Hi, I'm wondering what could possibly cause these symptoms. Is it just life, a series of colds or something I should consider asking my doctor about? I know ultimately that I should probably go to my doctor about medical complaints, but I have yet to get my medical sorted out and...well, nobody likes the doctor, right? In any case, I'm curious as to what could be causing this. I'm inclined to think it might be simple exhaustion or a persistant cold, but, hey, I'm curious.
The symptoms seem very unrelated to me, but what do I know? First one is bone/muscle and joint pain [I mention it first because as I type this, I'm in quite serious pain with this]. It's mainly upper body joint pain, but the general achyness is pretty much everywhere. I mention bone because I dunno... I feel very conscious of my bones, especially in my legs, if that makes any sense? They feel, mentally, I guess, although with some possible psychosomatic actual feeling, tender and delicate. Weird, huh?
Second thing is bruises; bruises, so what? I bruise ALL the time, but recently, and I am someone used to unexplained bruises from being generally clumbsy, an increase of bruises. Having not done anything to get bruises recently, I blamed it on enthusiastic bus journeys, but I haven't been on a bus in weeks. I really do think it's nothing, but the bruises are taking a long time to fade and the ones on my legs look like ones I'd know about getting. One was the size of my fist, at least, and on my other thigh I had a cluster of between five and seven largish bruises. The large one now has a small lump underneath it; I recognise this as being normal for some bruises, since I very severely bruised my hip in a swimming pool theme park type thing a few years ago, and under the massive, very painful bruise there were several simular lumps that soon faded. My point is that I wasn't worried about the lumps then, but this bruise doesn't seem half as serious and is much, much less painful.
Third symptom is a change in sleeping habits. This might be brought about by moving? In any case, I'm perpetually tired and have barely any energy, but my sleeping habits are highly irregular. I barely sleep or if I do try to sleep, I wake up at least four times a night, which I never used to do. I also used to dream a lot, nearly every night, but now I don't know if I simply don't remember dreaming or simply am dreaming much less. I get massively hot; it's freezing outside, but during the night I sweat a rediculous amount even with the radiator turned off. I have a history of insomnia-esque sleep problems that strike during stressful times of life.
I also seem to be getting ill increasingly often. I never got ill as a kid, I was the kind of kid who was ill maybe once or twice a year, very infrequently. Last year I got some kind of cold bug which made everyone get the sniffles. I got a very sore, swollen throat and ultimately lost my voice. It became too painful to cough properly, and as soon as the throat started to get better, the cough started. I had it for at least a week and noticed that coughing wasn't really shifting any phlegm and in addition to that, I could hear rather alarming noises when I breathed, weird clogging or wheezing sounds in my chest and throat. It got so bad that I ultimately fainted [or something] on a family day out. I really have no idea what that was. Is it usual for such severe cold symptoms? I've never really had a bad cold before that, so I have no idea.
Anyway, I now find it increasingly difficult to shake off colds and coughs. I really suffer with them and have even nearly been dragged to the doctor because of them. I got a cold a while ago, and finally managed to shake it off about just under two weeks ago, and now I have another one. I know it's common to get colds around this time of year, but it's just getting rediculous. I've also noticed I feel increasingly sick and sensitive to bright lights, loud noises or temperature changes, smells and tastes. The other day I could barely eat, because everything made me feel so ill.
I personally think this might be stress related, but I was seeking opinions. Are there any genuine medical conditions which I should consider being the cause of my symptoms? I'm young and until recently very healthy. I eat a healthy diet, despite the odd drink, am not vegetarian but do not eat very much meat [I have recently cut down even more because of the prices of good meat and my own inability to cook], eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. I don't smoke. In fact, I'd say I'm reasonably healthy. Any suggestions?