Health Anxiety! Obsessed with cancer!

Hey lovely, not gonna lie I've been the exact same. 

I had these horrible pains which was brought down to UTI, but the pain has travelled and is currently sitting in my throat. 

I've been to the doctors near enough everyday for a week and have demanded a blood test which I'm having done and 3 pee samples and poo 😂 

My health anxiety has been through the roof no matter how many people tell me " your okay " I don't listen. It's almost like I won't be happy untill i find out I have something. 

It's a horrible feeling not having control of your health. 

I've been so stressed with constantly crying and constantly worrying I've lost almost a stone in just over a week which has added more to my anxiety!!! 

I've googled my symtoms and near enough it comes up with a different cancer. I've had bowel cancer, bladder cancer, lung cancer and throat cancer. ( sudden weight loss, aches and pains, fever etc) all sit with every cancer I didn't even know there was so many cancers 😂

I'm not sleeping properly nor am I properly eating. I hope you have found out what you have exactly and all is well. 

Xxxx

A lymphoma lymph node grows rapidly in size and also night sweats and fatigue is really common symptom you have the same as me and a lot of people in this forum health anexity is a horrible illness and o my get worse if not treated I.e therapy or if need be medication please don't google and trust ur doctor there really clever people and if they thought u was in danger then he would of reacted properly 

This is all really helpful to hear. I am a healthy 38 year old who had a pain in my right side starting about a year ago. I had a nice career as an actor going and that and my entire life has fallen apart over the last year. I’ve had several blood tests, gone to the ER and had a CT scan and everything is always normal. I play competitive basketball several times a day and have no real symptoms except for this little pain that at times I have decided is colon, liver, pancreatic and once lung cancer. It’s totaly debilitating. I like hearing all of your stories- it helps. My wife said I need to start talking about this with people 

Hey Steph I’m sorry you are going through this...I am in the same boat as you...what other physical symptoms do you have?

Hi Everyone,

i know know this is an old post but saw a couple of people responded 8 days ago . . . Was just scrolling through and thought I'd add my story.

i can totally relate to all of your fears and have great empathy for everyone going through this horrible thing called health anxiety.

my story began in April last year when my youngest daughter was in hospital very sick with what turned out to be glandular fever. When I took her into the hospital she had bruising on her ear which couldn't be explained by an injury. The first thing they did in the ER was test for leukaemia! Of course this sent me into the worst panic of my life and I experienced what I now know as a panic attack. After only an hour the bloods were back and she was cleared for leukaemia. She stayed in five days and after fluids and antibiotics was sent home. I should have been happy but couldn't shake the fear that there was something wrong. About a month later, my gp agreed to have her blood tested again to check everything was still fine. All was good and my fears seemed to settle for the remainder of the year.

Then early this year my best friends 6 yr old niece was diagnosed with leukaemia. All the fears from the year before resurfaced and I felt sick to the stomach. Not long after this my eldest daughter who is 8 had a run of illnesses such as glandular fever and colds and then her legs were covered in bruises and she had three nose bleeds in a week. My anxiety went into overdrive and I was convinced she had leukaemia. I was terrified. I took her to the doctor who explained that the nose bleeds were probably just  from the colds she'd had and a dry nose and of course kids pick snotty noses! Anyway, she ordered some blood tests and all was fine.

i seemed to get past this and then in May I got quite sick with what I thought was a bad cold. It went on and on and I was told several times I just had a virus. After about six weeks of being ill I went to the gp in tears saying that I felt terrible and weak and so unwell. She ordered sputum and blood tests and it turns out I had Influenzae HiB which is quite bad. She sent me straight to the hospital who did an X-ray and found I also had pneumonia. So of course this wasn't health anxiety, I was quite sick.

This was in May and I've had two courses

Hi Everyone,

i know know this is an old post but saw a couple of people responded 8 days ago . . . Was just scrolling through and thought I'd add my story.

i can totally relate to all of your fears and have great empathy for everyone going through this horrible thing called health anxiety.

my story began in April last year when my youngest daughter was in hospital very sick with what turned out to be glandular fever. When I took her into the hospital she had bruising on her ear which couldn't be explained by an injury. The first thing they did in the ER was test for leukaemia! Of course this sent me into the worst panic of my life and I experienced what I now know as a panic attack. After only an hour the bloods were back and she was cleared for leukaemia. Turns out that a bad infection in the body can also cause bruising.. she stayed in five days and after fluids and antibiotics was sent home. I should have been happy but couldn't shake the fear that there was something wrong. About a month later, my gp agreed to have her blood tested again to check everything was still fine. All was good and my fears seemed to settle for the remainder of the year.

