Family is ill-feeling, tense, shaky, and anxious - no fever

[demanis]

I've got a rather disturbing problem to my family right now, and am very glad I found a site such as this, where one can get another opinion.  First off, I guess the symptoms that my family has been experiencing:

Since last Saturday my wife and I both started feeling strange.  The most troubling symptoms that we can describe are shakiness (like too much working out), feeling tense and anxious, like we cannot relax, or similar to taking some sort of stimulant such as ephedrine or caffeine, feeling both hot and cold at the same time, or feeling very cold.  We also both are experiencing a 'fogginess in the head' is the best way we can describe it.  Neither of us has much trouble sleeping however.

Also, I am not sure if my wife has experienced any other symptoms, but as for myself, I have had transient headaches, dry mouth, transient blurred vision, transient muscle pains, and a very very slight runny nose.  Also my symptoms seem to get much worse at night.

On the day of onset our daughter was also acting strange (18 mo.), but has since acted just fine.

None of us has or has had any fever.  

I have been to the University doctor where I attend school, and none of my wbc, etc... levels were elevated.  They did a CBC w/ diff. and did not mention anything else either.  

This is getting to be unbearable for us, and plan on returning to the doctor, but was wondering if anyone would have any suggestions I could bring up next time.  I have tried to be as thorough as possible, but please let me know if I should mention anything else.

Thanks again for your time!

[Forum-M.D.-EC]

I'm glad you're feeling better.  Sounds like you're all on the mend.

Enoch Choi, MD

[demanis]

Thanks for the replies everyone!  CO was also something that came to mind, but we had recently bought a CO detector that displays ppm, and the highest it has ever went was 1 - 2 ppm.  We are getting a little better day by day, and are now down to occasional muscle cramps, shakiness, and, for lack of a better description, "foggy brain".  To me it feels like i have been drugged off and on during the day, similiar to how SSRI's made me feel when I was on them a few years ago.  A zombie like, no thought, stare in one place feeling.  At least it is slowly getting better.

[NURSELPN]

That's the first thing that come to my mind too...Carbon monoxide :-o !! Do you & your family feel any better after leaving the house for a few hours???
Might be a good idea to get your furnace checked out.
Scarey, eeks... God Bless, Jean

[Forum-M.D.-EC]

That's a good idea.  Carbon monoxide detectors are inexpensive and can be found at your local hardware store (home depot, lowe's, Ace)

[spade22]

Another  possibility, that would explain several of your symptoms, is carbon monoxide poisioning - at low levels, carbon monoxide exposure actually causes flu-like symptoms (dizziness, irritability, muscle aches, headaches, tiredness etc.).  If you have a gas/oil furnace, a CO leak is possible and you may want to get a detector to rule this out (especially if your symptoms dont subside or you have noticed a correlation between your symptoms and any increased furnance usage -  have you bumped the temperature of your house up since last weekend, or in the evenings, for example?).

Although carbon monoxide poisioning is likely a remote possibilty, it is still something that one needs to be aware of and rule out, where appropriate (especially for those that live in very cold states that have furnances working in overdrive).