Aa
Think I figured out what could be the cause of my anxiety, too late? need help
Hi,(posting this again in a different place because I am unsure who to ask for help or who can help) I have been having trouble breathing, swallowing, bloating in the abdominal region that shifts between center, left and right, along with a sharp pain that will occasionally go through there. This has been ongoing since Saturday evening September 3rd til now September 5th. (over 2 days). Taking antacid (equate maximum strength) does not help the issue I am having. I also have neck pain and a slight ache in the left side of my head but I don't see how that would connect to the other issues. Whenever I eat or drink anything, the breathing issue and bloating discomfort worsens. I am only 16 so I am dependent on my parents for medical aid. Since Sunday August 14th in the middle of church, I have been struggling with panic/anxiety attacks and symptoms. Throughout these last 3 weeks have been full of pain and fear and frustration since I have gone to the ER/hospital several times due to complaints of my heart racing and other pains/tingling in my left neck. jaw, head, and at times left extremities. I didn't have any trouble with eating and digesting to this extent until Saturday. I am starting to believe however, that my whole issue started that very Sunday. I remember having constipation and gas issues the week before the 14th due to me eating so much candy (I foolishly ate 2 bags in the span of maybe 30 minutes) and I did something similar 1-2 days before Sunday. When I had the alarming chest pain in the middle of church and my heart started racing and my whole body felt a wave of dread go over, I thought I was having a heart attack and panicked. This resulted in a full blown panic attack which I had never experienced before. My dad had to take me out of church and rush me to the ER... which began several visits to there and other places in the past 3 weeks due to my panic/anxiety trouble. A CT scan on the 15th of August revealed my right coronary artery opens from the wrong place but the cardiologists at that hospital and the ones after assured me that wasn't causing my hear to constantly race and palpitate (it was all anxiety that I wasn't believing was the issue). My parents were fed up with taking me anywhere by the time I started complaining of the digestive issues. Since the 14th, take note that I wasn't having the issues I first mentioned at the beginning of this thread but I did have irregular bowel movements since. So I believe I have some gastric/hernia/digestive related issue that has caused my panic and anxiety for the past 3 weeks that I have been struggling to handle. While at the ER at Medical City yesterday (Sunday September 4th) I described to the doctors and nurses my issues (they were well aware of my panic/anxiety and frequent ER/hospital visits especially since Ii was at their hospital within the period, but I was stressing that what I was feeling then was different from my panic and anxiety since I usually have more symptoms with that and had no trouble with what I described at the beginning until last Saturday). The doctors and personnel did 2 xray images of my abdomen and found how badly constipated I was and they listened when I described the issue with swallowing and breathing and my esophagus so they noted it as heartburn/re-flux. I got prescribed MiraLlax which I am to mix `17g with water and take once a day and Zantac (ranitidine 150 mg) which I am to take no more than twice a day. My dad gave me his expired MiraLax today in the morning and got the new one when he was out but I can't take it until tomorrow. He is out currently getting my Zantac for me to take. The doctors gave me information on how to cope with constipation such as more fiber, so my dad had me eat beans and peas this morning after giving me the Mira which added some slight discomfort, I did't finish it all. I understand that it hasn't been long enough nor have I even taken the zantac but the doctors did no check of my esophagus or digestive system to find any issue. I could even have a hiatal hernia and not even know. At this point, my parents aren't taking me to any specialist such as a gastroenterologist (if only they would so I can get a barium swallow done or something to make sure I don't have a hernia of my stomach). I just now took the zantac and hopefully that starts working. Is there anything I should worry about that I could possibly use to get my parents to listen to my pleas to go to the ER/hospital in the future? I read that if I indeed have a hiatal hernia and it is a certain type, my stomach can get strangled and lose blood flow. Would I feel this happening?What other type of pains should I be worried about? If so, how badly/quickly would I wan to get medical attention? I have no clue if I could have a rupture of my gallbladder, appendix, stomach, or intestines but the bloating and sharp pains scares me and the doctors haven't run any extensive tests to rule those out. So to sum this all up, I wasted my and my parent's time for the past 3 weeks with a false cardiac issue, panic/anxiety and now I believe the real culprit is something gas, hernia, digestive related. I have reason to believe this is the case because of what I felt before the 14th of August/panic episodes and September 3rd/digestion issues and etc. So can someone please help me on what I need to do, this could be life threatening and at this point I feel like my parents don't believe it nor do any of the paramedics or doctors I have been seeing since I complained about what appears to be the wrong thing. I am sorry for the length of this but I really had to spill what I have been going through the last couple of weeks. I started school 2 weeks ago and the panic/anxiety have been a big distraction and I can already see what I just started experiencing Saturday as a problem too.
Please take this seriously
Please take this seriously
Dude I have been through the exact same process you are describing and it all started when I was around 16 ..from the Er visits and the constipation and the being scared but your best bet is too stay away from googling these symptoms it will literally scare you into a deep depression (trust me I am still coping with these same symptoms and I am 23 now the best thing for you to do is change the way you eat and think that helps me to deal with it better
2 Comments
By the way, there is a good way to use the Google -- that's when you are in treatment and have a diagnosis but things aren't going well -- there are good sites such as Mayo Clinic and NIH that can help you determine if you're getting the appropriate treatment, but that isn't self diagnosing, it's just forming questions to ask to make sure things are being done correctly. But before you have a diagnosis? Just a route to misery.
Concur with the above two wise folks -- googling symptoms is just asking for anxiety.
