AndrewF

The news seems to make it seem like women in their 20s 30s and 40s are dropping like flies from breast cancer. Its a lie. The median age is 68. I'm NOT saying its impossible; its just not something that should be concerning you like this. You're more likely to die of a drug overdose or car crash than from this. Anxiety of course knows no reason though.

Tell them you want an ultrasound of your kidneys. They'll either find stones, or whatever is doing it. That's an easy check. my MIL had only *one* incident of hematuria, but hypo she is she followed up. She had 'something' growing on her kidney. Now, it was removed and that was 8 years ago in fact.... It wasn't exactly cancerous but was on its way to being so, to the point it took them 4 weeks to path it. Likely in your situation, no. Get an ultrasound and be sure. 👍

It is highly unlikely a bit of cleaner mist poisoned you, in fact, how much of it really could have gotten in your drink? You probably have a mild virus causing the stomach thing and the taste change... ?

I took my wife to the dermatologist to look at a red bump on her neck that had been there 2.5 weeks. Her dad had a melanoma removed 12+ years ago (no issues) and so did her aunt on her dad's side. Plus she has a lot of atypical nevi. Anyway, I told the doc I was looking for the very uncommon "nodular melanoma" in addition to the more common (though rare) kind that look like flat moles. First, what she has is a clogged pore that became a little cyst., and should clear up on its own. Second, after questioning him, nodular melanoma always grows ("evolves") rapidly enough to notice. "But doc, they say sometimes it grows deeper and not sideways"......Well, if it grows deeper, it also gets taller....it grows uniformly. "What's a good observation threshold" ......"A Month" he said. Give things a month. This is helpful because while we want to be observant of our bodies, we don't want to run to a doctor for every pimple we have 2-3 weeks, especially if it isn't growing. Thought I would share this because it is useful in making calm, appropriate medical decisions!

One of the key signs of health anxiety is going to a doctor with preconceived notions of your "disease" and then setting aside his/her responses (based on experience and training) vs your own few hours of "research." But since we're down this rabbit hole, lets look around a little. If your PD is blocked by a tumor, which would be what causes the pale, floaty stool (since enzymes dont break down the fat, and bile doesn't get through) then that same bile will enter your blood and turn you yellow. Especially if 8 months has gone by. Even if you had a more indolent type tumor, you'd be yellow now. Are you big bird? Are your eyes yellow even? Why does everyone always go for the Hollywood disease? Its this, or ALS, or that brain eating amoeba, or the flesh-eating bacteria. Nobody ever worries about instant heart death, or 10 years of terminal kidney failure.... You could have any number of actual digestive issues, all quite treatable. And you clearly have lots of stress and anxiety too. But your solution is going to have an open conversation with your doctor about it, and being up front about wanting to know whether it is anxiety or something underlying.

yes yes yes. This is one of the most common stress twitches. And thinking about it makes it worse!

Then they fix it! By the way, an annual eye exam is good, they look INSIDE your eyes and make sure you don't have retinal melanoma! Which, if its found, can be fixed. And if its not...will kill you eventually. So good for you, sounds like you might have some presbyopia.

My mom and dad are 72 and 76, respectively. Mom has numerous various small issues and some surgeries, dad has atrial fibrillation and is maybe 30lb overweight. I swear he has "trump" genes. This is not a political statement at all. Its a man in his mid-70s who is overweight and yet has no other conditions or diseases one might expect. I'm like WTF?! They're slowing down, and ageing gracefully. But I never know when "the call" may come. (Dad fell in the garage early this year. His own fault, tripped over something. Got a hematoma in his throat. All healed up from the mess that followed, but he is quite aware this stuff kills older people!) An intractable chronic disease is discovered, a stroke, a heart attack? They live 25 miles and 45 minutes from me, their only child. So we did the best we could think of....we planned ahead. They bought the house next to mine, not ready to move there yet, but I will operate it as a rental until they ready. When "the time" comes it will be super convenient to have them next to their son and grandkids, good for everyone. Or maybe an airplane engine falls on their car and they never use the house at all, so be it. What I'm saying is we have a "plan."

Listen up, I've been right where you are now. You sound like you're stuck in a cycle of rumination and stress. If you have been to your doctor for a physical exam, and done any follow up tests s/he wanted, you need to let it go. That's what you need to do, but I understand its not trivial. You may want to talk to your doc about a low-dose anti-anxiety med if this goes on and is interfering with your life. This is a conversation to be had between you and your doctor. But that alone won't fix all your issues. You need to keep yourself busy living, and let your body settle down some. And stop looking at your stool!

Again, ALS is a disease of FAILING, not FEELING. My uncle apparently has lost the ability to grasp a tennis racket, and hand weakness, and as been to numerous doctors. They worked him up for ALS, and he was told by an expert that even this is not ALS. If you're just twitching and have cramps, without weakness that makes you fail doing things, you do not have ALS and need to stop worrying about that very uncommon disease.

Speaking as a person who does in fact get screening colonoscopies starting at 33 due to a loose family history, and has not had an actual polyp removed yet.... If you're using terms like "Bristol scale" then you are definitely obsessing. I pulled that crap (pun intended) on my GI once and he basically had never heard of the the "bristol scale." He has scoped my stomach twice for things that turned out to be nothing, If you're over 45, get a colonosopy anyway, since that is the new guideline for screening. But there's nothing here that sounds like your doctor is wrong, that it is anxiety-induced jumpy gut that is in a feedback loop of stress.

If all these other comments weren't helpful enough, and they actually should be all you need, then go with the "statistician on an airplane" method -- Having just had this one-in-a-zillion thing happen to someone you know of, what are the chances it will happen TWICE, and the other person will be...YOU? One in a zillion-squared! Fuhgedaboutit!

In all fairness, the Beatles song does confuse the matter a bit.

YUP! My shoulders, about 15 years ago when I was steaming and scraping wallpaper (which was covered in paint!) Sore, pain, radiating. Went to doc. "Yeah, that fire will take a few weeks to go out"

My dad told me this story he read where an older woman had been told to go to a sleep clinic, by her (dentist or doctor of whatever). They would do a sleep study and if she had apnea they could fit her with a mask, CPAP, etc she would wear while sleeping. She told the doctor "I dont think I'm going to do that." She thought about what was involved, and if they determined she needed special treatment what that would entail, and decided it wasn't worth the effort. Doc shocked..."Youre not?! You know, you could die in your sleep!" She thought a moment....and responded: "I can live with that" It seems to me anxiety over health drops off with age, as the % of time with doctors increases and the quality of living doesn't necessarily make up for the investment. I"m not at all saying these people are ready to punch their ticket, but at some point life just "is what it is."