List of all the illnesses you were certain you had.

[Nik Nak 8]

I thought this would be a good way to put things into perspective. I only really started suffering from serious health anxiety about 2 years ago but it has been an ongoing problem all my life. Thought this would be some fun, write down all the illnesses over the last few years you were certain you had and what they actually turned out to be, so let me start:

 

Ovarian Cancer (nothing)

Cervical Cancer (nothing)

Breast Cancer (just a lymph node)

ALS Limb Onset (nothing)

Breast Cancer x2 (another lymph node)

Brain Eating Amoeba (nothing)

Early Onset Dementia (anti-depressants were giving me brain fog)

Lymphoma (just normal reactive lymph nodes)

Stomach Cancer (nothing)

ALS Bulbar Onset (still an ongoing fear and my current rabbit hole)

[Bobnnat 496]

Let's see:

Brain Tumor (several times) - muscle tightness in neck/shoulders

ALS (nothing)

Rheumatoid Arthritis (regular sore feet)

Colorectal cancer - nothing except pain from anxiety

Pancreatic Cancer (at least 2x) - muscles in upper back that had wrapped around the front to the ribs and chest

HIV - negative afraid from once touching a dancer

mouth cancer - nothing

lymphoma - normal nodes I interpreted as abnormal

leukemia - due to petetchia, if it even was that - normal

carpal tunnel - I correctly diagnosed that

parkinsons - nerves causing shakiness

stomach cancer - when all my muscles in chest and back were sore and CT scan r/o problems, I turnrf to stomach cancer since the CT did't look at the stomach

prostate cancer - normal PSA scores

sarcoma - bump that faded

[geezer 11]

Hi NikNak,

i have had h/a for many years and the list of illnesses would be staggering this is my list from early December 2018.

brain/t i had and have tinnitus 

breast cancer men can get this i have a lump but o/k

stiff person syndrome [yes it does exist]

esophageal i worry a lot about this.

lung had a cough got x ray all clear 

back to esophageal

something with bones or muscles i have a bad back and legs feel achy.Probably not enough exercise or anxiety related?

All of this in about 6 weeks it drives me crazy and i have blood tests at the end of the month for my annual check up.It is so tiring does anyone else get one thing straight after another without a let up,this has gone on for at least 25 years?

My best to all geezer

[Bobnnat 496]

Geezer,

I'm on a run of them. In August it was the neck pain causing headaches and BT fears. After 3 months that went away and I was free of fears for like a week. Then I had a ganglion cyst, if that's what it was that I was sure was an RA node, plus my feet hurt and I didn't really know why. I fixated on my toes and sides of my feet and thought they were too red. That passed after 2 or so weeks and I got (again) carpal tunnel pain. No fears there, just annoyances. Now, I have urethral irritation my GP calls it. Tests negative for UTI. No STD, prostate is fine so not prostititis. I wonder about Non-Specific Urethritis which my GP says I don't have. If one does, they need antibiotics and some testing. So I'm trying to trust the doctor stage now. I've seen him 3x in the past 2 weeks and he told me yesterday he's pissed off that I keep coming back. Lovely.So as long as I have the pain it's no "fun" for me or the wife.

Sometimes it seems like you're driving down a highway; cars are cutting you off, police car is behind you and you're speeding, all representing life's problems and then you see an exit...take the exit and leave the crazy "highway" behind. Maybe death isn't all that bad I wonder.

[Cubanborn87 42]

- Skin Cancer (Nothing)

-Heart Issues (Nothing)

-Colon Cancer (IBS)

-LuNg Cancer (Nothing)

-ALS  (TBD)

-HIV (Nothing)

[bin_tenn 1252]

Copied from my reply to your NMP post:

Lung cancer
Lymphoma
Leukemia
Soft tissue sarcoma
Oral cancer
Heart attack / other heart disease

Of course, none of these are true. I only convinced myself I had them because I thought I understood the stuff I was reading on Google. Turns out, I'm not a doctor. I had what I thought were symptoms of each, but I didn't. The "symptoms" I had were very much real. However, the symptoms were not, in fact, symptoms of those illnesses. I just perceived them as such based on what Google said.

Forgot to add melanoma, too.

