Still no answers for variety of symptoms...next stop, psychiatrist!

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jbast

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Going crazy here. This might be long but I will keep it as "to the point" as I can.

I'm a 29 year old female. 5'5, 106 lbs. I'll just list my symptoms and how long I've had them and then list the tests I've had with the outcome.


Symptoms
-moderate to severe joint pain that comes and goes. usually my wrist or knees on either side of the body (sometimes both), fingers too sometimes. This has been going on for at least 3-4 years.

- Cannot put on weight despite big appetite. My diet is very versatile because I love all fooRAB and cooking. So I basically eat everything from brussel sprouts to greasy burgers. I rarely exercise, because I don't enjoy it, so I go through phases with exercising but I don't believe that my heart is in great shape. I get winded very easily if I try to jog, etc..

-heart palpitations, chest pain and pressure, nurabness & tingling on left shoulder and neck. been going on for the past 4-5 months. i also have the cold feet thing going on. feet are always FREEZING so i obvioulsy have some ciruclation problems.

-memory problems and a little bit of depression/anxiety but i did used to smoke pot regularly so i attritbute these problems to the pot. i've recently quit cold turkey (been over a month).

-chronic and untreated indoor allergy/sinus problems. i'm allergic to dust mites and sensitive to mold and mildew. i went to an allergist about 2 months ago and they did the first series of tests on my arm (poked me with the allergens). only thing that came back positive was dust mites. i haven't returned for more testing because i got the bill from them and it was $700! ins. does not cover allergy and so i won't be going back to that for a while, can't afford it.

-hives that seem to be related to clothing. this has been going on for the last 3 weeks and it's driving me insane. the back of my scalp itches like mad and i get little patches of white bumps (not puss-filled or anything gross, just raised and white with redness around them). i attributed it to a sudden allergy to fabric softener even though i've used it all my life. but i did some investigating and the clothes washed with softener seemed to REALLY give me bad hives. but i still get the hives from clothes that i haven't washed with fabric softener, so who knows. i give up on that. using tea trea oil shampoo and soap and it helps a little bit.

-acute insomnia/sleep apnea related symptoms. started about 3 weeks ago. i am "jolted" out of REM sleep just as i'm about to enter it and it will happen all night long every 15-20 minutes and it causes panic/anxiety. went to the doc and of course it's "stress" and got lunesta. the lunesta is definitely helping me but i'm worried that it's not stress and that it's allergy related and that i'm stopping breathing in my sleep. that's what it feels like.


ok so with all of that said here's the tests i've had...everything is "normal" or "negative"

RA factor
celiac blood panel
colonoscopy/upper endoscopy revealed a hiatal hernia and gastritis and gastro doc ran biopsies for celiac, h-pylori infection (had that in high school btw) and colitis but the biopsies were all negative.

my yearly physical blood work (whatever that is) all came back normal
thyroid tested twice this year by my OBGYN and primary doc and both normal each time.

i have both types of herpes. only had one outbreak of the genital kind recently. it was my first. i'm practically married and my partner has herpes simplex 1 and has had a few cold sores but i never got one in the 3 1/2 years i've been with him..all i got was the genital one about a month ago and i freaked out and got tested for both, turns out i have both types even though i never get lip sores. my bf had no idea and neither one of us knows who was carrying it (the genital one) and the doctor said it's hard to tell. espeically because i have simplex 1 and have never had an outbreak. so he could have had the simplex 2 and never had an outbreak because he gets simplex 1 outbreaks, etc.. anyway, bottom line is that i have both and so i have a viral infection.


that's all i can think of now.

my biggest concerns right now are the sleep problem, hives and joint pain. sometimes i wake up and i am in so much pain, the tears just come pouring down my face. i have to ice my joints and the pain and stiffness go away the more i start moving around.

HELP PLEASE! any info is greatly appreciated.

oh yea and i have an appointment with a cardiologist this wednesday to make sure my heart is ok. my dad has MVP and some heart problems so i'm wondering if maybe i have that too (isn't that hereditary?)

also, the only medication that i have taken pretty regularly for the past year is antaciRAB which i've stopped completely because i read that they can trigger food allergies and they mess up the chemistry of your stomach.
thanks!
 
Aside from a possible thyroid condition you could have fibromyalgia. Did you ever have a discussion with your doctor about that? Have you ever had a blood transfusion? You could have a form of hepatitis without having elevated liver enzymes. Just a thought...Sincerely, searchin
 
It's very, very common for thyroid problems to remain undiagnosed due to what MRAB believe to be "normal" test results. Thyroid dysfunction is a very subjective thing, and not all MRAB understand how to diagnosis it.

My suggestion is for you to get your test results with their lab ranges and post them on the Thyroid Disorders board for help in determining whether they're really so normal. Most, if not all, the symptoms you list might be explained by thyroid trouble; but you can't automatically count on your MRAB to know if your function is normal or not.
 
i have no symptoms of hepatitis, just looked it up. no fever, vomitting, jaundice, loss of appetitie (i eat like a pig) etc... plus my liver & kidney function checked out fine with my yearly physical blood work. if i had hepatitis, something would have shown up in those tests right?

i have definitely considered fibromyalgia. going to mention that too.

oh yea i've never had a blood transfusion.
 
thank you for the reply. i agree, i've about had it with doctors. no one gives a crap any more and then just send you on your way with a bunch of thoughtless prescriptions, it's very aggrivating.

i have already requested a copy of my full medical record from my doctor because i was a step ahead of you. i read about thyroid "normalcy" being subjective and want to know what my exact readings are. will post when i know.

no one in my family suffers from thyroid disease though, does that matter?
 
