Anxiety and brain tumor fear... I want my life back!
Hi all,
I was diagnosed with anxiety a little over a month ago. This all started back in September after I experienced some chest pains. I had pains in my chest for a week straight and started panicking that I was about to have a heart attack. I started having heart palpitations at night, sweating, chills, uncontrollable shaking, and this would last for hours. Mainly happened at night. Finally, I went to the ER where they took blood, urine, chest x-ray, EKG and ultrasound. They wanted to do a CT scan but I refused. All they could find was that I had a gallstone that could be causing chest pain. They told me to go on a low fat diet and sent me on my way.
I felt fine for about a month after that, then it all started again. The exact same symptoms... heart palpitations, chest pain, sweating, chills, shaking. I went to a general physician who did the same labs and also a strep test which turned out to be positive. He said untreated strep could lead to chest pain and he diagnosed me with depression and anxiety. I have never experienced anxiety or depression in my life so this surprised me. He prescribed me 25 mg of Metoprolol and wanted to see me back in 8 weeks. The only abnormal thing he could find in my blood results was that I had a very low amount of Vitamin D and low amounts of HDL cholestrol which could mean I'm pre diabetic.
I've been on Metoprolol for about a month now and I don't think it's helping at all. As of Monday 12/2/2013 I've been experiencing sharp, painful headaches persistently. I ignored it for the first few days but when they didn't go away and were accompanied with nausea and back pain, I decided it was time to see a doctor again. I also wanted a second opinion on taking Metoprolol so I went to a different physician. I told her what my past doctor had said and she agreed. She ignored the fact I've had headaches for a week straight at that point w/ nausea and also took blood and urine which gave the exact same result (low vitamin d and HDL cholestrol). She prescribed me 50,000 IU of vitamin d to take once a week for 8 weeks to get my levels back to normal. It is now 12/14/2013 and my headaches have not gone away. I had extreme dizziness yesterday to the point where I felt like I was going to faint. The nausea has subsided but I cannot shake the feeling that I have a brain tumor. The vision in my right eye is becoming blurry and my right arm feels tingling and weak, my neck is stiff, I have muscle spasms, etc. I have to admit I've been googling for the last month which is NOT helping but at the same time, I am not making these symptoms up. If anything, they seem to be getting progressively worse. Also, Metorpolol is supposed to help with migraines so the fact I'm developing these after I've been taking it scares me even more.
Things to note: I'm a 23 year old female, no history of cancer in my family, never had any medical conditions or fears until 3 months ago. Like I said this all started with chest pains and only as of lately persistent headaches. I've tried everything to put my mind at ease but nothing has helped. I wake up fearing I have a brain tumor and go to bed with the same fear. I am leaning towards seeing a neurologist for an MRI or CT scan just to calm me down but if I can avoid doing that at all costs, I will. I constantly fear that I have an underlying disease or undiagnosed cancer that is getting worse and will eventually kill me. Please please help me shake this and get my life back!!!
Nicole
