In June 2020 I started feeling "odd" and began my journey of feeling nauseous every time I ate. Then around August noticed my blood pressure which had all my life been around 110/70 was now at 147/105 pretty consistently. I started having sharp pains in my back and shoulder/elbow joint of my right arm. Slowly everything started multiplying.
By October I was throwing up "nothing" at least twice/three times a day every single day. My PCP was trying to help me figure out everything. I went on Olmasartan for my blood pressure only to end up in the urgent care with angioedema because I'm allergic to angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB).
With extreme pain in my back and neck I decided to see a chiropractor in desperation. I've never liked going to a chiropractor. I always feel sick afterwards - especially if they do the electrode thing. After three visits I was not able to function anymore. I swore I had vertigo. For months!!!! I went to my PCP for help. Went to my ENT for help. Nothing helped. I did every vertigo exercise on the internet. No help. I decided I would just be a functioning vertigo human and ignore it.
In November the pain throughout my back was now constant and had moved to my arms and legs. I began waking up almost nightly with tingling in my fingers and feet. Would have to get up and walk around to get rid of the numb feeling. Rohnin has been amazing - she has put CBD balm on my back every night for about 6 months. She has really taken care of me. Weston will give me back massages every night.
By December I couldn't handle the constant choking feeling I had. My ENT tried a lot of things in the office to help. Eventually he suggested we do an esophageal dilation. Vocal chords were all good. Esophagus all good. Polyps were found and biopsied - came back fine.
Made it through Christmas season and immediately started back up with doctors. ENT sent me on to an Otalarynologist. He had like an 8 week wait so I found a general surgeon to see what she would say. She did an upper endoscopy with lots more biopsies. Everything came back normal so she ordered a CT scan of my whole system - again everything normal. This was now February.
It's now mid-March and my entire body feels like a wildfire. If I'm home I'm laying in bed on the heating pad with a heated blanket on my legs. There is no way I can do another 45 years of life feeling like this and at this point doctors can't figure anything out. I finally call my PCP and schedule an immediate appointment. Thankfully he listens to everything and takes time to go back through my history to figure it out.
We went through every symptom I have and timeline.
- Chronic pain and tender points throughout entire body
- Fatigue
- Sleep problems
- Concentration and memory problems, known as "fibro fog"
- Diziness
- Hairloss
- Severe anxiety - maybe depression - I don't know
- Morning stiffness
- Vomiting
- Numbness, and tingling in hands, feet, and legs
- Headaches
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Restless leg syndrome
- Heightened sensitivity to pain
When you are talking about widespread chronic pain to have them consider Fibromyalgia it needs to meet a certain requirement.
- pain in certain tender areas lasting consistently for more than 3 months
- a certain ranking on the widespread pain index
- pain on both sides of the body, and above and below the waist
- a certain level of symptom sensitivity, as determined by the examiner
Tender points are extremely tender and you don't want anyone touching you - even a gentle hug hurts. The tender points are:
- Lower neck in front
- Edge of upper breast
- Arm near the elbow
- Knee
- Base of the skull in the back of the head
- Hip bone
- Upper outer buttock
- Back of the neck
- Back of the shoulders
With finally having a diagnosis I'm only slightly comforted. This means I'll have pain probably the rest of my life. I'm only about to turn 46 so that sucks.
My doctor has prescribed Cymbalta. After joining a few forums it's apparent that many do not like his medication because of the side effects. I've only been on it for a week but the loopiness is very apparent. I feel like my arms are about 50 lbs each. I AM able to stand and sit straight up so that's good. I'm still in pain but my dose will increase in another week. We're slowly easing in to it.
I'm a bit shocked at the diagnosis. It seems a bit weird to
have something wrong with you that won't go away. But at least now I
can start working towards a little less pain and maybe start being able
to form full sentences again without feeling crazy.
