How are you feeling physically?

[limey123]

^ It sounds like you're going through hell, Consolida, both mentally and physically. It sounds so awful You wrote in another thread that you don't get why your family loves you. We totally get why they do. First off, in the case of your kids, they are your flesh and blood, they owe their very existence and all their upbringing to you. You have devoted your life to their happiness and wellbeing, as well as to that of your husband. You have effectively put others before yourself, for life. That alone speaks volumes about you. If we here, who do not know you outside of these forums (I assume), think you're lovely and awesome, just imagine how much your family loves you. It cannot be quantified. Please never lose sight of this.

Regarding the dire physical pain, please please please get medical help. It doesn't need to be your GP if you'd prefer someone else. But get help. You don't need to suffer. Act now before it gets any worse. Any conceivable social embarrassment is easily worth enduring compared to life-damaging chronic pain. Assert your rights and get help. If you're in major pain no serious medical professional can ignore that.

Sorry to be so direct, but we're worried about you

[Dougella]

Consolida physical pain that causes you to need to take pain killers regularly is a big problem and you shouldn't have to be putting up with that without knowing what's going on. Go private again if you have to but you really should get a medical opinion incase something can be done to stop the pain!

[biscuits]

^ Agreed.

Yes, please, please get to the doctor, Consolida.

Sorry if this is annoying at this time, but something to consider would be changing GP surgery. I know people who have done that and received a much more caring level of support. Perhaps do a little research to see which other ones close to you don't have bad reviews (I say that because people take the time to write bad reviews and not good ones haha). I always used to ask to speak to a really lovely GP because he was always so kind. Sadly he retired, but I found a new lovely one and she's never dismissive. There's definitely really lovely and caring GPs You might even be able to find one at your current surgery, might be worth requesting to speak to someone different.

Hope you get some help with your pain.

[Counterpoint]

I am no expert but I suspect all these lockdowns will have had a dramatic effect on people's physical health (the mental goes without saying), whether they get exercise or not.

Since last march, I have been jogging 3 times a week, stretching a lot more, doing some yoga, and I've built up to 100 press ups a day. So I am in better shape than ever, but I still feel lethargic, heavy, demotivated and out of shape. It is really weird.

It made me think that there is simply no substitute for an active and varied life, of leaving the house, going to work, meeting people, going for trips, visiting your grandma, weeding the flowerbeds, running little errands or whatever it is you used to fill your days with (even with SA!). In my case the constant pottering around London every day, up and down escalators going from one job to the next, the lifestyle I used to have, kept me healthier than I realised, despite the daily anxiety I experienced.

[Toxic]

^ Ooh I had one of them when I was 17.

I suspect they are a bit more advanced these days..I had this big black box around my waist too, the bit that recorded I guess. Are they a bit less cumbersome these days? When I had it I felt like I was a flaming ghostbuster with a big pack strapped to me and all the wires, was pretty awkward at college!

I'm not very good at responding to posts but I would say if people are being fobbed off with doctors..private is a very solid answer, I've had a couple of dealings with them and if I wasn't already falling apart I wish I'd got medical insurance (I doubt they will touch me at the moment - they also wont deal with anything thats been a problem in the last 5 years I think)

I've gone back to burying my head in the sand and I havent followed anything up since Tuesday, I was getting exceptionally ratty about it all..least my new beta blockers have arrived ...hooray

[hellotiger]

Another migraine today. I probably shouldn’t even be looking at this screen but I’m so bored just sat here in the dark.

[choirgirl]

Consolida. Please don't let them fob you off, this does sound very worrying. There are some good GPs out there. Can you take your husband with you? Or go private?

Counterpoint - I agree with you about the pottering about. One does need to amp up the exercise to counteract it (which I have not been doing) or be doing a physical job (which I used to do, but no more).

[Consolida]

@ Limey - Aw thank you so much for your kind words

After saying that I didn't want to see a Doctor about the leg pains I've been suffering with I can now report, thanks to my husband, that I will be having a phone consultation with my GP next week.
I know it's not right to be taking painkillers every day and I need to at least give the Doctor a chance to attempt to investigate what the problem could be. Apart from worrying about being fobbed off as a neurotic hypochondriac I guess there's a big part of me that is afraid that I may have something serious. I've been Googling about clogged arteries. It's never a good time to have health issues, but with my mum so poorly I really could do without my own stupid body playing up.


@ Nanuq - I can see that you understand exactly where I am coming from regarding seeing my GP...
I wouldn't say I'm socially anxious at all about seeing the GP but I'm extremely apprehensive about once again being dismissed as a neurotic middle aged woman. There's nothing worse than being told that your symptoms are all in your head, or that they're just down to your age.

