Chest pain...

[Ichneumon]

So, for the past few hours, I've been having a moderate pain in my right chest. I don't know what it is, and I certainly am not asking for medical advise on the internet (:smallwink:), and I will certainly go see someone if it gets any worse etc etc. Now, what I basically wanted to ask, was, how often do you guys have the habit of immediately thinking there might be something seriously wrong with you (like breast cancer, heart attack etc...), as soon as you feel some strange ache?

So, how hypochondriac are you?

[Eldan]

Oh god yes. I once coughed up a little blood. Immediate thoughts? Lung Cancer. Pneumonia. Tuberculosis.

Turned out I had a cold and hurt a mucous membrane in my throat from coughing. Which was pretty obvious, actually.

[Remmirath]

That coughing thing? Happened to me once, too. It should've clued me in that I'd been coughing very hard for a while and my throat even hurt, but no. I still jumped to the worst possible conclusion. :smallsigh:

That sort of thing happens to me all the time. I've been known to freak out because I have a bruise I didn't quite remember getting and then think it's a sign of something worse, and any time I read something with symptoms I start to imagine I have them.

I've gotten slightly better about it over the years. Now I can force myself to wait until some time I'm not thinking about it, and if all the 'certain signs of impending death' vanish the moment I forget about them, never to return, chances are they weren't really there.

[Violet Octopus]

Recently I've worried about heart disease, diabetes, iron and vitamin B12 deficiency. This is probably a good thing, as scary things make me overcome my fear of needles and actually get blood tests.

The same is true of STIs. I very rarely engage in the fun activities that would be likely to transmit HIV if a slipup/breakage occurred, but that doesn't stop me getting worried about it whenever I have an STI test. It doesn't help that where I live, we're not allowed to have the instant HIV tests - we have to wait a week for our results.

[Deathslayer7]

Well I didn't personally freak but both my Mom and brother did.

Christmas Eve I'm talking with my brother when he asks me what's wrong with my face. Turns out half my face wouldnt move. I smiled and only half would rise. i would try really hard to close my eyelid, it remained partially open. They both freaked out thinking i had a stroke.

Went to emergency care and whatnot waited a few hours and when i got in they told me it was a rare virus caught from strep throat (forgot the name). Gave a bunch of steriods to help and whatnot. Three different kinds to be exact.

Anyway by the time I got out it was Christmas and I said "Suprise! Merry Christmas!" Got the dirtiest look ever. :smallbiggrin:

[potatocubed]

I am a full-blown hypochondriac. My 'go-to' problems are heart failure for chest pains, fatigue, and anything that might be to do with blood or muscles, and an impending stroke or aneurysm for headaches, weird visual artefacts, etc.

I've pretty much got it beaten into submission these days - my 'mental problem of choice' at the moment being depression - but there was a time when I was crippled by the fear that I had an ectopic pregnancy - because if I was pregnant, it would be ectopic by default, wouldn't it! Such is the logic of hypochondria. :smalltongue:

[thubby]

i have asmtha, so chest issues are near constant. i occasionally worry something is wrong and im going to dismiss it.
i had one wonderful incident where i was having symptoms and after using my inhaler coughed up bright pink. you can imagine my reaction to all this.
turns out its a common reaction the stuff has on contact with mucus.

@OP, it is worth telling your doctor about, but it could be a simple muscle spasm. they're caused by anything from mild vitamin deficiency to bad computer posture.

[SurlySeraph]

I tend to be pretty chill about physical issues; I almost never use painkillers, don't worry about getting sick as long as I'm washing my hands well, etc. I often think that any psychological issue I'm reading about describes me well, but that's because they tend to be pretty subjective and have broad criteria.

@Ichneumon: Chest pain can be a sign of some quite serious problems, but given your age and what I know of your eating habits heart or lung trouble sounds extremely unlikely to me. I'm say a muscle spasm as thubby mentioned is probably the most likely cause, but it's worth checking with a doctor if it gets worse. If it gets severe suddenly, especially if the pain radiates (spreads out into your arms or shoulders), go to an emergency room quickly.

[Ichneumon]

Thanks guys, just to stop you from worrying: The pain is almost gone already and it wasn't very severe. I guess it was a muscle or something.:smalltongue:

If it returns, I'll certainly go to a doctor, but I don't think it was something serious.

[Asta Kask]

Now if it had been the left side, and radiating out into the arm...

...you would need an ambulance. Preferably 30 minutes earlier.

[factotum]

Now if it had been the left side, and radiating out into the arm...


Pretty sure it's an urban legend that heart attack pain is mainly on the left-hand side--the heart itself is in the middle, so I can't see why pain from it should be more on the left than the right.

