Does anyone suffer with worry about health. I am telling you I am ridiculous.. Pelvic Pain, I think ovarian cancer, irregular period I think uterine cancer, back pain, I think Lung cancer, tender breast I think breast cancer, headache, I think brain tumore...The list goes on and on....

How do I deal with this...It is life altering to say the least

Terri

Terry,
I am the same way. This week I am worrying over breast cancer, uterine and liver. When in the world is this worrying going to be over? I am so tired of it. Last year I had a CT scan and my worries went away for a while. Now I am thinking that it has been over a year and something could of start right away after the scan. The worrying does not stop there. I worry about my children aches and pains too. I think I have not gone over the edge because of my anxiety medications.
Montana

I guess you can deal with this my realizing you are not alone. Most of us have and are still going through this health anxiety. Perhaps are senses are more acute when it comes to pain and all the years of reading and internet surfing symptoms now play a part in our feeble attempts at self diagnosing. Like I say - one misprint would kill me. We know just enough to be a danger to ourselves and I think all of us can be diagnosed with "information overload - a 'terminal' diagnosis.

Right there with you!!!
I just finished a major round of testing...breast, intestines, stomach, liver, gallbladder...etc. The only thing left is to have my head examed LOL! I look back and realized my health anxiety started when I was around 37. I get breaks throughout the year but every now and then land up right back in the middle of it. It S**KS big time. Does anyone know why it really does happen? It seems we are basically all in the worry boat and I want to get out of it.
Can't help at all other than to say you're not alone!
Girlsmom

I sure can relate to this! After months of worrying about breast cancer, I had a clean mammogram and ultrasound. Within 24 hours I started worrying about colon cancer. When I was able to move on from that, I then started in on ovarian cancer. This is where I am now - I pulled a muscle in my hip that is radiating into my pelvis and cannot stop googling "pelvic pain." Thankfully I have a gynecologist appt. in a month. The last time I had this - 4 months ago - I went in and had a pelvic exam just to make sure he couldn't feel anything weird "in there."

Everyone worries about their health, especially if they have aches, pains, fatigue that just won't seem to go away. We live with it every day in peri and meno. Your doctor takes tests, and says that nothing's wrong, but still the symptoms persist. That's when catastrophic thinking takes hold. Surfing the internet makes it worse, because these exact symptoms fit all sorts of horrible diseases!

I used to do this until I changed my physical lifestyle. At the age of 50, I began to exercise for an hour each day, alternating days between weightlifting and cardio. I cleaned up my diet, by eating six meals a day, and getting rid of all processed sugars and processed carbohydrates.

I'll be 54 this December and I never felt better in my life!!

Of course, now I obsess over diet and exercise.

But, hey.........................if ya gotta obsess about something, you might as well do your body a favor and obsess actively about getting healthy!!

I do wonder sometimes when I don't have the 'foggy brain', if the constant worrying about my health is actually making the physical symptoms even worse. From the moment I wake up feeling lousy I worry constantly about what could be wrong with me, virtually until it's time to go to bed. On the rare occasions that I don't feel quite so bad, I will suddenly experience a 'symptom' and then the worrying starts all over again. It's hard to believe that there isn't something terribly wrong with you when you feel so ill so much of the time. I try to help myself by eating quite healthily, and also trying to be active but alot of the time I feel so awful it's hard to exercise and eat the right things, it takes all my energy just to get through the day and look after my family.

Yes, I know, but I am pitiful..I go to my doctor complaining of all this crap, but I don't want any xrays or CT scans or anything because I am afraid of the long term effects of radiation...I truly believe I have lost it...My thinking is just not reasonable.

I am pitiful..I even fear the testing....I don't want any xrays or scans because I fear the long term offects of the radiation will curse me later...Am I nuts.. Is anybody this unreasonable.

And if I get scans today, it helps for a lilttle while, then I start thinking well, it was just too early for the scans..if I would have waited for a couple months surely something awful would show up...now they are going to miss it because I went too early for testing.

I am doomed with this thinking. Help!!!

Thanks Ladies,
Terri

Living out each one of our lives takes TREMENDOUS energy and MONUMENTAL effort.

But when I feel like I can't go on, I think of what my best friend endured before she died of leukemia.
One day, she had a rash on her leg that wouldn't go away. The next week she was in the hospital undergoing harsh chemotherapy.
She was always weak.
She was always tired.
She lost all her hair.
She was always nauseous. She carried around a plastic lined tote bag in addition to her regular purse. We called it her "puke purse" because she never knew when or where she would have to vomit.

All through this she maintained her part time job as a nurse, was president of her kid's PTA, ( she has 4 children!!) and never missed a soccer game or a la crosse game for any of her kids. Did I mention she cooked dinner almost every night in spite of her extreme nausea?

