DeannaW

So sorry to hear that, @Ihadcancer. One of the scariest things about it must be not knowing how your disease might progress. I hope the movement specialist leaves you more reassured than not.

@Ihadcancer Thanks for the response! They did get back to me after exactly a week and said they aren't precancerous or cancerous yet, but they recommended removing them as well, so I'll be getting that done in October.

Just got off the phone with my dermatologist, and the two moles that were biopsied came back as non-cancerous! Took a week to get the results. They still said the cells were "abnormal," so they're still removing them fully in October, but they aren't cancerous or pre-cancerous at least, so it's basically just a precaution. Thanks everyone for the moral support. 🙂 On to the next thing now lol It's always one thing after the other with HA. 🙄

@Ihadcancer Sorry, I know this is an older post! I‘m in this boat now with a couple of older moles I had biopsied on Wednesday. Do you remember how long it took to get your initial biopsy results? I’ve diagnosed myself with melanoma and metastatic brain cancer in the 4 days it’s been lol

@sTeaLth Yes, onset of PD is usually after 60, so without a family tie, you’re probably too young for that. I’ve been in the MS fear boat before too. It’s encouraging that your symptoms go away when you aren’t paying attention to it or when you’re exercising. I used the gym as a way to prove that I was still able to do things and push myself, and I figured I wouldn’t be able to do that if I had something like MS. Keep it up if you’re doing that.

@Ironman Wow, how scary! I’m glad it ended up being just a really bad sinus infection. I wish I had friends who worked in medical labs to give me some insight on how long these things actually take. I’m sure it varies. I’ve been called with good news from a biopsy in 4 days, and I’ve been left hanging for two weeks with what ended up being not so good news, so who knows lol

I’ve been diagnosed with vestibular migraines. I also have episodes of dizziness/imbalance and headaches, and today has my first aural migraine I think. Since you say it mainly affects you when lying on your back or your left side, my guess is that it’s inner-ear related. There are crystals in your inner ear that work with your ears and eyes to balance the world out, and sometimes those crystals fall out of place, and you get dizziness until your head readjusts and those crystals absorb. If it’s BPPV, there are exercises you can do for it to help those crystals fall back in place, and there are physical tests doctors can do to tell pretty quickly if that’s what it is. Sinuses can also wreak havoc on your vestibular system too though. And stress of course. I’m going though something pretty similar right now. Several years ago, my neuro-otologist ordered an MRI when I first started seeing him about my dizziness. MRI was clear, so it’s definitely possible for these symptoms not to be a brain tumor. I get it though, I feel like I’m always worrying I have one, including right now.

My husband went to the same dermatologist last year for his biopsy, and they didn't even call him back lol He finally just called them because he wanted to know, but it was after like 3 weeks, and he was fine. I really hope I just never hear back from them. 😐

Definitely good to know, thanks for the reassurance. ❤️

Thanks for the response! There's always that voice in the back of your head that says, "They're only saying not to worry, because they don't want you to, even if they think you should be worried." 😐 They did say normal moles can change over time too, but the waiting is the WORST. I wish they had just taken the whole thing out yesterday, but they said they don't do that until they know what it is lol Regardless, I'll probably ask them to just take the whole thing out, because I know I'll always worry about it anyway now. Ugh.

I finally made myself beat it, after wasting time doing side quests haha. Such a good game. So I'm not a big follower of yoga or meditation, but I did download this guided meditation app at one point called Headspace, and I used to listen to it before I went to sleep. The sessions are only a few minutes long, but I found that it helped me a lot when I was trying to quiet my mind down. Might be something to look into. Hope you feel better soon.

