Diagnose me

[Grim]

Ok snuson members I want your thoughts on this.

I have been to numerous doctors in the last 2 months.

I was on Viibryd (an SSRI) for my increased panic attacks and in 3 days the dizziness was so bad I almost passed out in school, then at work the next day. After that I was taken off that and put on Lexapro. Everything was awesome for the first 3 days and then BOOM dizziness again. This time it was worse and I could not even sleep let alone work or go to class.

The next thing that happened was really bad heart palpitations. I seriously thought my heart was going to give out. Had ANOTHER EKG done, nothing, ER gave me Ativan and dismissed me.

Start taking this on a daily basis and it doesn't help. Psychiatrist says lets try it and see what happens.

Still dizzy everyday and started when I would wake up and continued throughout the day to no end.

Get put back on Xanax and was admitted to ER because of palpitations and almost fainting again and yet AGAIN they say I am fine and I am sent home.

Was told back in March I had a hiatal hernia and that it was causing the shortness of breath and so on and so a specialist asked for a new one to see if I had made it worse. Results come back and he says I have no hernia and that the radiologist that read it is renowned in the state and his word is better than most.

So after a month every day I wake up I am dizzy. Get a sleep test done where they check your oxygen level to see if I had sleep apnea. Tests came back negative even though blood work said I may have it.

Have another episode and the doctor this time at the hospital says it is possibly vertigo, even though I do not have any signs other than dizziness that it is vertigo, and puts me on meclizine which makes you dizzy too.

So now I am at a crossroads. The meclizine is not helping. I cannot run nor have sex without feeling like my heart is going out or without having a panic attack. I have an appointment with a neurologist in 2 weeks but Christ I cannot keep spending money on medical bills that I do not have. I have insurance but my deductible is fairly high.

So for all of you I am offering 1 roll of snus (I am serious) if you can think of what this may be. If you guess correct when I finally get a diagnosis then I will send it your way.

Symptoms: Dizziness from the time I wake up to almost the end of the day. The only thing that usually fixes it is enough Xanax that I am scared ill develop dependency and have to have it to function.
Pressure underneath my sternum at the bottom like it is pushing on my diaphragm
Almost always tired or out of breath when physically exerting myself
Resting heart rate is 58 bpm but has been as low as 48 bpm. None of the doctors see this as a problem. So they did not mention bradycardia
Sharp stabbing pains in my stomach at times. Doesn't matter if I have eaten or not.
The feeling that you get in a car when you go over a hill and back down real fast and you get the sensation in your stomach. This happens multiple times daily even when resting
The sensation of hot water running from my mid torso down into my legs at times
Numbness in my extremities at certain times. Worse if I am having a panic attack. My lips pucker and twitch and my hands and feet go numb.
Lastly, increased panic attacks and avoidance of being alone if I can help it due to the above symptoms.

Like I said, SSRIs have not helped, and most doctors keeping telling me it is just panic attacks when they look at my preexisting charts. This is what pisses me off. As soon as they see that they just write off everything else, and I have seen numerous doctors because of this. I know something isn't right but ill be damned if I don't die before they actually find out. They also have not recommended a heart monitor because I passed my stress test just fine, but when I run for an extended period or even just have sex, I feel winded and experience palpitations, but ill be damned if they never show up when I take these tests.

So BOOM, give me some ideas if you got them. Winner gets a roll of snus. Help me..... help you

EDIT: *** I know this is getting repetitive but I am seriously running out of ideas. I am not a basket case yet as I am trying to stay positive but it is getting old fast. That is why I am making a game of it because you all may help me come out with things that I can tell the doctor that "family" thinks it may be or that a friend said it sounds like just to get piece of mind.

[Skell18]

Please don't take this the wrong way mate, but, what makes you think that the members here who, for most of my knowledge, are not qualified medical professionals, would know? It can only lead to you possibly thinking you have something you don't then you feel worse and have the associated anxiety of thinking you have e.g. dengue fever when all you have is a cold etc.

Have you tried just taking a holiday and relaxing? A lot of what you describe sounds like stress to me, as I get similar things when I have been working too hard, thats when its time to step back and take time off, it could be chronic fatigue, take a rest! The dizziness could be menihers syndrome (imbalance of the inner ear) anti emetics sort it out, but try and just take some time out, get away somewhere quiet, relaxing, do nothing, rest, read, sleep, enjoy yourself.

