Posted 8/12/2009 6:47 PM (GMT 0)
Hi everyone,
I'm a 24 year old girl, normal range weight, who was usually healthy; tend to have sinus headaches and congestion when the pressure changes or when there's a lot of dust, but could usually just take a generic allergy/sinus pill and be fine.
A few weeks ago I was practicing a song for a musical I was about to be in, and noticed that it felt like I wasn't getting enough air..couldn't belt it out like normal. I remarked to my husband that it was odd. Also took a combo aspirin/acetomenophen/caffeine headache pill for a slight headache. We took the dog for a walk and I remember feeling "fuzzy," like I couldn't follow the conversation or walk completely balanced. The streetlights looked fuzzy too. When I got home, I laid on the couch to watch TV for a few minutes, and wham! The room started spinning. I broke out in a cold sweat, rapid heartbeat, extreme lightheadedness, tight pressure in chest and shaking uncontrollably. I sat in a dark bathroom and called my husband in, I was so scared. I threw up, and that relieved a little of the pressure and stopped the shaking, but I felt so weak. Went to ER, they did EKG, basic CBC blood test, chest xray, pregnancy test, all normal except for elevated wbc count. Gave me fluids and potassium, and I felt sooo much better. Sudden energy.
A week went by, was slowly feeling stronger. Then went to Kauai. Second day there, woke up with SAME symptoms. Shaking, dizzy, feeling cold all over, tight chest. Parents were pulling car up when I threw up and suddenly felt better again. Odd. Decided to just take it easy and see doc when I got home. For the rest of the week, still had slight symptoms like weakness, lethargy, dizziness under bright lights, and a constant pressure in chest. Also nausea, couldn't eat much.
I've since seen the doc and had a ton of tests run, but no answer in sight. Everything keeps coming back mostly normal! The only things abnormal is a wbc count of 13.3, a high cholesterol, high calcium levels, and a high ESR rate of 28. Going in for CT scans of sinus and head today. It seems that the tests are showing that SOMETHING'S off, but no one knows what. I feel like there's maybe some virus or something? They gave me Claritin and a steroid nasal spray for sinus issues, and the dizziness/mental fog has gone down a lot, so that's part of it.
The scariest part, though, is this CONSTANT chest pressure for the last 3 weeks that goes around my sternum to under my ribs to the left side of the chest. Feels like a weight on my chest all the time. I also can't eat much, because it doesn't seem to want to stay there. I can manage a few bites before I get really nauseated, so I'm mostly living on SlimFast shakes. Seems to get a little better at night, when I can usually eat a regular dinner. Also, I've noticed that burping sometimes relieves the chest pressure temporarily. Could this be GERD? Doctor hasn't mentioned it, and thinks heart issues are prob not the cause, but the pain really scares me, and I'm tired of being so weak all the time. Tums don't really seem to make a difference. Anybody had similar problems or a recommendation?