What in the world is wrong with me?

[vsavatar]

I've been to two neurologists, 2 general practicioners, and 1 psychiatrist.  They all seem to think this is anxiety, but let me go over this.  About 5 months ago I had a cold which one day turned into a nightmare.  I started having hot flashes and feelign dizzy and confused.  I thought I was dying.  My GP prescribed Xanax to relieve what he believed was anxiety.  That's fine except about a week after he prescribed the Xanax I started having short term memory loss.  I went to see one neurologist who said he couldn't find anything wrong with me and a normal EEG and MRI both seemed to confirm this.  I am now on valium, celexa, and buspar, all prescribed by my psychiatrist.  Anyways, my current symptoms consist of short term memory impairment (but very little actual memory "loss" because it almost always comes back within a few minutes), some minor twitching in various areas of my body, difficulty reasoning out complex problems (though I'm top of my class in accounting and statistics), and constant worry and fear about illness and dying.  I keep thinking I have vCJD, and the fact that we in the USA now have our first ever case of it in America doesn't do much to assuage my fears.  What do the docs on here think about this?  Could this really just be anxiety or am I going to become the first American citizen to die of vCJD?

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-JT]

I'm not sure what you are referring to with the acronym vCJD. The medical condition Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease which is a serious, rapidly progressive dementia caused by abnormal proteins called prions goes by the common abbreviation CJD. This is actually well known in the US, and I have personally seen about 5 patients who died of this disease. So unless you are referring to this particular syndrome, then we are talking about 2 different diseases.

If you did have this, you would certainly NOT continue to be at the top of your accounting class. Most people with CJD experience a rapid neurological decline and die within a few months of diagnosis. Also there are specific patterns on EEG and MRI that can help point to the diagnosis of CJD.

Stress is a possible cause of your symptoms. But routine blood work should be done such as thyroid testing, complete blood count, and electrolyte panel to make sure nothing easily correctable is missed. Glad everything was normal so far, which is somewhat reassuring that many serious neurological diseases such as tumor have been ruled out. Best of luck.

[headproblemz]

I believe she is talking about a variant of CJD called "Mad Cow's" Disease. I do believe I saw on the news that it was thought a woman in Florida had "Mad Cow's Disease". This would have been the first episode of "Mad Cow's Disease" in the United States. However, she lived in Britain 10 years before that, which is probably, if she does have the disease, the reason why she got "Mad Cow's disease". Conversely, all beef products should be safe in the United States, so I don't see how you got it, unless you travelled to other European countries and ate some infected beef there. Best of luck to you:)

[vsavatar]

Yes, that's what I was referring to.  I haven't been to other countries and I know our beef supply is supposed to be safe, but still, I see these symptoms and compare them with those of MCD and see so many similarities it's hard to ignore it.

[headproblemz]

I see how you can be worried. But there are several other problems that your symptoms can be other then Mad Cow's disease. I don't think you have any.. i think that it is all psycological. But the chance of you getting MCD is 1 in over 1 million. Not very likely.

[nackerednurse]

hi,
  i had nearly all those syptoms (symptoms) after spinal surgery i also couldnt swallow. i was mortified when panic attacks were diagnosed as i am [or was] a ward sister untill injuring my back. i was convinced i was going to die. i now take citalopram and symptoms are much easier to control. DONT TAKE VALIUM IT MAKES IT WORSE IN THE LONG RUN!!!
i have a coping mechanism ,i list all the players in my local soccer team and think about which ones i would sleep with!!!
well it works for me
                ange

[krisiluttinen]

Hi, I'm 27 years old and last year in October 2001 I started having a stomach pain/disturbance that ended up in acid reflux (U know the gnawing pain in your throath that feels as if a semi-tire spinning slowly) . I took Prevacid and it got fixed. 2 months later my symptoms:

1. Pain in the abdomen area (left and right) and a feeling of nausea. I feel as if I've been poisioned 1.5 months of constant sickness. Went to doctors (same routine depressed,  it's in your head etc.) I also started to have hypertension and panic and depressive attacks.
Not because I was unhappy but due to the sickness.
I also had a 38 hours insomnia that accompanied all of this. I knew then that I'm about to step into something very unormal with my body. I work out and I'm in good shape so this is not an issue.