Well, it's been a while! I'm currently in the throes of a skin cancer scare. I've had this mole on the side of my foot for several years now. I never really thought much of it, but over the years, I think maybe the color has gotten a little darker? It's still brown, just a darker brown maybe. It's also not totally symmetrical, but it's smaller than the size of an eraser. Not sure exactly how long I've had it, but long enough that I can't put a number to it. I've been fixating on it recently though, probably because my husband had to get a mole removed about a year ago, so my mind went to this one on my foot and latched on. Then last Christmas, my parents were visiting, and my dad looked at it and asked what it was, and I said it was a mole. So just him asking about it reinforced to me that it's probably a weird one. After having it stare me in the face for years, I finally decided it was bothering me enough to get it looked at. Went to the dermatologist yesterday and got a full body scan by a PA. So she first saw one on my thigh that I'm pretty sure I've had looked at before, but I couldn't be sure, so she biopsied that one. Then she gets to my legs and says, "I see the one you're talking about on your foot." Which automatically makes me nervous, because I was really hoping she'd be like, "Oh, that's nothing to worry about." So she asks to biopsy that one as well, because, to quote her, "We don't really mess with the ones on the feet, because the ones on the foot have the potential to change quickly." OH GOOD. So I said, is it like REALLY weird??! And she said, "Well, it's just a darker color and it's not symmetrical, so we'd just wanna check it out." So she leaves, and another nurse comes in to prep me for the biopsies, and the PA forgot to mark the one on my foot as needing to be biopsied, so she asks where the other one is, and I show it to her. And then I asked HER, hey, does this thing really look bad?? And she said, "No, it doesn't look bad, it's just not symmetrical." And I said, "So should I be worried?!" And she reassured me that I shouldn't be that worried about it. The PA came back and removed the two spots, and I asked again, "So, HOW worried should I be about these??" And the PA was like, "Well, I'm not getting cancer vibes from either one of them, so you shouldn't really worry about it." So now I get to play the game of waiting two weeks to find out if I have melanoma or not. I think I'm just worried, because it's been there a while, and I'm scared it's too late to do anything about it, if it's cancer. 😕

I don't have anything helpful to add besides saying I've had this too, and it definitely goes away when I'm not thinking about it. You also mentioned it felt like it would move around, and I feel like these things would likely affect one area and then spread, not jump around, you know? If one area feels better while another one suddenly feels worse, I'd imagine it's anxiety. Side note, love your avatar. 🙂 Have you played Tears of the Kingdom yet?

I’ve read that people with CHF have a harder time breathing when they’re lying down, so I guess it made me nervous that my symptoms would worsen after a period of lying down. I’ve never actually considered what my heart rate is while recovering from exercising. Hmm. One more thing to analyze, I guess. Lol My trainer actually did mention once that my heart rate gets up there pretty fast, but he said as long as I’m not dizzy, it’s probably fine. I try not to push it over what my max HR should be though. This was also a few years ago, so I don’t know that it goes up as quickly now though.

I hope so! Mine is usually first thing in the morning and a deep breath usually clears it out which I always thought was weird, but my doctor has said before that when you're lying down, all the fluid settles in your chest, which is what made me nervous. It's been like that for a while though. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't really fit the profile for it, besides being a little overweight. Unless there was something congenital wrong that they just hadn't discovered yet, which I think is really where my worry comes from. My diet isn't great either, but I don't smoke or have diabetes that I'm aware of. What kills me is that when you google it (I know, I know), it lists all these symptoms, then just for funzies, it always says, "But some people with this condition have no symptoms at all!" So helpful. lol

Thanks, bin_tenn! Was anyone ever able to tell you why you were congested in the morning? Maybe mine’s just allergies. I can get a deep breath, but it rattles a bit. I haven’t had regular old blood work done in a while so we’ll see what it says. Thanks for the advice!

Definitely been there! I’ve even worried that I started developing a lisp, but I stop noticing it when I either get busy enough or started worrying about something else. lol If it persists and you start feeling anxious about it, ask your doctor for peace of mind, but I’ve read if you’re able to raise your tongue like you’re trying to touch your nose, you’re probably fine and it’ll go away eventually!

