Posted by JenStar on July 15, 2004, at 11:04:08
In reply to Mrs. C/Jen Star And Other Hypochondraics- HELP!, posted by captain on July 15, 2004, at 9:30:35
Hey Captain,
YOU DON'T HAVE A BRAIN TUMOR. I promise! You may be asking how I can know that, but from one fellow hypoc. to another -- you don't. Trust me!I'm sorry that your MRI was stressful. Mine were too! (I had 2 MRI's when I thought I had MS/ALS/etc and I had to take Xanax to get through them w/o freaking out.)
You know, after 6 wks on Lex you're probably JUST starting to stabilize on the drug. I know it seems like you've been taking it forever now, but it takes a long time, sometimes even 8-10 weeks, even 12, to reach a "steady state" and fall into a comfort level with the drug. It's very likely that the dizziness & other issues with slowly fade as you continue to take the Lex.
That being said, here's another example of how a person can magnify symptoms when they think they have them. (It's my story again...sadly, I have many of these...)
When I was SURE that I had MS, I kept watching for vision problems b/c I knew it was supposed to be one of the 1st signs, and "all" I had were the muscle twitches & periodic numbness.
I would sit on the couch and check my vision about 12 times a day: "From this angle, I should JUST be able to read the clock on the stove. Can I see it? Does it say 7:43? Or is it 7:48? Oh my God, yesterday I was better able to distinguish between a 3 and an 8. I am losing my vision. Is it better with the right eye? How about the left? Oh, darn, I can't remember which is worse anyway. But I'm SURE I could see better yest. Wait, now I can't see it at all. Is that a shadow over there or is it a blind spot in my eye caused by MS? Oh my God"...and so on...and so on.
I would do this literally every time I was on the couch, and naturally I became CONVINCED that my vision was failing. It became a negative feedback loop that got worse and worse until I had to remember that I actually could still see things pretty well. At the rate I was going, I was about to make myself blind by "wishful" thinking!
Also - the worst thing about my MRI was the other people. As I was waiting to go in, they were wheeling a guy out in a wheelchair. His family was there to greet him, and the doc actually came out and held up some Xrays/MRI printouts and said "This is serious, they're waiting for you over at Desert Sam, I gave a call ahead, you should go there now" or something like that. I panicked. It's one thing to THINK you have diseases...and then to SEE someone who has something awful just magnifies those scary thoughts. I couldn't believe that others in the waiting room could sit there calmly reading magazines (reading!?) and didn't seem as morbidly interested in this wheelchair guy as I was. How could they just SIT there??
The point I'm trying to make, after a LONG story -- the mind is a very powerful strange thing. It can manufacture and worsen sypmtoms based on fear and anxiety. This has happened to me and many others I know. It doesn't mean that every symptom you EVER have will be exaggerated, I just think some of your current ones are.
Sometimes muscles & discs & nerves can get irritated and inflamed just from overuse...from bad shoes...from overpronation of the feet...from poor posture...from PMS...from humidity and over-workouts with bad posture. Sometimes things just come and go on their own without any horrible underlying cause.
Think simplicity. It's been said that the simplist explanation is often the right one, and the simplest explanation here is NOT a brain tumor or other disease. Those are actually rather rare. You're going to be OK!
You're going to be OK. Keep us updated on the MRI. I am thinking positive thoughts for you and hope that you're feeling better & less stressed soon!
Take Care.
jenStar> Hey guys - okay, so basically my hypochondria is in full swing. Here's the story. I had to go get an MRI this morning on my lower back for some odd sensations and numbness in my right foot. They think it could be a nerve/disc thing as I lift weights and do strenuous things with my back. So anyway, I am in there this morning and in the waiting room. They called the lady behind me to get checked in and were asking why she was there and she said she had a brain tumor in 02 that was removed but that her symptoms are BACK! They asked her what they are and she said DIZZINESS! (by the way, i take 10mg lex/day for anxiety - have no depression issues or anything and this is the first time i have ever taken anything besides xanax. been on lex about 6 weeks- 28 year old female)
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> Now - many of you have responded to the post i posted originally about DIZZINESS. I have had vertigo apparently twice - but as a hypochondriac - you think that that isn't what you have. I had lingering dizziness post vertigo and it did not subside until several weeks on lex. I tried to attribute it to anxiety.
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> I am now convinced that my lower back MRI will be normal and I will then believe that the problem with my extremities and dizziness (and sometimes vision) is certainly a brain tumor. I hate living this way! Do you guys have any advice? SHould i just demand an MRI of the head when I see my doc next?
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> Oh yes, by the way, I have thought that I have had a brain tumor before and had a cat scan 6 years ago because I freaked out on the doc at a doc in the box and that was the first time i was given xanax. haha - of course i didn't.
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> Oh and if you have never had an MRI...i hope you don't have to. That whole 20 minutes of being stuffed into a small machine with horrible sounds is enough to induce an anxiety attack on a dead person!
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poster:JenStar
thread:109458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040714/msgs/366468.html