Resolved question:
After my son was born three years ago I started having heart palpitations. It started out as a rare occurrence that I didn’t put much thought into. Then my skin began to get very dry with red itchy patches on my face (possibly rosacea). At night and sometimes during the day I would have palpitations with dizzy spells. My sex drive became non-existant. I also started to feel very fatigued all the time. I finally saw a doctor for this around November of 2012. He told me that it was *probably* mitral valve prolapse and not to worry about it. So I went on as normal.
I began to develop an intolerance for alcohol. My skin would get very flushed with one drink and my sinuses would get very painfully congested when I drank. I started having bad reactions to OTC medications such as NyQuil and Execederin. I was admitted to the hospital after taking the WalGreens version of NyQuil (with pseudoephedrine) after my heart rate would not come down. It spiked in the hospital and they ran a number of tests on me, but found nothing. I was referred to a cardiologist, but I began to feel better and never went.
I later had a strange reaction to epinephrin at the Dentist's office and found my heart racing heavy with the hard dizziness again. (Much worse than normal.) My heart rate didn’t come down until well after I was at home. I had never had this type of reaction before.
I caught a stomach virus at one point and went to Doctor’s Care and the doctor remarked that my skin was unusually dry and it looked almost like some sort of allergic reaction. Later I had a scare with a “mole” that was on my vagina and went to Doctor’s Care. I had developed a cluster of moles during my pregnancy on my vagina and one had become painfully inflamed. When she saw it she said it was not a mole (the others around it were) and proceeded to drain it. She also told me that I needed to get a well-woman checkup as there was tenderness and pain when she pressed on my lower abdomen. I started having brown staining before my period and my periods became very heavy. I also began experiencing painful cramps and aches and pains (they had been quite minimal up to that point). I made the appointment with my gynecologist, but something came up and I cancelled it and eventually life got in the way and I didn’t give it much more thought. The brown staining occurs to this day.
One morning I found myself feeling incredibly lightheaded and I decided to take my blood pressure and found it was very high along with my heart rate. I became very cold and started shaking violently. My teeth were chattering. I told my husband to take me to the hospital. On the way to the hospital my hands became very numb. Again, nothing was found. I was again referred to a cardiologist and again began to feel better and decided not to go.
I started taking my blood pressure more often and found it was often high when I didn't feel right. My hair started coming out all over my hand in the shower and I became much more fatigued. I found myself having more episodes of heart racing, dizziness, cold, and/or high blood pressure. I tried eating something when it happened in case it was blood sugar and sometimes it seemed to help a little. I began to have a difficult time exercising and my weight starting gravitating ten pounds heavier than my average weight since having my son.
I eventually came to the conclusion that it must be stress and I decided to try and take control of the situation. I bought some L-theanine in an attempt to lower my stress levels. I must admit I don’t feel stressed out over anything but this situation, but it was suggested to me enough that I felt I should take it into consideration. The first dose (200mg) went fine and I did feel a light calm. The second dose (later in the evening) sent me into another episode with heart racing, cold, and dizziness. I didn’t take any more. For days afterwards I had difficulty with daily activities and found myself quite nervous while I was driving - having to pull over from time to time for fear of passing out. My heart was always racing and I always had to lay down throughout the day to try and get my blood pressure down.
Things seemed okay for a while after that passed. I decided to start eating gluten free to try and remedy my skin issues (and maybe all the issues). The first day went well and I felt energetic and optimistic. But by the evening, in bed, I started having another episode and my husband brought me some food to try and remedy the situation (apples and almond butter). Eventually I felt well enough to try and go back to bed and eventually I fell asleep. A couple of days later I had a more serious attack where I was shaking violently, teeth chattering, and was intensely cold. My blood pressure was a little elevated, but my heart rate was only in the 90s.
I managed to take my temperature during the episode and it came back as 92 degrees. My husband said it couldn't be right and took his and it was 95. (I took my temperature with the same thermometer the next day and it was normal. I am not sure what was going on with it that night.) During this episode I also had the sensation that someone was holding their hand against my throat and this sensation followed into the next day. Again my husband brought me some orange juice and some almond butter. I found I couldn’t swallow the almond butter because my throat felt so tight, so I let it sit against my cheek and dissolve. I felt very nauseous this time as well.
Eventually I was again in the ER and again nothing was found, mostly due to the fact that they were so busy and disorganized that they treated me only for the nausea and disregarded the reason I went in the first place. The next day my neck and throat were still in pain and I went to Nason to possibly get some answers as it was Sunday and I couldn’t make an appointment with a regular doctor yet. They ran more tests, including a thyroid test, and nothing was found.
I have had every test under the sun it seems. My thyroid is fine. My blood sugar is always fine when they take it. I have no idea what is happening to me.
Submitted:
4 Days
Category:
Family Physician-GP
Hello and thankyou for approaching DoctorSpring with your query.
I have gone through your case in detail and I understand your concern.
From all the symptoms you have described we will have to rule out an autoimmune disorder.
Your symptoms are likely to be related to an autoimmune disorder systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown cause and can affect multiple organs resulting in a myriad of symptoms. There are immunologic abnormalities resulting in a production of a number of antinuclear antibodies which is characteristic of this disorder.
Women are usually more frequently affected than men specially in the age group of 20s and 30s. Patient can have periods of remission or it can be chronic.
In some patients the symptoms are mild and aggravated by a particular incident like infection, pregnancy, surgery etc. . In some, there may be a trigger resulting in the symptoms to manifest, in your case pregnancy was the probable trigger.
I would advise you to get the following tests to help with your diagnosis if you have not already done them.
1) Complete Blood Count with ESR
2)Antinuclear antibodies (ANA)
3)Antibodies to double stranded DNA (Anti dsDNA)
Depending on the test results further tests will be carried out.
I hope this has helped. Please feel free to follow up.
Thankyou.