New and very frightened

MizzyDeee
MizzyDeee Member Posts: 9
edited 26. Oct 2013, 12:07 in Say Hello Archive
Hey All.
So, since the age of 15, i have suffered terrible panic attacks, which stop me from doing a lot of things and leaving me with phobias. One is getting my bloods taken. So 6 year ago i started getting pain in my fingers and toes, i took myself to the docs and they asked to take a blood test. Stupidly i never went back for 6 years to get them done. However, now I am waking up in the morning in so much pain, i never feel great and I'm always so tired. My partner told me enough was enough and an appointment was made. Yesterday i was left frightened when my GP told me it was Inflammatory Arthritis but i'd need the blood tests and X-rays on my sore, swollen hands to confirm it. I have made an appointment next week for bloods and my X-rays were done there and then. I feel scared and i guess I'm just looking for reassurance that everything is going to be ok. The part that scares me the most is the whole Immune System attacking my body and what medication i will get to help this. Please can anyone talk me through what is happening to me..
Thank you
Stacey

Comments

  • villier
    villier Member Posts: 4,426
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hello Stacey

    Welcome to the forums, I am afraid I cannot answer your questions as It is OA that I have amongst other things and am no stranger to chronic pain so I understand and sympathise to what you are feeling. I am sure if you re-post this on the Living With Arthritis forum there will be a lot more people on there that will be able to help.

    This is a great forum you have come to so you needn't feel alone. The blood thing you are not on your own, but people realise that their fears were soon forgotten as the nurses these days are so proficient and practiced there is nothing to it, please keep your appointment come on here beforehand, rant, rave, shout whatever get it all out your system we are all behind you, you need to get a proper diagnosis to be able to get some treatment.

    Hope to see you around Stacey................tc.......................Marie x
    Smile a while and while you smile
    smile another smile and soon there
    will be miles and miles of smiles
    just because you smiled I wish your
    day is full of Smiles
  • MizzyDeee
    MizzyDeee Member Posts: 9
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Thank you Marie,
    We are unfortunate to have our painful problems but also very lucky that these days, we can see just how much support we can get, just from forums like this.

    Thank you again.
    Stacey x
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hello, it's lovely to meet you but I am so sorry you have had to find us. I am seventeen years in with my primary auto-immune arthritis and have had the secondary OA officially for three years (but most likely longer :wink: ).

    I cannot reassure you that everything is going to be OK because, if you do have an inflammatory arthritis, life will change. I have been under attack from my immune system since birth so I'm kinda used to it; the medication (if you are an auto-immuno and are given something) is designed to suppress the immune system so it stops attacking your joints, my feeling is the sooner one gets the meds the better the outcome can be. I went undiagnosed for five years and it took a further two before I was given anything, in my case it was far too little and much too late for it to be of much use but it's a case of mind over matter; I mind but that doesn't matter.

    Your GP is doing the right things so let's just take things one step at a time. Constant tiredness is a feature of an auto-immune arthritis, pain too - both are very familiar to me and many of us on here. I wish you well and hope to see your name here and there on the boards. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hi Mizzy Deee!
    I'm not in the position of giving much advice but one: You will hear and read a lot about how your disease MAY develop. What awful things MAY happen to you. POSSIBLE side-effects and so on. OK. Read that and listen to that and then you just should forget about all of it. Nothing is a given. It is about statistics and OTHERS. Do not concentrate on the possibilites. That would do you no good. There is more to life than this problem at hand. Deal with it as you can and should, but don't think any further about it more than absolutely necessary.
    Oh- welcome to the club! :)
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,689
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I can't put it any better than Caliban. I think I need to copy his post for other newbies. He's spot on. Don't worry about what may never happen. Do what you have to do and take what you have to take. Then go out and live. It's important :D
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • MizzyDeee
    MizzyDeee Member Posts: 9
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Thank you so much. I think it's something like that, what I needed to hear. I feel like I'm holding my breath and waiting for more pains in other places that have started swelling etc. I've forgot about life, my daughter and my partner. I just want to hide and feel sorry for myself. What I do need is a good kick up the butt and to live. Thank you so much for that..
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    The present is the only time we have, since the past is all but a lesson to learn and the future nothing but a idea. You have to live and cope now. Try to get the future out of your mind. Today is plenty enough to cope with. And in due course today will be an experience to help you...well, later on. I know. Words.