Mecury Contact HELP!

hello. for the past 3 months i have been feeling horrible and aquired alot of symptoms over time. I contantly feel tired, extreme shortness of breath, dizzy, head zaps like a funny feeling in my head, pressure behid my eyes and in the bridge of my nose, weight loss (12lbs in a month) and i also adapted anxiety from not knowing what is wrong with me. I have lost my appetite; it comes and goes. I have been in and out of the emergency room more than 4 times. i have been back and forth to my doctor and he cant find anything. I was researching my symptoms over the internet and came across possibly mercury poisoning. A few years ago i came in contact with mercury from a thermometer. Not knowing what it was, i remember touching it. by the way i am only 19 so i must have been about 14 or so. My question is: Does mercury poisoning get chronic over the years? How can i know if i am affected by mercury? Is there a way to cure mercury poisoning? And if theres any other information that will help, please enlighten me.

Thank You So Much!!

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
The symptoms are unlikely to be due to mercury poisoning after 4-5 years. Your symptoms are primarily due to rapid weight loss. There are many causes like worms in stool, depression, anorexia nervosa, AIDS, cancers especially colon cancers, drug abuse, infections and loss of appetite. Loss of appetite can again be due to certain medications, drug abuse, depression, AIDS, acute and chronic infections, cancers and hypothyroidism. Either you do not eat well or there is increased metabolism as in hyperthyroid states, HIV, cancer etc. Poor absorption as in irritable bowel syndromes and malabsorption syndromes too is possible. Malabsorption syndromes are seen in intestinal tuberculosis, HIV, tropical sprue, parasites in stool and Whipple’s Disease.
I think you should discuss these possibilities with your doctor. It is difficult to comment beyond this without examining. A comprehensive investigation is required keeping all the points in mind.
Hope this helps. Do let me know if there is any thing else and keep me posted. Take care!

[Iriana]

Thanks so much for your insight. I had bloodwork done twice and even had xrays done of my chest. Tuesday i got tested for HIV and other std's, my results havent came back yet. If everything is ok with my lab tests, my nxt stop would be the neurologist. If they cant find anything, my doctor suggests i see a therapist for anxiety. It really ***** when pple around u, even your doctor think ur making everything up and cant find anything wrong with you.

[caregiver222]

It is unlikely that there is any damage.

I come from the days when the classs project in third grade was to break open a mercury thermometer and rub it on the copper pennies to turn them silver. I did dozens of pennies over the years.  And I have fifty year old mercury amalgum fillings. And I used mercury to pan for gold. And I actually swallow the contents of a mercury thermometer dumped in a plastic cup by a nurse in an emergency room.

Yes, it is very toxic, but the single exposure represents an insignificant risk.

[Iriana]

thx so much for that. I spoke to a person from the poison control center and she said that she doubts it is mercury poisoning b/c mercury from a thermometer is somewhat harmless.