So many symptoms. Please help.

08-07-2017, 03:50 PM

Hello. I am a 22 year old female. I have been experiencing many symptoms over the past 3 months but have yet to get any help from my doctors. They are: dizziness, shortness of breath with activity, major heart palpitations, high resting heart rate (I bought a blood pressure monitor so I could take my heart rate and some examples are hr of 111 when waking up hr of 130 after a shower, heart rate of 125 when watching tv), extreme fatigue, weight loss, pain in the center of my back when standing too long (but the area also throbs when I'm resting), tightness in my shoulders and arms, occasional chest pain, tightness in my chest, and for the past few days I've had diarrhea. I keep thinking I am going to drop dead from a heart attack or heart failure any minute with all of these symptoms.

I have been to my regular doctor, a neurologist, an endocrinologist, and now I am seeing a holistic doctor since I am getting no answers.

The tests I had done so far are:
24 hours holter monitor - came back normal with few pvcs they said were normal
ekg - showed nothing conclusive
mri - showed mild maxillary sinus disease but nothing else
acth stim - negative for addisons
chest xray - nothing significant
blood tests - high calcium (10.4 when the limit is 10.2), high zinc (only .2 over), low ferretin (6), low vitamin d (insufficient, not defficient), magnesium not low yet but on the border (about .2 away), and high thyroid peroxidase antibodies (75) but the rest of the thyroid labs were normal.

At first I thought this was all adrenal fatigue because I was so stressed from college. I just graduated and I still feel awful. This is preventing me from looking for a job. I am starting to think that this is a problem with my heart because I literally can't even go take a shower without being winded. I have started taking 25 mg of iron to address my ferretin levels and stopped eating gluten as recommended by the naturopath. I am also scheduled to have an echo done this week and will see a cardiologist in a few weeks. I eat really healthy..lots of veggies throughout the day and protein. I used to be really active before my senior year got busy but now my symptoms are preventing me from getting back into working out. I only do yoga a few times a week.

Any idea what this could be? Heart failure? Thyroid issues?
I went to the ER two times cause I felt like I was going to faint and both times they did an ekg and chest xray and told me its nothing. Last time the doctor literally said to me "you're not having a heart attack, you're too young". I'm not saying I had a heart attack! but I know SOMETHING is wrong and I don't see how just those two tests can rule out everything to do with my heart? I have dealt with anxiety my entire left so I am completely aware that it can cause these symptoms, but because I have dealt with it my whole life I know that how I am feeling now is abnormal for me and its something other than anxiety.

I just want to feel better so I can start spending time with my family and boyfriend again. Yesterday was my birthday and I spent the entire time in bed even though everyone came by to see me. I am starting to feel extremely hopeless.

08-07-2017, 04:36 PM

Dear xina,

First, sweetie, make yourself calm down. This is already confirmed it isn't a heart attack. College is stressful for many, and now you need to rest (not all of the time) and get physically active, breathe deeply and take care of your body functions. Health anxiety won't help this get figured out and it wastes the little energy that you have. Please stop with the blood pressure monitoring. I suggest that you stop just trying this and that. It's normal to freak out some when college is over with.

You may be depressed, and that is common after graduating. Now we are expected to go somewhere in life and we often are not equipped to 'get out there'. You just graduated, and while that's great, it can leave one completely drained out and devoid of energy. Do you have any idea what you want to do with your education? These changes are a stressful part of life.

What is your diet like? For your bowels, you can take an overthecounter probiotic. And eat plain yogurt to get your bowels straightened out. Add a little honey or fresh blueberries for flavor.

Are you normally active? What kind of exercise do you normally get? If you are normally rather inactive, your heart may be needing exercise. You need to make yourself get out of bed and at least go walking and swing your arms to lightly exercise your heart and lungs. Inactivity can make a person feel like death warmed over when they have to move around. Severe back aches can come from laying in bed. Do stretches and exercise yourself. Ride a bike. Run, something. Play volleyball, go skating. have some fun.

When did you last have a gynecological? Are your periods heavy? anything unusual there?

Forget gluten, the question is are you eating a balanced diet? Or just not eating much at all?

Really, what you describe seems mostly like depression to me. It seems like you are expecting too much of yourself in some ways and not enough in others. To go on living we have to get up and walk, eat a healthy diet and begin the tedious job searches. Are you sure you aren't mostly scared of the future?

Love and hugs,

08-07-2017, 06:01 PM

I'll also toss out a trip to a pulmonologist. The shortness of breath with activity is a symptom of many things, one being exercise induced asthma (EIA).

So many symptoms. Please help.

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