Then early this year my best friends 6 yr old niece was diagnosed with leukaemia. All the fears from the year before resurfaced and I felt sick to the stomach. Not long after this my eldest daughter who is 8 had a run of illnesses such as glandular fever and colds and then her legs were covered in bruises and she had three nose bleeds in a week. My anxiety went into overdrive and I was convinced she had leukaemia. I was terrified. I took her to the doctor who explained that the nose bleeds were probably just  from the colds she'd had and a dry nose and of course kids pick snotty noses! Anyway, she ordered some blood tests and all was fine.

i seemed to get past this and then in May I got quite sick with what I thought was a bad cold. It went on and on and I was told several times I just had a virus. After about six weeks of being ill I went to the gp in tears saying that I felt terrible and weak and so unwell. She ordered sputum and blood tests and it turns out I had Influenzae HiB which is quite bad. She sent me straight to the hospital who did an X-ray and found I also had pneumonia. So of course this wasn't health anxiety, I was quite sick.

This was in May and I've had two courses of strong antibiotics since and am slowly getting better. I still seem to have this yucky mucus stuff behind my nose and back of throat but really don't want to just keep taking antibiotics.

Since the pneumonia I've suffered a slow and horrible recovery. What I now know as health anxiety surfaced in a big way but not for my children this time but me. I've had aching arms, weight loss and this cold that has taken forever to kick. 

On top,of this my Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer at 39 and both my grandmothers died from it so,I see a local breast specialist and have an annual MRI and ultrasound. Leading up to this years meimi was a complete wreck, checking my breasts obsessively daily and finding all sorts of lumps and bumps that I was convinced were cancer. The MRI came back all clear which was great but now I've had to go and do the gene testing for BRCA. I'll know the results in a few weeks.

Its all just gone down hill since I was sick in May and I've been convinced for a few months now that I have lymphoma . . . Weight loss, infections that I can't shake, aching muscles. I can feel lymph nodes under my arms but my doctor has said they are a normal size. It freaks me out though as my underarms ache . . . Maybe from forever digging around to feel the nodes! Of course now I can feel them in my neck and groin and am going mad! My blood tests all came back fine but of course then you read that that can be the case with lymphoma.

Im trying my best to be logical and say to myself that this year was shocking in Aus for bad colds and flu and I've prob just been hit bad with this virus and taking some time to get over it. The sensible answer to my weight loss would be pneumonia and anxiety and when I feel on my girls I can feel nodes under their arms, on their necks and their groin and so I must just use my cbt strategies and think calmly and logically!!!

i began on a low dose of celexa a few months ago and I definitely think it has calmed me but I want to try and get of it within the year and not become dependent.

sorry for the super long novel. I've been lurking on these forms forever and always find such peace and reassurance reading other people's comments and not feeling so alone so wanted to share my crazy story and hope it helps others going through the same thing xxx

do any of you still post in here..I need help?

What's wrong ? 

I have dry mouth lump on my

neck lynph node in the groin sweatting at night insomnia feeling hot cold and anxious all the time. Blood test was ok doctor not very concern 

I thinking I have something bad My mouth has not much saliva my tongue get white keeping getting chest pain. I do not know what to do.

Making my self crazy had recently blood test for lynphoma c protein test and esr CBC count all normal. I do not feel myself getting mad.

Hey, I know this is a really old post but i can just empathise so much with what everyone is saying and felt like it might make me feel better to write down my own experience.

So i have always suffered a little bit with health anxiety, mainly since my late teens (so the last 10 years). Usually it would follow the pattern of me finding something odd like a lump etc, googling it (which is THE WORST IDEA EVER), going to the doctor, finding out it was nothing and happily moving on with my life until the next thing (this would usually happen once, twice a year at most).

Then last August I found a little lump on my right breast. I made an appointment with my doctor who said she didn't feel it was anything to worry about but in the interest of completion she would send me for an ultrasound. She said i should have my appointment in about 6wks. So i left there feeling somewhat better but still slightly concerned as i hadn't actually been given the 100% all clear that i usually got in these situations and which would normally allow me to just move on. 

