOUR ANXIETY LEVELS ARE NOT AS HIGH ONCE YOU KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM IS! yOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE TREATMENT IF YOU DO NOT WANT IT!

Sean, you are only a tiny bit over weight lol! Get that blood pressure sorted out, we do not want any CVAs or MIs in the group. If your GP gives you meds try not to go for the beta blockers to begin with ( although they lessen anxiety they have got other side effects) I take a calcium channel blocker and do not have side effects.

[Jeff California]

I am scheduled for the first available doc tomorrow at 7:30 pm.:) Thank you for the support and nudge.

Jeff

[Insert Clever Name Here]

Hey Jeff, you doing okay?

[Jeff California]

Yes, ty.:)
The doc put me on prilosec and pepsid. She believes the throat irritation is due to GERD. This makes sense since I eat alot of Tums. I figure the irritation should clear soon if that is the problem. I told her I was worried about cancer and she gave me a funny look... I told her I take xanax for FOF sometimes and she looked bewildered. Like "fear of what?". lol She knew I was an anxiety headcase. I tried to hide it, but it didn't work:lol:
She also said my lungs sound great and thats good to know since it's been a couple months with no tobacco. My heart is still ticking as well.

Thanks for being there:)

Jeff

[Lynda]

Great news on the GERD and on the Tobacco!:)

[cshollingsworth]

i have GERD too jeff. sometimes it does better and other times it kicks in and things get bad! i sometimes have the reflux where it comes up in my mouth and burns. i feel like i'm choking sometimes too. they put me on protonix and it helps, but it gives me a bad headache. watch out for that as a side effect. sometimes i have heartburn so bad i feel it not only in my chest but in my back as well. my doctor thinks i have a bad gallbladder but i can't get myself psyched up to go in for the gallbladder test.

i'm scared of all health related problems and medications...i think we are certainly ALL a lot alike on this board!

:rolleyes:

[Rebecca]

Yes! I'm glad to hear your lungs are in great shape, Jeff. It does seem that fearful flier types share some physical characteristics too. Last night my husband talked more about that plane he wants to build, looks like it's really going to happen. I had this weird, painful stomach thing all night. Of course he slept like a rock. We all gotta get massages and meditate and RELAX, for heaven's sake!!!! Your thread title says it ... anxiety and health ... :eek: ... I think it's an oxymoron!!!

Take care of yourselves, everyone.

[Lynda]

Sean 160 for Cholestral mmmmmmmm you obviously use a different reference scale over there. Mine is considered too high at 5.6.

[spiffyone]

Lynda, how intersting, what is measured?

5.6 sounds like maybe it's the ratio...LDL to HDL? Do you know?

Here we use : Total (should be <200 mg/dl), LDL (should be <130 mg/dl), HDL (higher is better, ideally >35 mg/dl) and triglycerides (should be <200 mg/dl). Most people when you ask them their cholesterol, remember the total number, but treatment decisions (lipitor etc) are made based on the LDL.

Our labs report the LDL/HDL ratio sometimes too. THAt is supposed to be, I think, less than 2.5 for ideal...maybe that is the 5.6???

Sorry to be lab geek...but I find this interesting and thought you would know what measurement it is since you, too, are in health care :)

spiff

[Lynda]

Hi Spiff,


This is Patricks lab report which in fact looks higher than mine! They treated me with statins but Patrick remains drug free!!! Figure that one out!


Cholesterol 6.20 mmol/L

HDL 0.7 mmol/L ( > 0.7 )
11% of total


Triglycerides 2.96 mmol/L ( 0.8 - 2.0 )


My Doc wants mine below 3


Lynda

[beeinatree]

glad to hear it worked out.

this happened to me also. i was paranoid it was cancer, because i smoked for a long time. it turns out it was gerd. i went on prilosec for awhile. it worked great im not taking anything now, but i try not to eat before bedtime. and pepto bismal is my best friend.

to tell the truth, whenever i see a new dr, i have them look into my mouth just in case. im still paranoid about it. but many drs later, no cancer.

:)

[Lynda]

www.respiratoryreviews.com/may02/rr_may02_CPAP.html (http://www.respiratoryreviews.com/may02/rr_may02_CPAP.html)

Interesting stuff!

[tabbygirl]

The doc put me on prilosec and pepsid. She believes the throat irritation is due to GERD. This makes sense since I eat alot of Tums. I figure the irritation should clear soon if that is the problem. I told her I was worried about cancer and she gave me a funny look...
I've had that "lump" feeling lately, too, and so have some other people I know. For me it's a combo of post-nasal drip (TMI; sorry) and GERD. But it feels so REAL. I was sure it was something awful; I have been trying hard not to go into full health-anxiety mode. (I did go to the doctor 3 times before feeling totally reassured, though :blush: )

So relieved to hear yours is not serious, either! Good for you, taking the step of getting past your anxiety and seeing the doc. I know it's hard sometimes!