I have this off and on, and have had it for a long time. I figure if it were something serious, it would've progressed into something else by now. lol Usually it goes away when I start worrying about something else, so I'd say it's just anxiety!

Well, this time I'm worried I have heart issues. I try not to overanalyze things when I'm having single, isolated symptoms. For example, if I were just having some chest discomfort and nothing else, I'd probably chalk my symptoms up to acid reflux. It's when I start having more than one symptom at a time that I start worrying. For years now, I'll have a period of time where I'm feeling relatively ok, what I would call my baseline. But every few months or so, I'll experience a few weeks or days where I feel like I hit a wall and I'm exhausted for no apparent reason, and it's accompanied by things like feeling like breathing is a chore and pains on my left side. Now, I do have issues with my back, and my massage therapist always does a lot of work on my left side, because my upper back on that side is always particularly bad. But when I feel like the act of breathing is exhausting, combined with pokey pains on the left side of my chest, dizziness, and fatigue, it makes me worry about things like heart-related issues. I'm 38 (39 in a few weeks), so I feel like congestive heart failure isn't really something that would jump to most doctors' minds for someone of my age, but I also feel chest congestion when I wake up in the morning and my hands seem to swell. I have a really hard time getting my rings off now, to the point of me considering having them re-sized, and I know a lot of these symptoms could be because of heart-related problems. It's probably the swelling and the breathing thing that worries me the most. Today I was feeling super nauseous. I wear a Fitbit all day, and my resting heart rate varies from mid to upper 60s, but sometimes my heart rate will dip into the lower 50s when I'm sleeping, which seems low. I know for athletes, it's sometimes that low, but I'm hardly an athlete, even though I work out with a trainer twice a week. I also think my blood pressure is low sometimes. There are time when I've taken it where it comes back low, but this has never happened in a doctor's office. I'm making an appointment to get my yearly bloodwork done this week, so I'll probably mention this to them when I go. Oddly enough, I usually don't have issues with fatigue when I'm working out. I wear another heart rate monitor with a strap when I work out, and while my heart rate does seem to increase quickly, I never feel abnormally short of breath when it happens, and it goes back down normally I think. IDK. Sucks starting off the new year worrying about my health though!

Hi mla1209! LOL Don't let that freak you out. Any time I have something weird going on, I always consult multiple doctors. No one referred me to a rheumatologist. I chose to go to one, which I've done several times over the years. There's strong history of autoimmune illnesses on both sides of my family, so my mind either goes to that or MS (for no logical reason) when something weird is going on. No rheumatologist has ever given me anything but normal test results, besides my vitamin D being low, though. In fact, the allergists I went to were also immunologists, so they ran all the autoimmune stuff too. If it makes you feel any better, my mother also has lupus, and she's never had hives as one of her symptoms, and if you had lupus, I imagine you'd have other symptoms as well as abnormal bloodwork. Did you have medication or anything with the dental work? Maybe a reaction to that? I have a friend who had to do a test with contrast dye, and she got hives from that for a while. And NSAIDS! NSAIDs trigger hives in certain people. They're notorious for it. I had taken an Advil around the time when I got hives, and I feel like I had a bad reaction to them the last time I tried taking them, and I haven't tried it since. Really, any antibiotic can cause hives though, too. Have you been on any medication lately? My doctors never mentioned leaky gut, but I know about it, because I did a lot of reading about it when I got hives. I feel like traditional doctors are slow to recognize leaky gut as a legitimate medical problem, so they usually don't mention it to me, but it probably wouldn't hurt to take a good probiotic, if you're concerned about that sort of thing. Of course, there's the theory that leaky gut is what causes allergies in the first place, so I tried going on an elimination diet and failed MISERABLY because it made me feel so awful. After that, I just abandoned it altogether. lol I feel like I'd need to see a holistic doctor to discuss something like leaky gut though. My regular doctors never brought it up. Hives are rarely because of something serious, from what I understand. Mine were everywhere though. Face, back, arms, legs. It was terrible. And I also had swelling, so while I didn't usually get a lot of bumps on my face, I would wake up and my eyes or lips would be swollen. I was covered in them. It suuuuucked. It sounds like something bothered your immune system, and it went into overdrive, and it may just take some time for it to work itself out. You can definitely develop allergies to things you haven't been allergic to before, though. The night my hives started, I'd eaten shrimp, and I was terrified it was because of that, because I eat a LOT of shellfish, but it wasn't. Sometimes hives are just hives, and they're not symptoms of other underlying things. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what you're coming into contact with that's causing it. It took a long time and a lot of stress for me to finally believe my allergist when she said I wasn't actually allergic to anything, but I think she was right. And they did eventually go away, without me changing anything I was ingesting or coming into contact with, aside from the occasional NSAID. I would suggest seeing an allergist, if you haven't already, though. You might have developed an allergy to something that you don't know about, and they'll do all the autoimmune tests to find out if your hives are because of something like that (which I doubt), and it would at least put your mind at ease that it's not something more serious. They'd also do bloodwork to check your organ function, if that's something you're worried about, but again, I'd be shocked if it was that, and hives were the ONLY symptom you had. If you're worried about taking too much vitamin C, you can always get the Quercetin without the vitamin C. They sell it with and without, but to me, it's the Queretin that's the most effective part. People with mast cell issues recommend it on all of the forums where I read about hives, and I think it helped me a lot. Hopefully yours will go away soon, but try not to worry in the meantime. I know it's hard!

