Frustrating (and numerous) symptoms, can anyone advise?

[Redilma]

Firstly, I am a 23 year old female who already has longstanding diagnoses of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Endometriosis and Raynaud's. I've learned to live with these and know what to expect from them.

About 8 months ago I began experiencing severe vertigo, nausea, and sleep apnea, for about 1-2 weeks and put it down to an ear infection. About 2 months later it happened again, and then 2 months later, again. I returned to my Doctor who said I didn't have an ear infection and it must be a build up of catarrh, except that shouldn't recur so it was a mystery and we should hope it didn't happen again. Anyway they kept shrugging it off. I thought that was it, but now 2 months later, it has happened again. Only this time I have many more symptoms too. These include: dizziness, complete loss of appetite, difficulty with coordination, burning, numbness and tingling sensations in my limbs, slurred speech, confusion, difficulty swallowing, eye pain and blurring, sleep apnea, difficulty walking straight and general clumsiness. To be honest, I look like a drunk person when I walk. I can control it to some extent but I feel like I am dragging my body along and it is an incredibly slow process, my mind is telling my body to move but my body isn't able to keep up. It's like I am walking on jelly.

I have had CFS for 8 years now and I know this isn't the cause, my CFS symptoms had actually improved shortly before I started experiencing these problems. The sleep apnea is proving the worst at the moment and my Doctors are at a loss to explain why this is, as I am not overweight or a smoker. Therefore they put it down to anxiety, despite the fact it happens when I am at my most relaxed! I have had all sorts of blood tests and all have come back negative. I'm currently awaiting urine results but I'm not holding my breath. Everytime I go to the Doctor's they dismiss my problems as anxiety/depression and I'm getting sick of it, I don't have anxiety atall, though this whole situation is causing me to become depressed. This is what happened with CFS and it took me 6 years to obtain a diagnosis. I don't intend to go through that again!! please if anyone has any advice I would appreciate it, as my family are also dismissive and consider me a hypochondriac.

If you have been through anything similar I would greatly appreciate some feedback.

[Redilma]

I had never considered MS until I put all my symptoms into a symptom checker and it came up. I didn't realise MS could be remitting/relapsing. I considered Fibromyalgia inially, but I'm pretty sure I've had that for years anyway. Some people even consider Fibromyalgia and CFS the same thing, the symptoms overlap so much it is very tricky.  My main issues are the sleep apnea, dizziness, difficulty swallowing and eye problems, which I must admit I would not associate with Fibromyalgia, but I'm not sure. I suppose more tests are in order... I am surprised my blood came back completely clear as I usually have a high white blood count. I have been tested for RA and it came back negative. I'm not sure what happens next but all my blood work is done.

Thank you very much for the feedback, it calmed me considerably!

[Gina04]

Before reading the above post, I was thinking MS was a possibility also.  The other thing that came to mind is Fibromyalgia.  A lot of people who have Fibromyalgia also have CFS.  I am one of those people who have both.

[fox24]

WOW I am so glad to find this in here. . .sorry your not well. I am n active (or was) 33 yr old female with amost exactly the same problems and dr's can not figure it out. I had the same things happening to me as well about every 2 months. Went to 3 dr's and had my ears checked etc and they said i had NOTHING wrong with them and i think they thought i was crazy, lol. This has been going on for about 6 months. Im not able to drive even because dr's are afraid of me having a "spell" behind the wheel. I am extremely weak everyday, burning and tingling in muscles, off balance alot and walk into things (clumbsiness??) I have everything except the sleered speech. I had labs done over and over and had 3 different dr's check me out from head to toe. I had another "woozy" spell again this morning and called my dr again - he set me up with an appt to see a Rheumatologist for further testing for MS, Lupus, RA, CFS etc. I can keep you posted if you'd like (and vise versa) I go Aug 18th,2010.
Hope to talk to you soon, I know im terrified and would be nice to have someone else to talk to.
Thanks
Fox24