Kachasende

I am a 42 year old female, I was diagnosed 16 years ago with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, so I have become used to the symptoms of this. My TSH levels have been really good for quite sometime now. But I have started having a number of other symptoms, I have had all of these symptoms at various other times over the past 3 years, but they would come and go and usually would only last for a few days to a week, very seldom ever lasting longer than that. I currently take Levoxyl for the Hypothyroidism, Lipitor for high cholesterol, and Nexium for heartburn.

Here are the symptoms that I am experiencing, most of them occur on a daily basis, and these have been getting worse over a period of about 1½ months. My eyes jerk involuntarily, I have some occasional eye pain, and my eyes are usually dry. I have been having muscle weakness, muscle stiffness, muscle pain, and muscle twitches. I have moderate joint pain and stiffness. Sometimes my body jerks involuntarily usually at night. I sometimes have numbness in my arms and fingers. I seem to itch all over my body. My coordination has gotten worse I can’t hold my arm out to the side and touch my nose, I will usually end up touching my lip or chin, this seems to be a little worse with my left hand, which confuses me a little since I am right handed. I walk a little funny now, I have my feet farther apart than normal to try and keep my balance, and my right foot seems to drag every once in a while, I also bump into things while walking. My hands shake when I am trying to do something, my writing has gotten terrible, sometimes it seems I have forgotten how to spell properly(thank goodness for spell checkers), I miss things that I reach for, I drop things more frequently, and my grip has gotten weaker. I have a hard time keeping my balance, and I can’t close my eyes and bow my head while standing without swaying. I get dizzy and light headed. Sometimes my speech is jumbled, and I sometimes don’t comprehend what is said to me, so far this does not happen too often. I am very forgetful, and it seems like I have trouble concentrating, or thinking. I have some abdominal pain with minor bloating, and alternating constipation and diarrhea. I have started having some bladder control problems with approximately 12 “accidents” the past two days, I have also had two episodes of bowel control problems. If I don’t take the Nexium I get heartburn daily, but so far the Nexium is controlling that. I have frequent spells of getting slightly choked or strangled when swallowing. I seem to be sensitive to heat and cold, but my body feels cold most of the time. My hands turn pale and throb when they get cold. My palms have a reddish tint to them. I had faint pink color that has come up on my cheeks and across my nose. I get frequent headaches, I stay tired no matter how much I rest. Over the past week my blood pressure has been higher than normal. I stay thirsty and my mouth usually seems dry. I have been having daily recurrent chest pain on my upper left side that seems to radiate down my arm sometimes. My menstrual cycle has changed or gotten irregular going from 3 to 6 weeks in between, I have currently been on my period for 10 days, normal for me has been being around 4 days.

I went to my general practitioner Mon., for some routine blood work and a follow up on the Nexium and Lipitor. I told him about some of these symptoms or at least the ones I thought of at the time. While I was there for my checkup, he checked my blood pressure and at the time it was 138/104, before that normal for me was around 110-115/60-70. He ordered a stress test which was done today, and I go tomorrow for an Upper GI. Today during my stress test they wanted my heart rate to get to 178, and I managed to get to that point, before the test started my blood pressure was 127/66, which I assumed was normal. At the end of the test my chest had started hurting mildly, I was somewhat short of breath, dizzy and light headed and my blood pressure was 166/28. The cardiologist said the EKG was normal, but that in a female that didn’t necessarily mean anything, that he wanted to do another test. So I now have a Persantine Nuclear Scan scheduled for next week. I have a gynecologist appointment next week also, and a neurologist appointment scheduled in Jan. All of the were on the recommendation of my general practitioner.

I am sorry this was so long, but I feel like I am falling apart, my husband, my daughter, and my parents are worried about me because they have noticed the changes in me. I would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions.

Thank you,

Kachasende