[spinyeel]

Please don't take this the wrong way mate, but, what makes you think that the members here who, for most of my knowledge, are not qualified medical professionals, would know? It can only lead to you possibly thinking you have something you don't then you feel worse and have the associated anxiety of thinking you have e.g. dengue fever when all you have is a cold etc.

Have you tried just taking a holiday and relaxing? A lot of what you describe sounds like stress to me, as I get similar things when I have been working too hard, thats when its time to step back and take time off, it could be chronic fatigue, take a rest! The dizziness could be menihers syndrome (imbalance of the inner ear) anti emetics sort it out, but try and just take some time out, get away somewhere quiet, relaxing, do nothing, rest, read, sleep, enjoy yourself.

+1. There is a line in the Muse song,Knights of Cydonia. 'don't waste your time,or time will waste you".

[NeonMouse]

Are you on any other medication other then xanax? Colestrial tablets or anything of the like?

[Frosted]

It sounds to me that you are observing what are normal physical responses to exertion etc and misinterpreting them as abnormal, panicking therefore creating more physiological responses and a messy cycle. Just my two cents.
In all seriousness try meditation....one thing it will do is teach you how to relax every muscle in your body....which is the first fight or flight response. That fight or flight response is happening all the time so try running as well. Eat properly.

[wa3zrm]

Any Blood Work and Diagnostic Testing?

[wa3zrm]

Have you tried just taking a holiday and relaxing? A lot of what you describe sounds like stress to me, as I get similar things when I have been working too hard, thats when its time to step back and take time off, it could be chronic fatigue, take a rest! The dizziness could be menihers syndrome (imbalance of the inner ear) anti emetics sort it out, but try and just take some time out, get away somewhere quiet, relaxing, do nothing, rest, read, sleep, enjoy yourself.

Good advice... IMO

[Snusdog]

Question: when did the dizziness and palpations start? Was it before or after the medication? Does not taking the medication alleviate the dizziness? If so then it would seem you are having a reaction to the type or the family type of medication

On my first read I thought inner ear, food allergy, reaction to the medication, or exhaustion.

Exhaustion would compound the anxiety and would also explain the physical exertion issues. Sounds to me like a Sell's suggestion that you take a vacation (medical leave) would be a good idea. You might even get a doctor to sign off on some sort of spa treatment (and thus insurance would pick up some of the cost).

If not you might try some sort of message therapy........if it is exhaustion/stress that might help enough for you to be able to identify exhaustion/stress as the issue.

Keep us posted mate and hang in there.....I hope you are able to get it all sorted out very soon

[heders]

You have an anxiety disorder, period. There sounds like there is nothing medically wrong with you, and no matter how severe your symptoms are, they cannot harm you.

Like Frosted said, it's a messy cycle which you perpetuate yourself. Some catalyst made you have a panic attack or experience anxiety, you start getting afraid of having another one and your benchmark level of anxiety in your brain is reset by the amygdala to a higher level. This higher level produces more symptoms, which makes you more anxious, which produces more sensations, and so on. All it is, is a habit that needs to be broken. There is absolutely nothing medically wrong with you, whatever the doctors might say (they usually know nothing about the matter). Your heart can beat in 200 BPM or in 48 BPM, and although it might feel alarming and uncomfortable, it's IMPOSSIBLE for anything bad to happen to you when it's caused by anxiety. You will not pass out, die och get a heart attack. It just can't happen. The dizziness I think comes from hyperventilation, which isn't a problem either, just really uncomfortable as well.

Do you drink coffee? If so, cut that down by a lot, and quit altogether if possible.

Then I will send you a link via PM to a solution that I'm sure will work to get rid of your anxiety.

Also, Xanax, SSRI's and other medication often comes with rebound-anxiety, which usually just increases what you are experiencing in the long run (or, will when you come off it).

Cheers!

[truthwolf1]

Alcohol withdrawl can do some crazy stuff to your system. I went clean for a year and still felt strange and years later have ended up strange.
If you are using anything like Devils lettuce, that also might have something to do with it. It might take awhile but your body will adjust.

Another thing that helped me was to have somekind of gameplan in life which I did not have during the year of withdrawl. Without that I started to worry too much.

[devilock76]

Three possibilities:

1. Anxiety and or you are a hypochondriac. In my experience Anxiety attacks tend to mimic the symptoms of what you fear most medically.

