Anyone here really worried about their health for a valid reason?

I am held together with duct tape and staples, with one working kidney and the chances of a cancer recurrence at about 30% and rising. The list goes on and on, but I actually have an excellent quality of life, and I don’t really stress about my health, there’s too much else going on to be interested in. In other words, it isn’t a constant worry and a source of stress.
Maybe because this has been a lifelong thing for me.

Conversely, a close friend of mine is starting the testing process for some gut issues she’s been having. She has been robustly healthy her entire life and is consumed by fear and panic now, convinced she has the most awful disease or condition, from which she will never recover. It’s painful to watch, and I’m sure her mindset has caused stress reactions that are making her symptoms worse.

I had surgery for prostate cancer over 5 years ago. Since then my blood test results have been perfect so there is very little chance of a biochemical recurrence. However, statistically, there is still a 3% chance. I get a PSA blood test every year and get a bit anxious until I see that zero on the paper.
Otherwise I am in perfect health so I don’t have to worry about anything. I am in much better shape than anyone I know in my age group. Much better!
I don’t overeat often, I don’t smoke – never have. I don’t do drugs and only drink a little socially Plus I get plenty of exercise and sleep. Clean living pays off.

(I could probably do with a little more sex. I’ve heard that is good for men’s prostate health.)

I’m going in for a scan on my gallbladder next week and an MRI for a small growth on one of my adrenal glands. Not worried, I’m more likely to die keeling over cleaning the horses stalls here or hitting a deer on the highway. I did have, what my doctor thinks was a gallbladder attack about a month ago. Really painful but no stones on the CT scan, I am much better but she wants to do a Hida scan to make sure I don;t have some weird billary duct blockage.

The adenoma on my adrenal gland is not really concerning her, but just to be safe I’ll get the MRI. I feel fine and am not worried about cancer, but I do have some arterial plaque and so am watching my diet and exercise, par for the course for a lot of us 50 something peeps. Like I always say, ya gotta doe of SOMETHING! I don’t understand people getting so upset about their health, I mean seriously, sooner or later something has to take you out, the only objective is to feel as good as you can now. haha

I’ve had repeat CT scans for the past two years due to a lung disease. Extreme shortness of breath is what sent me to the doctor. An x-ray showed a spot on my lung. Lung cancer was ruled out after multiple scans and two lung biopsies and I was told it was histoplasmosis. About every other month for the past two years I’ve had a flare up that lasted for a few days, then I had the worst flare up I’d ever had two months ago that sent me to the ER. I had terrible shortness of breath for six weeks, then the chest pains began.

I have multiple doctors thinking the recent flare up is something else. A CT scan showed I have an enlarged heart and enlarged ascending aorta. I also have a large hiatal hernia (the stomach bulges up into the chest through the hiatus.) I wake up choking on acid and not being able to breathe for 30 seconds if I don’t take Prilosec every day.

My lung diffusion capacity is abnormally low, so my pulmonolgist thinks it might be due to sleep apnea. I am currently uninsured, so I’m waiting for all of the tests that I need. My pulmonologist wants a sleep study. I need to see a specialist for my hernia. I also need to see a cardiologist and have an echocardiogram.

I’m constantly fatigued and stressed by not knowing what is wrong with my heart and what treatments I may need. Anti-depressants are helping a bit. I just want to feel better.

@jonsblond Wish I could hug you in person but here’s a remote flipper picker upper!

@jonsblond That sucks! Not feeling well is awful, and not knowing what the issue is is also awful. I am lucky, just got new insurance in Oct. then I had my gallbladder attack, literally, 2 weeks later.
Also a CT scan for a bruised liver from riding which picked up the adrenal adenoma.

Whew! Hang in there!

Heart disease in my family and I’ve always battled high cholesterol numbers. My dad had heart bypass surgery at my age. His mom died in her early 50’s from a heart attack. My other side of the family many close relatives died in their 30’s amd 40’s from heart attacks.

I’ve had colon polyps since my early 30’s and my maternal grandfather had colon cancer. I bleed often when I eat lots of raw vegetables and if I had cancer I would ignore that initial symptom probably for too long. I don’t really worry about colon cancer, but it is a serious and real health concern.

I’m not overly worried about this either, but I’ll mention it. Low pressure glaucoma in my family and I have some sort of thing in my eye that possibly is related to higher incidence of glaucoma. So far so good, but I’m only in my mid 40’s. The first time I ever had my eyes dilated and checked was in my early 30’s, because I could tell my far sight was changing. Then not again for 6 or 7 years. Now that I am over 40 I go every 12–18 months.

Recently, my blood pressure has been borderline high a few times I have done readings and I blame it on my stress level the last year. I really believe it is shortening my life and with my risk of heart disease it’s really not a good thing. I keep trying to tell myself I can decide not to be stressed, but I am not doing very well controlling it.

