Serious fatigue and chest pains?

[ChristianMN]

I have been feeling extremely ill the last week. My symptoms include; numbness in the limbs, fatigue, feeling as though I'm going to faint, pain in the chest, arms and lower abdomen region, dizzyness and blurred vision.

I am a twenty year old man with a serious problem with alcoholism. I have no other serious medical conditions other than my alcoholism.

Two nights ago I went to the hospital with severe shaking and heart palpatations after drinking a large amount of alcohol. As time went on the initial symptoms subsided, and so I decided to leave (after having waited five hours [I live in Canada]). However the symptoms which I have listed above have continued and grown more severe in context.

I have done a bit of personal research and while I have come to a number of conclusions my liver seems to be the most obvious answer.

I won't lie, I've been drinking since I was sixteen years old, and since it has never severely altered my ability to think and work normally I've never considered it a major problem. But now, I'm scared. I don't know what to think.

[crhanse]

Hey there,

Well, first, please go see a doctor.  There is no way to figure out if there is an issue with your liver unless you get blood tests.  

Secondly, please find a support group to get help for the drinking.  It isn't good for your body and even if this isn't the issue, you may have problems later on down the road.  You only get one liver... and one body for that matter.  My husband is in medical school, and he sees tons of people who are paying the price now, in health and medical bills, for the feeling of immortality they had when they were younger.

Finally, your symptoms could be from a ton of different things.  You actually described my symptoms perfectly when I was suffering from mono.  If you had just added a fever you would have had it.  I had mono for 7 months - with fever the entire time.  However, I honestly think the heart palpitations and chest pains came because they didn't diagnois me until a few weeks ago.  When I was having my worst symptoms, I was thinking the worst and was scared I was dying.  Stress can do a lot and actually cause some symptoms.  So, if you can, try to relax.  

Mono can also mess with your liver levels.  Mine were very high until a few weeks ago. Also, check your vitamin D levels. Being in Canada, it may be harder to get in the sun as much as you need to meet your vitamin D requirements.  Mine were drastically low and vitamin D being low can cause numbness due to messing with your calcium levels. If all those are o.k. and you are still experiencing symptoms, go the autoimmune route (lupus, celiac sprue, etc.) or lyme disease.  If they still don't find anything, and you still have the numbness, get tested for MS. There are probably a ton of other causes I didn't name.  Like me, you really have pretty general symptoms, so your doctor may come up with other things I haven't mentioned. Those are all the things I was tested for before they figured me out.

The most important thing is don't give up.  If you are feeling sick, keep looking for answers and don't let doctors dismiss you.  You know your body best, and you know when something isn't right.  

Good luck!

[MsChrispy]

I've just been doing a whole lot of research on panic attacks because I’m experiencing them. I have other symptoms than you, but everything you just described sounds exactly like you’re having a panic attack. I’m 100% sure that is what you experienced.

I got this from this website: http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/p/panic_attack/intro.htm

This is what it says:

Introduction: Panic attack
A panic attack is a sudden episode of unreasoning fear or panic. Many attacks cause such severe physical symptoms that people go to the emergency room thinking that they are dying or having a heart attack. A single panic attack does not necessarily warrant the diagnosis of panic disorder. Panic attacks can also occur in other anxiety disorders such as phobias, in which case the diagnosis is probably not panic disorder.

A panic attack feels very severe with both physical and mental symptoms. Thought descriptions include feeling you're "losing control", "going crazy", "losing my mind", or "going to die". Physical symptoms include chest pain, sweating, breathlessness, faintness/dizziness and various other symptoms. Despite its severity, you cannot die, lose control or go crazy from a panic attack (unless you already have some other underlying disorder or medical condition). (Source: WD Writers)