Posted 12/12/2008 11:54 PM (GMT 0)
My diagnoses is Fibro or CFS. But the diagnoses was from a PA-C, because I was living in a area with very few Doctors and no specialist that took State Medical Coverage and was unfit to drive the 3 hours to get to a specialist. I have widespread muscle problems, but do not actualy have any significant pain when the trigger point locations for Fibro are pushed on. A number of those locations do get tight, but the massage therapist can work those points out in a few sessions, and I can tolerate extreme deep tissue pressure. This and a bunch of other symptoms lead me to believe this is not really Fibro. It has been going on for 13 years, slowly getting worse and has had numerous times the symptoms have cleared up completely and then latter come back, with them worsening over these years. I realize you folks can't diagnose me, but could the Veterans do me a favor and look at the symptom list and give me some idea of what is fitting MS please. I am living in California, which has no state insurance coverage unless your on disability or filed for disability. So specialist and expensive test are out. I am just getting by on the drugs I am having to take to keep a 3 day a week job with little demands on me.
Drugs I currently take to more or less control the symptom intensity.
Baclofen 80 milligrams a day.
Klonopin 4 milligrams a day.
Percocet 15 to 20 milligrams a day.
Ibuprofen 2400 milligrams during exteme problems.
Valerian Root some nights because I can't sleep for more then a few hours on even that much Klonopin.
Other treatments: Massage therapist twice a week, mainly concentrating on tight intercostal muscles and sore ribs and sternum. Chiropractor once a week mainly working neck and upper back.
Symptoms:
Please note that all of these symptoms were present and much worse when I was taking no drugs at all.
Anxiety
Dizziness
Disequlibrium
Vertigo bending head backward.
Erector Muscle Spasms prolonged standing.
Chest pain from sternum sitting. Sometimes standing.
Vice like griping that can run anywhere from the stomach around the whole chest and up to the collarbone where it feels like choking when it gets that high.
Laying in bed and feeling like my whole body is tingling or vibrateing or whole body has restless leg syndrome.
Restless leg syndrome itself.
Very Poor Memory.
Can't concentrate allot of the time, like now.
Slow, unsteady walking.
I Keep air conditioner at work at 65 degrees. Anything over 76 degrees, my fatigue, mental symptoms, disorientation feel worse.
Extreme Heat Intolerance. Going outside at 90 or above and I almost instantly get disorientation, disequilibrium, focusing problem.
5 minutes in a steam sauna and I feel like I am going to keel over when I stand up and walk out. Getting in the pool almost imediately stops the symptoms.
Numbness in both feet at toes.
Vague Achey tiredness in arms, legs.
Either go home from work, and disoriented feeling on laying down becomes poor vision and I pass out in a few minutes, wake up a few hours latter and can't go back to sleep without all the drugs and valerian.
Or I go home and feel spacey, like I had a gallon of coffee and try to focus on the TV and can't go to sleep until I take all the drugs and Valerian.
Spacey, hard to focus feeling trying to shop in large stores for groceries or whatever.
Can't close my eyes and stand with my feet together and stay still. I am slowly weaving in every direction.
Can't cross my leg with heel on knee and run it down to my shin smoothly. Jerking stop and go the whole way.
Diaphram gets tight causing a sense of breathing problem.
Stomach feels sick every morning and for at least a couple of hours, sometimes all day.
Sharp pain in mid back on right side that then travels up to right side of chest and becomes burning pain, up the right side of neck burning and then burning in roof of mouth. Usualy takes a few minutes from the time it feels like a pinched nerve in back starting off, to whole right side and roof of mouth like its on fire, and then will go away in about 15 minutes.
Waking up a couple of hours latter with intense burning pain in the roof of my mouth the few times I have been given morphine pills.
Periodic dim, blurry vision, especialy in large department stores.
Almost double vision for about 20 to 30 minutes when I get up before sunrise and have to drive somewhere. Start off seeing two road signs and they slowly come together.
Left eye focuses to darkness in movie theater normaly. Right eye takes 15 to 20 minutes to catch up. Probably the same reason for the early morning double vision.
In general my typical day would be described as feeling sickish, semi miserable, light headed, unfocused, weak, tired, tight chested, sore muscled with back, sides, chest and shoulder soreness that can't decide if its going to feel better or worse by what I do next. And this is actualy a huge improvement in the last year since I started on the narcotic pain killers, baclofen, Klonopin, NSAIDS and Valerian. This time last year most of those symptoms were magnified by about 10. Until I started them, I was up at about 2 am pacing around the parking lot so dizzy I couldn't see straight with a girdle wrapping my whole upper body up my throat and feeling like I was suffocateing.
Sorry about the long post. Any advice would be helpful. I am moving in the Spring back to a area I can at least get medical coverage and then I can get test ran. In the meantime though I am preaty much stuck with just putting whatever pills in my mouth that seem to help.