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Avatar universal

I need help.

I'm a perfectly healthy and previously fit 32 year old female, blissfully married with three kids. About 12 weeks ago I went to see my doctor re: headaches, insomnia and stomach aches (in the morning only, I wake with pain under my left ribs). He suggested my symptoms may be related to depression. I objected, I do not feel that I was depressed. He suggested 300mg Wellbutrin daily to see if it helped my symptoms and in an effort to help me kick my half a pack a day smoking habit.

About two weeks later my forearms began to feel very heavy and painful. I started getting strong shocking sensations to my hands.  Over the course of the next four weeks the heaviness slowly moved into my legs, and shocking sensations into my feet. I began having wet hot/cold and crawling sensations in various, random places of my body. The pain in my arms, hands and feet became so severe that I could no longer work. I started to feel disoriented, dizzy, confused. Garbling language and slurring. Then muscles all over my body began twitching and spasming. Sometimes muscles will spasm for a long time, creating odd looking swellings that are really painful. I jerk and convulse so badly I look like I have parkinsons. There are alot of floaters in my vision and my ears ring or sounds seem "tinny" alot. Also, I started sweating profusely.

My doctor sent me to get tons of bloodwork, which all came back normal. He then sent me to see a neurologist who suggested that my symptoms were "benign" and that I might have carpal tunnel. And a rheumatologist who said my bloodwork was normal. Nobody ordered further testing, prescribed any type of treatment or asked me to return.

I went back to my doctor who said he thought it could be the Wellbutrin. I was so relieved! I immediately stopped taking the drug.

Now it has been 3 weeks since I stopped taking Wellbutrin. I only took it for 6 weeks total, and yet I now feel worse, not better. Now I also have weakness in my facial muscles. It's hard to eat and talk. The electrical shocks and wet hot/cold sensations concentrate mostly in my elbows but still affect my hands, arms, legs, feet. My arms are very weak and I drop things often. I can't ride in a car without getting ill- I'm so dizzy and disoriented. I'm about to lose my business which I have worked so hard on for years because I can't work. I shake and spasm and look like Frankenstein when I walk. (Stiff legged, or watery.) My face looks slightly unsymmetrical now, with strange puffiness/or maybe drooping on one side. I dribble water when I drink and have trouble swallowing sometimes. I have diarrhea every day. I'm losing weight. I have trouble reading, and I'm an avid reader. I used to love to hike and garden and sew and knit and read and I can no longer do any of these things. I've been without income for a month and we're about to lose everything.

Yet, I've been back to my doctor and he seems completely unconcerned. I have received no treatment whatsoever. I have no diagnosis. No prognosis. And I'm terrified.

Could it still be that I'm experiencing adverse reaction to Wellbutrin, 3 weeks since I've stopped taking it? Or is something else going on? Could depression cause all of this stuff as my doctor suggests? I don't feel that I've been depressed, but I'm open to it. Although 6 weeks of Wellbutrin did nothing to change my mood, which was fantastic before all this happened. (And is quickly NOT fantastic.)

In case it matters - I have had a few health issues in the past but they were all quickly remedied including: pleomorphic adenoma (when I was 16), molar pregnancy (when I was 20), and placental abruption (when I was 22).

I really appreciate your thoughts!
Help!

Phaedra
2 Responses
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Avatar universal
I am going to take your advice and see another doctor as soon as possible. :) Thank you for your empowering words BigSam!

Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
The refuge of every ignorant doctor is the diagnosis of depression.
As soon as you explain to them something that is a bit outside
of their experience, they're gonna retreat to that position. In
my personal opinion, you need to give up the idea you have depression
wholesale and pursue somatic solutions. The more time you
think it's psychosomatic, the more time you have wasted. And
find a different doctor - they're not priests and they don't have
any sacred knowledge to share - just arrogant nerds who think
they know more about your pain than you do. You'd probably
have more time with a doc if you were a pharmaceutical representative,
but you're not, and you're just a number to them. Just letting you
know, for your benefit. Good luck, and don't back down. Since
medicine is all about capitalism these days, you need to do
your homework and find a better provider for your product,
which in this case, is terribly, terribly precious. Good luck again.

Helpful - 0
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