Aa
Name That Disorder
I have been smoking practically all my life. I have had no problems with smoking. I never have then, nor do I now, smoke more than a pack a day. now I am in my 40's, and for about 6 months I have had an onset of symptoms that appear related to smoking, but may be symptomatic of a deeper problem than merely the effects of smoking, since they are substantial and exhibited a rapid onset.
when I smoke cigarettes now, I have very low energy and it puts me to sleep. I sleep for maybe 2 hours, wake for 4-6 hours, during which I am smoking more cigarettes and feel like going to sleep again. keep repeating.
I have dark areas on my cheeks, my fingers are dark shaded from the distal joint to the tip, my toes are blue. looking at my exposed thigh, the sides (skin surface viewed tangentially) have a blue hue to them. since I had this problem the hair on my face and head is turning white quite rapidly. it may be my imagination, but I think the skin all around my face has turned a sickly brown color, except around my mouth which is normal to reddish. I sort of feel like I'm in a daze at times.
but most significantly are the things I feel in my bones. the more I smoke, I progressively feel "lackluster" inside my bones, a feeling which is difficult to describe. it feels "dead", or if you could imagine what oxygen starvation inside a bone could feel like. I feel it in the bones of my arm, forearm, hand, even fingertips, which have a "pinched" feeling and sort of hurt. also the corresponding bones in my toes have the same feeling.
I stopped smoking completely a few times, and here's what happened each time:
within a day the bones of the arm return to normal feeling and energy increases to what I think used to be normal. the pinched feeling in the fingertips and toetips goes away, and within 2-3 days I get a greatly refreshed feeling in my thigh bones, as if the marrow is producing loads of fresh healthy blood cells. once I felt so vigorous I felt like I had to run around the block several times to burn off the excess energy. I had an incredible urge to run and jump and do active things. by this time the toes may have returned to their normal color.
but then I feel so good I think there's no problem returning to smoking. with the first cigarette I start to feel lethargic again, and after a pack or so I can be back to the previous state. so I think the effects are cumulative but whatever normal health would have prevented the symptoms in the years before, have little to no resistance now.
I have tried taking vitamins and eating fresh fruits (not vegetables), no change.
so what is this lack of resistance to the ill effects? some kind of bone marrow disease? leukemia? liver dysfunction? I has something been damaged? need to know because even if I quit smoking it could show an underlying problem that may affect my health later on, or even shorten my lifespan. I went to an inept doctor who simply told me that "smoking will do that to you" but that was insufficient and nondescript. I need to know the underlying cause because it may be more than just smoking, and I need to know what the implications are of whatever has happened.
aside from smoking, the only other thing I can think of that could cause such problems was where I worked at, with some chemicals, there was a strong hydroxide solution that dripped on my skin, and although I washed it off, hours later I could go home and have these awful painful feelings from head to toe where my bones hurt and my skin felt like it was crawling, sometimes also I would definitely get nauseous. that happened numerous times over several months before I figured out the correlation between getting that on my skin and those symptoms, I was more careful and didn't allow it to drip on my skin anymore, and so that didn't happen anymore. also every day there were glass bottles from a protein analysis that had Kjeldahl reactant, sulfuric acid, hydroxide, and boric acid inside them, which I washed inside and out with my bare hands. and I figured it should be ok to wash them with my bare hands because there was plenty of fresh water flowing all around everything. as far as I could tell doing that made no effect on my health at the time, but, that could be long term low level exposure to a toxin to consider regarding the current symptoms. I haven't worked there for 1-1/2 years. when I was there it seemed that in the last year I had developed (self diagnosed) orthostatic hypotension, which I had attributed to smoking, but I don't seem to have now.
so what might be the problem? what has happened that my body suddenly can't handle smoking cigarettes any more? disease? cancer? damaged bone marrow? transient or permanent? nutritional deficiency, such as iron or magnesium causing a blood deficiency?
when I smoke cigarettes now, I have very low energy and it puts me to sleep. I sleep for maybe 2 hours, wake for 4-6 hours, during which I am smoking more cigarettes and feel like going to sleep again. keep repeating.
I have dark areas on my cheeks, my fingers are dark shaded from the distal joint to the tip, my toes are blue. looking at my exposed thigh, the sides (skin surface viewed tangentially) have a blue hue to them. since I had this problem the hair on my face and head is turning white quite rapidly. it may be my imagination, but I think the skin all around my face has turned a sickly brown color, except around my mouth which is normal to reddish. I sort of feel like I'm in a daze at times.
but most significantly are the things I feel in my bones. the more I smoke, I progressively feel "lackluster" inside my bones, a feeling which is difficult to describe. it feels "dead", or if you could imagine what oxygen starvation inside a bone could feel like. I feel it in the bones of my arm, forearm, hand, even fingertips, which have a "pinched" feeling and sort of hurt. also the corresponding bones in my toes have the same feeling.