I wouldn't be taking psyllium or anything else until I knew what was going on. Nor can we tell if what you're describing is what's happening or what you think is happening. You've seen a lot of doctors, but oddly, it seems they're all at the ER and not your regular doc. Psyllium can be useful. A blend of fibers is better. Metamucil is not healthy because it has added ingredients you don't want. Beans, especially soy, might be a problem, as you might have a food allergy or a problem digesting beans unless they're properly prepared. Some people do great on them, some don't (my wife doesn't handle some well at all). And when you're gastric system is stressed, things that normally wouldn't bother you might. It's also true that gastric problems are one of the most common results of anxiety, but that doesn't mean anxiety always causes them -- usually it's a person's diet that causes them due to digestive issues that medication doesn't address. Look, if I had a magic wand, I agree, you should see a gastroenterologist and a holistic nutritionist, but I don't have one. But consider that treating digestive issues isn't one of allopathic medicine's strong points. Everything they give you is suppressive or softens things up, which doesn't deal with or even look for the cause of the problem and drugs such as Xantac can make you feel better temporarily by suppressing acid but given we all need stomach acid to digest minerals and protein, the stomach will just adjust and produce even more. You need to get a good and accurate diagnosis and stop trying to diagnose yourself, you need to start relying on your own doctors and not the ER, and probably need to learn a lot about diet, which is why I recommend a holistic nutritionist. You're not going to get a medical opinion on this forum, because none of us have those credentials -- we're just anxiety sufferers. You're in a pickle, and we're here to help and listen, but you do need to find out if you have a genuine physiological problem or an anxiety problem. Given how often your parents have taken you to the ER, I find it hard to believe they won't take you to the proper regular doctors and health professionals you can form a relationship with, which you can't do at the ER. It's hard to see how eating more than you should have would produce more than a stomach ache, especially at your age. The extreme emotional reaction you've had to this suggests an emotional aspect, but again, we're not experts. But fiber such as psyllium, for example, causes gas, so you don't take it if gas is the problem -- you take it for a short period of time for a temporary constipation problem or regularly in blends if you have a permanent problem. And as for not having access to it, you can get psyllium anywhere, even in a drugstore, but at any health foods store.
2 Comments
The pattern is every time Jay gets a health surprise (and this constipation should be considered an extremely minor one at this point from what I gathered his doctor said) he goes to Google to study the worst case major scenario, which is just self-diagnosis. Many people get constipated at some time from what I have read, but I doubt they google to see if they are dying from it. And if they do try to be their own doctor and google to self diagnose then they always end up frightened like you are now wondering if you got some strange disease or hernia at age 16.
You need to stay away from SELF-diagnosis because there is NEVER anything comforting about it You don't have any medical training so the chances of reading something and having a breakthrough medical diagnosis from it are slim.
The only reason I suggested psyllium is because the doc said to get fiber in his diet, and this is an easy one compared to eating a plate full of potentially gassy beans and whole grains that he might not like or be able to access often enough. He can at least discuss it with the doctor if he ends up in ER again, but if he stays away from google that might not happen.
You need to stay away from SELF-diagnosis because there is NEVER anything comforting about it You don't have any medical training so the chances of reading something and having a breakthrough medical diagnosis from it are slim.
The only reason I suggested psyllium is because the doc said to get fiber in his diet, and this is an easy one compared to eating a plate full of potentially gassy beans and whole grains that he might not like or be able to access often enough. He can at least discuss it with the doctor if he ends up in ER again, but if he stays away from google that might not happen.
I know anxiety can be powerful so hard or even impossible for some to fight and you don't have many resources since you are just 16 but google is not the place to go if you have anxiety. It will just make things worse.
" I read that if I indeed have a hiatal hernia and it is a certain type, my stomach can get strangled ..."
Googling for symptoms and cures will always lead to anxiety. because there are so many ways you can die that you will surely find someone who did just that in your same situation. People have died because of a clot from a thumbtack in their hand that formed the clot that traveled to the brain.- how do you guard against that, wear steel gloves in the kitchen?
It is scary to have gastric issues that cause pain, so try to get rid of them following the instructions they gave you. The best fiber is from psyllium, but in powder form it tastes awful so you have to mix it with a sweetener. I like it in soy milk shaken hard with no sweetener (although even plain soy milk has some in it) so it blends in, but most take it as Metamucil which has some sugary flavor which takes awful to me. Anyway, psyllium is better than any other kind of fiber as you will find after a day or so. Fiber makes bowel movements because it is indigestible, so don't overdue it and the fiber might make your stomach work hard too so you won't eat as much during the time it is in the stomach.
Googling for symptoms and cures will always lead to anxiety. because there are so many ways you can die that you will surely find someone who did just that in your same situation. People have died because of a clot from a thumbtack in their hand that formed the clot that traveled to the brain.- how do you guard against that, wear steel gloves in the kitchen?
It is scary to have gastric issues that cause pain, so try to get rid of them following the instructions they gave you. The best fiber is from psyllium, but in powder form it tastes awful so you have to mix it with a sweetener. I like it in soy milk shaken hard with no sweetener (although even plain soy milk has some in it) so it blends in, but most take it as Metamucil which has some sugary flavor which takes awful to me. Anyway, psyllium is better than any other kind of fiber as you will find after a day or so. Fiber makes bowel movements because it is indigestible, so don't overdue it and the fiber might make your stomach work hard too so you won't eat as much during the time it is in the stomach.
1 Comments
Please at least consider I could be having a hernia. I don't think I can get access to psyllium
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