Posted 1/11/2016 11:13 PM (GMT 0)
Well I too had my gallbladder out which of course reset my health anxiety to "outer atmosphere" lol.. and ended up with IBS after the gallbladder surgery, which took me about 2 months worth of getting myself back to anxiety free. I did CBT for about 3 months. My psych dr was AMAZING! We had an instant connection and he was very helpful. I think when it comes to psych drs there HAS to be a connection or you really don't get anything from it other than words. I guess i will tell my story from the beginning so you can see what triggered it, what I went through physically/mentally, and how i finally had that "light bulb" moment.
I took my kids trick or treating as most parents do. The next day, Nov 1st, I woke up completely ill. No idea why, but i woke up and spent the next 12 hours basically on the "throne". I finally went to the dr after 3 days of not being able to eat, constant runs to the toilet, and a severe upper respiratory infection. First words out of my dr's mouth was..."you probably have lung cancer". WHAT?!?!?! He ran no tests whatsoever to ease my mind. I was in utter shock. I was fixing to be 40.. and with lung cancer? So my health anxiety went through the roof. I chose to turn to Dr. Google (biggest mistake you could ever do when you are sick). I was then convinced I had months to live because i was dying of lung cancer. Three weeks later, I finally went and seen a REAL dr, in Internal Medicine dr (which I strongly believe saved my life). They ran some tests and immediately hospitalized me due to severe dehydration and a typical gallbladder pains. After several days of intense testing, i had everything done from xray's, to CT scans, to upper EGD's, colonoscopy, so much blood work I thought I was going to die from lose of blood. They couldn't find ANYTHING wrong with me other than an acute URI (upper respiratory infection). Now mind you, I was an EMT for several years, so I'm not exactly medically retarded. I began feeling better after 4 days of IV antibiotics, my appetite was starting to come back, but I still was having the worst pain under my lower right rib. My GI performed one more upper EGD and colonoscopy and decided to take out my gallbladder. My pain was gone! It's a miracle, i'm cured!.. WRONG>>>> Three days home from the hospital my appetite gave me the middle finger, and I had NO want for food. I am 6'5 and dwindeled down to 112lbs. The put me BACK in the hospital for failure to thrive, as they were afraid my body was going to start eating my heart (for energy your body needs fat, if fat isn't available, then it goes after the next largest muscle.. your heart). After another round of testings, all which came back on paper that I should be able to run a marathon, my internal medicine dr asked if i'd be willing to talk to a psych dr. I told him ANYTHING to get better. Once I started talking to the psych dr and told him everything that had happened in my life, he said.. I'm amazed you aren't in a psych ward or committed suicide. In a nutshell, i grew up from an extremely physically abusive mother, who put me in the hospital more times than I care to count. In july of 1992, my fiance and unborn son were killed by a drunk driver. I went into the military august of 1992, as an intelligence officer, and moved into JSOC (joint special operations command) where i served as second commander for the far east JSOC operations unit. I got out of the military, moved back to the USA, and got married... to a very physically abusive wife. After my last hospital stay from her and a 2 x 4, I got divorced and moved to Alabama. Got married to my now current wife (who is amazing). In 6 months time, i lost my job, we lost our house, she had 2 miscarriages, and then my health went blah.. So all that rolled up into "you have lung cancer".. was finally the straw that broke the camel's back. I agreed to give Remeron a try, as well as ativan, and kolonopin and librax (for my ibs). I was too zombified on all that so I took myself off the kolonopin and ativan and stayed on the remeron for it's sleeping and weight gain effect. Finally, I started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Then my father was dx'd with soft tissue sarcoma a few years back and back to anxiety i go. When he beat it, was kind of my "light bulb" moment. Here my father is 75, and he just kicked a very deadly and aggressive cancer's butt and here im all worried I'm going to die. If he can do it, I can do it. That coupled with CBT self checks, remeron (which i still swear to this day can pull most people from the deepest darkest depths of hell), and a support person i called when i was feeling an anxiety attack coming on that i couldn't shake, is really what finally brought me back to reality. I went back to work, and to this day, every now and then anxiety will poke it's ugly little head at me and ask how i'm doing.. when i answer it.. i'm just fine thanks.. it goes back away. I have been anxiety and panic attack free now for over 19 months. Now this isn't a "quick" reply, but it gives you a little bit of what I personally have been through to now I am an IT Director for a fortune 500 company that is ranked 6th in their field, I am over 19 facilities, and love life (most of the time). So it can be beaten, and i will be happy to be a support person for any of you that want a support person to call or text or whatever it takes to help get you through that anxiety time. You have no idea how important it is having a support person to know is there and has been through it and can talk you through an anxiety or panic attack.