This went on for 10 YEARS!!!
Her veins collapsed, so they put a permanent shunt in her chest wall for her chemotherapy.
The harsh drugs eroded her bone marrow.
She underwent 2 hip replacements, 1 year apart.

Her suffering ended three years ago on October 25.
I never heard her complain.
Sure, we cried together many times, but I never saw another human being push and push and push to provide her husband and family with the wife and mother that WOULD NOT BE DESTROYED BY CANCER!!

She is my hero still.
Whenever I think I'm having a bad day, whenever I feel my aches, whenever I have to push myself just to get out of bed and live my life.................I think of her.

She is looking down at me and waiting for us to join up again.
And I will NEVER disappoint her by letting her hear me complain.

So whenever you can't go on, there is another woman pushing herself through a worse hell that you can possibly imagine. (Iraq? Iran? Afganistan?)
And my pain is nothing compared to that.

Your friend was extremely courageous and it does make me feel ashamed that I moan about how I feel and whenever I see anything on tv where people are suffering, again I feel ashamed for feeling sorry for myself, but sometimes you just get so caught up in how you are feeling and you really believe that there must be something very wrong with you because of all the symptoms. Other peoples bravery though is a real inspiration and I do hate myself for being so weak.

Your friend was indeed an inspiration. She knew what she was up against and could zero in on that. Unfortunately the majority of us don't and our minds blow every little ache and pain out of proportion and into the "what if" mode. How many times do we hear, when diagnosed with something, - "Whew...now that I know what I am dealing with, I can fight it. It's not in my head. There is a REAL diagnosis."

The unknown can be scary - much like a dark room is to a child. The unknown; the proverbial boogey man just waiting....And so we share the fears in hopes that someone out there in power surge land feels like we do and can validate what we are feeling. Kind of like spreading the load so we can carry our own a little bit lighter.

Armadillo,

Your reply has moved me to tears. I have a college friend who is battling stage 4 cancer, original colorectal cancer which metastisize to the liver ... he is only 49.

Thank you for reminding us of how lucky we are inspite of all the hormonal ups and downs. Along with your friend, you too are truly an inspiration.

Plumeria

In answer to the original question--it's lack of estrogen. That's the basic cause of menopausal symptoms. I proved this to myself when I went on the estrogen patch and prometrium. My anxiety has gone away. It took a few months--but it is gone. So perhaps it would help if you just reminded yourselves that the anxiety itself is a real symptom and that's all it really is.

Miss Tibbs

Thank you plumeria, but I really do not feel like an inspiration.

I am not made out of the same "stuff" as my heroic girlfriend was.
She was something special.
I just feel so weak inside.

You know, women all over the world go through peri and meno.
Does anybody know why those of us in Western culture (like USA, Europe, Australia, NZ, etc....) suffer so badly from it??
We have access to the best science and medicine on Earth, and still we seem to suffer so.

Is it diet? Stress?
Are we too comfortable in our lives?
Perhaps if there were bombs exploding daily in the streets outside our homes, or if we were reduced to subsistance living, like in famine or drought, we would be fighting for our lives and our families instead of being trapped inside our heads and bodies with all this worry.

But still we hurt.
Why?

Armadillo...When I first read that you started excercising 1 hour a day and changed your life style all I could think of was "KUDOS"!!!!! And then I read on...
I am so sorry for the loss of your best friend and understand just what you are saying. I feel almost embarressed at times when I thnk there is something wrong because there are people out there that DO have something major happening. If we live worrying about every ache and pain them we aren't really liviing now, are we?
One of my Twins was rather ill when she was 5 years old for about 1 year. We went from hospital to hospital and I have to tell you, despite the most horrible non stop medicines that broke her body down, she was the MOST grateful Child. Kinda had a respect for life that we are missing, the respect that you found through the loss of your Friend.
I try and pull myself together by knowing the day may come that I will be very ill, possibly in pain and dying...but that day is not Today; that the pain I may feel, the anxiety I may have, is nothing compared to the real thing.
Thanks for your post. I think it will go (hope it will go) a long way for most of us.
Hugs,
Girlsmom

You mean everyone doesn't think those things? That should tell you how bad I am!
.

I feel so terribly for my whining, it is true so many people are suffering with real health issues.

But it is true, the unknown is scarey... God Bless, wishing everyone strength

Terri

This thought is so reinforcing to me.
When I'm feeling bad, my PS sisters are there to share my burden.
When I'm feeling good, I will be here to share your burden.
And that's a promise!

I am worried alot of the time.
I have cause though because I have had a few bad health scares in my life.
My sister has also had cancer. but I have to believe there are good things out there too.