Seeking Support: Health Symptoms

[rawjenniferlawrenc]

hi everyone, i'm martin and was wondering if anyone out there experiencing similar symptoms could help me, since it's hard to talk to my friends or family who don't understand. i came across this amazing forum when i was scaring myself silly on the internet trying to find out what on earth is wrong with me and already some previous posts are starting to put my mind at rest! here's my story (sorry it's so long!)

i'm 19, a student from glasgow in scotland. about five weeks ago i fell ill with what i assumed to be some sort of horrible virus. i felt very tired, sore and groggy, very sick, lost my appetite completely, my glands in my throat and under my arms felt quite swollen, and, most worryingly, i felt very dizzy and off-balance. i tried to reassure myself that it would pass but, being the extreme hypochondriac that i am , terrible thoughts of brain tumors and goodness knows what else naturally filled my head.

by the end of the week one, my tiredness had gone and i regianed my appetite, but the dizziness/balance problem remained and along with it came the most horrendous sinus pain i have ever felt. literally, i thought my head was going to explode. but again, after a few days of extreme discomfort, i seemed to get better again (on the day i went to visit my doctor - typical!) and prayed that that was me on the mend. the only thing that remained was the dizzy/off-balance feeling and i was told that it was probably a touch of labyrinthitis, caused by my still blocked-up tubes, which a few members of my family had suffered before. thinking it would eventually subside, i carried on as normal.

then, in week 3, i had a relapse. i felt the dizziness/off-balance had got worse, i had chest pains, and i felt very sick all the time, my appetite had once again disappeared. however, it felt like the same sort of sickness i get when i'm very anxious - only ten times worse! on top of convincing myself that i was dying from some horrible fatal disease, i awas in the middle of sitting my end of year exams at university, so my stress and anxiety levels were through the roof and i was pretty wound up. i noticed that after i'd sat an exam, my symptoms would subside slightly, so i wonder if the anxiety played a significant part?...

at the beginning of week four, i moved house, and so didn't have time to feel ill what with all the furniture lifting i had to do! i finished my last exam and prayed that i would now have a chance to relax and get back to my old self. then, about ten days ago now, i developed the reason i stumbled across this forum:

i began to get a horrible, numbing/tingly ache in my right arm in the evening for what i considered to be no apparent reason. the best way i can describe it is as if i had been lying on it all night. this lasted through the night (during which i didn't get much sleep) and thankfully subsided by midday the next day. then, on thursday last week, the same feeling appeared in my right leg, not as painful, but lasting two days this tie and providing me with a lot of discomfort (i went to the cinema on friday with my girlfriend and felt like couldn't sit still for the whole of The Da Vinci Code!) to make matters worse, i was out for dinner with my family at the weekend and both my parents commented on my "trembly" hands.

since the weekend, i have been having trouble sleeping. i've been waking up earlier than i normally would with those numb/tingly/hot feelings in my arms and legs. i have also developed those horrible twitches, which were particularly bad on sunday. frequently, i'd feel a random, rippling twitch in my leg, arm, shoulder, foot or back. less frequently, i've felt what Alonzo describes as a jolt twitch, when a whole limb gives a brief jerk. i've had these sort of random twitches before, the odd one in my calf or whatever, but never so frequently, and never in many different parts of my body. i am, as you can imagine, very worried.

i was so glad to come across this forum after many hours of scaring the bejesus out of myself on many other web pages. over the past few weeks i've convinced myself i've had a brain tumour, a blood clot, ALS, vCJD, MS...you name it. i know it's really silly and the overwhelming chances are that i'm fine, but like previous posters have said, it's much easier to believe the negative, rare, horrible stuff than the positive, common, benign stuff. i've recently had some blood tests done by my GP, who thought i may have had a touch of glandular fever and i was in a "post-viral" state. it came back negative and the rest of my blood tests were fine too. so now i'm worried because whatever it is that's causing these horrible twitches and tremors, as well as my inability to have a proper night's sleep, is obviously not something that can be picked up in my blood. i've made an appointment with my GP for monday - any ideas what he might say/do regarding these twitchy symptoms?

if you've made it this far - thank you so much! sorry for the length of my story, but even as i type, i feel that divulging everything that i've felt over the past month has helped calm me down a little bit. i'm not looking for a diagnosis from anyone, not at all. i'm just looking for some reassurance from anyone out there who's experienced similar feelings to me? any at all would be very much appreciated.

