Symptoms

[Boy252]

Hello Doctors

I am new to this forum and need some help understanding my wifes symptoms. My wife is 35 years old. As a child she suffered form Exzema and was very sickly. She did ok in her teeange years however things are not as good again.
She gets the most weird sikeness and i have a hard time helping her treat them as they are not very normal. I live in Fiji and the doctors here are at best just OK. For about 3 to 4 months during the year she gets sick. Her symptoms will range from electrical shock type sensations in various parts of the body to severe bone pain usually in no specific places like the facial bones or the ribs etc. They are not confined to the joints like any other illness. She will also get reoccuring tonsils without any fever or other flu like symtoms except maybe a runny nose sometimes. She will get small pimple like rashes with puss in them around the upper neck and upper back and a butterfly like swelling under both eyes where the cheek bones are. These rashes are usually the indication that things are not good with her body. She will generaly feel unwell however her physical apperance will be perfect. No weight loss, loose stool, feaver etc etc  or other more obvious symptoms. She cannot drink alcohol because  we have noticed immediate bone pains when she consumes even 1 glass and bruising on various places in the body similar to being punched by someone after a day or 2. I am guessing that my wife my be allergic to a few things thus the post. Aside form the alcohol related reactions all other symtoms hit her hardest during the colder  and windy months in Fiji which is from May to September.


Are the above symptoms similar to allergy reactions or could it be something else.

Please let know what your best guess is with the information i have provided without actually seeing her in person.

Appreciate your help.

[National Jewish Health]

Your wife has a complex combination of signs and symptoms, suggestive of a multi-system disease.  I assume that, "For about 3 to 4 months during the year she gets sick." means a total of 3 to 4 months and not a recurrently seasonal illness.  The butterfly rash is typical of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).  Bone pain is a symptom associated with a number of metabolic disorders, including overactive parathyroid glands.  These 2 diseases, hyperparathyroidism and SLE have been described as occurring together.  To learn more please read our SLE information by copying and pasting this address

http://www.nationaljewish.org/disease-info/diseases/rheum/lupus/index.aspx

into the address window of your internet browser.

Bottom line is that your wife's illness is a difficult diagnostic problem and not surprisingly beyond the expertise of general practice physicians.  The best advice we can give is that you arrange for your wife to be evaluated at one of a number of renowned medical centers such as the Mayo Clinic or by the superb rheumatologists at National Jewish Health.  We appreciate the logistics involved but it would be well worth it to you and your wife to be evaluated by expert physicians, capable of making a definitive diagnosis and treatment plan that could spare her the misery you describe.  To start the process to schedule an evaluation at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado please access our online patient pre-registration form by copying and pasting this address

http://www.nationaljewish.org/disease-info/diseases/rheum/lupus/index.aspx

into the address window of your internet browser, select rheumatology/autoimmune disorder, complete the form with as much detail as possible, then submit.

[Boy252]

Thank you for your comments. Fiji is usually quite hot most times during the year. However between May and August our whether changes some in that the temp gets cooler. You can say this is our winter as the temp drops. During this period the winds ususally change direction and the usual winds comming from the sea changes to inward winds which come from the mountains. This is the period that her health gets bad. It appears that the winds blowing from the mountains carry lots of pollen etc. We know that she definetly suffers from alcohol related alergies because she reacts to it almost immideatly. Any way will try recording what she eats etc.        

[margypops]

Ummmmm Fiji,Great,  My feeling is you are correct in your assumption of Allergys,Rashes and Runny nose are symptoms of Allergy, also.Get her to make some notes of what she is doing, eaten ,prior to the incidents check the stuff you spray around if you spray Bug spray I dont know your climate ,do you get Bugs in the Winter is there any specific virus around then, the search engine may help, allergys are hard to track,it means eliminating things one at a time, then re introducing them.By Bone pains you mean she aches like Flu, also a symptom.The Wind here causes us to get a lot of Virus"s but its the desert winds here that blow the desert dust on us and its not too good, the Native Indians here called them Devil Winds we call them Santa Anna Winds.