2. Check for a hiatal hernia, some symptoms mirror that and if any part of possibility 1 is true it could explain a lot. I see you said they checked, but checked by X-ray. That is not how you check. It will be an endoscopy, if that is the right term for a tube down your throat. Should be an outpatient procedure at any reputable GERT office.

3. You are going to die, brain tumor, AIDS, etc. Sorry just had to mess with you.

I will say this. I have a heart condition, genetic. I have had anxiety issues. I have a hiatal hernia. I can recognize a lot of this stuff. I got put on all sorts of stuff. Then I said this is crazy, I looked at lifestyle choices and changed everything I was willing to to fix it. I had already quit alcohol for other reasons, so that helped. I eat really well, I exercise, and I finally kicked regular smoking. I am not taking any regular medications. I seriously have an issue with depending on any daily medication unless absolutely necessary and there is not lifestyle change I can make. Now listen I am not an MD, so YMMV and consult with your PCP if possible on these. I would assume your PCP would be the general medicine doc you trust the most. But I managed to kick all that crap to the curb and I feel a lot better for it.

Ken

[Premium Parrots]

I have to agree that you might simply need to relax. Stress, anxiety and depression can cause your body to mimic just about any health problem you can think of. Sounds like you have had most everything checked out medically so there probably isn't a physical health problem. But stress/depression can really screw you up. I've been thru this kind of situation myself years ago. I had everything checked out as was fine physically. It took a bit of time but I kept telling myself that since my body was fine then it just has to be in my head. I followed the steps I laid out below in the next paragraph. After a short time things started to go back to normal. I would take a valium when I felt I needed to "come down" and relax. I would watch an upbeat comedy on the TV to get my mind off of things as well. I would tell you to stop taking the other meds but not meds for proven physical issues things like acid reflux your body needs. I wouldn't take any mood altering or drepression drugs tho. Try to get your doctor to prescribe 10mg valium. Start off by cutting them in half and take one when you wake up no matter how good you feel. Then take one midday and maybe take a whole tablet at bedtime. Do this everyday for a while. When you start to feel better cut back the mid day dosage. As you feel even better then cut out either the morning or bedtime dosage, whichever you feel is best for you. Meaning, if you can't get to sleep at night stop the morning dosage. Then finally cut out the remaining dosage. This combined dosage timeline might be lets say 8 weeks. But dose yourself as you feel you need it. Its your body and you know it best.

Now, see how that goes. Its simply a forced relaxation method. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Those valium are yours. Keep them to yourself, hell don't even tell anyone you are taking them. They could end up missing.

Take as little dosage as few times a day as you can but stay relaxed. In the begining start with half a 10 mg tab if that doesn't help after a few days then try a whole tab for each dose. Just try to keep a handle on the dosage so you don't get dependant. Keep in mind that if you legitimitly need the drugs you will not become dependant.

Try acupuncture. Tell them everything that you feel is not right with your body and mind. It works for just about everything including stress/anxiety/depression and it helped me quite a bit. Actually for me it was the only relief from the physical pain I am in from my brain disorder. Its not totally gone but I can sure deal with what I have to live with now....but she keeps working on it. I don't expect all the pain to go away but its not so bothersome as it once was. It took about 3 sessions to know for sure that it was helping. It was important to try anything that might work because oxy was the only painkiller that would work and it only took the edge off. I could not take the normal meds for my condition because it was making my heart condition worse. I didn't want to be a zombie from the oxy so I took a serious look at alternative medicine. It worked for me. Looks to me that this might help you. seriously.

If you smoke herb I would stop. Especially if you feel the anxiety/depression synthoms get a bit worse while smoking. Pot today is much stronger than it once was and can really put you in a mood and mess with your mind. Tho I feel herb is quite harmless for the body sometimes its not good for you if you have a lot on your plate. I smoked everyday since I was about 17. When my dad passed away about 8 years ago I was a mess. When I smoked I felt worse physically and mostly mentally. The depression was unbearable. I finally figured it out and cut way back to maybe just one or 2 puffs a day [at night]. I started feeling better and went back to daily use but still only in the evening and only 5 or 6 puffs. If I use more than that I will still get depressed. So I found just the dosage that I needed for me. I like to smoke it for the relaxing effects but if I smoke too much it ****s with my mood. With the potent herb out there today a single additional puff over my limit can make me feel depressed. I never get "high" off of it anymore after so many years.....unless you think being in a crappy mood and getting depressed is a high.