Angela

[Agne]

Tomorrow I'm doing my annual breast check-up (ultrasound) and I'm going into full health-anxiety mode. I was not sure to post here (like in fear of flying I have my good-luck rituals including not spread the word too much when I go to the doctor or it's bad luck and others silly things) but since this place seems to be prodigious in calm me down I decided to post it anyway. The fact is, last year in the same annual check-up the doctor found a lump that fortunately -after being examined- turned out to be cyst (he had reassured me from the beginning because he knew it was nothing even before examining it, but i was scared to death anyway). So I'm going tomorrow morning. I feel so stupid but I'm so scared. Same symptoms as fear of flying. Just I'd rather fly to Australia and back on the same day by night on the smallest plane in the world alone with a drunk pilot, one engine working and no food and drink.
Am I being too melodramatic? :rolleyes:

[kari]

They do that there? Here you have to be like 55 or something ....

You're not being melodramatic - anyone would be twitchy about it but you will be fine. It's odd how we only worry about things like this when we're going to be tested ... I'm not worried but I'm not having a test. Maybe I ought to be worried ....

[Agne]

I did it, and everything is OK. Well, I have two very small cysts, and apparently that bigger thing that he found last year - he had thought it was a cyst - actually was not and turned out to be a fiber-something. Anyway, he didn't seem concerned at all, no further tests are required and fixed the next screening for next year so I guess it was nothing serious.
Kari, this kind of test is done normally over 45 years old here. But being a little (or a bit more) hypocondriac and taking hormonal meds I prefer to be controlled each year.
I think that my health-anxiety and my fear of flying have something in common.

[EyesSkyward]

Just I'd rather fly to Australia and back on the same day by night on the smallest plane in the world alone with a drunk pilot, one engine working and no food and drink.

I think I can arrange that! :cheers:

- Jeff

(Kidding. I would never fly drunk. Or without food. :lol: )

[JPenny]

Me Too.

I haven't been to the dr. for a checkup since my youngest child's birth, which was over 4 years ago. Talk about horrible!! I'm fairly healthy, but do have some questions about some small matters. I also know that I'm old enough now that they will send me for a mammogram. Why don't I go?? I hate to go. The staff at the dr. office always make me feel like an idiot. I don't even like to call. And I don't like to take my clothes off in places other than my own room! :rolleyes:

But I suppose I should. This thread has me a little more motivated. If Jeff can do it, I can too, right? Bug me, and I'll make the call this week.

Jean

[noflyingfan]

Think of it this way, Jean. The better care you take of yourself, the happier all the people attached to those little feet in your avatar will be!

[Agne]

Calling the doctor and make an appointment is like booking a flight. I choose one day (this time I said - I'll call next monday - and I called) and I try to keep my resolution. after calling I feel relieved, as if a great part was already done, until one week before the test. Then, full anticipatory anxiety until the moment I go in that's more or less like getting on the plane!

[Rebecca]

Go. I can't think of anything that isn't more likely to be treatable when found early. And if it's nothing, peace of mind is the gift you've given yourself.

Interesting, though, how flying looks easy when our perspective shifts to addressing potential medical problems.

:sunshine:

[noflyingfan]

Interesting, though, how flying looks easy when our perspective shifts to addressing potential medical problems.

Maybe you've stumbled upon the solution to all our problems! Whenever you book a flight, book a medical appointment for the same day, and when you wake up that morning, say to yourself, "alright, I can go get a mammogram, or I can get on a plane." :tongue:

[tabbygirl]

I hope you've scheduled your mammo by now. I know they're a drag but I want to tell you, I had a wee touch of breast cancer last year that was found ONLY because I had a mammo. It was detected so early that it wasn't even a lump yet. I had very, very minor surgery followed by radiation (which was really not a big deal in this case). And I'm considered 99.999999% cured. You know they will never say 100%!

Seriously, I missed no work during the rad treatments. I walked up to the hospital every day and got nuked, stopped and got a latte on the way back, and put in the rest of my work day. I think the daily walks actually helped keep my energy up.

The surgery itself was barely even uncomfortable. Less so than the mammo, actually! All I needed was Advil. I am not lying.

So I am now the world's biggest nag about mammos. I know a couple of un-mammo'ed women who let things slide when they felt lumps (which had been growing for who knows how long) and let the lumps go for months after that...and they are having some real serious and nasty cancer treatment. Maybe it would have been nasty earlier as well, but I'm just sayin', why not "nip" these things in the bud?

[scaredy_cat]

Well, I get the manual exam every year and the doctors haven't suggested a mamo yet (I'm 35) but should I get one anyways? or wait for them to tell me I need one?

[tabbygirl]

Paula, if you don't have a family history, or any weirdness going on yourself, typically your first mammo is at 40.

[WillFlyToDisney]

I'm 36 and my OB/GYN wrote me orders for the baseline at my annual checkup this year. I haven't scheduled it yet though... No family history of Breast Cancer but my Aunt had Ovarian Cancer.

[scaredy_cat]

Paula, if you don't have a family history, or any weirdness going on yourself, typically your first mammo is at 40.

My aunt (mother's sister) had breast cancer and had to have one removed. No reoccurances though. That's the only family history that I have. I'll wait till 40 if possible as I've heard they're not pleasant, especially for those of us who are uhh... small. lol.

[scaredy_cat]

So sorry to hear that Sean!

I definitely would not put it off if I suspected something was wrong, but thankfully so far everything seems normal. Thank you for sharing that story with us.