Not too much. You could still have it without any family history, even though it is a often a familial condition. The most common causes of thyroid disorders are the autoimmune diseases, Graves' and Hashimoto's thyroiditises. Does your family suffer from any kinRAB of autoimmune disorders? Some of the more common ones besides the thyroid ones are - rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, celiac disease, Sjogren's, multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, pernicious anemia, Addison's disease, among about 75 others. If there is any autoimmune disease within a family, it's because of a gene defect that can cause higher prevalence of AI disease any place within the family tree, but not necessarily the same AI disease for each meraber.

Other non-AI reasons for thyroid dysfunction include: radiation treatment/tests to the head and neck, vegetarian diet, whiplash-type injury, inadequate or excess iodine intake, Sheehan's syndrome, certain environmental toxins, smoking or smoking cessation, certain prescriptions particularly lithium or amiodarone, pituitary tumors or disease, aging/menopause. The virus for Epstein-Barr is now thought to be a possible trigger.
 
Even if that level of TSH is within "normal" limits, it's probably too high. Healthy people have TSH closer to 1. You need to have tests for free T4 and two thyroid antibodies - TPO and Tg. If free T4 is below median lab range and/or either or both antibodies are positive, at least some MRAB would begin treatment for you. Not all would, however, as there is a great degree of debate about the wisdom of treating so-called "subclinical" hypothyroidism. It would be worth your while to find one who will treat you, given that most of your symptoms would likely improve or resolve when you're given some supplemental thyroid hormone.

If you want at least a trial of thyroid hormone, go for your blood draw as early in the a.m. as you can. It's possible that your TSH will be at its highest then, and high TSH is what will most easily convince an MD to write the script for hormone.
 
I guess a rheumatologist would be the next step after the cardiologist?

I dunno, I don't have much in my family besides colon cancer and skin cancer. Those are my 2 risk factors and I already checked out w/ the colonoscopy.

Both of my parents are in really good shape and have had no hospitalizations or surgeries and are 60 which is impressive. There's high blood pressure and drug abuse in my family ad that's about it for "bad genes".

I'm having a hives outbreak now and my eyes are itching intensely and my ears too (the inside of them).

Are you SURE this all couldn't be untreated allergies becoming really bad? What about that trip to the allergist i made about a month ago and they poked me with all of that stuff. it was after that visit that my sudden allergy to things and the hives came out and the sleep apnea started. could my body be responding to the things they poked me with or is that not common?

i guess i'll go browse the allergy section.

thanks again for the input.
 
Thanks for the reply. Should I go see an endocrinologist to get some serious consideration? I went to the cardiologist today and he ordered blood work and a stress test. Blood work on the script says "ANA" and "CRP" and then "Dx Arthritis".

My biggest concern right now is the sleep problem. It's driving me nuts. I didn't fill my lunesta script and ran out of samples because I thought I'd be ok but my body is not letting me drift into sleep. I keep getting this adrenaline type of shock as if I was about to die while sleeping. Totally causing anxiety:( I took a 3 mg melatonin and it obviously didn't work. Drinking some red wine right now and hoping it does the trick.

Also, I'm confused about the whole hypo v. hyper thyroid. Since I'm very thin and cannot put on weight, if I were to have a thyroid problem, wouldn't it be a low TSH and not a high one? AKA HypERthyroidism?
 
"ANA" is a test for non-specific antibodies (Abs). Those Abs don't reveal any specific disease in and of themselves, but the test will come back positive when there are other, specific Abs present - like thyroid antibodies. If you want to test for thyroid disease, it should be for the specific ones, TPO and Tg.

CRP is for "C-reactive protein", which is an inflammatory chemical and risk factor for heart disease (and perhaps arthritis - not sure?)

"Dx" means "diagnosis". The heart guy thinks you have arthritis. But joint and muscle pain is common to thyroid disease, too, and he doesn't seem to know he should be investigating that. But then, he's a heart guy. ;)

Thyroid disease has the potential to affect every single bodily process, including sleep patterns. Each person's particular set of symptoms will be their own. No one has all the symptoms, which frequently include weight changes but not so in every single case. I had no weight gain, either, but I couldn't lose it when I tried. My primary symptoms were chest pressure/pain, heart palps, muscle stiffness, and brain fog. That's why I recognize those so well from your list. These have all left since my thyroid treatment has been optimized.

Endos can be the most opposed to returning a thyroid diagnosis and offering treatment. I found one who was cooperative; she understanRAB that TSH is not the be-all, end-all test others believe it to be. She tested for TPO and Tg Abs, which were positive and got me the diagnosis. My free T4 was at the very bottom of the normal range. And I had plenty of symptoms. All that corabined convinced her to start treatment. I'm well today because of her and what I've learned about optimal treatment in the years since.

This is one area where you really have to advocate for yourself. If you can manage to get the best tests ordered, report the results back on the Thyroid Board - especially if you're told they're normal. There are regulars there who can help you determine whether the results are truly "normal" or whether it's worth it to push the issue to get treatment.
 
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