Hi everyone!
So, I will be going to my family doctor in a few days for a general wellness checkup. It has been a little more than a year since I've been to a doctor. The last time I went was for about 6 hours for a medical exam that included everything from hearing/vision to stress tests (for the police academy). Surprisingly, everything went fine as far as I can recall (otherwise they would have called me with any issues they found). Normally, I get terrified when I go to doctor's offices and my heart rate/blood pressure spike through the roof out of nervousness. The nurse had a hard time getting a decent blood pressure when I went, but she finally got it. It's also due to the fact that my grandpa has an extremely long history with heart disease including a transplant, quadruple bypass, and heart attacks.
It started when I was a freshmen in high school and I went in for a physical for track and field. My mom took me to 2 or 3 different doctor's, but none of them would pass me because my heart rate was abnormally high and I couldn't calm down. I finally went to an urgent care that wanted to transport me by ambulence to the hospital because of sustained tachycardia. From what I can remember they just ran whatever tests they needed to run, and they released me that night saying I was fine and that it was probably just white coat syndrome. Since then, I hadn't been to the doctor until the medical exam for the police academy.
I've decided to go for a wellness checkup and ask for a referral to a cardiologist because of a recent panic episode that occurred. I used to have daily anxiety attacks in high school, but I never brought it up or got it checked out, and instead just learned to deal with them on my own. After I started getting into fitness and watching what I ate, my anxiety disappeared for about 7 years (age 16-23). I had MAYBE one small anxiety episode per year at most at this point. Just last weekend I had a scary episode that came on after some somewhat strenuous physical activity. I had not eaten all day, and the only thing I had drank was a 16oz coffee. For whatever reason afterwards the activity, I was not able to calm my heart rate, I felt extra weak and tired, short on breath, and just all around anxious. I remember feeling a weird strain in the back of my neck and feeling a tightness in my throat. I finally hit this sort of "release" where my heart started beating very fast and it felt like the blood rushed out of limbs and my stomach sank. It occurred for about 10-15 seconds until I was able to calm myself down. Throughout the rest of the day I struggled to keep myself calm, and finally when I felt a tingling/tightness in my left arm all the way down to my fingertips, I thought I needed to go to a hospital. I called my mom, told her my symptoms, and asked what I should do. I ended up not going that day because I was able to calm myself down, but I did make an appointment.
Since that episode I've just felt a little bit off. I don't know if it's just my anxiety kicking back in or if there's a real problem, because I know I can freak myself out easily. I've felt extra tired towards the end of the day, sometimes a weird sharp pain when hunching over on the bottom of my rib cage on the left side, random hot flashes, diarrhea, sometimes I'll feel a lump in my throat or like it's constricting or sore, and sometimes I'll just feel sick like I have a fever.
I know that I need to go to a doctor and explain all of this to them. Honestly with all of the symptoms I've been having and the fact that I haven't been to a doctor in forever, it's stressing me out just thinking about how I will explain all of this to them and not freak myself out. I mean just looking at the symptoms online it could be an insane number of things. What can I do to prepare for the appointment so that I make sure that I haven't left anything out and get an accurate diagnosis? Should I ask for a referral to a cardiologist?