[Angelica Schuyler 217]

Oh, I love this game. Starting from November 2017 and moving forward:

• Breast cancer (right breast) - muscle strain
• Ovarian cancer - tiny ovarian cyst and even tinier uterine fibroid
• Pancreatic cancer - see stomach cancer
• Stomach cancer - literally nothing
• Colon cancer - also literally nothing, maybe some wonky rib pain
• Heart attack - anxiety and too much caffeine
• Lung cancer - again, literally nothing, breastbone pain probably caused by anxiety
• Breast cancer (left breast, lump) - lumpiness caused by period
• Inflammatory breast cancer (left breast, discoloration) - IDK, Raynaud's or something
• Breast cancer (left breast, pain) - still working on this one, GP thinks it's muscle pain, annual breast MRI coming up

[Jods44 0]

Breast cancer (lump that was a cyst 2x)

Breast cancer/Paget's disease (just irritation)

Breast cancer-inflammatory (pimple on breast)

Ovarian cancer (hip/pelvic pain which was corrected through physical therapy)

Melanoma (benign moles)

Leukemia (shaving irritation)

[qcd 6]

• Prostate Cancer (prostatitis)
• Testicular Cancer (nothing)
• ALS (anxiety)
• Retinal detachment (floaters)
• Heart issues (nothing)
• Chronic fatigue syndrome (nothing)
• Melanoma (benign moles)
• Basal cell carcinoma (dry skin)
• Colon cancer (IBS)

Now I'm worried about leukemia :X

 

[Nutmegbella 91]

It all started with heart attack. 

Since then I’ve probably had 1000 heart attacks. (Heart issues claimed 2 cousins at a young age.)

diabetes (it runs in the fam)

esophagus cancer (soooo many problems with my throat) it’s a fear that constantly plagues my mind. 

thyroid issues, which makes me think it’s going to cause a heart attack.

aneurysms. In the abdomen and neck. Actually was about to makes a post about a neck issue that I think will turn into a neck aneurysm

respiratory issues.

hiv

stds

and I’m pretty sure there is more but can’t think of them right now

 

 

[Nats03 5]

Heart attack/heart disease (nothing/anxiety)

Lung cancer (nothing)

throat cancer (nodules)

brain tumor (nothing)

ovarian cancer (nothing)

stroke (visual migranes)

bowel cancer (internal hemorrhoids)

lymphoma (urticaria)

I still struggle with thinking something is wrong with my heart. 

 

[jonathan123 2368]

Well, this thread has given me a good laugh. Honest!!! it goes to show that we KNOW it's all smoke and mirrors so why do we still get uptight with symptoms? HABIT!! It has become our habit to think in a negative way. 'Catastrophizing they call it. You know, I bet if everyone on this site went for a medical check-up about 99.9% would be found to be OK. Ah now, here we go again! 'What about the 1% you ask, that's what I'm afraid of'? It's a lot more dangerous out there on the road if you drive, but most of us have got in the habit of driving it has become second nature. We don't have to think about it. Now why can't we make positive thinking a habit? We can you know if we persist with acceptance. We can never, in this life, avoid all the problems that being human brings, but we can see events for what they are, milestones to be overcome. We can overcome if we want to and NOT be overcome by events. We don't have anxiety, anxiety has us. Now who has more intelligence, you or Mr. Anxiety? Who is in charge of your mind, you or him? He will take charge if you let him. YOU have the power to change so begin today and use that God given power.

[Ruu 39]

This sounds like fun... I can’t actually remember them all, but here are a few:

Lyme Disease

Kidney Failure

Pulmonary Embolism

Heart Attack

Heart Disease

Lymphoma

Leukaemia

Early onset Parkinson's

Early onset Alzheimers

Going Blind

Bowel Cancer

All of which were obviously nothing, otherwise I’d have been dead by now 😅

[Dixon444 7]

Hmm Let's see

• ALS limb onset (nothing)
• ALS bulbar onset (nothing)
• HIV (nothing)
• Cancer (nothing)
• Blood poisoning (nothing)
• Kidney Failure (nothing)
• Heart Failure (nothing)
• Heart attack (panic attack)
• Diabetes (nothing)
• Depression (anxiety)
• Schizophrenia (anxiety)
• PTSD (anxiety)
• OCD (anxiety)
• Paranoid Personality Disorder (anxiety)

The list goes on and on but it is all anxiety tbh

[jonathan123 2368]

What about:

Mongolian Swamp Fever.

Mississippi lurgy.

New York Acne.

Trumpitis!

Brexit phobia. (Found in the UK only. Very nasty.(Can drive you mad if not treated!).

Inflammation of the wallet. (I get this badly!).

Not making enough money. (moneyitis).

Inflammation of the workplace.