The health concern that troubles me most are some chronic GYN problems. I’m so tired of it. I personally believe they increase my chance of cancer, but there is no medical research or science to prove it.

I stole Oscar Pistoriusessessesssess left prosthetic limb while he was busy in court, i’ve had athletes foot ever since.

Hope you can you can run as fast as Oscar Pisto(l)rius @ucme !

I hope he can run fast from the prison showers @ZEPHYRA

I’ve been living with a dark cloud of atrial fibrillation hovering over me for the last 13 years. Of course It’s effecting my family life and is a source of worry and stress. And when my heart is in A-Fib I feel sick and miserable. Add up the dollar cost of all the ED visits, hospitalizations, procedures, medications, operations, tests and it’s over $500K. All just to try to keep my heart beating normally. Thank goodness the last surgery (Mini-maze 7–9-13) has successfully kept my heart beating in normal sinus rhythm with no meds and I’m feeling terrific. But I realize that there is a good chance that sometime in the future my heart will likely go back into persistent A-fib. If it does then I will not go through any more procedures or surgeries. I will deal with it and try to be positive.

I would like to add that I’m very thankful and grateful for all of the excellent medical care that I’ve received from all the top notch healthcare professionals over the years.

@gondwanalon ^ And you still burn wood for heat? That is a lot of work. Maybe (likely) the exercise is healthy for you.
If you cost $500k, I figure I paid 0.1 cents of it. You’re welcome. :-)

@LuckyGuy Yes I still am chopping up a lot of wood. But I also do at least an hour of other physical exercise per day an work full time.
Is that really true about having sex often will decrease the possibility of getting prostate cancer?

@gondwanalon I think that may be true, but then you have your heart condition to worry about maybe. Whatta way to go though. ;-)

@Coloma HA! Good one! But I’m pretty sure that I can handle it. Several cardiologist at different hospitals have done several echocardiograms, stress treats (including a nuclear med stress test) and they have not been able to find anything structurally wrong with my heart. What they see is a strong athletic heart. One cardiologist told me that I have the heart of an Olympic cyclist and my heart is so strong that it laughs at A-fib. Two cardiologists actually told me that it is okay for me to participate in full marathons and triathlons even when my heart is in persistent atrial fibrillation. But I’m finished with that.

@gondwanalon It may or may not be true. But one thing is absolutely certain: If you tell your spouse/lover that, it definitely increases your odds of jumping into the sack. In fact if, with a totally straight face, you tell your SO you heard that XYZ is good for men’s prostate health, a loving, caring partner cannot resist giving, or participating in, XYZ.

(It actually does help speed recovery. It improves circulation and reduces post surgical atrophy. Guys who have surgery are told to keep the blood flowing a number of ways.)

@LuckyGuy I see. It won’t hurt and it likely helps.

My wife suffers from mild depression sometimes. So I once told her that semen deposited in her vagina is a good antidote from depression. I told her thas something to do with the chemicals and hormones in the semen. I can’t remember if I really read that someplace or I just made it up. But she thinks it works and that’s really all that matters.

Actually, I read a paper on that. Really! The antibodies the woman produces changes and improves her immunity. I don’t recall where I saw it but there was a plot that showed rates incidence of cervical cancer vs number of sex partners. It was a sloped bathtub curve A woman with a very high number of unprotected partners had a higher incidence rate. That rate went down with the number of partners But! The minimum was not at 0! It was somewhere between 3 and 10. The woman with zero partners had a higher rate than the one with 5 . Interesting.
Maybe someone here will look for it. The paper would be at least 25 years old. Maybe before AIDS?

WTH? I haven’t been reading along, but now we know cervical cancer rates go up with more sex partners because you catch it from men. More men, more chances of getting it. However, it is so rampant that it almost doesn’t matter how many men you are with. The stat 20 years ago was something like 80% of women have been exposed to HPV.

Hell, Eva Perone died from cervical cancer and so did her husband’s other wife. I think prostate cancer likely also has an infectious link of some sort.

@JLeslie You should look it up. I said it was something like that. I was working from memory of 25+ years ago. It was for unprotected sex and before AIDS was a concern and herpes was the big scourge.

What made it particularly interesting was the modified bathtub curve. A woman who had just a few partners was better off than one who had none. That was the interesting point.

But more to the point, an evening of hot, wild monkey sex is good for men’s prostate health. Just ask any guy. ;-)

@LuckyGuy I tried to find something to support how you remember it and I can’t. I believe your memory, but I also thinks stats about this are stupid half the time. Like they will say being on the pill and having a baby before age twently and having 3 or more babies greatly increases chances of cervical cancer. My guess is having a baby so young and having so many also indicates more sexual partners and possibly lower income. It isn’t the birthing of those babies or the pill that matters in my opinion, it’s unprotected sex, more sexual partners, worse living environment, poorer health overall, and less access to healthcare is my guess.