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So tired of weird symptoms!

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  • So tired of weird symptoms!

    I get weird random pains or odd stuff happening sometimes. It never lasts more than a day and it never happens often all that often or seems connected in a way to make me worry. Some of the stuff repeats though and yesterday and today it was driving me crazy. I know you guys aren't doctors and even if you were, this is over the internet. Just looking to vent mainly.

    To start off, yes sometimes I do go see the doctor for this stuff. It almost always ends with me being very frustrated. I was on ADD meds from early elementry school to the end of high school/into the first year of college. Sometime during middle school I also got on depression medication which I stopped taking around the same time. Later, once I had insurance again, I tried to get back onto ADD medication. My doctor didn't want to listen and told me that it was all anxiety (he had not been my doctor while I was on either medication nor had he met me more than once or twice) and wouldn't budge. I managed to finally get on it through another doctor and have since switched my prescription over to my main doctor.

    I've had breathing problems. I vaguely remember having problems once or twice when I was younger. Nothing more than shortness of breath really. Around 2003 or 2004, we had a really high pollen count I guess and all of a sudden, I started having breathing problems again. Still nothing more than shortness of breath usually but it would sometimes make me a bit dizzy when I got frustrated with it. Again, I was told this was anxiety. While I will admit that a couple of times, it has probably been a panic attack, I honestly don't believe that the other times were. I've tried talking to my mom about it since she's a nurse, but every year she has a different theory. It usually goes along the lines of "Oh, I have that problem too and here's why and what I do about it." Only the why and what change each time and her solutions never help. I've been tested for athsma but that came up negative. I'm horrible about noticing coorrilations though so I can't figure out if it's a weather thing or something else maybe.

    I was having pain in my thumb that was radiating out into my hand. The doctor I saw about that listened to what I had to say and only heard the part about me popping my fingers. She decided it was the only cause and that was that. It turned out though, that I have carpal tunnel and while popping my thumbs seems to make it worse, not popping the rest of my fingers also makes it worse and causes pain. I learned this when I tried to stop and got to deal with a month of pain in my knuckles that lead to flair ups of the arm pain.

    The weird one is my nose. Every so often it will just start itching. No amount of scratching will make it stop. The closest thing I can compare it to is when you have contact with fiberglass. Not the sharp pain, but that itching that just won't go away and is just out of reach under the skin kind of. I've tried everything I can think of and nothing ends the itching except for time. It doesn't happen often enough for me to see someone about it and I know it wouldn't do much good unless I could see a doctor while it was happening. Even then I don't know that it would help.

    Since I've started on the ADD medication, occationally I get dry mouth. It's not too bad for the most part. Usually I just drink some water and it goes away. Usually I don't get it except for mid day as well because by about 5 or so my meds have worn off and any side effects go away. Last night after dinner though, around 6 or 7, I got it again only it was persistant. It would stay in that part of the roof of your mouth near the back, on the sides, just out of reach of the tongue and spread from there every time I stopped drinking water. It got to a point where I could stick to breathing out of my nose, but my tongue would still slowly start to feel...I guess claustraphobic might be the best way to describe it? Not like it was swelling but like it didn't have enough room despite everything being the same size. At the same time of course, my shortness of breath starts to kick in a little bit. The combination of the two made my throat (a little below the back) feel a little smaller. Sort of like a slightly puffy, dry feeling. Nothing really seemed to make the dry mouth go away and it wasn't long till my stomach hurt a bit too. Not sure if maybe my friend's mom might have been on to something when she said I might have a food allergy or not. Could be understanding that completely wrong though. And of course, today, the dry mouth has been back and the back of my throat is feeling funny again. Luckily my stomach is feeling mostly better. And no, I didn't go to the doctor last night for the simple reason that, after having breathing problems for so long, I've gotten used to telling when it's a problem and I'm getting more dizzy than just head rush from standing up level.

