“I am going to the doctor with a list?”
Hi! Thank you for checking this out and I apologize in advance for the length. I have been somewhat bedridden from various issues. Due to assuming things are normal and financial problems, I am only now getting a doctors appointment on the 15th to talk about these issues that have been affecting me for years. I would like to know which ones I should look to work on first. I will put a * next to the ones affecting me most on a daily basis.
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Symptoms I have experienced:
Allergies, I was told by a doctor once that I have a sun allergy after going to the emergency room for second degree sunburns I would like to double check this. I was also sent to the emergency room due to an almost fatal allergic reaction to something I most likely ate. I occasionally will encounter something while I am out and if skin touched it, I will rash and swell up, and if I smell the wrong thing, my airways will close. I take Benadryl with me everywhere.
*I used to live in a environment with black mold, my airways close up if I take deep breaths, and it feels like I breathe through a silly straw.
*I randomly get severe pain in random places, like someone stabbed me with a screw driver, usually randomly in the abdomen area. I have severe pain around my shoulder blades and my neck, my body refuses to unwind in that area.
***Every point where bone connects to bone always hurts and it is a roll of the dice when I wake up to see which joint hurts the worst. I feel crackling all the time and sometimes it sort of feels like bones pop out and I have to pop them back. I am always aware of my skeleton.
*I have a bump on each of my forearms, they hurt when I touch them too hard and when I do too much with my hands
I have balance issues and I occasionally have fluid leak out of my ears.
I also have to be careful when I walk or I very easily twist my ankle. My ankles in general feel brittle.
Very rarely, a couple times every few months, my lungs will, for lack of a better term, cramp up and I barely breathe for a few minutes.
A couple of times, but not really recently. I have experienced a weird fluttering in the left side of my chest. I am uncertain if it is my heart or the muscles around it.
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On good days, I can walk a mile with only light pain. On bad, it is agony to get out of bed and I avoid eating or drinking because the movement of my jaw hurts too much. On either I can't be vertical more than three to four hours straight before the pain ramps up too much and exaggerated movement has my bones crackling and aching.
I have already had to quit two jobs because the pain ramped up to the point where I was losing the ability to walk and all I did at home was lay in bed. Even with attempting to work out the pain, after a few months, I could barely walk.
I have brought these issues up with doctors growing up, only to get ignored. I am overweight, though most of these issues began before I was. I have been trying to lose weight where I can.
Growing up I would be regularly sent to the hospital due to breathing issues. Especially during the spring and fall when my sinus infections would get bad enough that I could not open my eyes some days. Though, a good portion of this was because I had ingrown molars on both sides of my face that I finally got removed a couple years ago. I have also gone to the hospital for a broken foot that I had walked around on for a week. I do have severe anxiety and I understand that some of this pain could be coming from this.
Diabetes and arthritis are common in my family history along with anemia shown on both sides and my father's mother apparently having a very rare genetic bone disease that caused all the bones in her foot to disintegrate, more rarely, it happened in both feet. There are a decent amount of family members who have severe allergies and various breathing issues.
Out of these symptoms which should I be the most concerned about? And which are actually normal?
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Symptoms I have experienced:
Allergies, I was told by a doctor once that I have a sun allergy after going to the emergency room for second degree sunburns I would like to double check this. I was also sent to the emergency room due to an almost fatal allergic reaction to something I most likely ate. I occasionally will encounter something while I am out and if skin touched it, I will rash and swell up, and if I smell the wrong thing, my airways will close. I take Benadryl with me everywhere.
*I used to live in a environment with black mold, my airways close up if I take deep breaths, and it feels like I breathe through a silly straw.
*I randomly get severe pain in random places, like someone stabbed me with a screw driver, usually randomly in the abdomen area. I have severe pain around my shoulder blades and my neck, my body refuses to unwind in that area.
***Every point where bone connects to bone always hurts and it is a roll of the dice when I wake up to see which joint hurts the worst. I feel crackling all the time and sometimes it sort of feels like bones pop out and I have to pop them back. I am always aware of my skeleton.
*I have a bump on each of my forearms, they hurt when I touch them too hard and when I do too much with my hands
I have balance issues and I occasionally have fluid leak out of my ears.
I also have to be careful when I walk or I very easily twist my ankle. My ankles in general feel brittle.
Very rarely, a couple times every few months, my lungs will, for lack of a better term, cramp up and I barely breathe for a few minutes.
A couple of times, but not really recently. I have experienced a weird fluttering in the left side of my chest. I am uncertain if it is my heart or the muscles around it.
-----
On good days, I can walk a mile with only light pain. On bad, it is agony to get out of bed and I avoid eating or drinking because the movement of my jaw hurts too much. On either I can't be vertical more than three to four hours straight before the pain ramps up too much and exaggerated movement has my bones crackling and aching.
I have already had to quit two jobs because the pain ramped up to the point where I was losing the ability to walk and all I did at home was lay in bed. Even with attempting to work out the pain, after a few months, I could barely walk.
I have brought these issues up with doctors growing up, only to get ignored. I am overweight, though most of these issues began before I was. I have been trying to lose weight where I can.
Growing up I would be regularly sent to the hospital due to breathing issues. Especially during the spring and fall when my sinus infections would get bad enough that I could not open my eyes some days. Though, a good portion of this was because I had ingrown molars on both sides of my face that I finally got removed a couple years ago. I have also gone to the hospital for a broken foot that I had walked around on for a week. I do have severe anxiety and I understand that some of this pain could be coming from this.
Diabetes and arthritis are common in my family history along with anemia shown on both sides and my father's mother apparently having a very rare genetic bone disease that caused all the bones in her foot to disintegrate, more rarely, it happened in both feet. There are a decent amount of family members who have severe allergies and various breathing issues.
Out of these symptoms which should I be the most concerned about? And which are actually normal?
Female | 25 years old
Complaint duration: Many of these have been happening for years
Medications: I recently take about 4 ibuprofen twice daily. Benadryl when allergy symptoms pop up.
Conditions: Anxiety, Unknown
1 Answer
Thanks for the story. I feel confident that a big part of your problem is due to panic attacks. I strongly suggest you buy Peter Levine’s Wake the Tiger and read it carefully.
Dr. Richard Evan (Rick) Steele, MD, MPH, PDC, BCSPHM
Dr. Richard Evan (Rick) Steele, MD, MPH, PDC, BCSPHM
