Hello All! I am new to this forum so I
would like to thank you for taking the
time out to read my post. I will try and
keep this suckers as I can, but that will
be difficult as this is a very long story.
I was not sure where to post this so I
decided post it here in the anxiety forum
since this was one of the first initial
feelings from the ER doctor I first saw
and I have a feeling that is all I have as
well. But I am just curious to see if
anyone else here has these issues.
First of all I should say that I am 24
year old female who has never had any
serious medical conditions to worry about.
I consider myself to be fairly healthy,
but despite that, I am constantly scared
of catching
something or developing a disease. Outside
of the normal moans and
groans of daily life, Ive never physically
felt I have symtpoms to worry
about. But mentally I am always scared,
but never show it. Up until now
anyway...
Around 9/26 I had a strange attack. I
wasn't doing anything strenuous or
stressful (I was sitting on a jury panel
AND on vacation from work at the time) but
I felt like I was having difficulty
inhaling and catching my breath.My heart
began to race, I got a strange sensation
in my head, my left fingertips got tingly,
and the people around me said I went pale
(I thought I was having a stroke! At 24
years old!!). So i immediatley got up and
started walking around, only to find that
my legs had begun to shake so bad that
they had gone weak and I was having
difficulty walking. (I should mention this
shaking feels like it starts in the back
of my legs and progressively gets worse).
I also felt like my mouth was very dry and
that I needed to use the restroom and was
burping and passing gas a lot. After a few
minutes of trying to walk, I regained my
normal state, walked outside for fresh
air, calmed down and had some fruit. Later
on that night, I experienced something
similar.Not as severe, but just enough to
prompt me to want to get checked out, so i
immediatley went to the ER. Unfortunately
for me, by the time I got there the
episode had stopped. The doctor who saw
me, checked me out and said I had
hyperventilated and had an anxiety attack.
I was relieved it was not serious. A few
days later I had ANOTHER attack. Same
problems,only I had noticed my bowel
movements had become runny. So i called my
doctor for an appointment. The morning
before my appointment, I had another
attack, only more severe. It felt like if
I stopped moving I would die. I went
outside for fresh air, which helped. I
decided to go for a walk, which calmed me
down a lot so I could relax for my
appointment. All of my vital signs came
back normal at the doctors that day. My
doctor checked me out and said she wanted
to do a blood test for my thyroid because
I also had a goiter. So she did and the
results came back that I did have high
levels in my bloodstream for
hyperthyroidism. I immediatley cut
caffeine out of my diet, thinking this may
help me.(I've been caffeine free ever
since, which is great for me considering
how much I would intake on a daily basis).
The next week I went for my scans of my
thyroid and didnt have any major issues at
all for a couple of days, no shaking,
weakness, nothing. I had started
experiencing little aches all over my body
though. Never dehabilitating or severe,
just an ache on my shoulder blade here and
an arm pain there. The arm pain has since
become consistent to this day. Sometimes
its in my elbow, other times in my
forearm. I have chest pains but it feels
as though they are in my breast area and
not in my heart. I had an appointment to
meet with my PCP on 10/17 and an
endocrinologist on 10/18. That sunday and
monday (the 15th and 16th) I began to
shake again, and I went to my PCP on the
17th, and she said my scans came back
normal so she was interested to see what
the endo would say. My endo said that the
scans came back normal but he would do a
second blood test anyway to check my
levels (they, of course, came back normal
also). He also said I was slightly
tachycardic and I told him about the
shaking fits. He then prescribed me some
propranolol (20MGs twice a day), calling
my shaking fits "tremors". These meds
seemed to work for about two weeks or so.
On 11/4 the shaking fits started again and
happened almost every night (there was a
day or two inbetween that I had nothing
happen) for about a week. On 11/15, I had
a made another appointment with the endo
to have him check my thyroid again and to
see what he could do with the meds. He
upped my dosage to 40 MGs 3 times a day
(which I couldn't start taking until a few
days later as my pharmacy couldn't read
the prescription and had to get a hold of
my doc before they could fill it). I
started taking it on11/18 Again I felt
fine up until 11/22. I started shaking
again
.They get less and
less each time, and I seem to be able to
maintain these fits now by laying down and
breathing techniques. First I feel queasy
and uneasy and off and then I start to
shake and They mainly happen at
night.The shaking starts in the back of my
legs and then my whole body begins to
shake afterwards. It feels like a
combo of shaking because I'm nervous AND
like I'm shivering from the cold.My bowel
movements have gone back to normal but my
heart rate is still off sometimes. I've
been having palpitations off and on during
the day and I'm on a beta blocker!! I
don't understand. These episodes started
out
lasting for hours, but now they last 20-25
minutes, maybe less.The only common
denominator between that might be causing
these fits is how I react to them. If I
have something happen that seems
"abnormal" like a pain, I start to freak
out or if I even start to THINK about
shaking it can happen, which is what is
leading me to believe that it is anxiety
related. I can't understand what is wrong
with me. I don't have headaches or
dizziness, or anything but I feel "off".
People say you know your body and know
when something is wrong. Well something is
wrong with me. I have googled everything
from "anxiety" to "epilepsy" to "brain
tumors" in fear of it being related to
something serious, which I'm sure doesn't
help the anxiety in the slightest. Its
hard to not think about this and just
relax. Its disheartening not knowing why
you are feeling this way. Am I having a
seizure? Do I have an infection somewhere?
Should I go see a neurologist? Are there
any natural supplements I can take to
combat this? I have an appointment for a
full physical exam with my PCP on 12/3.
Any advice on what I should ask her to
check? Or what tests to do? I don't need a
full explanation of what's wrong with me
here, just a kind word from some other
anxiety suffererswho may be going through
the same thing as me
.
Thanks
Joanna
