Nobody can diagnose me

Posted By  CCF Cardio MD SK on February 12, 1998 at 08:16:01:

In Reply to: Nobody can diagnose me posted by Jack on February 10, 1998 at 04:20:30:

: First a little background. I am a 49 year old male with cardiomyopathy and chronic hepatitis-c. I am taking accupril, coumadin and demadex for the heart problem. I am injecting 3 million units of Interferon 3 times a week for the hep-c. I have been doing this for six months and my liver enzymes are normal and there is no live virus in my system. I also have experienced no side effects from the interferon that I can detect.
  I started developing pains in the left and right side of my lower abdomen that felt like muscle aches from excercising. The pains slowly moved up and spread to encompass my entire abdomen and my chest. This process took about a month. I noticed that all throughout this painful area there were small bumps that are between the fatty tissue and the muscle tissue which seemed to be the focal points for the pain. Now my lymph nodes in both armpits are swollen and very painful. They pain from all of the tiny knots changes constantly. Sometimes it is barely noticeable and sometimes it feel like someone driving their knuckles into my muscles.
  I have had the upper GI, ultrasound,flexible sig, and blood tests and all comes up normal. WHAT gives? This hurts and it keeps spreading. Jack

[CCF CARDIO MD SK]

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Dear Jack,
It seems that you are going through a lot but unfortunately a specific diagnosis for your problem has not been identified. I am afraid to say that without examination and reviewing laboratory information it is extremely difficult to intelligently contribute to the understanding your problem. It definitely does not seem like a primary heart problem. I also tend to think that your cardiomyopathy and current pain syndrome are unrelated, but there is no way to be absolutely certain without reviewing the information, first hand. At this point, I would think that a good internal medicine physician may be able to diagnose your problem, after examining you and reviewing your data.
I hope that this information will be useful to you in finding the root cause of your problems. If you are seeking a second opinion or further evaluation, an appointment with one of our cardiologists can be arranged by calling the Cleveland Clinic at [phone].
Information provided in the Heart Forum is intended for general medical informational purposes only. Actual diagnosis and treatment of any particular medical condition can only be made by your family physician(s).