    I'm just getting so tired of simply dealing with this stuff. It may end up being all I can do, who knows. Just grouchy about it is all. It doesn't help that my head's been hurting because I put off getting my glasses updated for too long. Luckily my appointment for that is later today.
    "Man, having a conversation with you is like walking through a salvador dali painting." - Mac Hall

  • #2
    This is where you need to be persistant.

    Keep a journal. Every day, note the medications you take, and the time you take them, along with what foods you eat. If you get an odd symptom, write that down too. See if there's a pattern. For the breathing issues, use one of the weather websites to note air quality and pollen count. When you have a full month of notes, see if you can see any patterns. Either way, you need to sit down with your doctor and a journal like this and discuss it.

    As an example, there's a blogger I read who has a gluten intolerance. It took her years of bugging doctors, changing doctors, talking about her symptoms, and researching it herself to discover it. Even though all the celiac tests came back negative, her doctor finally diagnosed gluten intolerance and now most of her side issues (epilepsy, hugely irregular menstrual cycle, migraines, etc) have disappeared.

    You know your body. You know what it should feel like, and what is wrong. Trust it to tell you when something is wrong, and listen. Maybe it's just side effects of the drugs, and you need to change medications. Maybe it's something more serious. Maybe it's allergies. Until you figure out a pattern, you can't work it out.

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    • #3
      Water is actually not very helpful for dry mouth. The best thing you can do is keep some hard candy or bubble gum to suck or chew on. That will usually help the best.
      "Oh, the strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!"

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      • #4
        Do the journal.

        Also, call your local Chronic Fatigue Syndrome society, Lupus society, Fibromyalgia society, allergies society - all the 'borderline' or 'weird' disorder societies you can think of. Ask for suggestions for doctors.

        You'll find some doctors that most of them recommend.

        That's your short list.
        Seshat's self-help guide:
        1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
        2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
        3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
        4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

        "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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        • #5
          If I remember correctly, most ADD meds are actually methamphetamine based, so that could explain the shortness of breath as well as the dry mouth. Carpal tunnel sucks a lot, but you don't need to pop your fingers, get a wrist brace and wear it all the time, even when you are sleeping, and you should notice some improvement. Popping your knuckles releases air bubbles, which will relieve the pressure temporarily, but if you have popped your knuckles your whole life, it may be part of the repetitiveness that caused the injury in the first place.

          You seem rather insistent that you be on this medication, and while I do not know why you think this, it came across to me as a little bit extreme. If your doctor thinks you are just seeking pills, he is less likely to listen to you carefully. It's not true, of course, but he may have that impression based on how much you say you need them. There is also the issue of a lack of time and ability to really get to know their patients, and a tendency towards cookie-cutter medicine.

          Good luck, and I hope you figure out what the problems are. Those wrist braces can be found in any drug store, and run $10-15.
          "You mean you don’t have the one piece of information you actually need? Well, stick your grubby paws in the crayon box, yank one out and colour me Fucking Shocked Fuchsia." - Gravekeeper

          Comment


          • #6
            Started a journal and am working on keeping it up to date. Hopefully that will help.

            Quoth Heksubah View Post
            Water is actually not very helpful for dry mouth. The best thing you can do is keep some hard candy or bubble gum to suck or chew on. That will usually help the best.
            Yeah, I had been chewing altoids but then ran out and water was about all I had sort of eating more food which I was trying not to do, since I had already ate.

            Quoth Megg View Post
            If I remember correctly, most ADD meds are actually methamphetamine based, so that could explain the shortness of breath as well as the dry mouth.
            I occationally get slight dry mouth as a side effect. It worried me in this instance because it's never been that bad before during the entire time I have been on the meds. The shortness of breath I have had for much longer and it has been going on since I was on meds in high school and also during the couple of year stretch that I wasn't on anything.

