Re: Possibly Fibromyalgia?
- From: mej <fmsanon@fmsanon>
- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 19:34:23 -0400
zebulebu@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
My symptoms have gone on for 18 months now, ever since I had a bad
chest infection that lasted a couple of weeks at the end of 2004.
From that point on, I had moderate to severe acid reflux every night -it didn't seem to matter whether I ate long before bedtime - I would
wake up each night with a burning sensation and a feeling like a lump
in my throat. It went away after about half an hour usually, but was
pretty incapacitating and I didn't get a good night's sleep for months.
Towards the summer I started to notice my right eyelid drooping and
began seeing 'floaters' in there more and more often. This has gotten
worse - to the extent that every day now I get to a point where looking
at a screen for any length of time is impossible. Also around this time
I had pretty much constant sneezing fits - which would last sometimes
for hours - where I sneezed about ten times a minute, non-stop. I don't
suffer from hay fever and don't have any known allergies. The sneezing
fits went on for about three months. Once I sneezed so hard I thought I
was having a heart attack - a massive pain radiated out from my chest
to my arms and back - I had to stand still for about fifteen seconds to
compose myself otherwise I would have collapsed in the street.
Just before I went on holiday (September) I had failed root canal
surgery on one of my teeth and eventually had to have it taken out. I
took two courses of antibiotics - to eliminate the infection - and
basically ever since then its gotten worse and worse.
I feel tired all the time - absolutely all the time, from the minute I
wake up to the minute I fall into bed at night. I have almost constant
lower back pain and chest pain that is so bad I went to casualty to
have an ECG, Chest X-Ray and blood work done (all perfectly normal).
The numbness/coldness in my right leg started to migrate to my right
arm as well - as I type this it feels like I am sitting under an A/C
vent blowing cold air down my right side. My chest pain seems to come
on when I turn to the left and sit still for any period of time greater
than five minutes - as soon as I get up it feels like someone standing
on my chest (hence the reason for me fearing heart disease - I was
relieved to get the all clear from the ECGs!)
About three months ago I started to notice that I had a little tremor
in my head/neck that usually came on when I was staring at either the
television or the computer screen (I work in IT so this made my job
pretty much impossible). This comes and gaves with varying degrees of
severity. I also had a week or so when it seemed like I couldn't lift a
glass to drink some water - my head felt so heavy and it seemed a
mammoth effort even to swallow. This has only recurred a couple of
times, and never as bad as the first occasion.
I am starting to get a strange sensation in my upper back - on the left
hand side, right in the middle, about four inches to the left of my
spine - it feels like a lump there. Also, down near the site of my
lower back pain (right hand side, about an inch from my spine) I have
noticed another, smaller lump. Finally, and maybe most bizarrely and
frighteningly, if I look down at my feet and pull my belly in I notice
that the top half of my body seems to point about fifteen degrees to
the left of the bottom half! I'm not joking or exaggerating here - it
seems like the top half of my body is pointing one direction and the
bottom half is pointing in another!!!
I recently had an upper UI Endoscopy done and was diagnosed with grade
2 Gastritis/Oesophagitis. This would explain my stomach problems, and
maybe my IBS but surely not the numbness, tiredness, chest pain and
floaters in my eyes? I've had an sigmoidoscopy and am awaiting the
results of that and a barium swallow. The test for Helicobacter Pylori
came back negative.
Before all this came on I was a fit, healthy, normal bloke. I am about
30 pounds overweight and have been since I was about twenty (I am 32, 5
foot nine and weigh 190 pounds). I never take drugs, have never even
smoked so much as a cigarette and rarely drink alcohol (maybe seven or
eight times a year)
Do any of these symptoms sound like Fibromyalgia? I must admit to being
a little skeptical in the past about CFS/ME/FM type diseases - this
admittedly was not helped by a mate of mine (who is the laziest *******
on God's Earth) being diagnosed with ME and using it as an excuse to
get off work for two years - there was nothing wrong with him.
However, I am starting to think that FM seems to be a good candidate
for explaining all the symptoms I've got.
Anyone have any advice?
In UK what you'll likely get with a diagnosis of FM is a pat on the head
and a prescription for a sleep medicine, which is usually an
anti-depressant, some help some with pain. Don't mention fibromyalgia to
your doctor until the doctor's done some more digging (tests etc).
Beisides, you haven't mentioned a lot of what I'd be looking for in
fibromyalgia, although some have some of your problems. Besides, even if
it was fibro, we have to work on these problems anyway.
Has your doctor prescribed a proton pump inhibtor for your esophagitis? If
not, why not?
On the face of it, many of your troubles could be coming from computer
work.
Being tall and poor posture or bending over can cause lower back pain.
Pelvic tilt exercises daily can help some lower back pains.
Costochondritis can cause rib pain and is often spoken about here and other
newsgroups.
I've seen the cold feeling mentioned on the MS newsgroup.
In addition, what comes to mind are the questions:
**** did your doctor check your pulses in your groin to see if blood flow
is being limited to your leg?
Clots are also possible - I don't know the name of the test to check that
from your groin up to through to your heart.
If you're eating much the same every day / some foods affect the stool
colour.
So vary your diet every day' if the colour remains the same *****, ask
your doctor to check your liver, your pancreas and your gallbladder. During
a painful attack pancreatitis will show up on a CT scan and tumours can
show up on same for the liver and parts of the pancreas. My gall stones
were found with an x-ray. but maybe a CT scan would find some problems
there, ask the doctor.
http://www.afraidtoask.com/bowel/color.html stool color
Ask your doctor to do a culture to see if you have candida from having had
the antibiotics. If so, there's a medicine for that as
well.http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001153.htm Esophagitis
If so, next time you have to take antibiotics eat plain acidophillus yogurt
(2 or 3 times a day) to balance your stomach gastro flora.
if your job's bothering you, learn relax techniques and use them, even
during the day.
Don't eat sugary foods late in the day and use Biotene to keep balance in
your mouth. Practice good teeth hygiene. You don't say what's gotten worse,
and I don't know root canal.
Reflux: You might have a hiatal hernia. They only operate on large ones.
Raise the head of your bed (put something under the legs at the head) so
that your upper body is higher while you sleep.
Inquire from others as to how and where to get an overnight sleep study, to
evaluate if you have a sleep disorder (apnea, restless legs). Breathing
equipment for apnea, medicine for RLS.
Floaters can occur from eye strain (too much computer and/or TV) Get your
eyes checked and see if there's glasses that reduce eyestrain.
Sneezing can be due to allergy to dust including paper dust in the
environment. If someone's not cleaning the home or workplace, get someone
to do it. Sneezing can also be caused by a long nose hair, a hair tickling
the ear drum. Or a polyp or tumor in the nose area.
I've put *** on what I think is urgent and the rest you have to work with
doctor and/or troubleshoot some on your own.
Report back after you've made some headway with a lot of this. It can take
some time to troubleshoot and improve some of the problems. Let the group
know. I read here but rarely post. I'll be watching for your update.
.
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