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Looking for advice

Posted , 4 users are following.

Chickenlady4321
Chickenlady4321

For the past few months I have been experiencing a wide variety of awful symptoms and I’m really looking for advice and guidance. I am only a 24 year old girl and am very scared. It starting out with left chest pain and pain in my arm and shoulder along with shortness of breath and feeling like I get winded very easily. Sometimes my whole arm would even go numb. I had a chest X-ray done. The radiologist read it as pneumonia, even though the X-ray was clear as a bell. I was prescribed about a week of antibiotics. I felt uneasy about the findings and requested further investigation. They did a d-dimer test that came back negative and a CT scan of my chest which showed I did not have pneumonia, but a couple of nodules in my left lung. They said they were small and to just have them re-evaluated in a year. My doctor said that there could be an infection causing the nodules so she had me continue with the antibiotics. After that I was still having the terrible chest pains. They became more constant and worsened with breathing in deep. They decided to run a test to see if I had any inflammation in the body. It came back as slightly elevated, so my doctor blindly put me on prednisone. The prednisone didn’t get rid of the chest pain completely, but seemed to have made it so it occurred less. I finally finished the prednisone and started to develop a severe headache, lightheadedness, ear pain, eye pain, and blurred vision. It feels like I have a balloon in my head pressing on everything. The brain fog is unbearable. Its like my head is detached from my body. I am currently seeing a new psychiatrist for anxiety, which I seem to have under control pretty well with everything that has been going on. He ordered me a huge amount of blood tests in order to rule out underlying causes of the anxiety that could be contributing to my other physical complications. He doesn’t believe that the anxiety is all that is going on. I went in today to get the blood tests done. They took 14 viles of blood and towards the last vile I ended up passing out. I have had a lot of blood taken in the past before due to Irritable Bowel Syndrome and I have never passed out. When I started to come out of it my hand and feet were numb and tingly. I couldn’t help but wonder if I didn’t pass out because of everything else that’s going on. Later I decided to go to our local urgent care clinic to talk to someone about everything that has happened so far, the new head symptoms, and the passing out. The minute the doctor walked in I knew it was going to be a wasted visit. I described to him in details everything. He looked at me and straight up said there wasn’t anything he could do. He had looked at my chart and had seen everything I had been in for leading up to now and brought up the fact that I have anxiety and that age is on my side. He said he could refer me to a neurologist thinking they may have more of a clue but said it could be a long time until I could get into one. I told him I would take what I could get and went on with my day. Later I started to notice a deep pain in my upper left calf under where the leg bends. At first I just figured I had done something to it, but there wasn’t much I could think of that could have caused it. The pain is worse with pressure and when I move my foot around. It seems to be in only one area of my calf and doesn’t spread throughout the whole thing. My other leg feels fine. There isn’t any swelling or redness. I’m worried that everything going on with me could be related and that I could have blood clots or even something else seriously wrong that is being overlooked because of my anxiety and age. I know I had a D-dimer test and CT scan of the chest that came back negative for blood clots, but I can’t help but still think something is wrong. I am driving my loved ones insane with everything, trying to figure out what’s wrong and where to go next. I have been tempted a thousand times to go to the ER, but would be devastated if I went to just hear the same things again and have my parents pay for all of it. I have gotten to the point to where I am even scared to go to sleep and I don’t know who to seek out for help. 

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • Anonymous111
    Anonymous111 Chickenlady4321

    Posted

    “There isn’t any swelling or redness“ - Probably not a DVT then.

    Do you smoke? Are you on the OCP?

    Any recent surgeyr, foreign travel or periods of immobility?

    Anxiety Neurosis can cause breathlessness and chest tightness even when you’re not currently in a panic. I think these symptoms are psychosomatic. A few tiny nodules in your lung arn’t going to be causing it. 

    Does it hurt if you press/massage the muscles of your chest wall?

     

    • Chickenlady4321
      Chickenlady4321 Anonymous111

      Posted

      Thanks for the reply. I have been taking birth control pills for 9 years. I am currently on previfem. I have been very inactive lately due to how I have been feeling. I try and nap until the headaches just wont let me anymore and rest in a chair for the rest of the day.  There isn’t any pain when I press on my chest. The leg pain seems to be worse this morning. I can’t put any weight down on it without being in really bad pain. The pain is in a rather particular spot on the back of my leg. It’s worsened by foot movement and when I press on the spot. If I press anywhere else on the calf it feels fine. The pain does seem to radiate into the rest of my leg, including the thigh and foot even though I can’t seem to feel it when I touch other areas.
  • Karinbra
    Karinbra Chickenlady4321

    Posted

    Hello

    The first thing to say is that nobody on this forum is a physician/doctor and we have not seen you or had any medical training which could help with diagnoses.

