Hello, I'm a 23 yo female and I have been dealing with quite a lot of health issues lately. Sorry for the huge post, I'm somewhat desperate right now. I hope some of you can bear with me until the end:
First of all, I've been waking up in the morning felling EXTREMELY tired and nauseated. More often than not, I get a headache that's like a pre-migraine one. Sometimes, when I get up from a laid down position (not just in the morning) I feel dizzy and have my ears blocked (and sometimes ringing) too - orthostatic hypotension?. The fatigue, nausea and headache don't resolve throughout the day, they just get worse. And I don't just feel extremely tired, but I also look very tired, with always red, watery, droopy eyes, with swollen eyelids and massive under eye circles. I also get blurred vision, a lot of brain fog and several depersonalization/derealization episodes throughout the day (of which the frequency increases according to my level of tiredness). I've always had all these symptoms to some degree, but lately they are a lot worse/more frequent. My migraine episodes also have increased significantly.
I've also been losing a lot of hair for awhile now, along with brows and eyelashes too.
I've been more depressed than ever - I cry a lot almost everyday and feel sad about everything
I have a lot of stomach bloating and constipation (my doctor thinks I may have some gluten sensitivity, although I'm not coeliac). But even though I've been avoiding gluten a lot lately, this doesn't seem to get any better.
I've been dealing with a severe chronic yeast infection for years now. And it just doesn't go away, even after trying all the possible treatments (topical and oral).
Although this has always happened to some extent, my periods have been really irregular lately.
I also have quite a bit of oral thrush (does it have to be from candida? I've had all the tests that should indicate systemic infection - like C-reactive protein - and they all came back normal) sometimes accompanied by tongue sores.
Also, I don't know if it's related to this other things or if it's a condition of its own, but there's this thing about my skin (I believe it all started when I was on lamictal and then depakote has worsen it, and it's been getting worse and worse ever since, although I'm not on these meds anymore) in which it's becoming extreme and progressively drier, with a lot of deep fine lines and creases (I'm only 23!!). Overall, my skin just looks dull and dehydrated and it's like it has shrunk, lost density and elasticity. Also, my eyes are very sunken, and it looks like i have lost a lot of fat or volume under them. My under eye circles are really deep and dark, almost of a red-purple color and there are lots of bursting veins and capillaries on my upper and lower eyelids (which I never had before). There are a lot of veins and capillaries bursting under my skin in another places too (like feet, wrists, and chest), which become more visible each day.
My joints crack everytime I move them and it feels like they scratch against each other, as if there was no cushioning/lubrication between them.
From what I've researched, I think it all has something to do with inadequate production or excessive breakdown of collagen or hyaluronic acid (or both).
My hair has always been really kinky, coarse and frizzy - I have been diagnosed with "pili torti/twisted hair" once. But nowadays it seems it has gotten much much worse.
Wounds also don't heal as quickly as they used to and, when they do, they leave dark spots that don't fade overtime.
From time to time, I get either these heart palpitations or some tingling sensation along with a pressure feeling in my heart. I feel a permanent shortness of breath too. It's as if I had to breath really hard and fast to get the amount of air I need.
I've already done a cardiac echo and a transesophageal echocardiography and they both came back normal.
I don't know whether all these symptoms I've described are somehow related to each other or they are the result of various independent conditions. The only thing I know is that my mental and physical health are going downhill and I feel awful.
And maybe it's something simple, like a nutrient deficiency or something?
I'm sick of going to doctors that overlook all of my symptoms. I'm also tired of having loads of blood work and every kind of tests done just to have everything come back negative.
So if any of you have the slightest hunch of what may be causing any of my symptoms or know someone who might, please, please let me know.
Thanks in advance!