My story is almost 8 years in the making, so I will try to be as brief as possible!
First "Flare-Up" - July 2002
Became extremely dizzy at work completely out of the blue. Symptoms over the next 4 months included cloudy/blurry vision, inability to concentrate/focus, severe muscle achiness, weakness in legs (felt as if legs would give out when walking or standing), tingling on right side of face & right arm, shallow breathing & chest tightness, pain around eyes. I didn't drive for 6 months due to the dizziness and blurred vision.
Symptoms improved about 50-75% over next 3 1/2 years.
Second "Flare-Up" - March 2006
This started the same way - I became extremely dizzy. Over the next 5 months I experienced the following symptoms: overall weakness (especially legs), felt as if I was going to pass out, intense leg pain that made it hard to walk, numbness/tingling in the front of my head and behind my eyes, blurred vision, cognitive difficulties (hard to talk or find the right words), general feeling of being out of it, extremely stiff leg muscles even though I wasn't exercising them, inability to do anything strenuous, noticed small "electrical shocks" very randomly across my body (felt like little bug bites...would even wake me up at night).
Again, had about 3 years where things were somewhat improved. However, during this time, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroid Disease and began T4 & T3 replacement. Earlier blood tests did not show Thyroid disease, so I don't believe it was related to the earlier two "flare-ups".
Third "Flare-Up" - January 2010
Experienced the most intense and frightening migraine-type headache that came on suddenly. The pain was almost unbearable; however, it just lasted a night. Not sure if there is any significance to this, but my third flare-up started about 6 weeks later. Symptoms this time have been more intense and include: very weak hands, wrists, and arms (hard to type and write), pins & needles in my finger tips, weakness in my legs, very stiff legs and shoulders, skin hurts to touch around legs and arms, frequently dropping things, lack of fine motor skills, slight urinary tract infection, burning/numbness in arms and legs, shallow breathing, swollen tongue, dizzy & disoriented, feeling as if someone is pushing down on me (heaviness), difficulty in standing (using counter to hold me up while cooking dinner), numbness in left foot, facial weakness (feels weird to talk), etc.
I am a 34 year old otherwise healthy woman, 125 lbs. I was a senior manager in a very large corporation, have my MBA, etc...but have completely scaled back in the last year and a half in hopes that my health would get better. I moved out of the city to a small town, quit my stressful job in favor of a much less stressful position. I have had 3 MRI's (that have been "normal") over the past 8 years and many blood tests that have shown some increased auto-antibodies, high eosinophils, decreasing RBC, WBC, and platelet counts (although still within range). My most recent neurologist wrote me off in 5 mintues as probably having Fibromyalgia or CFS, which I could agree with if it weren't for the severe muscle weakness in my arms and hands. Does anyone here with Fibromyalgia/CFS have debilitating muscle weakness? I guess I just didn't think that was one of the characteristics. I would definitely appreciate any comments from others with similar experiences!