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Weakness, Trembling, Fatigue, Head Pains and Pressure, Cramping feeling in Calves, Occasional Nausea, Constant Worry

To begin, I would like to thank you for reading this and trying to help me.  I am a 24 year-old Male, I am 6 feet tall and weigh 205 pounds.  I am pretty active, I work full-time and take 15 hours of classes per semester.  I started feeling sick about a month ago, and it all happened over night.  I did a sinus CT scan and it turned out to be normal.  
I have almost constant weakness in my entire body, my left arm especially and when I try to do something that reguires precission my left hand timbles and I feel week.  I also have occasional naussea in the morning and just fatigue especially if I don't eat reagularly and it gets worse by the end of the day.  I have pains on the top of my head in different places and they are not painful, just very bothersome.  I also have pressures sometimes in different parts of my head.  I get pain in my neck, like muscle stiffness and that comes and goes.  I have stuffiness and post nasal drip.  I have a cramping, tight feeling in both of my calves.  They never cramp!  I also have the feeling that I need to sleep much more than I used to.  This is on my mind every minute while I am awake and I've been dealing with it for about a month now.  I don't know if this is just burn out, psychological or if there is an actuall medical problem in my nervous system that's giving me all these problems.  Any suggestions and help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Nermin
16 Responses
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Avatar universal
Ask your doctor for a thorough Thyroid test, it's one of the most commonly misdiagnosed disorders.  Standard thyroid tests OFTEN do not produce accurate results.  My severe hypothyroidism and fibromyalgia were not discovered by the standard thyroid test my doctor gave me.  I lived a physically and mentally drained life for several months before I did research and went back to my doctor and demended a more thorough thyroid exam.  Turns out I have HYPOTHYROIDISM (an underactive thyroid) and FIBROMYALGIA, both of which produce a variety of very bothersome symptoms.  I'm a healthy 19 year old male, I had no idea, but a thyroid disorder can develop anytime in your life and it wears you down.
Helpful - 2
Avatar universal
KCferret, I have all your symptoms plus some which include oral thrush.  I was stressing about what was wrong with me for the longest time after all blood and urine tests came back normal, including HIV and Thyroid.  The doc told me i had axiety and I'd be ok with some anti-depressants.  Well i wasn't feeling better so I did some serious Googling.  I learned that often times the standard thyroid tests don't produce accurate results unless you have multiple more indepth thyroid tests done.  So i went to my doctor and said look, I know you think i'm crazy, but i want my thyroid test redone and i would also like the more in depth tests done no matter what the standard test result is.  My doctor wrote up the tests I had my blood taken.... and what do you know.  I have Hypothyroidism, which is an underactive thyroid, and i had many of the less common more rare symptoms than what people usually get from this disorder.  Really I have all your symptoms, all of you on here.  I recommend being straight up with your doctor about thyroid testing, especially if you feel drained or sick for months.  I solved my own medical problem, and my doctor feels like an idiot, i can tell.  Whether a thyroid problem is the cause of these problems for the rest of you on here, who knows, but it's worth getting a full test.  Good Luck to all of you, I know what you're going thru and it's not fun.  A doctor sending you off saying "oh it's just anxiety" is sometimes not the problem and is very unprofessional.
Helpful - 2
Avatar universal
my father is 67 yrs old, hx of diabetes, recently he is starting to loose his vision. Recently he has had very hight blood pressure, week on his knees, loosing muscle. Sometimes he is unable to lets say cut his stake or hold himself up. He could be walking and out of nowhere he falls down. He has stayed fit and doesn't look his age but out of nowhere these symptoms started and the doctors can't seem to figure out what's wrong with him. They have taken blood,urine and x-rays. His thyroid is what is acting up now also. In the middle of the night he wakes up with alot of pain on his legs. My father is very strong and for him to say it's painful, it's because there is something very wrong. His upper body feels good and out of nowhere he has a stroke. What is going on?
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
Hello all,

For two months now I have been having weird symptoms:
*numbness and/or cramping (in leg and arm - especially right side)

and now a few weeks ago I started having:
*feeling of pressure on back/top of my head (esp. right side) and
weak feeling in my neck and upper part of my spine

Needless to say this is driving me crazy as I have always been
very healthy.  It is affecting my life a lot.  

