30 Year old male - anxiety/panic attacks after orchiectomy

[BLWedge09]

Hell, my name is Brandon, I'm 30 years old,  and I recently developed extremely bad panic attacks that would sometimes last nearly 4 hours. I should also mention that I've been getting dizzy/lightheaded/brain fog every day for about 3 years now.  It usually came on in the afternoons. I should start at the beginning.  In late January, I found out at work that my job was either going to be outsourced to another company, or eliminated completely.  I had just purchased a house less than a month before this.  The day after finding out that news, I went to my urologist for a lump on my testicle that had become painful.  Well, I found out that I had testicular cancer.  The next day I spent all day getting test after test.  The day after that, I had surgery to remove the cancerous testicle.  Later that week, I started getting what I now realize were small panic attacks.  Neck muscles tightening, heart raging, sweating, etc.  They scared me, but at the time I was facing a round of chemo so I was more worried about that.

I went through 1 round of BEP chemotherapy (3 weeks) as a precautionary measure since there was no sign of any spread.  During the chemo, my doctor prescribed Ativan (Lorazepam) .5 3 times a day to hopefully avoid any nausea.  It worked, and had the lovely side effect of eliminating the daily dizziness/lightheadedness/brain fog that I had been experiencing for the last few years.

Once chemo was over, I started noticing all of the symptoms that seemed to be related to my heart (aching left elbow..then rest of left arm, chest pains on left side, etc.)  I 've been to cardiologist, gastroenterologist, and neurologist.  Nobody could find the problem.  My oncologist finally prescribed my Prozac 20mg/day to hopefully calm me down.  The anxiety had actually put me into a depression.  The prozac started to work, but by day 6 I had the worst panic attack I've ever had.  It lasted over 4 hors, and I almost went to the emergency room.  I managed to ride it out and got in touch with my doctor the next morning before taking the prozac.  He told me to stop taking it.

I explained to him that I knew everything was coming from anxiety.  If I could get rid of the anxiety, everything else would fall into place. He agreed to prescribe me Clonazepam for a while to try to get everything under control.  In the past day, this drug has made me my old self again.  I know that some people become addicted to it, but if it makes you yourself again, I just don;t see the problem.

Anyway, to this day, I still believe that my actual problem is rooted in a testosterone deficiency from the loss of a testicale.  I've read many other stories of people with this problem that took years to figure it out.  My testosterone checks in the normal range..but that range is very subjective.  I failed to get a baseline testosterone level before surgery, so I don't know where "I" should be.

ANyway, for the last 2 days I've felt great for the first time in months.  I sure hope I can keep it up.

[sixpack]

I'm so sorry you had to go through cancer at such a young age.  I do know that having a big scare for yourself or a family member will touch off anxiety disorders. And that certainly makes sense---we get a good smack of mortality right in our faces.

I'm glad you found us.  We are a friendly lot.  I look forward to getting to know you better.

[tigerpaw]

Your welcome to come into the chat room and share your feelings.