When I previously went to the Doctors about PMT problems the young female GP more or less told me that I just need to get used to it and that it would all go away once I reached 55!! And yes, she was that specific! Whether she was right remains to be seen. I also had to go Private for someone to finally find out that I had a ruddy great ulcer down my throat after several GP's refused to take it seriously. As you know only too well, Nanuq, such dismissive treatment leaves you feeling totally crushed and humiliated.

My heart always sinks when the GP looks at the computer screen and notes that I suffer with anxiety and depression because I know from then on anything I say will be fobbed off as anxiety related. If you have mental health issues AND are also a woman of a certain age it feels impossible to be taken seriously.

Btw, good luck with that ECG monitor Nanuq
You've been through absolute hell, so I'm so glad that your long covid issues are finally being taken seriously


@ Dougella - thank you for your advice
Yes, going privately, as I have in the past, is worth considering although to be honest there's a limit to the amount of money that I can keep forking out. I'm guessing some people might try to get a diagnosis privately and then return to the NHS for whatever treatment they might need


@ Choirgirl - Thank you
I actually took my husband with me when I was suffering with PMT problems as I knew I'd be fobbed off as neurotic but this is actually the occasion when the GP told me that I just needed to get used to it. My husband was as gobsmacked as me. I was glad that he heard it all with his own ears though because I'm not sure he'd have quite believed how rude and dismissive the GP was otherwise.


@ Biscuits - I'm glad that you have a lovely GP. I think finding one is like coming across gold-dust.
Unfortunately my Surgery is so horrendously bad that it's been threatened with closure if it doesn't improve. Sadly others around about aren't that great either so I think there's no other choice but to up sticks and come and live with you. I hope you have room for 4 cats


@ Counterpoint - I completely agree with you. Like you say, we don't realise quite how much we potter around in 'normal' times until we are stuck at home. I do wonder if the lack of activity has played a part in my leg problems. I occasionally go for a 4 mile walk but then go for days not leaving the house. Exercising a little but daily would probably be a far healthier way of going about things.


@ hellotiger - I hope your migraine has buggered off


@ Toxic - I hope you receive some information soon because you've been waiting far too long
Good luck with the beta-blockers. Do they actually help?

[newbs16]

I seem to regularly wake up at this time of the morning, or earlier and start worrying about work, I've had several bad dreams this week too which hasn't helped.

How I would love to live on an island, where my family could visit but I would be away from work and the outside world.

I do wonder what impact worrying about everyone and everything will have on my health in the future, as it can't be good to carry on like this for years.

[Toxic]

@Consolida - Good luck with your GP, I hope you get a useful one

The funny thing is even though I said go private its much better! ..you still end up seeing the same people so I guess it just depends on the person you end up with - when I had my stomach problems after I had my colonoscopy privately I got a letter through for the NHS appointment to have one about 4 months later - same consultant!

as for my beta blockers I think they are giving me some other issues - mostly reflux as I've had a sore throat and neck since taking them (3 months) ..but I'm now too worked up and panicky to stop taking them, I'm only on a weak dose..I can't take anything stronger as my heart rate ends up in the 30/40s so I have a whole other bunch of problems

They might do something, but I can only take 1 a day and they wear off after 5-6hrs

[biscuits]

@Consolida: YES x 12332!


Hopefully if you do some digging around you might find a diamond of a person there somewhere. There's gotta be at least one.

newbs: same. I get the early morning wake up worries too

[Toxic]

Huh, thats an odd one

a letter from the NHS popped through the door, I cacked myself as I was told I'd only get a letter from hospital if I needed to go back and see him.

So I went for a CT scan on my heart and aorta. I got a letter back saying your aorta is absolutely fine and your lungs are clear.

Am I suppose to take from that..my heart is fine too?

I think I'm suppose to be relieved..but I feel it could have been worded more thoroughly for someone as batshit as I've made myself. I was only actually bothered about the heart, I had no complaints about my lungs, don't look at them!

I think I'm OK..

[Dougella]

^ I think you can probably assume you're ok, which is good news! If they found anything concerning they'd be asking you to come back for a follow up appointment probably.

[Toxic]

^ Interesting! I've never had a discharge letter..I usually just get ignored till I go away

I'm sure he only sent me in the first place to make me go away! and I don't think I was even going to get a letter if I hadn't rang up and made a fuss.

I'm happy to leave it for a bit the secretary said I wouldn't be asked back in unless I had a problem..maybe thats just what they are doing here..or covid or I don't know!

