Please help me (Urgent)

[Mark2929]

I just signed up and would very much appreciate some help and hopefully a doctors opinion. I am an almost 41 year old male non smoker, 192 pounds 5'11 who has a history of asthma, IBS, anxiety, gerd with a hiatal hernia and a benign fatty liver confirmed by biopsy several years ago when my alt ast and alk phos were constantly elevated and I also have Gout. I also had a colonoscopy about 6 years ago, which was normal  I constantly worry about my health and any symptoms I may get. I have had anxiety and depression for over 10 years and I get very anxious easily when I am worried about my health to the point of hypochondria. Overall my life is miserable.

The medications I take are Ventolin Flovent Serevent, Allopurinol, Prevacid twice a day, celexa, and ativan as required, which I try to keep to a minimum because of unwanted side effects, because of the elevated anxiety in the past 5 weeks I take 2 to 3  ativan 0.5mg tablets a day.

About a 5 weeks ago I started having more upper stomach issues than usual and I became very worried and ended up in the ER three times over one week. After extensive bloodwork and an abdominal ct scan with contrast and a Gastrocopy I was told there was nothing wrong other than my existing IBS and my reflux for which I take 2 30mg Prevacid pills per day. For about a week of this I was taking a couple of ativan almost every day.

Once I had the good results and a few days after the aforementioned tests I started getting chest pain in the middle to left side of my breastbone area that is anywhere from sharp to dull and radiates to my back and a bit in the left arm as well. Well this set me off again and I have ended up in the ER 4x in the past three weeks thinking I had either cancer or a heart attack. The doctors did extensive blood work including 4 sets of cardiac blood work over three weeks, a chest x ray followed by  a chest ct scan with contrast because I was worried the pain was being caused by my heart or chest/lung cancer . The cardiac blood enzymes chest x ray and chest CT were normal. I also had 4 normal ECG tests. I also just had a stress test yesterday (April 23/09) and I am awaiting the results, although the technician said nothing seemed abnormal and I hit my target of 180 heart beats per minute on Bruce Protocol for 15 minutes. My blood pressure has been slightly elevated during the hospital visits, with the highest being 138/93 but once I calmed down it was around 123/82 and I have been told my blood pressure overall is okay when I am not freaking out.  

My question is am I missing anything and could in fact the Ativan be causing my chest pain and feeling breathless at times? I have quit the ativan 3 days (April 20th) after approx 4 weeks on it and have been throwing off more chest pain, breathlesness, dry mouth, crying, extremely anxious and worried with an awful metallic taste in my mouth etc.

I also gagged badly during the gastrocopy on April 2nd before the sedative kicked in. The Dr yesterday (April 22) said there is obviously no perforation or I would be dead by now but the gagging and coughing could have caused inflammation, thus causing pain in the middle of my chest and the anxiety makes it worse

My family doctor  feels given the tests to date and my history of depression and anxiety that the pain is benign given the negative Chest and Abdominal CT with contrast and heart work ups so far and feels that this is primarily anxiety based and he said in some cased ativan can actually cause chest pain tightness etc whether I am on it or withdrawing from it.  There is no heart disease in the family. I am so worried, can someone please help me, am I missing any tests or signs? My doctor feels I do not need a heart ultrasound because  of all of the other tests I have had to date including a probable okay stress test

Thanks and sorry for the length of this post.

[kristine9190]

Hi There, it sounds like you have extremely bad health anxiety, sometimes it is hard for us to accept what the Dr. tells us, I know I had a hard time with it. It seemed like if I was having all of these symptoms, than there must be something wrong, right? Well, our bodies can do crazy things to us, the more we think something else is wrong, the worse our fears and symptoms become. Did the Ativan help you when you took it? I will say that I take Ativan as needed, and do not experience chest pains, but Anxiety can cause chest pains. All Ativan does for me is take the edge off. Has your Dr. spoken with you regarding an SSRI or anything of the like? Have you considered talk therapy? All of these things in conjunction have helped me tremendously, I too had health anxiety, that began after a sudden illness. It took me a long time to trust what the Dr. and the test results had to say. It sounds as though you have had most everything done, with good results. Try to trust that, but also try to seek therapy where they will teach you relaxation techniques and coping skills.

Good Luck to you! Keep us posted!
Kristine

[beboy]

HEAR ME NOW!!!!! IT'S THE ATIVAN!!!!!!!!!!! GET OFF OF IT NOW!!!!! it has done the same thing to me exactly to a T.i also am having the same symptoms and also went through a battery of testing all came back normal.this garbage has made me absolutely nuts and sick as a dog.i quit cold turkey 14 days ago and have been going thru hell.i know for a fact that's whats making you sick.i am there with you bro.i took low dose once a day for sleep and half mil.if i had to go to the doctor for only 2 months and it has destroyed my life not to mention losing weight i cant afford to spare.the withdrawals are undescribably brutal.i have cried and prayed every day and night thinking i was losing my mind and was sure i was dying and i've barely slept at all.email me and i will tell you all .god bless you bro your gonna be ok but get off the ativan before it's too late.peace and tranquility billy the kid  i dont care if other people see this because it's so important..... ***@****

[hmf099]

To both of you ativan is Fairly easy to come off of with the right meds from your dr.there are great non habit forming meds with minimal side effects.mark I was a hypochondriac too until the help of therapy. I still have a bit of health fears but nothing like I used to. I've had many of the tests you've had and I'm not a dr but I'd bet all my money there is nothing wrong with you.I used to be so worried about heart attacks I'd develop chest pains from thinking about it. Mind over matter I guess. I won't tell u my other fears cuz I don't wanna scare you, but I will say you should seek a therapist they help a lot. The G I tract always gets irritated when anxiety is bad so don't worry about those symptoms.best of luck to u and we're always hear to listen and chat so keep us posted.

[beboy]

really? what meds are those?i have hydroyzine is that one of them?