Posted by Adam on August 7, 2001, at 18:02:55
In reply to I may need help...., posted by Adam on July 13, 2001, at 7:14:58
Well, it's been a long haul...
Early last month I developed some really strange and distressing physical symptoms, and those have persisted, though they have come and gone in a rather mystifying manner.
I still have no idea what the problem is. One thing I can say is, after getting to know my new primary care doc, we're getting along well, and he does take my complaints seriously. I must admit, when I first saw him, I was terribly worried, and preemptively defensive, given some very disappointing experiences I had had with other doctors prior to seeing him.
Anyway, I've been tested for the two candidates we both agreed should at least be ruled out: Lyme disease and MS. I've had two ELISAs done, both negative. Now, the accuracy of the Lyme ELISA is overblown, but the chance, at this point, that I fit into the catagory of those who are infected but show up negative on serological tests is admittedly low. So that's a dead end for the time being. An MRI of my brain looks normal, so no obvious signs of brain abnormalities of any kind.
I have been able to discern only a slight pattern in all of this: Sleep seems to help, and after a period of intense physical activity, I'm in very bad shape. Towards the end of July, I went on another hiking trip, after nearly a week of feeling well, and no indication from my doctor that anything was obviously wrong. I think, at that point, I was willing to believe I maybe only had "a bug" and that it had left me.
Well, just as after the first hiking trip at the beginning of the month, my symptoms worsened steadily and dramatically during the week that followed.
Like I said, sleep seems to help. In fact, it is the only thing that helps. Unfortunately, sleep is something I can get little of, and my ability to get any seems to be worse of late than it has been in the past. Ever since I started selegiline, my sleep cycle has been a mess. My body doesn't know what time it is anymore. I don't dream, normally. I think I have to acknowledge that what I have been dealing with for about two years now is a drug-induced sleep disorder, and the effects of that may be catching up with me.
It seems nowadays, lack of sleep, coupled with a couple days of strenuous exercise, results in a truly bizarre cluster of symptoms, including hot flashes, palpitations, shortness of breath, weakness, achyness in joints, dizzyness, blurred vision, and an odd sort of "numbness" (really more of a heavyness or sensation like pressure) around the area of the nasal bridge, orbits, and down the left side of my face.
Oh, and another thing: I'm now having episodes of hypertension and random tachycardia. On my last two doctor's visits, both about five days apart, my b.p. was 150/90 and 140/78, my pulse between 90 and 100. I'm normally around 110-120/70, with a resting pulse around 60, and have been that way for years. Consumption of some of the "forbidden foods", in the past, rarely caused my b.p. or anything else to move an inch. On both days, I had, for lunch, food with some American cheese in it (sandwiches), but the idea that the cheese could be the culprit would suprise me greatly, since it's never been a problem before. Spontaneous hypertension?
My doctor says my body is now behaving like my catecholamines are all out of whack. The conclusion we are both reluctantly arriving at is something about the way my body interacts with selegiline may have changed, and exhaustion may exacerbate things. One possiblility is a benign kind of endocrine tumor (the name of which escapes me). Cells from such tumors can secrete high amounts of catecholamine neurotransmitters, like adrenaline. Dysregulation of these catecholamines might explain some of my mysterious symptoms, the increased sleep disturbance, the hightened or paradoxical pressor response, increased pulse, etc.
Another weird thing: I've been taking diphenhydramine for sleep,. because popping 25mg of Benadryl before I go to bed is about the only way I can get a full-night's sleep now. Despite the spacey feeling the antihistamine gives me the next day, in general, I feel better for it. Suprisingly good, in fact. When I lay off, I feel worse physically, though more alert.
The doc says the only way I can be tested for the presence of the aforementioned tumor (or, for that matter, any real problem with selegiline) is to taper off of it completely and wait a good month to conduct the other tests. On selegiline, the levels of catecholamines in my system are too abnormal to get meaningful results. So it looks like I will soon be stopping selegiline, at least for a while, to xamine this problem more thoroughly. I am in a lengthy process of omission, at this point, with no certainty about the outcome.
To make matters a bit worse, my pdoc, while willing to wait for the physiological testing to continue, is rather convinced that my symptoms are psychological in origin, due to the proximity in time of onset and an emotionally confusing encounter with another woman. I simply cannot, myself, take this hypothesis seriously until I have exhausted all other options. I can only say I know myself, my body and my mind. My physical symptoms are real, and as for that weekend, well, I make way too big a deal of things sometimes. That's clear enough from my prior posts in this thread. No reason to assume I'm harboring some deep-seated psychic conflict. I just need to chill out. Things with my g.f. are great, especially after some frank discussion of the salient issues of the past couple months, my job is fine, my relationship with my parents good, etc.
If I'm troubled, I think its because I just don't feel right at all, much of the time, and I'm afraid this mysterious problem has put the only antidepressant treatment that has ever worked for me in doubt, vis-a-vis my physical health. I will just have to wait and see how things play out.
poster:Adam
thread:69963
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010804/msgs/74028.html