I see quite a few posts here mentioning stress. That is for a reason. Stress can mess with your body and mind. Lots of us realize this now. But it sure can make you think you have physical illness. That been proven many times over.

I am not a doctor so I can't diagnose you. However, you have been thru the gambit of testing and it seems to be boiling down to the stress factor. Relax mate.

Your doctor has told you its not your body...then it must be your mind. Just tell him you need something to relax and suggest the valium as that's what its for. Stay away from other mood altering drugs as most have side effects that may make things worse. Promise him that you won't abuse them and that all you want to do is eliminate the stress so your body will go back to normal. Every household medicine cabnet in Cuba has Diazapam [generic valium] on the shelf to keep the natives calm. Its pretty harmless unless you abuse them. If you doctor won't prescribe them there are plenty of other ways to get them...the PM system here would be a last resort... hint hint

In a nutshell.....stop taking the stronger mood altering or depression meds. Stop taking herb. Try the valium instead, it won't hurt you. Get acupuncture, it greatly works for relaxation but tell them all of your synthoms so they can deal with all of them at the same time.

Most importantly if you start to feel badly tell yourself "Hey I've been fully checked out by the doctor and my body is fine. I know its simply my mood at the time and I know I AM OK. relax.

Pm me if you need or want to. I'll be glad to talk to you on the phone as well. Then I may be able to explain better and give a better valium dosage and take other things into consideration when we chat. seriously

I am not a doctor but I have been thru this shit before. I can only make suggestions that may work for you.

sorry for the long post

Good luck

[Frankie Reloaded]

I don´t know... We have tons of 10 mg Diazepam at home as a secondary medication for my wife´s epilepsy. It makes me relaxed and sleepy (I only take it before bed) and it helps me to have really vivid dreams, but my wife (who has to use it whenever she feels bad - to prevent fits) hates the stuff saying it makes her terribly scared. She hates it to the extend she only uses half, 5mg, risking the fit. Thinking of it, I sometimes have scary dreams after Diazepam, but this is rare for me.

Plus, Diazepam leads to a rather nasty addiction.
So I think the best way is to let a psychiatrist decide the right medication, if it is a financially possible option.
For DIY treatment I would rather try Kava, St. John's wort or Valerian tea. All of them are downers which often help against anxiety. Not together! though.

EDIT: I only use Diazepam as recreation. Once a week, tops. I used more in the past and developed tolerance: took a long time of abstinence to get the drug working again.

EDIT2: After a stay in hospital where she was given Diazepam intravenously after a life-threatening fit she was so scared of everything I had to accompany her even when she went to the loo. Literally.

[Premium Parrots]

I don´t know... We have tons of 10 mg Diazepam at home as a secondary medication for my wife´s epilepsy. It makes me relaxed and sleepy (I only take it before bed) and it helps me to have really vivid dreams, but my wife (who has to use it whenever she feels bad - to prevent fits) hates the stuff saying it makes her terribly scared. She hates it to the extend she only uses half, 5mg, risking the fit. Thinking of it, I sometimes have scary dreams after Diazepam, but this is rare for me.

Plus, Diazepam leads to a rather nasty addiction.
So I think the best way is to let a psychiatrist decide the right medication, if it is a financially possible option.
For DIY treatment I would rather try Kava, St. John's wort or Valerian tea. All of them are downers which often help against anxiety. Not together! though.

EDIT: I only use Diazepam as recreation. Once a week, tops. I used more in the past and developed tolerance: took a long time of abstinence to get the drug working again.

EDIT2: After a stay in hospital where she was given Diazepam intravenously after a life-threatening fit she was so scared of everything I had to accompany her even when she went to the loo. Literally.

Frankie I believe your wifes reaction may be an isolated case. Herbal cures sometimes work and is imo the best course of action to start off with. But Vallium is virtually harmless unless you are easily addicted to narcotics. One thing to keep in mind tho is that if you need the valium, codine or whatever you are not very likely to become addicted...that's a known fact. I hope your wife is doing well.

[whalen]

You worry to much... When you worry about your anti worry meds then it is game over. Try becoming a recovering alcoholic, great support groups! and coffee....!