Miserable sods disorder.( MSD. People that make you miserable)

Weatherphobia.

Asking too many questions disorder. (ATMQD. Nasty complaint!).

Temperitis. (Losing your temper unnecessarily).

And so on. I'm sure you could find some more fictitious ones. That's what most of our problems are, fictitious!!!!!!

 

 

[bin_tenn 1252]

2 hours ago, jonathan123 said:

What about:

Mongolian Swamp Fever.

Mississippi lurgy.

New York Acne.

Trumpitis!

Brexit phobia. (Found in the UK only. Very nasty.(Can drive you mad if not treated!).

Inflammation of the wallet. (I get this badly!).

Not making enough money. (moneyitis).

Inflammation of the workplace.

Miserable sods disorder.( MSD. People that make you miserable)

Weatherphobia.

Asking too many questions disorder. (ATMQD. Nasty complaint!).

Temperitis. (Losing your temper unnecessarily).

And so on. I'm sure you could find some more fictitious ones. That's what most of our problems are, fictitious!!!!!!

 

 

"Inflammation of the workplace" 😂

[mollyfin 366]

Oh lordy, I've been at this for so long!  

- was afraid my heart would just randomly stop beating, so I ran laps around my home to keep it going (I was about four; it made sense at the time!  At least I was getting exercise...)

- Asthma at age six, since my difficulty breathing started when inhaling baby powder.  That probably wasn't helpful, but looking back it just triggered my first bout of elephant on the chest anxiety where you feel like you can't breathe.

- Weird spots in my line of vision; turned out to be garden variety visual snow; I've had big floaters since grade school as well.  Not sure what I thought it was.

- Thought I had a UTI, turned out I just had to pee more often than usual from chugging a giant caffeinated soda.  To be fair I did get those a lot as a kid.  

- Skin cancer; turned out to be normal moles.

- Breast cancer, turned out to be normal glands.  No one tells you boobs have those!

- Thought I was dying; turned out to be panic attacks

- Lupus; turned out to be an allergic reaction that gave me a weird face rash

- Lupus again; turned out to be a medication side effect

- Lymphoma; turned out to be reactive nodes 

- Epilepsy or brain tumor; turned out to be a medication side effect

- MS or brain tumor; turned out be a medication side effect

- Thought I was going blind; turned out to be a migraine

- Thought I had endometriosis, actually ended up being right.  

- Thought I had eczema, was right about that too.

- Thought my kidneys were shutting down or something; turned out I had the flu on top of a UTI and a throat infection.  In hindsight, not surprised I felt like I was dying!  Ended up in the hospital overnight because my blood tests were screwy; apparently my white blood cell count was twice what they would have expected it to be, and they thought I might have a spinal infection because of my back pain, but it fixed itself in twelve hours.  Moral of the story, I should've just stayed home and gotten antibiotics when the weekend was over and my GP was in office.  Would've spared myself a crappy day.  Two ruptured hemorrhagic cysts were also discovered which explained some pains I'd had during my period.

- Thought I was having a stroke; it was anxiety.

- Thought I would die from drinking moldy Gatorade; nothing happened.  Drank the rest of the batch since only one bottle was moldy.  Nothing continued to happen.  

- Anal cancer; turned out to be hemorrhoids

- Bladder cancer; no cause for blood in urine was found, but no cancer

- Brain tumor, turned out to just be a headache blown up by anxiety

- Melanoma, turned out to be a mole so innocuous the derm didn't want to biopsy it (it's really friggin' ugly though; I still think it looks sketchy, but apparently not!)

- Nodular melanoma, turned out to be a mole

- Cervical cancer, turned out to be nothing (well, not NOTHING, I had HPV and had a sketchy spot biopsied, but it wasn't cancer and the HPV righted itself by my next pap).

- UTI, turned out to be ovarian cyst pushing on my bladder.  

- Ovarian cancer, turned out to be that same cyst blown up to 11 cm.  Had that surgically removed.  

- Post surgery DVT, turned out to be...idk my leg hurting I guess

- Pregnancy despite it being literally impossible; still don't know what that was, likely hormones and anxiety.  Those cysts turned out to be endometriosis, which can go hand in hand with weird hormonal crap.

- Thyroid cancer; thyroid adenoma

- Lymphoma; turned out to be a reactive node

- Unknown but clearly terrifying skin lesion; turned out to be a cluster of blood vessels near the skin that I'd probably had my whole life.  I'd never noticed it before because it's on the side of my head.  

