Can anyone make me feel that I am not all alone in this?

[smurfaliscious]

Okay so here goes. I am 25 years old. I have two beautiful daughters that I have had personal struggles with. My 5 year old is recently developing symptomatic problems with her stomach. My three year old has had all sorts of developmental delays and has now been given the educational diagnosis of autism. I am a stay at home mom and have been battling my own personal problems with my body but have continued to put it on hold for my children. The pain is getting so debilitating that I have decided to try to find the source of my problem, yet now I am being made to feel as if its all in my head. For a few years I have been experiencing all sorts of crazy issues. Migraines that pop in out of nowhere... Wierd numbness and tingling in my legs and feet. I would wake up with a whole arm or leg completely numb and painful. Crazy heart palpitations. um... the feeling as if my feet and legs were incredibly tight and swelling. Then it all started to increase. I would feel completely drained. Barely able to do anything with my children. I started experiencing pain in my feet and knees and shooting through my legs. Sometimes it felt like muscle, sometimes joint. Whatever it is, it is so deep and aching it feels like it is shooting straight through my bones. My doctor I saw refused to believe there was anything wrong with me other than the fact that I was a "young mom" . He said that I was propably tired and stressed and that  that was life and that I would be fine. Throughout the couple years I saw him, my thyroid levels went crazy but are now in check without medication( dont ask me how, Im just thankful it went away on its own and I didnt have to get my thyroid destroyed) Anyways, all the back and forths with him I became very depressed and desperate to find the cause and prove that this is not in my head. His solution was to stick me on anti- depressants, all of which I had severe allergic reactions to. My blood pressure went so high I was close to stroke level. I have recently wised up and changed doctors, but her main focus is my heart. She has tested me for Lupus, Diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, done a thyroid uptake scan to see if it is still working properly and it is, took an ultrasound of my heart because my palpitations are still there, made me wear a heart monitor for 24 hours.... everything she has tested me for has come up negative. There was one set of my blood samples that came out wierd and she said that level can be out of wack with lupus but no other levels were so she ruled it out. Her next step is to send me to a cardiologist, but I do not feel that my heart is the problem, merely a symptom to something else. Recently the pain has started in my arms which is absolutley horrific. Debilitating. Way worse than the leg pain. The only way I can describe it is that it feels like the pain you feel shooting though your body when you jump in the ocean and it is still too cold.... That burning hypothermia that just shoots straight to the bone! And now the past few days it is starting in my back and neck as well. I have done some research and fibromyalgia sounds right in point to me but my doctor says that she does not like to diagnose that unless every possible anything is ruled out. In the mean time the only pain killer I have is over the counter motrin, which doesnt touch it! I feel as if my doctor doesnt believe how bad the pain is. I am thankful that she did not find anything majorly wrong with me but in a way I am not. A diagnosis would at least make me feel like Im not a hypochondriac....its like no one gets it. Not even family members. My dad thinks its no big deal and that fibromyalgia is just a bunch of whiny women who cant take pain. And my step mom tells me oh well, deal with it. My husband says he understands but when I have had a bad day of it, he still comes home and acts so disgusted that I didnt clean the house for the day and makes me feel so lazy. Any other day I would bust my butt cleaning, but then there are those days I am completely exhausted for no reason and I am made to feel like a useless, lazy bum. And now I have had insomnia that has been going on for at least three months, and stomach issues starting..... I feel like train wreck!!!!  I know I am young and many people do not take me seriously because they dont believe I can have all these symptoms at my age. Does anyone understand? Or am I really losing my mind?!!! Please Help?!!!

[kitonthemoon]

Oh........yes, indeed...dee.  I understand how scared and helpless you're feeling right now.  Most of us have gone thru 'good doctor shopping'. ...and it ain't easy.!!!

I'm so sorry for all the emotional stress you have to go thru with your children on top of your own health issues.   What you have sounded very similiar to my symptoms of ME/CFIDS.  I was never able to explain my heart issue and the kind of fatigue from my chest.....and it dawned on me one day (10 yrs after I was dx with ME/CFIDS) that my chest exhaustion acturally was my heart exhaustion, feeling weak.   But, regular echo never picked it up until my 13th yr into ME/CFIDS.

I would suggest that you contact CFIDS ASSO of AMER. (which is located in NC) or get on their web site...to learn more about this illness.  Perhaps even contact them and get them refer you to a knowledgeable doc (may it be Prime Care physician, Internist, Rhumatologist, etc.) get a proper diagnose asap.  So, you can show your current doc. your husband some literatures that is NOT IN YOUR HEAD.

Please know that you're among friends who have been through what you're going thru and understand.  

In friendship,
Kit

[smurfaliscious]

Thankyou so much. Its great to have someone understand. Its really scary to not know whats going on with your body and have no one believe you. It makes you feel crazy