    I have a 21 year old daughter who had had a clot and that is the only reason for me being on here. But I would say one of a few things;

    Firstly you had a d-dimer and an X-ray and the results did not suggest that you had any clotting. Is there a history if clotting problems/blood problems in your family? Are you on the combined contraceptive pill? Have your recently been on a long journey or do you remain inactive for long periods of time? 

    All of these things might increase your chances of having clots. However the negative tests so far would suggest that this is not likely.

    It does also seem from an outsiders point of view that your clinicians are taking you seriously, as you have had lots of blood tests done, the results of which may provide some answers for why you are experiencing these symptoms.

    However I would also say that as a mum of somebody who has had anxiety, the numbness, the pains in the chest, the feelings that you are " lightheaded and your head is detached from your body and many of the other things you describe (including IBS) sound a bit like what my child went through. Also at one point we thought it was a heart attack, the pains and symptoms were so severe. Again the fainting is also something which happened.

    So I would advocate that you continue to seek advice and help through your psychiatrist who is also following things up with blood tests (as is also the Urgent Care clinic doctor who has recommneded you see a neurologist.) You talk as if the care you received has not been particularly professional "it was going to be a wasted visit" and your doctor "blindly" prescribed steroids. However it does not sound as if this is the case as your symptoms are being followed up and not being ignored; it is just at this stage that they have not come up with a reason/solution yet.

    So again as a mum I would say that if things get worse with your breathing and you cannot draw breath or you experience other symptoms like

    Shortness of breath that may occur suddenly.

    Sudden, sharp chest pain that may become worse with deep breathing or coughing.

    Rapid heart rate.

    Rapid breathing.

    Sweating.

    Anxiety.

    Coughing up blood or pink, foamy mucus.

    Fainting.

    then you need to go to ER straight away.

    However if you have not got any of the risk factors and if you are still managing to breath without distress then you probably do not have a pulmonary embolism. If you have a clot in the leg as my daughter did, she was unable to continue due to the extreme pain throughout her leg and the swelling and redness as well as the numbness which meant that when she tried to jog she was not able to continue. 

    If you are not able to sleep and driving your loved ones insane as you say, then it might be worth going back to see your psychiatrist to explain this and to try to see whether on the basis of the results of the blood tests, he/she may be able to advise you on the best way forward; it may be that the anxiety is more acute than you realise.

    Anyway, I wish you all the best and hope you get some resolution from your present tribulations. Do not give up but also be kind to yourself by trusting and recognising the help that you are getting from your healthcare professionals in carrying out the tests and following up on the outcomes.

    Best wishes and hope your symptoms resolve themselves soon

     

    • Chickenlady4321
      Chickenlady4321 Karinbra

      Posted

      Thanks for the reply! I have been taking birth control pills for about 9 years. I am currently taking previfem. I have also been very inactive because of how I have been feeling. I have been taking numerous naps and just sitting around resting, trying to get the massive headaches to subside. I also get very inactive whenever I have an IBS flare up. It tends to put me down for a week. No history of blood clots. Huge family history of breast cancer, but that is it. No surgeries and I don’t smoke. The calf pain seem to have gotten worse. I can’t hardly put any weight on it withought it hurting extremely bad. Still having really bad pain in my calf when I move my foot as well. The pain radiate into my foot and thigh, but is only tender to touch in the location on my calf. I am also on Lexapro currently for my anxiety. It seems to be really helping with that. Still waiting on the blood test results. I wish I could get scheduled in to see my psychiatrist more often but I can usually only get squeezed in once a month....
  • amy30676
    amy30676 Chickenlady4321

    Posted

    Have you ever found any answers to what you've had going on? I'm 25 years old and have been dealing with similar symptoms for 2 years. It started off with chest pain and shortness of breath. Although I also had where my heart rate would kick up and have palpitations. I've had so many test done but no answers to why this started happening all of a sudden. I've even seen a cardiologist who just put me on a medicine for my heart rate. I was told by a couple drs it could be anxiety but I know that it's not although I have developed some anxiety in response to how I had been feeling. I did start developing headaches and vision changes in the last part of last year but had an MRI and everything was fine. My headaches have let up though so I'm not sure what was causing then. Some days are better then others so I've just learned to live with it but I would love to feel good again like my normal self. 

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