- Melanoma; turned out to be a bit of dried blood under my skin.  It's happened twice in the same place for some reason.  Looked like a black dot, which is how some melanomas start, so I freaked out both times.  Sigh.

- Breast cancer; discharge of unknown origin but probably triggered by minor trauma (probably from messing with that black spot above)

- Uterine cancer; this one was a legitimate scare but thankfully it turned out to be an atypical fibroid.

- Cellulitis/blood poisoning; just a really angry abscess.  Having them drained hurts more than I thought it would but no lasting harm done.  

- Cancer in spine; slipped discs, arthritis, a deformity in my spine near my neck and scoliosis.  So my back is actually a mess, but a benign one.  

- Melanoma; atypical mole

- Medullary thyroid cancer; follicular thyroid cancer.  I realize this one sounds like I was actually right, but medullary can be dangerous; follicular rarely is.  I'm having it out in March and it should be fine.  

 

Also feared blood cancer a few times due to petechiae, which I just seem to get for no reason sometimes or due to minor trauma, and I had an ALS phase for literally about a day.  I'm SURE I'm forgetting some.  

[RachelStorm98 12]

Oh boy. Here we go. From 2015 to 2019. 

- Ebola. (This was in 2015. It was all over the news and I thought I had it, especially since I used public restrooms a lot.) 

- Heart attack. (Caused by panic attacks. I felt like I was gonna die. This fear started when I started to get panic attacks in 2016. Heart disease runs in my family. My grandfather has had a few heart attacks and one stroke. 

- Breast cancer. Paget's disease of the breast mainly. (This started in 2017, when I was 19 years old. I'm 20 years old and will be 21 in September. This scare is still currently going on and I still don't have an answer. I am getting the dry skin painful flaking again and it feels like discharge is seeping out of my nipple. Yuck! I am gonna see a dermatologist in March to demand a punch biospy to see what the hell this is. So this is TBD. I hope I do not have breast cancer.) 

- Uterine cancer. 2018/2019. (Had issues with my periods being irregular and starting and stopping. I also have PCOS. I would bleed between periods.  Family history. My grandmother had uterine cancer. This was ruled out a few weeks ago when I had an ultrasound of my uterus done.) 

- Skin cancer. 2018. ( I had ingrown hair follicles that I had mistaken for Squamous cell carcinoma or Basal cell carcinoma. There is family history of skin cancer. My grandmother had basal cell carcinoma. This was ruled out.) 

- Brain cancer. 2017 to 2019. ( I was convinced I had brain cancer because I use my cell phone a lot etc. I kept on getting headaches and I feel a lump on my forehead. (Could be acne but who knows.) I am trying to get over this fear.) 

- Ovarian cancer. 2018/2019. (Same reasons as the uterine cancer. When I went to the hospital a few weeks ago they were checking for cysts. Ovarian cancer and the cysts, were ruled out.) 

- Blood clots. 2018. (When I would injure myself I was scared of the blood clotting. Obviously that has never happened.) 

- Sepsis. 2018/2019. (Got through my last sepsis scare when blood tests and a lack of fever ruled it out. However, my ingrown hair infection is back and I can't get antibiotics for it for a few weeks when I get paid. So for now I have to keep an eye out for sepsis. I check daily to make sure I don't get a fever. I am trying not to worry. The last time I had one of these I left it untreated between 5 to 10 months. I just hope I can last 3 weeks... that's the next time I get paid. (I started a new job.) I hope I don't get Sepsis.  ) 

edited to add these:

ALS (2019)

MS (2019) I need to get to the bottom of my pins and needles issue. 😕 I think I need to figure out if it is just anxiety causing my chronic pins and needles, or Fibromyalgia. Which my grandmother has. 

There are probably more but there were so many times so I can't remember them all. Lol This topic is great! 

[Nik Nak 8]

Wow @mollyfin that is quite the list! I'm actually impressed in a weird way.

[jonathan123 2368]

Well!!! If that lot doesn't convince you it's all smoke and mirrors nothing will. We must be very fit to have all those complaints and survive.  No doctors for us. We have had all the complaints possible so why bother because we must be immune to everything. 😉

[mollyfin 366]

9 hours ago, Nik Nak said:

Wow @mollyfin that is quite the list! I'm actually impressed in a weird way.

Haha I forgot my cardiac fear that turned out to also be nothing.  Still get sharp pains in my jaw and arm when I climb stairs but whatever it is, it's not my heart.  I've been at this more than 30 years and still alive, so...hopefully that trend will continue!