Health anxiety/support

I am sorry to hear about your severe anxiety, I have been there and I really sympathise.

The pericarditis sounds alarming, is it now resolved? Are you reassured that there is no further need for treatment there? If so I hope you can relax and put an unpleasant time behind you now.

I'm puzzled about the swollen leg if it is only one leg…did you have an insect bite or something similar? If the GP says it doesnt need scanning ie it is not due to some internal structural problem, I hope they can reassure you that whatever it is will resolve itself. Scanning is not suitable for every health problem. But if you want to put your mind at rest and have the money or a credit card, you can organise an MRI privately at quite short notice for a few hundred pounds…but it sounds as if it will not reveal anything significant for you in this case as it may be a skin problem?

There is a wonderful charity called Anxiety UK, it offers all sorts of support including access to low cost counselling which you may find helpful.

Lastly, worry about our body can sometimes mask a worry about something else in our life , past or present. If you think on reflection this may be the case, please do approach Anxiety UK and other organisations for support to bring you some peace of mind. We are all living in very stressful times now so we need to take care of ourselves and reach out for support.

Best wishes, A

I am sorry to hear so many of you are going through such a hard and trying time both mentally and physically.

I’m fighting with my mental and physical health on a daily basis which is so frustrating to say the least.

I have to be so mindful of everything I eat and drink due to my Spastic Cerebral Palsy and allied to this it affects my stomach in a major way with me having Acid & Bile Reflux. I had to have my gallbladder removed in 2022 and couldn’t eat for 3 months after without being sick and had to be admitted to hospital on two occasions and have tests.

In 2023 with the sickness reappearing again after Covid, I ended up with Aspiration Pneumonia, I’ve had it on a further three or four times since then. But by eck, the first time it happened I rang for an ambulance in the early hours due to my inhalers not helping out, they woke the ex wife up, then told her straight we are blue lighting him to hospital and have to go now! I ended up that day with a severe infection, my temp was up to 39 degrees Celsius, for over 48 hours I was on oxygen, between Friday and Tuesday I had numerous IV Antibiotics, Fluids and Nebulisers. It scared the life out of me.

I was born 3 months premature in 1983, weighing only 4lb and then dropped to the weight of a bag of sugar over night, they had to also perform CPR on me, I still carry the scar on my left ankle from a drip burn. Within four days of being born I was christened at Kings College Hospital in Lambeth, my parents were told to never expect me to walk or talk - which I ended up doing 3 going on 4 years old. Five months after being born I was hospitalised because I couldn’t keep my food down, they diagnosed me with Spastic Cerebral Palsy and had to strap me to a wooden board to keep food down.

Today I have to avoid, Chocolate, Cakes, Crisps, Coffee, Citrus Fruits, Fried & Fatty Foods, Hard Cheese, Tomato Based Products, Onions, Fruit Juices, Spicy Food, Fizzy Pop etc.

But like an idiot I eat so many take aways due to my mental health it’s an utter joke, just doing it knowing I’m going to pay for it later makes me feel so ashamed to say the least. If I eat any of the above or eat late at night and then go to bed, I’ll sit up for a bit and nod off, then I’ll lay down and fall asleep and literally wake up choking, not being able to breathe and my throat on fire, I’ll have to run to the toilet where (I apologise for this) and be sick and it looks like Mountain Dew. I then have to take four puffs of each of my inhalers, to get my breathing under control, stack the pillows up alongside having an acid reflux wedge pillow and sit up for the rest of the night. It leaves me absolutely exhausted the following day.

I am trying my best to eat a balanced vegan diet and my god it’s just so hard to find the motivation to cook some days. Because of me wasting money on take aways, my roller coaster battle with my weight, alongside binge eating, I’ve asked for help from my GP.

I am going to implement a strategy of eating a small breakfast with a mug of green tea, then have a main meal at dinner, with another brew and maybe a cereal bar at tea and then have a cut off point for no food from 5pm. I want to get down to under 15 stone to help ease the weight off my joints, I want to start using the small amount of exercise equipment I have so as to improve both my core muscles but also improve my breathing as well. I have self referred back to physio to get some help which is a step in the right direction.

I have just got to be much more stricter with myself and tell myself NO more than YES. But I’ve got to shuffle before I can walk let alone run.

I want to be more confident in both my mental health and also my physical health before I go away for the first time on my own next year to Cape Verde.

Then when I come back, I’m going to look into adopting a suitable dog that will get me out of the house a bit more and either find an organisation that provides assistance dogs for free or adopt a dog at a young age and do suitable training.