As it turned out i didn't get my appointment until mid October and during that wait my anxiety got increasingly bad to the point that it was almost all i could think of. I had my ultrasound and was told there was absolutely nothing to worry about. Normally that would be the point at which i would be relieved and just move on but i just could shake the feeling of doom and gloom i'd had. It was like during those 2 months, my brain had become so accustomed to worrying that when the target of that worry was taken away my brain immediately started looking for other things to become anxious about.

So since that i began been feeling for lumps and bumps all over regularly and every time i find anything i would convince myself it was cancer and go to the doctor. This gives me very temporary respite before my brain finds something else health related to worry about.

It is usually a little lump in my neck i have never noticed before or a pain in my breast that i have never felt before. But the one thing they all have in common is me convincing myself they could be cancer. Its like the logical part of my brain is like stop, you know this is nothing but the anxious part of my brain is like ah but what if this is the one time there is something wrong and you do nothing about it and lose the chance at an early diagnosis?

I have been to a counselor a few times and while she is good i feel like the only thing that can 100% make me feel better is a full health check that literally checks for every kind of cancer but i know this is ridiculous and impossible and would also just feed into my anxiety.

I feel like this is on the verge of really controlling my life because i find myself unable to look forward to things in case i find something else to become really anxious about which will ruin whatever i was looking forward to. I dont even want to book a holiday because im like whats the point? Ill just spend my time worrying anyway and ruin it for myself (This happened shortly after i got the all clear in October and went on holiday and just had horrible anxiety the whole time).

Anyways sorry for the huge essay but i just felt it may be therapeutic to write it all out and maybe have it read by people who understand that its not as easy as just getting over it and moving on. The brain can be a terrible enemy at times.

Thanks for reading

Soooooo heres my story abiut 4 years ago i found out i had high colestoral. I started medication and routine blood work. Blood worked showed elevated liver enzymes. Ct was ordered found a liver lesion. Was sent for an mri was determined to be a hemangioma of the liver. In between the reults window my mind was hell bent on it being cancer. This caused a new found discovery of anxiety. The anxiety caused me to suffer from fibromayalga/chronic pain. Once i received the results i was settled for a bit the the thought of cancer came back. I some how burried it in my mind telling myself i was ok for a long time. Just recently i started having severe panic attacks thinking something is wrong with me. I sent myself into such a panic that i ended up in the hospital which lead to another ct of my chest to rule out heart attack. Well low and behold now my liver has suspected hemangiomas(now plurel). I now go to a hepatologist who says not to worry but she concerned about a past report of possible fatty liver and wants to send me for a 6 month follow up ct. This is now next month. For the past month i have been having pains in my ovarie area which i knew in the past i suffer fron cysts. I somehow have convinced myself it could be cancer. Now everytime my body dles something strange or a pain here or there i tell myself its cancer. I knw this is some type of ptsd and i want to get to the point where i dont feel everything that happens to me is cancer and i dont knw how to get to this point. It really has made my life suffer and i hold all of this in. I have an appt tomorrow with my gyn and i just feel like i sound crazy. I HATE FEELING LIKE THIS. I feel so helpless and hopeless.

I have recently discovered a lump on my head and it feels a bit sore, also I have been weeing a lot, I have had 4 children so going to the toilet a lot is probably due to weak bladder muscles, also I am due my annual smear test next week, the others were fine, I had 2 iuds fitted previously the last one was taken out in 2015, I have been going on google a lot and looking up the symptoms and I find it scary and worrying, as I have a very loving husband and 4 great children, I am obsessed with it all at the moment, my family have said to me to stop worrying, but I cannot help it, any advice would be great.

Hi Guys

I know its been a good 3 years since i posted but i have just come across an email confirmation and i am really surprised to see people are still replying to my original post.

Reading all your replies has really struck a chord with me, Mainly due to the fact this topic has not affected me in so long and i am so sad to see that some of you now feel exactly how i did 3 years ago! 

