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Avatar universal

Stomach pains, nausea and joint pain? Need someone to talk to right now!

Hello everyone!
Sorry to bother you all. I suffer from quite severe anxiety over getting ill or having "something wrong" with me, something I've developed over the past year. I have been working on it very hard and I've been able to relax more and stop panicking over the slightest twinge or sickly feeling but recently I've had a couple of recurring issues causing me endless stress.
I'm currently in another country and unable to go to a doctor until I get home around the middle of January.  If anyone could help me if they've experienced anything like these things, I would be eternally grateful beyond words ever capable of explaining.

1.Pain in left side of stomach. This has been going on for nearly two years. I used to not care about getting sick or having things wrong with me (actually how I developed asthma, I ignored chest infections for too long) so for over a year I put off doing anything about it. Finally got a hospital appointment which I had to wait months for, only to miss it after a really late night shift at work and sleeping over. The pain is usually quite sharp and intense and behind my left ribs. It most often flares up with I drink fizzy or coffee and when I eat most, if not all foods (although other times it doesn't flare up when I eat those things at all!)

2. Pain on my right side of stomach. Could potentially be related to other side pain? It only started about three days ago and has been accompanied by nausea. It's a persistent dull pain middle-right side with occasional sharp pains in my lower right abdomen. I'm quite freaked out it might be something like appendicitis!

(Unsure if it related to either of the side pains, but I very frequently get dry mouth, almost every night and struggle to swallow and sometimes it gets bad enough that I think I can't breathe because of it!)

3. Pain in joints. I've had issues with my right ankle for years. I hurt it about 3-4 years ago, dropped a wheelie bin on it and then tripped over and landed awkwardly on a metal bar a few days apart. I saw my doctor and she was very rude, basically laughed at me and told me to rest for a few days, it was nothing serious. Every now and then, pain in this ankle would flare up (normally after doing long shifts at work) and it would be painful to walk on. This didn't happen very often though, maybe once or twice every six months. The past year this ankle has started hurting a LOT more and far more frequently. It feels like a pressure around the ankle and like it needs to be cracked/popped but for the most part I can't... even when I can, it doesn't feel like I'm doing it enough! Over the past several days I've become aware of the same pain now in my left ankle as well. Pretty much exactly the same. Worse still, sometimes when I'm lying/sitting, I can feel it spreading up my legs. It sometimes feels almost like a burning pain. Nothing unbearable or incredibly intense, but very uncomfortable and it consumes my thoughts. I noticed tonight I had the same pain in my right wrist. It's left me very shaken and freaked out.

The worst is that it's Christmas, so there aren't any appointments available even if I could manage to afford a doctor where I am.
I will be seeing a doctor as soon as I can when I'm home but I'm just hoping that maybe someone out there, anyone might be able to offer some advice as to what I should do or how urgent any of this sounds.
I'm breaking apart thinking that my body is giving up on me and failing and I'm quite frightened by it. I have no one to speak to right now, my family don't care and they're the kind to shrug off any kind of illness or pain as if it's nothing, so I'm too nervous to talk to them about it in case they just shrug me off.

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Avatar universal
Good golly, that's an odd combination of symptoms. I feel for you, and at the same time understand why it might be difficult for a doctor to analyze. Could left side behind the lower ribs have something to do with liver? Appendix is right side close to groin. Right side close below ribs could be gall bladder. IDK. You don't mention age and weight, exercise etc. I wish you well in your search.
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