[Eldan]

No, no it isn't. That's quite true. Chest pain radiating out into the left arm is a common symptom. The heart may be quite in the middle of the body, but it's still wired to the left side, so to speak.
Except if you are one of those weird cases where all the internal organs are switched around to the other side.

I probably shouldn't spend my free time reading up on the symptoms of these things.

[Lillith]

With a mother and grandmother (who used to be a nurse) who are both worried with the drop of a needle, I panic out a lot. Though usually just wait if I either don't feel good or find a weird bump somewhere (which are mostly pimpels but even they freak me out).

Also I am known to have migraines that cause almost identical symptoms compared to strokes. As in, numbness in half of the body/face half not able to move. My sight disappears in part(s), as in I can look at someones face but I can't see an eye and ear on one side. Not being able to speak, or walk. The only difference is that I get severe headaches instead of damage, but me and my parents didn't know that when I was eleven and had my first migraine.

Also due to the sight loss symptom I freak out every single time I have spots.

My fears can go to the extremely rational, though I try to wait at least a couple of days before I run to the doctor.

[Castaras]

Hi, I'm Castaras and I have mild Trypanophobia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypanophobia) (mild because I'm working[successfully in part] at beating it. ^^). This + an overactive imagination causes me to worry about getting illnesses and terminal stuff when I have nothing wrong with me, rather than worrying about a symptom I have.

In fact, if I have an ache or something I don't normally pay it much attention. It's when I hear about someone else having to go for an appointment at the doctor's or something I start worrying and blowing things out of proportion.

[Lillith]

You know, seeing all these people post about worrying so much about diseases, makes me think if over exposure to medical series (like House MD) and internet might have given us a bit -too- much information about what all the possibilities of things that can go wrong with you are. :smallconfused:

[Marnath]

You know, seeing all these people post about worrying so much about diseases, makes me think if over exposure to medical series (like House MD) and internet might have given us a bit -too- much information about what all the possibilities of things that can go wrong with you are. :smallconfused:

I don't watch any of those things, and I don't worry about my health, like ever. So maybe? :smallconfused:

[Ponderthought]

I seem to have the opposite problem: I never think anythings wrong with me.

"Dude your eyes are bleeding!" "meh, ill live"

And ive broken my fingers so often that i don't even go to the doctor anymore, just wrap it up with an ace bandage.

[Castaras]

I don't watch those dramas and don't read up on internet stuff and still worry. :smalltongue: But I'm weird. And, probably, if I could bring myself to read up on the details of the big name diseases I worry about, then I'd worry less because I'd then know I had no chance of getting the symptoms.

Problem is being able to read them without having to shut the webpage when it gets too detailed for my stomach and head. :smallyuk: But that's another rant for another time.

[Eldan]

With a mother and grandmother (who used to be a nurse) who are both worried with the drop of a needle, I panic out a lot. .

Yeah, same here. Both my parents are (or rather, were, they were both promoted a few times) nurses. So I have quite a little side-knowledge about this stuff. My father is rather pragmatic about these things, but my mother had a tendency to worry a lot about every little thing I had as a kid. Combine that with medical knowledge...

As for medical dramas on TV... nah. With two nurses sitting next to you (and as a biologist myself, now), that was always quite impossible. There were usually three kinds of comments:
"That guy obviously has X, not Y. Guess they'll only find it out in the last five minutes."
"Aargh, what are they doing! THat's just wrong!"
and my favourite:
"Yeah, I know doctors that stupid. Fresh from Med school and think they know everything. That's why they should let the nurses handle this stuff."

[SurlySeraph]

No, no it isn't. That's quite true. Chest pain radiating out into the left arm is a common symptom. The heart may be quite in the middle of the body, but it's still wired to the left side, so to speak.
Except if you are one of those weird cases where all the internal organs are switched around to the other side.

I probably shouldn't spend my free time reading up on the symptoms of these things.

The highest blood pressure is on the left side, since that's where the left ventricle is and the left ventricle pumps more strongly than the rest of the chambers, so you can feel the left side more.

And said weird cases are called dextrocardia.

[Silly Wizard]

One time I thought I had contracted an STI. After a bit, I realized the bump was from a tick bite on a very sensitive area.

Once my fear of having an STI ended, I was afraid that I might have gotten lyme disease.

[Serpentine]

Dr. Mum would let me take a sick day off school if I had a fever, or was throwing up. Hyperchondria is not an option for me.

She had one patient who was a super hyperchondriac. In the midst of the bird flu scare, the woman came in absolutely positive that she had it. Mum asked her, "so have you been kissing any birds lately"? "No." "Then you don't have it."

[Icewalker]

Well, this is basically what I'm doing right now! Several times walking around this afternoon (and a couple times in the last few weeks) I have felt a sharp pain in a line down the center of my right foot, right in the arch, and am worried it may be related to collapsing arches, and am trying to see a doctor tomorrow...

