Hi all,
I am new here, though I have been following silently for a while, trying to find some answers for myself.
I am 30 years old, and have recently been experiencing a lot of anxiety, panic attacks and related symptoms of nausea, reflux, dizziness etc.
I was, after a long and difficult journey with lots of ER visits, several ambulance rides, tests etc diagnosed with gallbladder disease and had to undergo surgery. I have basically been sick and bedridden since November 2016, and recovery from surgery has been very slow, probably also due to the fact that I was diagnosed with gastritis and an ulcer as well, which is causing me constant nausea, reflux etc. even with medication.
I am feeling so hopeless at times - I am normally a woman who is excited for life, though I have been dealing with episodes of stress-induced anxiety off and on since teenage years. I cannot sleep until early morning hours, I cannot leave the house most days as I am just feeling yucky, and I just feel like I am missing out on life, and am so scared that I will never get better!! I am just very very sad about
all this. Is there such a thing as PTSD caused by illness / medical procedures? Honestly, the time it took for doctors to even diagnose me, was 3 months! In that time, I wound up at the ER, several time via ambulance, so many times, and always felt they just thought it was all in my head :-(. I basically had to research online what could be going on with me, and ask the GI doctor for tests, and the test I asked for, finally revealed that my gallbladder was not working right. It was such a stressful time, feeling like noone believed me, feeling like they thought all I wanted was drugs... when the truth is, I hate drugs. Recovery has been difficult for me, as well. It seems I just can't catch a break ... I finally asked my doctor for a low-dose of some kind of anti anxiety med, to help me sleep. I have a great respect for medication, and have NEVER used any type of sleeping or anxiety meds in my life. My doctor gave me a very low dose of Ativan to try, but I did not like how it made me feel, plus, it did nothing to help me sleep, at all. So now, I am unsure of how to proceed... it seems my body is very sensitive to those type of medications. I am looking into getting some help via counseling.
Just wanted to share my story here, and maybe someone has had a similar experience.
Much love to you all,
Mona
