July 26, 2005 – What does too much stress and anxiety get you?

Today I met with a friend for lunch which was nice, since I haven’t been seeing much of my friends lately. Then afterwards, I had probably one of the worst doctors’ appointments of my life. I made an appointment to see my oncologist today for several reasons. I wanted to talk to him about the SSA Disability, why another doctor in the office who does not treat me, would sign off on the paperwork. I also wanted to talk to him about the depression I’ve been feeling and the chronic pain, as well as other side effects I had been experiencing. I wondered if it was just my meds, or if I was just under too much stress and anxiety. He told me that the only option for the chronic pain was to stop the Femara, go on Tamoxifen for 5 years then go back on the Femara. I told him I didn’t want to take 2 steps back just to start all over again, so he suggested seeking a pain management doctor to treat me. He also wanted me to find a psychiatrist to talk to about the depression right away, which I told him I had been trying to do, but had been unsuccessful. But it wasn’t until I started to tell him about my other side effects that made it one of the worst appointments I had been to in a long time. Other than the pain, I had been feeling lightheaded, dizzy, unstable, and sick to my stomach. There have been several occasions indoors and out that I have felt like I was going to pass out, or throw up. Just the look on his face alone scared me, and the words he uttered next were something I never thought I would hear. All I heard was that he wanted a MRI done on my brain STAT, and I couldn’t even tell you what he said after that. How do you tell someone extremely stressed that you think they need to get their head checked, and not stress them out more?