I stopped smoking completely a few times, and here's what happened each time:
within a day the bones of the arm return to normal feeling and energy increases to what I think used to be normal. the pinched feeling in the fingertips and toetips goes away, and within 2-3 days I get a greatly refreshed feeling in my thigh bones, as if the marrow is producing loads of fresh healthy blood cells. once I felt so vigorous I felt like I had to run around the block several times to burn off the excess energy. I had an incredible urge to run and jump and do active things. by this time the toes may have returned to their normal color.
but then I feel so good I think there's no problem returning to smoking. with the first cigarette I start to feel lethargic again, and after a pack or so I can be back to the previous state. so I think the effects are cumulative but whatever normal health would have prevented the symptoms in the years before, have little to no resistance now.
I have tried taking vitamins and eating fresh fruits (not vegetables), no change.
so what is this lack of resistance to the ill effects? some kind of bone marrow disease? leukemia? liver dysfunction? I has something been damaged? need to know because even if I quit smoking it could show an underlying problem that may affect my health later on, or even shorten my lifespan. I went to an inept doctor who simply told me that "smoking will do that to you" but that was insufficient and nondescript. I need to know the underlying cause because it may be more than just smoking, and I need to know what the implications are of whatever has happened.
aside from smoking, the only other thing I can think of that could cause such problems was where I worked at, with some chemicals, there was a strong hydroxide solution that dripped on my skin, and although I washed it off, hours later I could go home and have these awful painful feelings from head to toe where my bones hurt and my skin felt like it was crawling, sometimes also I would definitely get nauseous. that happened numerous times over several months before I figured out the correlation between getting that on my skin and those symptoms, I was more careful and didn't allow it to drip on my skin anymore, and so that didn't happen anymore. also every day there were glass bottles from a protein analysis that had Kjeldahl reactant, sulfuric acid, hydroxide, and boric acid inside them, which I washed inside and out with my bare hands. and I figured it should be ok to wash them with my bare hands because there was plenty of fresh water flowing all around everything. as far as I could tell doing that made no effect on my health at the time, but, that could be long term low level exposure to a toxin to consider regarding the current symptoms. I haven't worked there for 1-1/2 years. when I was there it seemed that in the last year I had developed (self diagnosed) orthostatic hypotension, which I had attributed to smoking, but I don't seem to have now.
so what might be the problem? what has happened that my body suddenly can't handle smoking cigarettes any more? disease? cancer? damaged bone marrow? transient or permanent? nutritional deficiency, such as iron or magnesium causing a blood deficiency?
thank you for looking into it, but I don't think that's it. the description in wikipedia says, like you said, the primary symptoms are clotting in small/medium vessels in hands and feet. in my case, when the symptoms are slight, or with the onset of symptoms when I start smoking again, the first things I feel are in the marrow of my thigh bones. also that of the pelvis, which I notice is another major area of blood production. perhaps there is some thrombosis going on, I'm not familiar with what that looks and feels like like so I can't say. the blood in my veins does look darker. when it's really bad I can even feel it in my teeth, they feel sort of dead.
however, the description says that aside from smoking, the cause is unknown but probably an autoimmune reaction. that is something to consider that I didn't think of before. thanks.
wiki said Buerger's Disease isn't life threatening, but it is life shortening, which is one thing I was afraid of and deepens my suspicion about this issue. any other ideas?
I'm still thinking the immediate problem originates in the marrow, due to a buildup of something, or a reduced tolerance to something, either in the marrow itself or maybe coincidental to some other organ (lungs, liver, etc) that has a buildup/low tolerance/dysfunctional. I don't know.
however, the description says that aside from smoking, the cause is unknown but probably an autoimmune reaction. that is something to consider that I didn't think of before. thanks.
wiki said Buerger's Disease isn't life threatening, but it is life shortening, which is one thing I was afraid of and deepens my suspicion about this issue. any other ideas?
I'm still thinking the immediate problem originates in the marrow, due to a buildup of something, or a reduced tolerance to something, either in the marrow itself or maybe coincidental to some other organ (lungs, liver, etc) that has a buildup/low tolerance/dysfunctional. I don't know.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!
In all probability you have Buerger’s disease. “Buergers's disease (also known as thromboangiitis obliterans) is a recurring inflammation and thrombosis (clotting) of small and medium arteries and veins of the hands and feet. It is strongly associated with use of tobacco products, primarily from smoking, but also from smokeless tobacco.” Refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buerger%27s_disease
Please discuss this with your doctor.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!
Thanks for writing to the forum!
In all probability you have Buerger’s disease. “Buergers's disease (also known as thromboangiitis obliterans) is a recurring inflammation and thrombosis (clotting) of small and medium arteries and veins of the hands and feet. It is strongly associated with use of tobacco products, primarily from smoking, but also from smokeless tobacco.” Refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buerger%27s_disease
Please discuss this with your doctor.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!
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