FizzBuzzer19
New member
Hello everyone 
I'm new here *waves* and finding this forum has been amazing help for me the past month. I want to tell you my story so far, perhaps you recognize it somewhat, at least I hope Still very much at the beginning of it all, it all started roughly two months ago. Or perhaps a couple of months earlier, but the symptoms at the time were so minor that I brushed them off as nothing. I'm 27 years old, single with 3 lovely cats, and over the past two years my life has been a rollercoaster with the illness and death of my mother, taking care of my elderly grandmother and selling my house.Around June I was cooking at suddenly felt some of the tips of my fingers getting slightly numb. This lasted for a while and went away. In July I remember waking up with terrible cramps in my left leg. Soon after my left knee started to hurt when I kneeled down. This has never really gone away completely. Some days it is there, other days it is not. More often not now. My 'scary' symptoms started the day that I heard that I sold my house. I came home from a fruitful day of clothes shopping when I noticed that my hands were trembling. Slightly, but noticeable to me. A couple of hours later I got the phone call from my real estate agent that someone made an offer on my house. This was around dinnertime and my hands started shaking so much that I couldn't hold my fork still. This lasted for the entire rest of the day and the next day it was gone. Then -and this I have had several times over the past years- I got my flu like symptoms again. Muscle aches all over, fatigue, but no fever. Usually it takes a couple of days and goes away, but now it lasted. I had random twitches all over my body. A head ache at the right side, and sometimes a bit lightheaded, air hunger, shooting pains in my abdomen. Not all the time, but still annoying. The symptom that scared me most and made me go to my family doctor was the ratcheting. That and a swollen lymph node in my jaw. One day I noticed my feet would make a shaky movement when bent. This progressed into my arms. wrists, thighs, knees, back, neck... I was convinced I had a young onset of Parkinsons disease. (Yes, in the meantime I was consulting Dr. Google quite often, which scared me very much)I went to the family doctor. He knows my history and attributes in to stress and all I've been through for the past years. He prescribed me with Oxazepam to help me sleep better (I find it difficult to fall asleep and tend to wake up in the middle of the night to stay awake until the alarm goes off).I was assured for a day or so. Then new symptoms would arise. I noticed that I my legs would start to shake with the smallest physical exertion, like holding them up in the air when lying on your back for ten seconds or so. Same thing with my arms. Then my right upper arm started to hurt, my neck felt really tight. Even lifting my arm up above my head for half a minute would make it hurt like crazy. My right leg hurt as well at times when I walked. I went back to the family doctor and explained him my new symptoms. Still anxiety. My therapist said the same. In the meantime I had found your forum and it has been so great to know that there are other people out there who experience the ratcheting as well. After the doctors visit, new symptoms appeared again on top of all the other ones. Pain when pressing on certain parts of my body, symmetrical on both sides. Difficulty swallowing (or perceived?), nausea, had to burp a lot and it always felt like gas was travelling through my intestines, I could feel the grapepie. Also I felt like there would be mucus in the bottom of my lungs when breathing in deeply. Not all the time, but there. I visited my doctor again and the last symptom he couldn't explain, nor hear in my lungs.It seemed to improve a bit for the past week or so. I tried not to notice the ratcheting much. The pain in my right arm and leg went away, although they still get tired and shaky very easily (same with my left arm and leg, btw).My newest complaint is that I have a pressure feeling in my mid back, like my muscles are really tight, worse when I bend over. I twitch there more then before. Also, I get this bubbly feeling in my stomach, in my back, and the bubbly feeling in my lungs at times when I inhale deeply is also still there. And shortness of breath. I am so afraid at the moment that I have lung cancer and a spinal tumor, since that is what my mother died of. Do any of you get that feeling too? My family doctor hasn't sent me to a specialist yet. He tested my blood for thyriod problems but those test results came back fine. Thank you for reading my story.
