Health Problems

a_skeleton_03

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I really hope you don't have it, and I know you said you had an MRI, but a lot of your symptoms match MS even though that was already suggested by Kirun. In about 10% of cases, especially in younger people, the scar tissue indicating MS is not visible/very hard to detect on an MRI. The speech problem, numbness, headaches, light sensitivity, fatigue, and twitching are classic early MS. If you can't figure it out with the other things suggested, you could ask for a spinal tap. Yeah they're no joke but they can find stuff in there that could indicate autoimmune or any other oddness.

Some other things you may want to get checked: Testosterone/thyroid levels if they weren't covered in the lab. It's not likely, but you could have concurrent issues like low T (which can cause fatigue, joint pain, and some mental confusion if the drop in T is relatively sudden) + something else.

Best of luck.
Thanks, yeah getting a spinal tap will be hard but I think I might pursue it. The major issue is that I am an American in Germany. Finding someone to explain things to is difficult. My GP and her practice is Americans. They have a few specialists here and there that they work with that speak enough English like the rheumatologist I saw that was an hour and a half drive away. The rest of the things they can sometimes refer to the US military hospital but not everything. That is the neurologist that was yawning through my explanation and scoffed at my labs. My wife has done three champagne taps on newborns but I doubt I could get her to tap me
smile.png


I will look into testosterone and thyroid after I have done the other things.
 

Kedwyn

Silver Squire
3,915
80
So I tell my GP based on the CRP and BKS I would like to see infectious disease? Should we do bloodwork over again before making that call?

That bloodwork was from January.
Get it retested if the numbers are still elevated you need to get seen quickly. Get to an infectious disease specialist asap.

PM me the new results if you want her to look at them again. I don't check this forum all that often.
 

niss_sl

shitlord
281
1
All your bloodwork is normal. You even did the full ENA panel and all was negative except ANA which is nonspecific and positive in 5% of normal people. A CRP of 3 is elevated but again no one would blink an eye at a level of 3. For any kind of chronic infections/inflammatory disorder you'd expect much bigger values.
My differential includes, from most likely to least likely:

-age-related fatigue --> lose weight, excercise more, eat healthier, sleep more regularly, deal with it



-maybe concurrent testosterone deficiency
-maybe house mold
-lyme unlikely

Rare causes of chronic fatigue syndrome are mold and lyme disease but it looks like you've very unlikely given low CRP.
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
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Putting in my bet:http://my.clevelandclinic.org/orthop...-syndrome.aspx

Secondary question, what meds including over the counter stuff are you currently taking?

Was your IgM levels elevated for the Lyme disease pathogen? Any weight loss?
I was taking absolutely nothing of any sort when all that blood was taken. Since then I have been taking Iron, B12, and some cholesterol stuff I don't remember that is all over the counter stuff. Occasionally I take an Excedrin Migraine.

IgM-Ab was 18.7 and normal is 18. All the other variants were negative, there is a list of 15 different variants they tested for. This is why the rheumatologist initially was interested in it and then eventually threw it out. Weight gain but nothing crazy. That can be explained by 13 years in the Marines and then not having to exercise every day to keep up.
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
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-age-related fatigue --> lose weight, excercise more, eat healthier, sleep more regularly, deal with it
This is what I am hoping. If I wasn't experiencing what I feel is severe mental degradation I probably wouldn't bat my eye at any of the physical "symptoms".
 

Agenor

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Can't speak to the other symptoms a_skeleton_03, but I have/had the dry eye thing. Came out of no where, but wow I use to joke around with people who had it.... That shit can be brutal. Been using this stuffhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1and knock on wood i've not had an episode of dry eye since. Been using it about 3 weeks. Some say it can take up to 6 weeks to kick in though. good luck.
 

Silence_sl

shitlord
2,459
4
Ok I have some medical problems. I know we have some big brains here and maybe some people that are also doctors or scientists or whatever. I have done a lot of labwork and stuff but I don't think I am communicating with these German doctors very well about what is going wrong so I bring it to you guys. Maybe one of you have similar problems and your labs look the same so I added scans of my labwork.

Symptoms:

- Stuttering randomly, this one is odd because I will know what word I want to say, I can't say the word but if I choose a synonym in my head I can work it out. I also can say it over and over in my head sometimes and eventually will get it out but it's awkward.
- Memory loss like big time. I don't remember what I ate for meals last week. I don't remember half of the people I meet. All kinds of issues here.
- I am starting to have trouble using homonyms and screwing up a lot of my typing. Some of you might have noticed it here on the forums but probably not. I lose track of my thoughts a lot of the time during a post or typing an email or something else. It's super annoying.
- Joint pain, arthritis pretty much.
- Extremity numbness at times and twitching.
- Extreme headaches.
- Fatigue all the time. I could sleep for the rest of my life and probably still be tired.
- Light sensitivity.
- Dry eyes.
- Rash under my eyes that comes and go and nothing clears it up.


My general practicioner is American and she feels there is some kind of issue. We were looking at MS and Lupus but just can't back it up I don't think. Right now I am trying to just wait it out until some bigger symptoms show up but I am getting extremely frustrated.

I have an MRI that had nothing show up out of place. I don't have the pictures from that with me but I doubt anyone would want to see my brain anyways.

The lab work that was an issue was the ANA was positive and high. I also have markers for Lyme disease but not the rash and it isn't high enough for the amount of time that I have had symptoms.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Know some specialist in their family they could refer me to that I could email labs to?
My cousin's husband had really similar symptoms as you have. He hit 47 and had all sorts of unpleasant health issues. He went around the country for two solid years before one single person figured out his issues...now, he looks lots younger and is as hale as a 30-year old....in every single way.

The doc that fixed him is now a close friend of the family, and she's awesome at figuring out what is wrong with someone.

She fixed me, and that's was a tall fucking order.

Hope you get it sorted out, because being really sick sucks, especially so if you have a wife and kids.
 

Kuriin

Just a Nurse
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Since you've been going to a rheumatologist, I'm assuming you've done a rheumatoid factor test already.
 

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
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My cousin's husband had really similar symptoms as you have. He hit 47 and had all sorts of unpleasant health issues. He went around the country for two solid years before one single person figured out his issues...now, he looks lots younger and is as hale as a 30-year old....in every single way.

The doc that fixed him is now a close friend of the family, and she's awesome at figuring out what is wrong with someone.

She fixed me, and that's was a tall fucking order.

Hope you get it sorted out, because being really sick sucks, especially so if you have a wife and kids.
So...what was it?
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
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Since you've been going to a rheumatologist, I'm assuming you've done a rheumatoid factor test already.
I am guessing so. Do you see it on that list? Is there a specific test I look for? I have some other lab work that mainly overlapped the rest. The first pic with the 1:800 ANA is the one from the rheumatologist.
 

ZyyzYzzy

RIP USA
<Banned>
25,295
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Showed a MD in our ID department, and he said see a infectious disease specialist, but his reasoning was do it to slowly rule most things out, as nothing was elevated enough to really suggest an ID.
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
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Ever have a concussion? Some of the symptoms are like a TBI. Might be that + something else, allergy etc.
No allergies, they tried that.

No concussion (I remember) and the neurologist wanted it to be a TBI so bad. It's like he is getting more money per TBI he diagnoses or something.