I have been to an ER and an Urgent Care Center and had an MRI of the head and neck done.  It came out normal.  I also have had several blood tests done and they
came out okay.  They ended up saying it was anxiety, but I think the anxiety is just a response because I don't know what this is.  I want to know what it is so I can at least face it.

Could anybody help me?  I have never had such a trying/challenging/scary experience as this in my life.  

Thanks so much for any suggestions/ideas/etc..and good luck to all you.  

Nervous in Cali
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
SYMPTOMS (Some current, some previous):    I have puffy eyelids, occasional blurry vision (sometimes see something out of the corner of my eye like a quick blur), occasional dizziness, occasional vomitting, post-nasal drip, fatigue, extremely stiff neck, ear pressue, sore jaw, oral thrush on tongue, sore back, near cramping in calves and also feet and hands (stretching doesn't seem to work), my arms tire easily even with the littlest of tasks (like holding my arms up to a desk to type), inconsistent bowel movements, tingling in hands and feet, have periods where I'm short of breath for no reason (not anxiety induced), slight weight gain, inconsistent appetite, stiff joints, semi-puffy ankles, cannot tolerate heat very well, increased sweating, walking is sort of a task my balance isn't what it used to be, caloused ankles (heels), head feels full.  I just never feel 100% ok unless as you just mentioned, if I have a few beers.
I also had an MRI done and it showed nothing but that I had one tonsil that was bigger than the other. But as I said I have a thyroid problem and the doctor hasn't found the right dosage of thyroid medication for me yet, so it may take a while for my pills to relieve me of some of these ongoing symptoms.  I've read many posts in other forums but I can best relate to the problems of you all in here.  I know what it's like having these problems affect your social and work life and pretty much your life in general.  I know how it feels to leave multiple doctors offices with the only information they could give you being "anxiety."  I dropped out of college, stopped hanging out with friends and pretty much gave up on life this past year. I'm a 19 year old male. My parents thought I had lost my mind, my friends thought of me as just a downer which is really all I had become.  I thought I had every disease in the book, or maybe even a new undiscovered one that they'd end up naming after me.  I was in a way glad to hear I had a thyroid problem, but having undiagnosed, unexplained symptoms can lead to severe depression and anxiety.  This is my story, I'm slowly starting to get my life back on track, still not feeling 100%.  I understand where you're all coming from.  The only advice I can really give to any of you is try not to worry and stress even though you do have bothersome symptoms, it definitely makes matters worse. Also, ask your doctor for an indepth thyroid exam.  So many people of all ages have thyroid problems and don't even know it, it's very common.  I wish you all the best.
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
thanks for the response.  I just had my MRI done with and without dye and it came back negative...So I am waiting to go back to the neurologist to speak with him about what the next step is...  Now some of my symptoms have dissapeared, but I still have nasal stuffiness, intermittent pressure in my forehead (and cheak bones sometimes).  I still have a almost cramping feeling in under my calves, and intermittently I have weakness in my arms, the weakness feels it's right between the bicep and tricep in the center of both arms.  I get head pains here and there.  I noticed when I have a few beers, I start feeling better, I don't want that to be the cure, but just for diagnostic purposes, that is what i have noticed.  
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
A lot of the symptoms you are discribing sound like fibromyalgia. It can start as a result of infections, or viral illness like pneumonia. Also Chronic Fatigue Syndrom. They are very hard to diagnose, mostly a process of eilimination. Good luck, hope you all get some relief, and answers, soon.
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
I seriously could have copy and pasted your original post. I have almost the exact same symptoms except only my right calf is crampy. I'm a 32 y/o married female who works 40 hour weeks, goes to school and has 2 kids. I came down with bronchitis back in early may and went on antibiotics to clear that up. Apparently though I developed walking pneumonia right afterwards but didn't know it until early July because the symptoms were rather mild.  Early July I would start getting a tingling sensation in the back of my scalp around my neck and the muscle weakness started getting worse. Soon my hands and feet were tingly on a regular basis and all I wanted to do was sleep. My doc ran several rounds of tests and that was when the pneumonia was discovered and I started a round of Levaquin to get rid of that. I did start to feel better but the tingling/head pressure thing still stuck around so I got an MRI and nerve conduction study done and results were negative except for a small herniation to my Cerebellar Tonsils.  I still feel weak compared to how I did before. I was extremely active and energetic and now I can barely find the energy to get up in the morning.  My doc ran numerous tests for Lyme disease and they were all negative and my thyroid is working fine as well. In fact all my blood tests came back stellar.