Just to update you guys the little lump in my neck is still there but i know see it for what it is a lymph node! I am not too sure the exact time i stopped stressing about it but it has been longer than i can remember, I was going through a really hard time back then losing my best friend at 28 and my sister in law was going through chemo at 30 yrs old (She has had all clear for 2 years) so i 100% believe the stress of it all brought on my anxiety! All i can say is please please please DO NOT spend hours trawling the web and self diagnosing or reading tragic stories of how patients were miss diagnosed this will just lead to higher levels of anxiety. Focus on the positive things in your life and before you know it you will be back on track! Do not waste months of your live like i did its really is not worth it! xxx

Hi, **Long Post Alert*

Just come across this thread, i wouldst normally reply or comment, but i feel it might help to tell someone exactly what im going through. Just reading everyone's comments makes me feel a little less "Strange" lol

I have always been an anxious person, but my Healthy Anxiety started a couple of years ago after finding a lump in my right breast, this is when the true fear of Cancer really hit me! After a horrendous couple of weeks wait, i had an ultra sound scan and Biopsy that confirmed it was just fatty Tissue, the releif i felt after this was unreal, So life moved on and i was happy normal 20 something year old. At 29 i fell pregnant with my little boy, anxiety started mixed with hormones and a stressful job, i cried pretty much every day of pregnancy, i worried every day that baby wasn't moving enough. I was in and out of the hospital having baby's heartbeat monitored, in the end they induced labor early,  at first i thought it was hormones , but i soon realized  i was suffering with a really bad case of Post natal depression, however what i did was keep it to myself and tried to carry on. 

My little boy is almost 2 now, and in the space of those " years, i have ben convinced i have had the following illnesses 

Breast Cancer (Again) due to a pain in my breast and armpit 

Anal Cancer 

Bowel Cancer 

Nose Cancer 

Lymphoma 

The saw i had found in my nose was when i was at my lowest point, my doctor told me it should clear with some cream and to come back in a month if it doesn't, i sat and cried and told him i cant wait a month!! what if the cream didn't clear it up etc etc, i knew i would spend the next month worrying myself to death, so i paid a lot of money to see a private consultant , for him to take a look at it and tell me its nothing to worry about. 

During this time i made my self really poorly, I would have nausea & loose bowels in the morning, (i was then convinced it was bowel cancer) I was dizzy., Light headed and had no appetite , i lost a lot of weight. I remember sitting in the corner and literally rocking one day, i couldn't focus, i couldn't talk to anyone, i couldn't laugh or Smile, i couldn't enjoy my beautiful little boy. I was so down and absolutely consumed with worry! 

Whilst i should have been playing, and laughing with my son, i  spent hours on google, i mean i literally searched every forum and web site i could, looking for some sort of answer, some things might make me feel a little better, then i would read something scary and i would be back to worrying again, and i dont mean just a little bit worried, i mean sweating, heart racing, pacing the house, planning my own funeral, what i would say to people that came to visit me on my death bed, and worrying about how my child would be bought up without me 

I was honestly consumed !!

I then decided to get some help from a new doctor who was wonderful, he was so reassuring and actually listed and understood how i fel, My old doc thought i was mad i think ha! i could see him rolling his eyes when i went to see him. new doc prescribed a low dose of Fluoxetine and refereed for CBT, To be honest the CBT didnt really help me, i think my mind is too powerful, i find it really hard to switch my thoughts off. 

I have had about 8 months of feeling great, genuinely so much happier, and i worry so much less, i enjoy every moment with my little boy. 

During the last month or so, i have sadly lost my uncle to Liver Cancer, he was diagnosed and dies withing 2 weeks, also have friend going through treatment for liver cancer, and coincidentally have been hearing lots of stories about people dying or going through treatments for cancer, and the Health Anxiety is back !! Im soooooooo annoyed, i thought i had it under control! My hubby thinks that recent events may have triggered it again. 

I have had a slight sharp pain under my left ribcage/Breast area for a while now, at first i didn't think much of it and wasn't too worried , but now im back to OCD again, i have seen 3 different doctors about it, each had a different opinion about what it is, which doesn't help my confidence levels, but none of them think its serious, but ive gone back to my arch enemy GOOGLE , i am now convinced i have lung cancer, or maybe cancer of the Spleen, or even some sort of Breast Cancer in left breast, and now im sure im feeling pains in nipple/Armpit, 

Is it my mind playing tricks with the different pains, or should i push for further tests ?

Sorry for long post, was good to let that all out Ha! its a strange subject to discuss with people that don't understand, they just cant relate to my feeling at all, 

I wish i wasn't like this i really do, i would give anything to take these feelings away and live a normal life 

Any suggestions welcome 

Im sorry we are all going through this

xx