Actually, if anybody has experience with this, and could say if that sounds like it might be something moving towards collapsed arches, it'd be helpful to hear one way or another if anybody has gone through that.

[Lillith]

One time I thought I had contracted an STI. After a bit, I realized the bump was from a tick bite on a very sensitive area.

Once my fear of having an STI ended, I was afraid that I might have gotten lyme disease.

You'll like this one. Once upon a time I thought I was pregnant. I was both a virgin and I use birth control for other things since I was 11. I'm -that- paranoid.

[Otherworld Odd]

I get red needle blood-spots on my skin and think I have hodgkin's lymphoma. Went a week thinking i had something that I didn't get my shot for (don't remember what it was. I remember it's like a swelling of the spine and you have to get it when you get to college.) I'm not a serious hypochrondriac, but I'm pretty bad.

[Violet Octopus]

One time I thought I had contracted an STI. After a bit, I realized the bump was from a tick bite on a very sensitive area.

Once my fear of having an STI ended, I was afraid that I might have gotten lyme disease.

Yeah, apart from the constant HIV exposure panic, for a while I was convinced I had an STI because of minor pain down there that took a few weeks to clear up. Since pain or burning sensation when urinating is a classic STI sign, I kept getting tests.

Get test ---> week later, "you don't have any of THESE bugs, but since you still have symptoms, there are these other bugs we can test you for ----> week later, "no, you don't have them either. We think it's psychosomatic. Stop worrying and it'll go away."

Which sounds like very unusual advice from an STI clinic.

[Asta Kask]

Pretty sure it's an urban legend that heart attack pain is mainly on the left-hand side--the heart itself is in the middle, so I can't see why pain from it should be more on the left than the right.

You can feel pain in all kinds of freaky places. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referred_pain) Note: just because backache can mean myocardial infarction doesn't mean backache is myocardial infarction.

[thubby]

You can feel pain in all kinds of freaky places. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referred_pain) Note: just because backache can mean myocardial infarction doesn't mean backache is myocardial infarction.

and you thought this was a good idea to share on a hypochondriac thread because...?

[Silly Wizard]

Yeah, apart from the constant HIV exposure panic, for a while I was convinced I had an STI because of minor pain down there that took a few weeks to clear up. Since pain or burning sensation when urinating is a classic STI sign, I kept getting tests.

Get test ---> week later, "you don't have any of THESE bugs, but since you still have symptoms, there are these other bugs we can test you for ----> week later, "no, you don't have them either. We think it's psychosomatic. Stop worrying and it'll go away."

Which sounds like very unusual advice from an STI clinic.

How long did it take to go away? Or do you still get the symptoms?

[onthetown]

Paranoid schizophrenia = lying awake at night thinking about all the ways I can die and every little ache is cancer or a heart attack.

Zopiclone = wonderful.

Seriously though, I'm hypochondriac to the extreme, but usually when I'm just lying around in bed before I go to sleep or if I'm given enough time in the day to sit around thinking. I once had warts on my feet and I was convinced that they were skin tumors or something (it was awhile ago).

Then I took a medical course and learned exactly several hundred ways I can die. Then I started working in a clinic typing up doctor reports and notes, so I'm learning even more ways I can get sick and die (but I love my job).

At the moment (apart from thinking that my breathing problems are tumors in my lungs despite a recent x-ray showing that I'm fine), I'm convinced that I'm pregnant because of a situation that hardly happened and there's apparently minimal to no risk of me actually being pregnant. I also won't be fully convinced that I'm not until I get a blood test from my doctor because she is wonderful and she knows everything as far as I'm concerned.

The doc thinks that the breathing problems might be from a little bit of anxiety. :smalltongue:

[Asta Kask]

and you thought this was a good idea to share on a hypochondriac thread because...?

Chaotic Evil.

[Eldonauran]

Well I didn't personally freak but both my Mom and brother did.

Christmas Eve I'm talking with my brother when he asks me what's wrong with my face. Turns out half my face wouldnt move. I smiled and only half would rise. i would try really hard to close my eyelid, it remained partially open. They both freaked out thinking i had a stroke.

Went to emergency care and whatnot waited a few hours and when i got in they told me it was a rare virus caught from strep throat (forgot the name). Gave a bunch of steriods to help and whatnot. Three different kinds to be exact.

Anyway by the time I got out it was Christmas and I said "Suprise! Merry Christmas!" Got the dirtiest look ever. :smallbiggrin:

Bell's Palsy. I've had the same viral infection. I got the left side of my face when I was 17. I took some steriods for 10 days and it cleared it right up.

Small world, right? My sister and mother both freaked out when that happened. Check me for a stroke AND a tumor. First MRI I ever got. Don't know why they got upset. I never get sick.

