8 years of suffering, no diagnosis

[Bala71261]

I am 56 old man with over eight years of constant prickling, burning, tingling and insect crawling feeling all over body. I feel as though that this is getting worse. I saw 4 Neurologists, had 5 MRIs (June 10 to May 13), 2 EMG/NCSs, 1 EEG, 1 SSEP and 1 LP. All came back negative except for O Bands found in CSF not in the blood. I have been posting my symptoms on various Forums, but almost all the responses are pointing to anxiety or stress. Please trust me, I know my body very well and my pain is very, very severe. I don't think that anxiety or stress could be the only reason for these worsening neurological pain. Any advise please?

[Dude1973]

I fell like that as well! same boat! Have you ever been tested for Lyme? i was positive and was treated, i changed my diet to Plant Based, forks over knives is an awesome web site for recipes, and started exercising at least 30 min a day 5 days a weekon an elliptical   and some yoga. it was tough! but its working and i am feeling much better not 100 percent but better! hope you get the help you need!

[Paxiled]

Different people react to stress differently, and it's virtually impossible for anyone to tell the exact reason someone has a condition because there are so many things that are very hard to find, such as hidden chronic viruses and bacterial infections.  But if you don't feel anxious, if you don't have anxious thoughts, if you don't have irrational fears that set this stuff off, that's probably not your problem.  All life evolves to handle stress, but sometimes it does overwhelm us.  If you can reduce anxiety or stress and you feel better, then you've found the culprit.  If not, the culprit lies elsewhere.  As nobody on this site is a medical professional, we're probably not going to be able to help you.  I always tell people who have hard to diagnose illnesses that if they're able to travel, go to those places where professionals go to work to try to solve this kind of thing, such as Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic.  Your average doc doesn't do this kind of thing -- it's too time consuming and thus impedes on his income generation.  There are also illnesses that have no known cause and are only labeled by their symptoms, such as fibromyalgia.  It could be food intolerance.  It could be so many things.  Keep looking.  But my main point is, if you didn't feel irrationally anxious then it's probably not stress or anxiety.

[andalina1982]

well I don't know if I give you the right response, please excuse me and ignore it if it isn't.

IF your problem is related to stress, this is what I can think of,

symptoms from stress vary, they are a lot, so many that they could cover all the related symptoms from other diseases. some people have symptoms like getting a heart attack (severe chest pains, numbness in the arms etc), other people have severe pain all over their body, and other people have tingling torturing sensations all over their body.

what has happened to me because of stress, is to get high blood pressure and sensations like i am having a heart attack. But all my tests like ECGs and echoes were normal. Even the cardio docs never prescribed me medications because they thought it was stress related.

When you get into this cycle (I will explain) it's very hard to get out of it. Cycle meaning, your (and mine) problems are from stress...too much chronic stress causes bad symptoms, having these symptoms causes more stress because you think "what is going on" "am i dying" etc, then you are stressed again, and there are more symptoms some times worse - you see the cycle? maybe that's why your medical tests are clean.

IF that is the problem its really hard to get out of it...maybe a way to get out of it is thinking that you (and I) have nothing at all, believing that for some time hopefully it will go away.

Don't take what I wrote you for granted, as I said in the beginning please ignore it if it's not the right response...but from experience I got into that cycle too with heart related symptoms, and its really bad.

[Dragonfly4me]

Have u had a lot of surgeries? That causes,nerve,da.age and,chronic pain. I ha e ehlers,danlos,syndrome and fibromyalgia and I burn like,a,blow torch on my back. I hope u find the cause. Yes stress makes symptoms worse but there is,an undying cause. GOD Bless