I'm taking it as a victory though

[Toxic]

^ The secretary's 15 year old replacement who was on work experience said "you probably wouldn't need to go back unless the cardiologist wanted to see you again" but that was before i had any results

I'm trying to be positive! If Its quiet for another few days I can presume I'm probably not getting an appointment! I have the symptoms of a knackered valve anyway, even though your meant to pick them up with murmurs and when he examined me when I went private and I brought that up he just said oh no there's nothing like that, I don't hear anything to indicate that. So I'm probably being stupid in the first place. They can also show up on CT scans so unless the radiologist was blind..I'm almost certainly not dealing with a knackered valve...which means it might be in my head/stress has knackered me

[Toxic]

^ I would imagine the process with all the issues your having is different to mine because..you actually have something there!

I mean for me really, theres been absolutely nothing to prove theres anything wrong with me. I've had blood tests, all fine. I had a cardiologist give me a once over and said apart from my heart being very loud..it sounded fine. I've had a CT scan which seemingly flagged up ..nothing. I've been to doctors with all the neck/jaw/throat problems I'm having..they have poked my neck/thyroid and found..nothing.

I suspect they are starting to think its all in my head but when my neck and jaw are sore 24/7 and I can't pick a piece of paper up without it shaking all over the place because of how forceful my heart is rattling me..I'm clearly not right ..at least the beta blockers are calming it enough so its not constantly knocking my vision out of focus..because that was really annoying

[Dougella]

^Except if someone in the US didn't have insurance or enough money to pay then they wouldn't be able to see a doctor at all. People die because they can't afford the test to see if they have cancer or because they can't afford to pay for their insulin.

[Dougella]

^ I wasn't making a political point either, just pointing out the other side of their system.

[Dougella]

^ Yes it's one of the most expensive health systems in the world.

I posted a video in the covid thread in the basement where they filmed people in a long covid clinic in a London hospital, that was interesting.

[Percy]

Slight tummy upset

[Consolida]

^ I trust your upset tummy has now settled


The pains in my legs are worst than ever today

After looking on Google (yes I know I'm my own worst enemy) I've now convinced myself that I'm suffering with Peripheral Artery Disease and might be at risk of suffering a heart attack or a stroke. I read that a 30 minute brisk walk at least 3 times a week is good for sluggish circulation and clogged up arteries so I've started using the treadmill again.

People roll their eyes when I start to talk about whats ailing me physically as if to say 'Not again!' but something must be causing the constant pain surely? It can't all be in my head.

I had a blood test last Monday and have been told that the results won't be back for about 10 days. I know when I phone the receptionist about the results she will say they are satisfactory and that will be the end of that. I was asked to attend the Surgery for a blood pressure test the other week which involved me standing in the foyer of the Surgery and having to do it myself. The receptionist checked the printed ticket with my results and said it was fine.

But, I can't stand living with this constant pain. It's making me feel so miserable

[Consolida]

^ No, the pain is bad when I have them elevated or am lying down and also when I am standing or walking. So basically all of the time. I don't think I've got varicose veins, at least not the kind that show up on my legs. It's a mystery which I hope the blood results might uncover. Thank you for your kind feedback Kooky

[Dougella]

^ That definitely sounds like a problem, so you deserve to have it properly investigated, you shouldn't have to live with constant pain. It could be something relatively simple like a vitamin or mineral deficiency. I hope the blood test might give you an answer

[Consolida]

^ Thanks Dougella

I feel bad for keep whining on about all my aches and pains on here

[Toxic]

Good luck getting some answers!

I'm at a bit of a loss personally.

I think my CT scan was fine, I'm not booked in to see another cardiologist..my bloods were fine, the few probing and listening sessions I've had..everything is "fine"

But I'm not

I'm just living with it at the moment, its absolute hell going out now the country has been reopened, I can put up with it as long as I'm busy

[Professor Willow]

Feeling sick again, my acid reflux / hiatus hernia is playing up again
It wouldn't be so bad if it was just a simple bit of indigestion but it makes me feel completely and utterly shite physically.

Conventional medicine is no longer keeping symptoms under control so I am now anxiously waiting for an appointment for an endoscopy to assess whether I am suitable for surgery - not that I'm particularly keen on having surgery.

[Indigo_]

^ My partner is waiting for surgery for his acid reflux

[Percy]

^He needs surgery? I take meds for mine, his must be bad if he needs surgery for it.

[Indigo_]

Originally Posted by Percy

^He needs surgery? I take meds for mine, his must be bad if he needs surgery for it.

He's on the maximum amount of meds he can have. He can't lie down to sleep, has to stay upright.

Thanks Nanuq

[Percy]

Originally Posted by Indigo_

He's on the maximum amount of meds he can have. He can't lie down to sleep, has to stay upright.

Thanks Nanuq

Christ it must be bad.