I'm new here *waves* and finding this forum has been amazing help for me the past month. I want to tell you my story so far, perhaps you recognize it somewhat, at least I hope Still very much at the beginning of it all, it all started roughly two months ago. Or perhaps a couple of months earlier, but the symptoms at the time were so minor that I brushed them off as nothing. I'm 27 years old, single with 3 lovely cats, and over the past two years my life has been a rollercoaster with the illness and death of my mother, taking care of my elderly grandmother and selling my house.Around June I was cooking at suddenly felt some of the tips of my fingers getting slightly numb. This lasted for a while and went away. In July I remember waking up with terrible cramps in my left leg. Soon after my left knee started to hurt when I kneeled down. This has never really gone away completely. Some days it is there, other days it is not. More often not now. My 'scary' symptoms started the day that I heard that I sold my house. I came home from a fruitful day of clothes shopping when I noticed that my hands were trembling. Slightly, but noticeable to me. A couple of hours later I got the phone call from my real estate agent that someone made an offer on my house. This was around dinnertime and my hands started shaking so much that I couldn't hold my fork still. This lasted for the entire rest of the day and the next day it was gone. Then -and this I have had several times over the past years- I got my flu like symptoms again. Muscle aches all over, fatigue, but no fever. Usually it takes a couple of days and goes away, but now it lasted. I had random twitches all over my body. A head ache at the right side, and sometimes a bit lightheaded, air hunger, shooting pains in my abdomen. Not all the time, but still annoying. The symptom that scared me most and made me go to my family doctor was the ratcheting. That and a swollen lymph node in my jaw. One day I noticed my feet would make a shaky movement when bent. This progressed into my arms. wrists, thighs, knees, back, neck... I was convinced I had a young onset of Parkinsons disease. (Yes, in the meantime I was consulting Dr. Google quite often, which scared me very much)I went to the family doctor. He knows my history and attributes in to stress and all I've been through for the past years. He prescribed me with Oxazepam to help me sleep better (I find it difficult to fall asleep and tend to wake up in the middle of the night to stay awake until the alarm goes off).I was assured for a day or so. Then new symptoms would arise. I noticed that I my legs would start to shake with the smallest physical exertion, like holding them up in the air when lying on your back for ten seconds or so. Same thing with my arms. Then my right upper arm started to hurt, my neck felt really tight. Even lifting my arm up above my head for half a minute would make it hurt like crazy. My right leg hurt as well at times when I walked. I went back to the family doctor and explained him my new symptoms. Still anxiety. My therapist said the same. In the meantime I had found your forum and it has been so great to know that there are other people out there who experience the ratcheting as well. After the doctors visit, new symptoms appeared again on top of all the other ones. Pain when pressing on certain parts of my body, symmetrical on both sides. Difficulty swallowing (or perceived?), nausea, had to burp a lot and it always felt like gas was travelling through my intestines, I could feel the grapepie. Also I felt like there would be mucus in the bottom of my lungs when breathing in deeply. Not all the time, but there. I visited my doctor again and the last symptom he couldn't explain, nor hear in my lungs.It seemed to improve a bit for the past week or so. I tried not to notice the ratcheting much. The pain in my right arm and leg went away, although they still get tired and shaky very easily (same with my left arm and leg, btw).My newest complaint is that I have a pressure feeling in my mid back, like my muscles are really tight, worse when I bend over. I twitch there more then before. Also, I get this bubbly feeling in my stomach, in my back, and the bubbly feeling in my lungs at times when I inhale deeply is also still there. And shortness of breath. I am so afraid at the moment that I have lung cancer and a spinal tumor, since that is what my mother died of. Do any of you get that feeling too? My family doctor hasn't sent me to a specialist yet. He tested my blood for thyriod problems but those test results came back fine. Thank you for reading my story.
) My mom had spinal cord cancer that metastasized in the brain. I don't remember any details or have medical knowledge of her condition because I was only 13 when this happened. Although your sxs very much could be from anxiety or rather the stress may have triggered a sensitivity in your body (or perhaps lowered your immune system and you have a virus causing problems, etc. etc.), I think your doctor could easily reassure you and rule out a very unlikely event of a malignancy (unlikely because you're so young) by giving you a CT scan of the lungs and MRI of the spine. I don't say this because I believe it's necessary or you're in trouble, but I think when there is a family hx like yours/mine, sometimes the only way you can be reassured is to have some tests run. Perhaps you can explain your doc that - I'm confronting mine next week and we'll see how successful I'll be. 
I've been given the "anxiety" run around for the past three month and I'm calm enough now to respectfully assert that the "anxiety theory" is not a good enough exlpanation for me.In my opinion, sxs that come and go, change over time or widespread in the body without causing any progressive pain or disability are unlikely to be caused by malignancies or degenerative disease. I'm in the same boat as you and try to hang in there mentally and am more and more positive that I will get passed this - I'm in Canada and must wait until I'm granted an MRI or other tests that may explain my peripheral neuropathy. However I'm more and more confident that my condition is benign.