Re: Strange Illness For Over One Year, Please Help!

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ryancinman@xxxxxxx wrote: 
Hi all,

My name is Bill. Starting Sept. 8 of 2004, I have come down with a
"mystery illness", at least according to eight doctors thus far. I am
hoping to find some possible causes for the problems I am experiencing.

Symptoms onset suddenly at 6:00 PM back on Sept 8/04 for no obvious
reason. Prior to this, I had no known health problems.

Originally, It started out as numbness of the left side of my body,
affecting the face, arm, and leg. Soon, the numbness spread to my
entire body and my hands literally clenched up. I could not move my
mouth, hands, or legs, they were totally numb.

To follow was shortness of breath and rapid heart rate. Once placed on
ambulance monitors, 02 was 82%, BP 220/120, HR 180 BPM. During this
time, I was fully alert, totally aware of what was happening. I felt
like I was going to die.

The hospital diagnosed lead poisoning (I work with solder frequently).
They gave me Albuterol and sent me home. Later that night, the symptoms
came back, but I stuck it out.

Three days later, while visiting my family doctor, the same chain of
events occured again that led me to the hospital originally. He
immediately called 911 and I was again taken to the hospital via
ambulance. There was no explaination.

I remained home for months following this incident, dizzy, short of
breath, and not able to function. Gradually, things got somewhat
better.

In Nov of 2004, I saw a Cardiologist. A new murmur was detected which I
did not have before. I passed the stress test and echo, no problem.
Blood tests and gases were normal. I was placed on Atenolol 50 mg for
the tachycardia.

Around this time, more symptoms developed. Unexplainable red lesions
covered both forearms, I lost part of the vision in my left eye, and
the murmur got louder.

I also saw a Pulmonary doctor, Rheumatologist, Infectious Disease
doctor, Endocrinologist, and Neurologist. Not much was found except for
the following:

ANA = 3.3 (marked as elevated)
Cortisol PM = 18.6 (12.0 is the maximum normal)
WBC = 3.8 (4.0 minimum normal)

In my opinion, the problem is cardiac related.

To date, the symptoms are: Severe shortness of breath at rest,
tachycardia, red skin lesions (small, BB size), vision loss in left
eye, occassional dizziness, photophobia, severe fatigue, 50 lbs weight
loss.

I am starting to regain some of my life back at age 22, but the
symptoms still take their toll.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Best,

Bill


I would try to have a very thorough infectious diseases evaluation, with a special eye toward tick borne diseases. The symptoms and signs you mention would be consistent with the experiences of many patients with Lyme and associated rickettsial and parasitic diseases, which can all be passed to a host with a single, undetected tick bite.

Not saying this is what you have, but it's very consistent with your experience.

Susan
.

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