Hoping someone can give me some advice

[Jmk22]

Hello

I just wanted to jump on here and see if anyone could give me some advice.

I live with generalised anxiety. I'm not currently on medication for it but I have been in the past.
I am that type of person that will over think any little thing that is wrong with me and blow it up 100000 times in my head.
For example I will have the slightest pain and somehow my brain ends up convincing me I have cancer.

I am the queen of Dr Google which does not help this one little bit.

Over the weekend on Saturday morning I woke up and I was feeling fine. I headed to the shops with my husband. While we were there my head gradually started to hurt like I was getting a headache. We left to go to another shopping centre. While there it was getting very painful. It was only on the left side of my head. It felt like someone was pulling a tight band on my head. When getting back into the car I started to get a tingling sensation on the right side of my face near my nose. That didn't last long but then I started to get pins and needles in my right hand/bottom half of my arm. It lasted less then 5 mins and completely went away. The headache stuck though. I went home and laid down, that wasn't helping a whole lot so I took some panadol and laid back down. Within 2-3 hours of taking that the headache was gone and I started to feel better. Now that I'm looking back on it I am terrified it had something to do with a stroke.
It it literally driving me crazy. My anxiety has been through the roof the past 2 days because of this. I don't get anything like migraines but it does run in my mothers side of my family.

I have made an appointment to see my doctor but I cant get in until tomorrow. I feel completely fine now like nothing even happened.
Have I made a mistake by not reacting sooner? Is this super serious? I'm just so scared it's eating my alive inside.

If anyone could give me their thoughts and opinions that would be greatly appreciated.

I am aware this isn't medical advice. I just need someone to talk to until I am able to talk to my doctor tomorrow.

Thanks

[White_Rose]

Hello Jmk22

I can imagine how scary you found this scenario. At the time you coped with it without getting too panicked but afterwards you started to go over it in your mind. In reality you did have something that may have beeen of concern but probably not a stroke. Not that I know much about strokes. It's a good idea to see your GP and talk about what happened.

Did you talk to your husband about the incident? I wonder if he could add anything to your description, something he noticed. It always useful to get an onlooker's version. I had something similar and the friend I was talking to at the time told me I had difficulty with some words. I had no idea that had happened. In the end it was investigated and proved to be nothing which I was most relieved about.

This may be the outcome for you and I hope it is. I get what you mean about overthinking. It happens to so many people. Learning to act on what is reasonable, like your sudden headache, and stop thinking about far fetched probabilities is a good plan. Pity we cannot simply decide to do this and it happens. May I suggest you talk to your GP about this tomorrow. He/she may be able to refer you to someone who can help you to self soothe

Hope this has been helpful.

Mary

[SarahZ]

Hi Jmk22,

Thanks for reaching out!

Yes agreed! Google can both be a saviour and a menace in disguise - it can be really helpful but also lead you down pathways that deceive you into thinking you symptoms when you do not. I'm sure many of us can relate in that sense; I know I have definitely can!

However, being cautious is also a great thing, especially when it comes to your health. It's great that you have booked an appointment with your GP. As of now, maybe try and distract yourself with some company or an activity before tomorrow. Call a friend or a relative perhaps? Watch some T.V, do some gardening, or even baking? Anything that will distract you and prevent your thoughts from spiralling might be beneficial. Even having a bath and reading a book might make you feel more relaxed!

Hope all goes well with the GP. Please keep us updated if you comfortable with it.

Wishing you all the best.

[Jmk22]

Thank you for replying it really helps to just hear others opinions on things.

I asked my husband if he noticed anything and he said I seemed completely fine apart from saying I had the headache and wanted to lay down. He seems to think it may have something to do with my neck. For as long as I can remember I get this awful stabbing pain in my shoulder where it curves up to my neck if I stretch out too far to reach for something. Its a horrible pain and puts me to an instant stop when it happens. It only lasts a minute but after the intensity dies down I can still feel that it happened for a little while after. I started going to the chiropractor for this and it was helping manage the pain but then our awful friend corona popped its head up and it made me scared to leave the house. I haven't been back since January now. I know what my husband is saying about that makes sense.
I also spoke to my mum about the migraines she used to get. Hers were that bad that she would need an injection to stop them. She said she also used to get numbness in her face and hands when they would happen. It does run in my mums family. My grandfather and my uncle also suffered from them.

My husband keeps trying to reassure me that if it was a stroke I wouldn't be fine right now and medication defiantly wouldn't have made it better the way it did. It's so hard to reason with anxiety as anyone that experiences it knows.

I defiantly need to talk to my doctor and hopefully she can help stop my mind racing.

Tomorrow cant come quick enough!

[Jmk22]

Thank you for replying it really helps.

I am defiantly trying my hardest to keep myself distracted but as we all know sometimes thats easier said than done.

I will defiantly keep you updated. I don't mind doing that. I truly appreciate anyone that takes the time to reply to me when I'm feeling super anxious.

[White_Rose]

Hello Jmk22

How are you feeling? Anxious I imagine. Just wanted to drop you a note to wish you good luck with your doctor's visit. Hopefully she will put your mind at rest on this particular incident and you can plan with her how to manage your anxiety and catastrophising.

Good news from your husband about the headache. Hang on to the knowledge that nothing happened except your headache.

Have you thought of going to a physiotherapist? Their treatment can offer you pain relief and the physio can show you exercises to help strengthen your muscles. If your headache is related to your neck and/or shoulder the physio can help you with exercises for this. Regaining full movement of your arm and neck without pain will be a great outcome.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Mary

[Jmk22]

Thank you so much for checking in it means a lot to me.

I spoke with my doctor and she seems to think that the pressure in my head I was feeling could have been the cause of the numb feeling. She said if it was something more serious along the lines of a stroke the symptoms would have got worse not better by taking pain medication. They wouldn't have completely cleared up and been fine since. She did say just to keep an eye on things and if it happens again I need to go see her.

I do think I need to consider going back onto something for my anxiety because I within myself can feel it getting out of control again.

I've tried so many things for both my anxiety and neck pain. I've tried medications, physio, chiropractors, counsellors, phycologist the list goes on. I haven't ever really been able to find something that I feel works for me. The last phycologist I went to I did the mistake of telling her I didn't plan on having kids then she spent most of her time trying to talk me into having kids and if I don't how much I'll be missing out on. The one before that I ended up finding out that he lives at the end of my street (just from seeing him there when I've driven past) that made me really uncomfortable for some reason and I didn't want to continue going there.

Sometimes it just never feels like life can be simple and easy. There's always something...