I've never posted before... A bit about me: Female, 44, overweight with long term hyperthyroidism (strange, I know, as normally people who are hyper are underweight) I had an emergency laparotomy 6 years ago due to a perforated bowel after a car accident. I've had IBS symptoms since being a teen.
I've had health anxiety for as long as I can remember. My mum had HA. However, around 3 years ago, I stepped away from Google and tried to rationalise my worries as much as possible.
Then, about 12-18 months ago, it all started to go wrong...I started with a 'popping' sensation in my left abdomen. This happened when I bent over, moved suddenly, applied pressure to my abdomen. I could feel movement but I couldn't feel a mass but I wasn't trying to. There was definitely something, as when I pressed from the left side, I could feel internal movement. I could feel a weird sensation when laying in bed. I tried rationalising this as 'it could be scar tissue/adhesions' from my bowel surgery.
I've basically buried my head in the sand and ignored it, hoping that it would go away. It hasn't. At one point, after losing a lot of weight (intentionally) it was popping about up to 10 x a day. I wasn't in any pain. I also convinced myself that if something is moving/palpable it's not an issue.
Fast forward to early October and I was randomly feeling along my collarbone and I discovered a small lump along the left collarbone. I can honestly hold my hands up and say, I've never been one to feel for lymph nodes so I didn't know what it was. It's small (probably 0.5cm) - not overly hard and seems to change in size a bit. I've no idea how long it has been there. I wondered if it might be a lipoma (note, positive thinking!) so I Googled (bad move) and discovered that it is probably my supraclavicular lymph node and that these are linked to problems in the abdomen. I had a panic and filled in an E-Consult and I was called to attend a follow up appointment in under a week.
The GP appointment was great but, due to COVID and hardly any other patients, so thorough. I was able to talk about every little niggle I was suffering with - pain shooting behind nasal passage, sciatica type pain plus the big hitters - the movement in the abdomen and the lump on my collarbone. I was in for 40 mins! The GP ordered bloods and an ultrasound. My bloods have come back all normal but the ultrasound has been an absolute pain - I haven't had it yet despite having BUPA. The hospital couldn't find my referral and then both my twins took it in turns to get COVID and I've been told that I must go 10 days from the date they stop quarantine to have my ultrasound so I'm booked in for this next Friday.
In the last two weeks, in particular, it has completely ramped up in terms of symptoms and also my anxiety, I've been a complete wreck with the following symptoms:
- Pain when I lay down in left abdomen
- Pressure under left rib when laying down
- Pain at the top of my stomach, which is happening a lot of the time now
- Pain in the lymph node
- Middle back pain
- Nausea
- Noisy stomach (?) after eating or drink
- No appetite
- IBS symptoms as always but I've recently had a couple of lighter coloured, floating poos
- and the worst of all - I have pressed deeply for the first time where the left sided pain is and I've now felt a mass.
I'm absolutely distraught. My husband is trying to comfort me and bolster me by telling me the stats for my age group but I just think that it is a foregone conclusion.
Thank you if you've read to this point - sorry I've gone on a bit!
