At a LOSS!!!

I'm really not sure what do no anymore. I have been referred to doctor after doctor and alls anyone can come up with is that they can't help me or that it's too complicated or there's no cure. It's really becoming quite frustrating. My symptoms first started in the beginning of February. At that point, I was coming up to being hospitalized for 6 months for an eating disorder and depression. When things were really starting to look good for me, out of nowhere I started experiencing really bad fatigue. Once an early riser, I couldn't seem to wake my body up. I was so tired inside, that I literally hurt. That first month I had a headache that didn't go away with over the counter medicine. I also had a hard time going to sleep at night. I have to take something for me to even sleep at night. The doctors at the hospital ran all these blood test but they came out normal. I was told I must be depressed. I guess somehow they missed the notion that I was having a good time. I was really beginning to enjoy life. In march I was released to go home. I thought maybe I was depressed, but looking back on it, it was much more. Simply taking a shower or brushing my teeth drained me. These were never even a hard task at all before. I didn't even have the energy to unpack for almost a month, and when I did, I was forced because I had to go out of town for a funeral. People would comment on me sleeping alot and tell me I needed to make myself have energy. I started hiding in the closet so I could sleep. Any type of exercise, even walking would significantly make me more tired. And I used to play college soccer. I used to have a job full time job. Not anymore. I've pretty much had to quit alot of things...I'm still trying to take a few classes to graduate this semester. But it's kinda difficult cause I feel dizzy and naseaus alot, especially when reading or turning my head. I have no idea why though. This past week, I can't get it to go away. And I'm having a bit of trouble with word recall. In addition, I don't know if this has to do with anxiety, but my chest and heart beat feels weird and also my legs sometimes get numb or my body shakes like I have the chills. Some of this may be brought on by stress, but I know that it is not in my head or that all of this is not me just being depressed. Something is going on with my body. And I can't get any definite answers and all doctor's bills run up and since I dropped work, I had to take out a loan just to pay ordinary bills. I have no idea what in the world to do. Except try and be as positive as I can and hope for the best. Any suggestions???... God Bless!

[stacy310]

Have your physicians tested you for a "pseudotumor"?

[Curls]

I agree, it doesn't sound like depression or stress or attitude, and I'd move past those diagnosis (even if the doctor's don't.).  It could be CFS.  Several symptoms are key ones that fit closely.  There things that can help CFS which you can experiment with over time.  However, it's not "treatable" so it's important to make sure you don't have someone else that is treatable along the way.

The symptoms that fit are fatigue to the point of exhaustion, exercise makes it worse sometime after the exercise (post-exertional maliase), dizziness, word recall (and other memory and concentration problems), chesst & heart beat weird (can be related), numb body parts that aren't permantently numb, feeling interested in doing things and being frustrated that you can't (is a key difference from depression where apathy rules), muscular fatigue which makes simple tasks like teethbrushing hard to do.

Other areas to consider are - a nutritional imbalance from the eating disorders, or a stomach flora imbalance from them which is causing poor nutritional absorption.  Chairi formation at the base of the neck.  From accidents, or sometimes it just happens, the cavity there will misalign, cut off blood to brain, and produce something very similar to cfs.  An xray evalated by an expert in it can tell and surgery repairs it.  Lyme infection from a tick can happen even when it seems completely unlikely and looks like cfs.  Thyroid function and thyroid growths have probably already been checked for you.

For the dizziness and chest stuff check out dysautonomias, which are common to cfs, that I mention in earlier posts such as POTS and Neurally mediated hypotension.  Long term prognosis is better if early on in the illness you stay very hydrated, so drink a lot of water, and cut back on caffinated drinks and sodas.  It all has to do with the dyautonomias.  I mention some good website in earlier posts too.  (Someone got very mad at me for mentioning these to her, but I did include some good info in my comments, so if you can ignore that debate and just get what's useful to you...)

Congrats on getting past the eatting disorder and depression.  CFS can be short term and go away after a couple years.  It can also be long term.  Hopefully you'll be fine soon, if you take care of yourself, and gather some information, and don't let this stage of things get you down.  

[Cowgirl111]

Thanks for the suggestions and advice!