Does this sound familiar to anyone? long, but please read!!

[srb27]

Hi, I'm 23 yr old female, 5 1/2 months pregnant. In the summer of 2006, I had a string of a couple of days where my face stayed visibly flushed constantly. I thought I was coming down with something, because my face was hot to the touch, as if I had a fever. On about the third day of this, I tried to take a bite of my sandwich on my lunch break, and realized that eating or the thought of it made me extremely nauseous. I went back to work, worried that I might be pregnant or something along those lines. Later that day as I was walking down the hall, I suddenly felt...well, weird. I had this wave of doom come over me. I felt like everything in my body was coming to a head and that I was about to pass out. It was as if my brain was screaming "SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG HERE!" It scared the hell out of me, but it receded, and I continued on with my day. I tried to eat again later that day, and discovered I was still extremely nervous/nauseated and eating was completely out of the question. I went to bed feeling funny, and woke up in the middle of the night absolutely terrified. I felt WEIRD. It was as if in the span of one day, I completely came unraveled mentally. I was so scared by the way that I felt that I ran to the bathroom and threw up. The next morning, I went to a GP, who suggested it was all anxiety related (2 months previous to this I had stopped taking Cymbalta cold turkey) and put me back on Cymbalta and added Nexium for my nausea/upset stomach. Well, for that entire day and about 2 and a half months straight afterword, my life was a nightmare every day. The weird feelings continued to come in waves. I lost 20 pounds, which put me at about 99 pounds. I had to start drinking Ensure because I could not eat my stomach was so nervous. I had the shakes, weird disconnected feelings...like I would go through whole days feeling as if I was in a dream. I previously LOVED coffee, but the smell of it became intolerable to me. I began to chain smoke because I was so endlessly worried about my well being. I would run from mirror to mirror in my house checking the size of my pupils. Eventually, one night I ended up in the ER. Of course I was pushed out of there as fast as they could get me, with a heart monitor in tow, which never showed anything abnormal. For some reason that for the life of me, I cannot recall, I became utterly certain that was suffering the signs of a brain tumor. I had never even given brain tumors a second thought in my life. But there I was, absolutely 100% certain that I was suffering from an undiagnosed one. I must have visited about 5 different GP's before I found one that actually gave in and sent me for a CT scan. It came back normal, and for a while I was okay. I continued on meds (Cymbalta and Seroquel). The weird feelings subsided. I got my appetite back. Life seemed semi-normal again. Then about 6 months later the feelings returned again...out of the blue, yet again I began to suffer waves of bad feelings, just complete overloads of the nervous system. I was terrified to drive or even to leave my house. My brain tumor worries returned and I was sent to a counselor, and my dosage of Cymbalta was hiked up. Once again, the feelings subsided slowly after about a month and a half. Up until 2009, about every 5 or 6 months the spells would return again. Each time, something would be added to the mix, though. A large amount of floaters in my eyes constantly, random tinglings all over my body, both of my thumbs would twitch uncontrollably throughout the day, flushing of the face, muscles twitching all over my body all  day long. I lost it again, fell into my brain tumor obsession and switched doctors. My new doctor sent me for an MRI without contrast "just to ease my mind". He also switched my meds to Pristiq and Lamictal. My MRI came back normal, and yet again I felt okay for a little while. But invariably these spells would come back maybe for a week or two. Everytime I would visit the doctor and every time was told the same thing. Panic attacks mixed with health anxiety that was causing my random symptoms. Well, I was feeling okay again until last October, I discovered I was pregnant. I stopped taking my Pristiq and Lamictal in mid November last year at the suggestion of my doctor. I was fine for a month maybe, then at the end of December I began to notice that I was ridiculously anxious every day for no reason. I was filled with a sense of dread that I couldn't put my finger on all day every day. I became extremely depressed. And then the weirdness began again in mid January. The attacks came back. Almost more intense this time. I would wake up out of dead sleep nervous as all get out. My last three fingers on my left hand began prickling constantly. My right eye started twitching incessantly. Both of my legs would tingle from the knees down. I started getting goose bumps for no reason. Thumb twitches came back. All over muscle twitches returned. Feelings of having heat or cold on certain parts of my body began. Constant floaters in my eyes. I would go through whole days feeling "weird", not myself/alien, panicked, afraid. I told my OB about all of this. I expressed my concern that something neurological is wrong with me (worried the MRI missed brain tumor because of not using contrast dye). He put my on Prozac about two and a half weeks ago, and scheduled an appointment with a neurologist "so he can tell me I'm okay." Things are SLOWLY getting better, I suppose. I still feel weird for about 85% of the day. I just feel like an alien in my own life. The muscle twitches are subsiding a little. Weird spells/attacks aren't as frequent. I guess I just want to know if this sounds familiar to anyone with a psychological illness or neurological  illness. My mind is in a constant state of worry trying to decide between the two. I can't enjoy being pregnant for the fear that something is gravely wrong with me and it's being missed. I feel as if it would be irresponsible of me to ask for another MRI since I am pregnant, but I feel like I'm going to be locked away if I don't have another one soon. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[WendyLady03]

This sounds exactly like what happened to me.....even the running around checking my pupils part. I spent an entire day doing that, and then I made my friend come over so I could check the size of his pupils in relation to mine. I was convinced I was about to have a stroke. It sounds like panic or anxiety disorder. You're basically having a bunch of panic attacks and it's making everything feel weird. For about 4 months a year ago it happened to me, and I couldn't leave my house. I was convinced I had every medical ailment known to man, and I felt completely disconnected from reality, like I was in a dream.

I finally got put on prozac and started seeing a counselor. After about a month I was feeling back to almost normal. Now I rarely ever have an attack and I feel basically back to where I was before all this nonsense. Hope this helps, you're not alone!

[hopeful114]

Hi there,
I see this was a few months ago...hope you're doing ok.  It sounds kind of like OCD and anxiety attacks to me.  I'm not a dr so I can't say, but maybe when you stopped the medication things got worse?  Have you tried seeing a psych. who could diagnose you?  Supposedly Zoloft is ok to take during pregnancy.  Also I take Deplin, which is actually a special form of folic acid called l-methylfolate, which helped me lower my Zoloft dose significantly....wish I had heard about Deplin years ago.
It's ironic because I'm trying to get pregnant...anyway hope things are going ok for you.

[freddie8605]

Hi I am sorry you feel this way, i have had several of those symptoms such as tingling and random musle twitches which i believe are to do with fibromyalgia. but is made worse with anxiety! i would talk to your doctor about the possibility of fibromyalgia and here is a link to find out more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibromyalgia
it might not be this but i remember worrying about having a brain tumor too. it must be hard going through this while pregnant. hope this helps.