            Quoth Megg View Post
            Carpal tunnel sucks a lot, but you don't need to pop your fingers, get a wrist brace and wear it all the time, even when you are sleeping, and you should notice some improvement. Popping your knuckles releases air bubbles, which will relieve the pressure temporarily, but if you have popped your knuckles your whole life, it may be part of the repetitiveness that caused the injury in the first place.
            I have popped my knuckles for a long time and I can't see any link to the carpal tunnel at least, not to what's making it flare up. If I pop my knuckles a lot, it doesn't seem to up my pain, but if it's a day that I'm doing a lot of typing that day, then the pain will start up. Not popping my knuckles actually amplifies the pain. I tried quitting for about a month and the entire time, not popping them just made it worse. I do have braces that I use and sometimes they help but other times they just make my thumbs hurt.

            Quoth Megg View Post
            You seem rather insistent that you be on this medication, and while I do not know why you think this, it came across to me as a little bit extreme. If your doctor thinks you are just seeking pills, he is less likely to listen to you carefully. It's not true, of course, but he may have that impression based on how much you say you need them. There is also the issue of a lack of time and ability to really get to know their patients, and a tendency towards cookie-cutter medicine.
            It might come off as sounding a bit extreme simply because the long process of getting back on was very frustrating for me. There's a lot that I do at work that I was not able to do very well before hand. I couldn't focus properly and I couldn't stay on it and get everything done. When I first came to him, it wasn't as big of a thing. And I get that he didn't know me very well. My issue wasn't with him being hesitant or with him not wanting to just say ok and hand me a prescription. All I said was that I wanted to get back on the ADD meds and he started off insisting that it wasn't ADD, it was anxiety and refused to see it any other way. I didn't even have a chance to get insistant before that. That he was digging his heels in without knowing me bugged me. Couldn't remember for sure when I did the original post, but that doctor and the next one were two different doctors. The second doctor insisted on me getting tested. That was something that I get on his part and wasn't ticked off about because of him. I was ticked off at that part becaus I couldn't afford to pay 3000 out of pocket for it and I had already been tested when I was a kid. Since the lack of being able to focus was hurting me at work and other aspects of my life, it was a frustrating thing for me. I managed to get back on it though and have moved my prescription over to doctor number two though, since I did appreciate him being willing to work with me at least to the extent of not telling me that I was full of it and had no clue what I was talking about.
            "Man, having a conversation with you is like walking through a salvador dali painting." - Mac Hall

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            • #7
              I'm sorry you're going through all this. I went through a similar issue w/ getting diagnosed with PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). My hubby actually was the one who figured it out when we were dating by looking up all my symptoms on the internet. My OBGYN at the time, who had been treating me for irregular periods since I was 15, dismissed all of this as just being b/c I was overweight, despite the fact that I had continued to have all the same symptoms and problems when I had lost a lot of weight (went from a size 24 to a size 12-14). Another doctor also flat-out refused to cosider it as a diagnosis or do any testing, just from looking at me one time! Finally my new OBGYN (a nurse midwife actually) did the testing and I got on medication, almost 5 years after my hubby had put two and two together.

              As for the carpal tunnel syndrome, have you had the nerve conduction test done and had a formal diagnosis? If so, get thee to a orthopedic surgeon. The surgery is very simple and a quick recovery. It is done out-patient and laproscopically now: I have 1/2 inch scars on both hands from my surgery. They don't even put you all the way under. You are partially sedated and they do a nerve block on the arm being operated on. I went to IHOP directly from the clinic after both procedures. I have been symptom-free and even able to return to doing many things such as piping (cake decorating) and embroidery which I had not been able to do prior to the surgery.

              As for the shortness of breath, that could be caused by many things, so the journal really is the best way to figure that out.

              The super mouth/throat dryness you described usually is a symptom for me of strep throat or bronchitis, but if you are feeling well otherwise then sorry I don't have any other thoughts. I don't think Altoids will work as well to stimulate the salivary glands as hard candy or Starlite mints will, though.

              Hope you get to feeling better!
              Don't wanna; not gonna.

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