Just lying here feeling sorry for myself, willing myself not to go to the emergency room,
again, so I thought that I would tell my story... One that sounds so much like many of yours.
I realized that something wasnt right with me about 25 years ago (I am 47 now) I would have these "episodes" that would come and go three or four times a year. I would feel faint, get short of breath, and feel really fatigued. These episodes would last anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks, then they would vanish completely. After awhile I went to the doctor, who told me that it was probably stress and not to worry. A couple of years farther in I started having heart palpatations, and ear ringing with these episodes, and went to a cardiologist who diagnosed me with a mitral valve prolapse and told me that I was probably stressed and not to worry. "a prolapse is just another degree of normal he said". Fast forward to about eight years ago, keeping in mind that in between these episodes I lived my normal life, which was extremely active. I was an avid outdoorsman, and would spend up to two weeks at a time in the most remote places northern California has to offer by myself, long before the Survivorman television show and the like. I started have bowel problems and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis around 2006, and the other episodes were getting more frequent, and more severe. Over the last four years I have become an almost complete invalid, have visited more docs than I care to count and have been to several different emergency rooms several times each. All the old symptoms most of the time now, and some of those and some new ones all of the time now. the ear ringing is constant, cant sleep without a fan, orthostatic hypotension, joint pain started around the same time as the colitis, and it effects all of my joints, but my shoulders, jaw and hips get so bad that I have trouble getting out of bed, I have fainting spells, scary chest pain and heart palpatations, constant numbness on the left side of my face, zero balance if my eyes are closed, weird adrenaline surges when I am lying down doing absolutely nothing, and the worst by far is the fatigue, nothing could compare. Anyway, have been worked up for everything under the sun, have a stack of ecgs like war and peace, 2 brain mri's etc.... and..... nothing, should be as healthy as a horse. Finally, at one of my emergency room visits this last January, a doctor questioned me thoroughly, found that I had several ticks inbedded in me over the years and suggested that I get worked up for Lyme. First test came back negative from arup with only band 23, tried again less than two months later with igenex and it came back +41, ind 39 also a negative, and no band 23 this time. Now I am waiting to see if the only local lyme doc in town, who has a closed practice, will relent and see me. I have met someone here in town who has Lyme and went to him, and she is trying to get me in, he is supossed to very good. So here I lay in bed hoping that the phone will ring, and that I will have one of my rear "good days tommorow. Good luck to all, and thanks for listening.