2. Not much later my nausea started to expand and I started to have some unexplained pains inside my head just as electrical pulses and sickening pressure at the base of my skull that felt as if I'm about to faint. The headache seems to be worsened after meals. I also had upper/lower jaw pain that was running through my teeth (randomly) as if I had taken severe bites out of ICE/LEMON. This is very weird since I was never sick in my life. I've been on blood pressure medication and serotonium resoration (paxil) I still believe that all this malfunctions are comming from the  middle of my body (abdomen area) I don't know if I have IBS or what in the world I have. It seems that if I allow air into my stomach and expunge it out I get a little relief (that one needs practice :-)) I've been in this condition for about 8 months already and still don't know what's going on. #2 also looks loose and not like it used to be before. I'm also affraid to drink water (paranoia of lead poisoning etc) Diet coke seems ok.

3. February 2002, I started to have muscle spasms and involuntary twiches (small scale). When the nausea was severe; which it was for me for about 1.5 month, all I did is sit around and do absolutely nothing. I looked ok from the outside but something very weird was going on inside.  I'm in good shape and nothing is visible from the outside. I did notice when I had severe pains inside my brain that my pupils were contracting and expanding visibly like my heart beat. Very odd.

4. Latest news, March 2002 now I have something new. Pain in my head is 80% less and the new adition is I get dizzy as if someone unplugs me for just a second. I get a sensation of motion sickness that lasts for just a fraction of a second and comes at random times.
My teeth only hurt when I go to sleep (upper rabbit teeth) they feel as if someone is applying current to them and mostly when I lay on my back. What in the world is wrong with me.

5. I started trying pot as some friend suggested. Yes it does help the nausea (more like it blocks it) but I get the "current" like pain inside my skull and the jaw/teeth pain instantly after smoking. This seems to be triggered by the weed. It does help me go through the night but with these side effects.
I don't want to smoke weed, I'm not a drinker nor a smoker. Nausea seems to come and go and sometimes i feel sharp stabs around the liver area and sometimes in the opposed side in the pancreas area. Most of the time when I'm nausiated it comes from those two places.
I did notice that if I interact and do things the pain goes in the background but I think that's about it. I just forget about it. I'm already sick entire of this weird illness. If anyone has any idea what's going on plz e-mail me.

QUICK DESCRIPTION OF MY SYMPTOMS.

A. Pain in the spleen area.
B. Pain in the pancreas area.
C. Pain in the middle upper abdomen.
D. Pain in the liver area.
E. Heat flashes.
F. Weird discomfort.
G. Bowels don't look normal, very loose and lots of      mucus. Long time since hard healty feces. only 10% of time they look ok.
H. Trembling (I solder electronics every once in a while)
and just found out that I can no longer hold the soldering iron steady (I'm 27)
I. Vision blurring... not all the time.
J. Stabbing pain in the eyes.
K. Mild background pain at the base inside the skull daily.
L. Stomach acid. (does not come up my esophagus)
M. Motion sickness without being on anything.
N. Sex drive down to 0.
O. Even when I'm ok I still feel the nausea in the background just waiting to get me.
P. That lead heavy pressure in the back of my skull radiating through my gums and snapping & popping.

The only thing I can confess is that I do go to sleep very late at nights (computer geek) and being doing it for about 8 years. Still I've never had anything like this.
The worst is that doctors don't know what this is.

Speculation... IT's being  happening to many people lately starting in year 1999' and up.

Anyone that experiences these symptoms please feel free to e-mail me to discuss them further or possibly to develop a pattern of everyone that has this, we might find out what's triggering these. Dust, detergents, animals, water, athmosphere changes, going outside, smoking marijuana, we need to know.
Unless the government is restoring the country with our medicine money.



****************UPDATE 05/01/02*****************

Latest Update, my nausea/ibs symptoms subsided I now experience the back/base of the skull pain/pressure and random pulling on my teeth upper and lower. I still have pains left & right of my upper abdomen. I also experince extreme teeth sensitivity only in my upper "rabbit" teeth but only when laying on my back.
I can wake up with no pain then after any meal or a glass of water I instantly feel the pulling/lead sensation in the back/base of my skull. Also when this occurs I feel sounds as if wafers (popping & snapping sounds) slowly squashed in the back of my head at the base. When this inflating feeling occurs it stops just seconds from being intolerable I also feel as if air is being released through my nose. Activity seems to make these symptoms less painfull and sometimes if I get caught up in a discussion I even forget about them.
It's still verry annoying since I had no health problems prior to October 2001.
I still don't know what's wrong nor my doc.

HELP!!  


l8r and good luck to everyone and I'll pray for all of us this condition is not something to be unserious about.
I'd rather have stiches that this ****.

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