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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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I Don't Know What To Do. One More Doctor That

I don't know what to do. One more doctor that thinks it's all in my head. Standard tests never have worked to diagnose what ails me. Case in point: I've been a PT/Fitness Professional for over 25 years and my niche is working with people that are recovering from disease treatments or dealing with pain and immobility from diseases such as Fibromyalsia. I do a lot of research and read a lot of journals. While researching, I realized that I needed to look into the possibility that I had Celiac Sprue. The blood test was negative. It took feeling better on a Gluten free diet and repeatedly demanding a biopsy to find that I did indeed have Celiac Disease. My entire medical history reads like that. Normal blood tests, nothing found on scans, until I end up in surgery having something removed. So far, that includes tonsils, uterus, both ovaries (separate surgeries when the "pain in my head" turned out to be from 4.5cm and 6cm cysts), appendix, and gall bladder. The only reason they found the first cyst was because I begged the CT tech to look a little lower while he scanned my abdomen.
My temperature has always been below 98, my heart rate has always been below 60, my blood pressure has always been 90/58 or lower. My father and grandfather were the same. Medications never work like they're supposed to: Morphine does nothing but give me a headache, pills for pain don't do anything but make me constipated and depressed, but Benadryl knocks me out for 12-16 hours.

I've been diagnosed with a laundry list of things:

Anorexia/Bulemia (33 years and I didn't beat it until I got off of all of the medication)

Celiac Sprue

Hypothyroidism

Fibromyalsia

IBS

Bipolar I Disorder

ADHD

Asthma

Etc, etc, etc

I've always had nausea and pain in my lower abdomen but it has gotten much worse. In the last 7 weeks I have lost 12 lbs. I have to use phenergen or zofran to get anything down and, more often than not, vomit later anyway. Hours later, what I ate in the morning comes back up. I don't get feverish very often, but when I do, they're ALWAYS over 103. 2 months ago, I started alternating between chills/cold sweats and a temp of 100/101. Now it occurs all day, every day, back and forth. I get shortness of breath from walking to the bathroom and it raises my heartrate (which is currently 110 sitting on my rear) to 130-150bpm. My bp is 130/80, which everyone says is great. I don't feel great, I feel wretched. The last few days, it's harder to breathe and water makes me feel overly full. I've got pain that feels like a lightning bolt down my spine and I've started with a headache that keeps getting worse. I've always had a high pain tolerance, but I HURT. More than the Fibromyalsia flare ups and arthritis have ever hurt.

I went to my GP, who ordered the standard blood tests that all came back normal (except the anion gap). She said I was dehydrated. Sunday, I broke down and went to the ER. The doc said I didn't need fluids and took a CT scan of my abdomen. Told me it was fine and proceeded to tell me how his mother felt "off" and it turned out to be depression. I even went to an oncologist (check out the stuff that can kill you first) because my great-grandmother died very, very quickly from "female cancer" and my grandmother and mother each had a radical hysterectomy when problems started. He didn't even examine me, just told me my blood work was normal and ordered tests for HIV, Hepatitis and inflammation. Said he'd refill my nausea medication and order a scan, and did neither. When I went forthe bloodwork, my bp dropped to 70/30, but I was told that's normal. My gastroenterologist says she can see me in a month but doesn't know why because the notes from the ER say that I'm fine. He was the idiot that TOLD me to get in to the gastroenterologist asap.

I've gone from exercising every day, going to school (I'm an artist), starting my own fitness program, running my jewelry business and doing the Mom thing with the 4 kids still at home, to napping so I can shower. Everything was finally going well, I was happy, until this. Depression wasn't an issue lately, until today.

What am I supposed to do? How can I be proactive when the only people that can help, won't? Why is it so impossible to find someone that will listen and not just pass me off to be some other doctor's problem? I've been told it's all in my head or that maybe I'm looking for attention. Why, on earth, would I want this kind of attention? I avoid doctors for as long as possible for that very reason. They say there's nothing, until something big enough for them to see shows up.

Am I supposed to sit around and wait until they deem me ill enough to treat? What happens if, by then, it's too late to fix it?
Sat, 7 Nov 2015
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I Don't Know What To Do. One More Doctor That