Lets talk

[Trudy 27]

Hi all I am curious am I the only person whose health anxiety/OCD is also focused on family not just myself. I jump out of my sleep anytime I feel my husband move in the bed for fear something is wrong with him. I drive my kids and him crazy when I have flareups.does this happen to anyone else?

[Bobnnat 496]

All the time! It’s more on myself, but I’ve worried inappropriately about family. One example...maybe 2 years ago my wife showed me some bruising she had. To me it looked like petechie (spelling?) which can, amongst many.totally benign reasons, be a symptom of a blood cancer. She said no, it was from her aggressive workout. I insisted she see her doctor. An argument ensued and I “won”. She saw her doctor, and made it clear she was there because I insisted. Doctor said no, it’s not what I said it was, it was a simple bruise.  She felt foolish. I felt relieved. 

[MARC 431]

My wife a few years ago had chest pains and she threw up too. We both got nervous and she went to the ER. It was not her heart, but when she went to the GI physician the next week, it turned out to be a benign stomach polyp which got twisted up in her stomach lining, which when it was removed, the pain stopped. One of the reasons we are over vigilant for not only our health, but for our families is our inability to accept uncertainty. Of course the main reason is we care for them and don't want to see anything happen to them. 

[MARC 431]

I will tell you one more story, but this is about what happened with me. About 5 or 6 years ago I was walking in our house in the hallway around 530 am when I tripped over our dogs bed. I fell and when I got up, my left lower leg had a giant lump on it from when I fell. I had a meltdown and thought I had a blood clot.  I got dressed right away without taking a shower and got into my car and began speeding to St Joseph Medical Center in Towson. I was in a panic and was driving at 80mph plus and went through a number of red lights as I thought time was of the essence. I sprinted into the ER and was scene by the ER physician. He examined my leg and x-rayed it and said I had a bad contusion and sent me home. It was their quite some time and it bled from the inside and actually a bit of blood pooled at the bottom of my foot and you could see it. Eventually it went away. Boy did I overreact, but in the heat of the moment I lost all composure and went to the worst case outcome.