Hello! Chronic hives sufferer here! I know way more than I'd like to know about hives, but unfortunately, the reason I had them isn't one of the things I know. I never found out what caused mine. They started in the beginning of 2016 and lasted until around November of 2017. Even though I was taking two Zyrtecs, a Singulair, and an Allegra every day, I still had them every day. I eventually did three rounds of Xolair injections, which definitely helped. It's typically used for asthma, but they've found it works for chronic hives too. I ended up seeing two allergists, a rheumatologist, a dermatologist, and a cancer doctor who, in addition to treating cancer, also treated a rare (non-cancerous) disease that I won't name on here, and no one ever figured out why I had them. All my blood tests came back normal, including the autoimmune ones that we did twice. My allergist said that we usually never figure out why we have them. I wasn't allergic to anything in the traditional sense, because they'd done allergy testing with blood work, and my IgG and IgE levels were normal. In October of last year, I finally started weening myself off the antihistamines, because I noticed I wasn't having them as badly as I was before, and by November, I'd stopped taking everything and **knock on wood* I haven't had a recurrence of them yet. During the day, I'd be mostly fine, but I'd start getting them at around 5PM and would have them into the next morning. I also started taking Vitamin C with Quercetin too. I really do think that helped a lot, because Vitamin C is a natural anti-inflammatory, and Quercetin has been shown to stabilize mast cells, which degranulate when we're allergic to something and release histamine, which causes allergy symptoms. You can find it in most vitamin stores. I think I took 1000 mg twice a day? You might give it a try to see if that helps. But so far, I don't have anything underlying that would've caused them. My allergist said they eventually just stop one day, just like they started. Most people's go away within 6 months, and the remaining people who go past 6 months I think go away within 1 to 2 years. You can definitely have them and not have anything else wrong. I do have a few theories on what might have caused mine though. Any infection can trigger hives, and I had a really bad sinus infection that cleared up right as my hives started. Found out two years later that I have chronic sinusitis and will eventually need surgery for it. It wouldn't surprise me if that's what triggered mine. Did you have any allergy testing done? If not, maybe visit an allergist to see what they say. Hopefully yours will go away soon!

