I am a 24 year old male. About two months ago I was driving and began to feel very light-headed. It lasted about 20 minutes. It happened again about three days later. This then began to happen more and more often until it became so bad that I went to the emergency room. I felt as if my body was going to completely shut down. I had tons of blood tests done, an EKG, a chest x-ray, and urine samples taken. I was sent home as they could find nothing to keep me there. I was given a medication for dizziness.
The light-headed feeling would at times get worse, but it would never completely go away. For the first two weeks I experienced the following symptoms along with the light-headed feeling: muscle weakness, severely increased appetite, a feeling of poor circulation in the limbs, small red blotches on my knee, and a stiff, weak neck. I began to see my doctor who took further blood tests and began to treat the illness as a virus. The only thing out of the ordinary in all my blood work was a high white blood cell count. He put me on Methylprednisolone to help my immune system fight the illness.
Then about two weeks into the illness, I began to experience severe headaches. I felt as if my head was going to explode. I checked into the emergency room once again, worried that I might be having a brain hemorrhage or aneurysm. I was sent for an MRI, and given a Lumbar Puncture procedure. Both tests came back clean, and I was prescribed painkillers (Ultracet) to deal with the intense pain. During this time my appetite went in the opposite direction and I barely was eating.
I continued with my primary doctor who was unable to diagnose the illness. He had me meet with a doctor from the Center of Disease Control as well. My doctor began to feel that everything may be psychological, and wanted to put me on Paxil. I was hesitant about this because I felt maybe I should have a psychological exam before being put on the medication. He insisted the medication was harmless and worth a try.
The illness then slowly got better, but never completely went away. I began to try and resume normal life activities. I went back to work, and socialized, but the light-headed feeling was still there and made it nearly impossible to enjoy everyday activities. I began to ease myself off the Paxil because I did not like the side effects.
Then after about two weeks the light-headed feeling became debilitating again. I decided to completely start over with a new doctor. His first step was to have me wear a Holter Monitor. When he examined the results, he felt there was a problem. He said my heartbeat was often higher than normal. When I was sleeping it ranged from 40-100 beats per minute. When I did mild exercise (walking 1 mile at 3.5MPH), it was around 170. Therefore he sent me to a cardiologist.
The cardiologist looked at the results and felt that there was nothing unusual about this. I was baffled at how two doctors could look at a test so differently. He took another EKG and decided things look fine. However he did decide to send me for a Tilt Table test, which the results are pending.
I also felt the symptoms could be as a result of a poor diet at times. However I recently had a Glucose Tolerance Test, which showed nothing out of the ordinary.
I am not sure if this is a physical medical ailment or a psychological one with physical symptoms. I am currently taking St. John’s Wort as a natural way to combat the possibility of anxiety. At this point I am very nervous that the Tilt-Table test may not show anything and I will be back to square one. I am desperate to get back the quality of life that I have lost. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
In Summary:
Main Symptom: Light-headed
Accompanied at times by: sweating, muscle weakness, poor circulation in limbs, dramatic increase/decrease in appetite, small rash on right knee, weak and stiff neck.
Medications taken so far: Meclizine, Methylprednisolone, Naproxen, Ultracet, Avelox, Paxil
Tests taken so far: EKG, chest X-ray, heart enzyme exam, urine sample, MRI (head and neck), Lumbar Puncture, Holter Monitor, Echocardiogram, Glucose Tolerance, Tilt-Table Test.
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