This last Saturday I woke up with my heart racing, tingling all through my body and I couldn't catch my breath. Soon my speech was slurred and I couldn't move on my own so off to the ER I went.  After spending all day there and getting 2 more MRIs the Neurologist said he believed I was suffering from migraines and one had caused an anxiety attack (never had one of those before). I really want to believe this diagnosis but my gut tells me there is more to it.  I have been taking Excedrin PM to help me relax while I sleep which helps a little with the neck/shoulder pain/discomfort.

To summarize my symptoms:

Fatigue, muscle weakness, trembling muscles, some muscle spasms, cramping in my right calf, tingling in hands feet and especially at the base of my skull. Mild headaches with a feeling of pressure throughout and achy neck and shoulders.

The fatigue and muscle weakness are the worst parts. Trying to keep up with my kids makes me worn within a couple minutes.  My docs all asked if I was under alot of stress and I am not. I have a low stress job, easy classes and my kids are great!

I'm to schedule an appt to follow up with the Neurologist in the next week or so so will check back and share my results. Maybe we can all get this figured out together.
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
I share some of your symptoms (see my other posts in both neurology and rheumatology.)  What caught my eye in your post is that you experience "near-cramping."  I have the exact same issue:  I often feel as if I am "about to" cramp, but never do.  Even as I write this I have the feeling that my fingers may cramp any second.  

Has anyone gotten an explanation of this particular symptom?  If so, it could help both of us.  What causes this sensation to occur chronically?

I hope you get your answer soon and that it is something minor and curable.  Best of luck.

Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
thank you for the comments.  I went to see a neurologist, I am waiting for my insurance to approve the MRI and I have already done the test with electrodes on my head, I don't know what it is called.  I don't know the result of that yet, but I am hoping that everything is ok.  My symptoms come and go, it is so strange and I am fed up with it.  Thank you for the reply and I hope that your symptoms go away as well.

Thanks
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
A related discussion, Weakness, dizzines, hazy vision was started.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Have you looked into Fibromyalgia or any other autoimmune diseases? Just a suggestion. :)
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I forgot to mention I also have mild nausea and post nasal drip. This is mostly caused by a deviated septum  and enlarged Turbinates though. I was actually scheduled to have this fixed on July 16 but had to cancel because of all this other drama.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I share many of your symptoms, leg cramping, fatigue, trembling nausea in addition I have facial numbness around the mouth and scalp and dizziness.  This had been going on for about a year and a half.  I also had weakness in the left arm, pain and numbness as well.  I was diagnosed with herniated cervical discs and underwent fusion for c5,6 and 7. The neurologists never connected any of the other symptoms to the herniated discs other than my left arm issues, yet they all presented at the same time.  Im 8 weeks past surgery and the wierd symptoms persist, but my arm feels better. .

Ive been thru a battery of tests and MRIs, spinal tap, etc. The only explanation is that it is some sort of neuropathy.

Another suggestion might be that its anxiety but you should get all bases covered with the Drs.  
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Ditto what Mike said.
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Avatar universal
LYME??
Helpful - 0

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