also, i felt it might be useful to let other BFS'ers know that my twitching definitely seems to have began after a virus of some kind that affected my sinuses/tubes and my stomach. i noticed in other posts and pages that many doctors believe BFS is an autoimmune response to a virus, and - if it is BFS that i have, as i've not been diagnosed yet - it would seem that my case could support that argument.

thanks for listening i know i probably sound like a raving hypochondriac, and i can only apologise! really i just want to get back to feeling like my old happy self, so any reassuring replies would be fantastic. i hope everyone else on the board is well and twitching is at a minumum!

cheers!

martin.

 

[rawjenniferlawrenc]

i can't believe i forgot to mention something in that mammoth message! but also, to accompany the twitching, i've had a very stiff and quite tingly feeling in my right hand and wrist aswell, especially at the joints of my third and fourth fingers. i don't know how significant that is to the overall situation. it seems to have got slightly better over the last day or so, though.

 

[furballfury]

Martin-

You nailed it. Dead on description that probably brought back very familiar memories for many of us. Take comfort - you are not alone, and you have BFS. Add in a week of annoying eyelid twitches before the whole sickness thing started and you would've nailed mine to a "T".

The thing you must know is that this thing is with you for a while, and it will do all sort of new and weird things along the way. The whole key, as you can glean from this site if you had the time/patience to read through years of posts, is to NOT let the mind and anxiety of these "symptoms" take control and become the issue. You can't change what your body chooses to do along the way - you CAN CHOOSE whether you make it a hellish ride, or just a series of minor annoyances. You have already stated you are a raving hypochondriac (glad to meet you - I am the Supreme Chairman), so your "outlook" is not rosy for doing this well -- I might suggest having a plan B (psychiatrist who will listen and prescribe the right combo of meds for you) ready if you are not up to this alone and/or with the support you will find here. I think, though, that if you take control of what this IS and what it ISN'T mentally - right from the start - you may surprise yourself and find Plan B is not necessary.

Take a long, good read through here, and don't stray from this site. You will find all you need to know here -- from literally thousands JUST LIKE YOU. We are all still here - living - and doing quite well. Welcome to the club...

JG

 

[rawjenniferlawrenc]

thanks for the replies guys, i'm so glad - and i have to say surprised, that i am not alone in this matter. when your body starts doing such weird things that can be quite hard to explain you really do think you must be the odd-one-out, but that's obviously not the case.

Suzi - i haven't been tested for lyme disease, but (although i must confess i know very little about it) i don't think it's very prevalent in urban scotland. you're right though, better to be safe than sorry. what interested me more was on your comment about my thyroid. my mum was diagnosed as having an underactive thyroid a few years ago, and i understand it is hereditary? this is definitely something i'll ask my GP about. i know i'm quite far from the usual age bracket for a certain nasty disease - it's just this internet, when used badly, can be more of a hindrance than a help! thanks for the advice. =]

TrisTrip - it was the dizziness part that worried me most, mainly because it wasn't typical "spinny" dizziness, more an off-balance feeling, like being on a boat, constantly, even when sitting down. i think, like yourself, it probably was my ears, since whenever i swallowed the dizziness was accompanied by a popping in my ears. this and the dizziness have thankfully faded away over the past week or so - in their place have came the twitches! it's funny how so many different parts of your body can be connected. but you're right, the more fun you have, the easier it is to forget - i can honestly say i normally feel much better when i'm with my girlfriend or my friends. thanks for listening.

JG - you know a few weeks ago, i was probably the most anxious and wound-up i've ever been in my whole life. not only because of my conviction that i was dying from some relentless disease, but because i had to try my best to forget about it to concentrate on my exams, while at the same time moving house. talk about a stressful time! now that the move and exams are behind me, though, i can chill out and concentrate on getting better and having fun. for a while it felt like i was in a total downward spiral of anxiety that was hard to break out of - the fact that i realised i was so anxious made me even more anxious! but after a somewhat embarrassing but helpful talk with my mother (lol) not to mention the support from these boards, i think i'm starting to get my perspective back. thanks for your help. oh, and i don't know about eyelid twitching, but my eyes themselves definitely seemed a lot more stiff, blurry and tired than normal. whatever it is, it definitely affected my eyes too!