[Violet Octopus]

How long did it take to go away? Or do you still get the symptoms?
It went away like they said. Probably a couple of weeks, it's hard to keep track when you're not supposed to be paying attention.

[factotum]

Don't know why they got upset. I never get sick.

Er, didn't you just say you got sick immediately before saying this? OK, it might not have been a serious sickness, but a sickness it was...

[Eldonauran]

Er, didn't you just say you got sick immediately before saying this? OK, it might not have been a serious sickness, but a sickness it was...

Warning. Warning, logical fallacy! Must point it out! ERROR, ERROR.

Just poking a little fun at you.

Bad, bad things happen when you assume everyone is communicating literally. I simply added that last bit as a side note. When I do get sick, it is hardly anything to worry about. Worse thing I ever had was acute bronchitis

[Lillith]

There were only few cases where I was really sick. One of them was a bowel infection. Thought I was going to die that day. I suffer from a lot of colds though.

[CrimsonAngel]

Has anyone gussed panic attack? Lay down on your face-half.

[Ilena]

I get pain in my head often, not headaches those feel different but actual like bruised or otherwise injured feeling on the skull/skin of my head, also get chest pains often, i usually just assume i have brain cancer and just a heart pain, but docs say im fine (never really did look at the head thing) and send me on my way, so i just started ignoring it, and when i fall over dead or something then that will show them :P but ya i find usually chest pains go away and it ends up being my chest muscles not my heart, though sometimes i wonder ... head thing ive always had a sensitive head, even when i lay my head on the pillow the WEIGHT of my head sometimes causes it to hurt, odd is that i feel no pain when i rest my head on my arm ... weird.

[Lillith]

I get pain in my head often, not headaches those feel different but actual like bruised or otherwise injured feeling on the skull/skin of my head, also get chest pains often, i usually just assume i have brain cancer and just a heart pain, but docs say im fine (never really did look at the head thing) and send me on my way, so i just started ignoring it, and when i fall over dead or something then that will show them :P but ya i find usually chest pains go away and it ends up being my chest muscles not my heart, though sometimes i wonder ... head thing ive always had a sensitive head, even when i lay my head on the pillow the WEIGHT of my head sometimes causes it to hurt, odd is that i feel no pain when i rest my head on my arm ... weird.

While I dont really know about your head hurting just by lying down (you might want to ask a doctor about that), I can relate to the random pains in the head. My neck is a big mess. Muscles are very painful etc. for me, which usually starts showing through random 'stabs' in my head that go away after a while.

[Zaggab]

Tiredness is pineal gland tumors, anemia (due to leukemia) etc.

Pain in the left shoulder/left side of the neck is pancreatitis (not because you sit in uncomfortable ways)

Small bumps on your thighs are liposarcomas (i.e. cancer)

All nevi (brown spot/birth marks) are malignant melanomas, or they will instantly become such when exposed to the sun.

Nose bleeds or bruises mean it's acute leukemia that has depleted your platelets count.

Need to urinate or thirst means diabetes.

Bad appetite is cholangitis, hepatitis, parasites, pancreatic cancer or primary biliary sclerosis (or something else) that has messed up your liver and intestines.

Loose stomach is Crohns, worms or colon cancer.

Hard stomach is also colon cancer.

Cold fingers are Reynaud phenomena due to Lupus Erythematosus.

Inactivity and fatty/sugary/artifical foods instantly causes your arteries to go atherosclerotic, causing heart attack and stroke.

Activity will cause hidden heart problems to surface, causing heart failure.

Airplane trips will cause deep vein thrombosis, which will go to the heart and cause a pulmonary embolism, killing you.

Getting out of breath means you have lung cancer, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, primary pulmonary hypertension etc which will kill you.

Your kidneys probably looks like this (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Polycystic_kidneys,_gross_pathology_20G0027_lores. jpg) (and you won't know until they fail you)

If you have a prostate, it is a 90% chance that you will have prostate cancer when you reach 90 years of age.

Headaches are brain tumors. The most common type of brain tumor will have you dead within 6-12 months, despite all available treatments.

Forgetting things mean Alzheimer or some other dementia.

Sudden jerks mean Huntington disease, which will kill you slowly while at the same time destroying your brain during 15 years. Oh, and your entire family also have the gene and will meet the same horrible end.

---
Being a hypochondriac is fun when you're also a medstudent. Not that I'm a hypochondriac, or anything, but if I was, these things would bother me a bit.

[Concrete]

Sometimes I think I'm some kind of anti-condriac.
The only time I've freaked out over something like that was when I started to spontaneously cry blood.
Turns out that I have weak blood vessels on the inside of my eyelids, and that I shouldn't wear contacts...