Thanks very much for your reply, DoxieMoxie! I was actually familiar with your diagnosis after having read about it shortly after you posted it on here a few months ago. First off, I'm so sorry for what you're going through, but I really admire your attitude and willingness to share your experience on here with us, and I'm glad to hear that you're having no significant issues because of it. I didn't mention it in this post, but one of the things I was concerned about in the past was L'hermitte's sign. About 4 years ago, I started having this odd tingling in my tailbone that would come on when I looked down. Made the mistake of googling and went to the doctor because of it. That was when they found the bulging disc between L4 and L5, and they determined that was the reason I was having the tingling. It comes and goes depending on how active I've been/how long I've been sitting in my office chair, but I've read L'hermitte's sign feels more like a shock running up and down your spine, which I've never had. But when they did the MRI, I wasn't having the knee numbness/issue that I'm having now, so it worries me that there might be something new there. I went to my first PT session for my knee earlier this week, and the therapist said he felt maybe a little weakness in my left leg, which worried me, of course. I really do hope this is an orthopedic issue, but I've never had much luck with physical therapy in the past, so we'll see what happens! Thank you again for your response!

I've done something similar to what you do. I use exercise to track how well I am, and I think, "Well, if I can push myself in the gym like this, it means I can't have XYZ." My problem is that I have injuries that are keeping me from working out as hard as I'd like, and it's affected my stamina, sooooo....there goes my plan of using exercise to make sure I'm healthy. :-P Does a number on my paranoia. I've said to my trainer before that I don't think I'm meant to be healthy because whenever I try, something always gets in my way. Which sucks because I'm trying to lose like 35 lbs, and it'd be awesome if the knee issue I have right now wasn't keeping me from using my elliptical.

I feel like I go through this every few months now. Some weird thing pops up only to be replaced by some other weird thing a few weeks/months later. So here's what's worrying me this time: 1) For about 6 months now, my left knee feels very off. It feels like there's something inside my knee squeezing really hard whenever I walk, and sometimes the discomfort radiates to the top and bottom of my knee, and it feels numb. My GP thinks it's related to a bulging disc at L4/L5, but I did PT for about 2 months and it didn't help. Saw an orthopedist on Friday, and he did Xrays and said my kneecap is tracking to the left of my knee instead of staying in the center, so he thinks this is the issue. Have to do more PT now, but he said if it doesn't help in a month, we may do an MRI and he might consider it's coming from my back and not my knee. But my quad feels weaker, and my leg feels unsteady compared to the right leg. 2) My skin feels sunburned but it isn't. It doesn't feel like that all the time, but if I get hot, or if I'm very active that day, those things seem to trigger it. Went to the gym earlier, and now my skin feels prickly and like I was out in the sun too long. Went to a rheumatologist thinking that it might be fibromyalgia, but she didn't think it was that, because I don't really have a lot of muscle or joint pain. I also get this symptom after getting a massage. She ran the battery of autoimmune blood tests, and everything came back normal like it always does. 3) Overactive bladder. Just came up. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's bothersome. I also recently had a brain MRI that came back normal, but I'm really worried this is MS or some other demyelinating disorder. This knee numbness seems like it would point to a nerve thing, as does this sunburned feeling and the new bladder thing. I haven't seen a neurologist, but that's probably my next step, and my rheumatologist thought it would be a good idea, so that freaked me out, of course. I know MS is considered rare and that a clean brain MRI should give me some peace of mind, but I can't help but think of all the other cases of MS where people have spinal lesions instead of brain lesions, and of course, I haven't had a spine MRI besides the one of my lumbar spine a few years ago. Has anyone else had issues with what I'm having issues with? What did you determine it was? I feel like something like MS is the only thing that could be causing all three of these things, and it's really freaking me out.

Oh gosh, I haaaaaate when I try and interpret what the lab tech is thinking. lol I read into everything. Why is she asking me this? She asked me how I was feeling, does that mean she thinks I should be feeling better/worse than I am? I had to get an ultrasound of my kidneys and they kept going over this one spot that was uncomfortable, and I just KNEW something was wrong, but it wasn't. lol