Okay, bare with me. My story started years ago I would guesstimate 10ish or so, started off with minor things I noticed happening like fatigue and some aches and pains here and there....fast forward to today, as the days~weeks & months have went by I have just gotten worse. Today I deal with major fatigue where I feel like I can't even control it anymore, pain in the lower part of my skull/head down into my back between my shoulder blades, I have numbness in my toes a lot also my finger tips, I had an episode of drop foot that lasted for about 3 or 4 weeks, I have experienced a shocking type sensation/noise that runs up my neck through the back of my head, my upper back between my shoulder blades went numb for a week or two, I have weird pains in my head (I don't call them headaches cause they are not like a typical headache) I have had pressure in the head while bending over feels like a balloon blowing up but the most annoying thing I am dealing with right now my dizziness/vertigo or whatever it is where I can't do hardly anything anymore without feeling like I'm off kilter or things are spinning around me or I have to adjust my eyes back to feel normal and the best is when they go completely black for seconds at a time and I have to grab ahold of something and wait to regain my vision. I have voiced my concerns to my Family Doctor and have been told without ruling out much of anything else that I have Fibro....I have a hard time accepting that diagnosis when other things were not ruled out first. I have had one MRI in the last year or so to check for a tumor and this came back normal. I had asked if she thought it was MS my sister in-law works at a clinic where they specialize in MS and said a lot of my symptoms sounded familiar my docs response was we didn't see anything on your MRI well probably not if that is not what you were looking for and not to mention you didn't do one of my spine. My most recent issues that have started in the last couple days is nausea and this weird twitch/pulling feeling in my left eye I can't tell if it is my eyeball or eyelid. Okay so I am just wondering what everyone thinks or any advice you can offer. I go to see my doc again on the 18th of this month and without sounding like a total you know what see if she can send me to a specialist or something cause I am beyond frustrated with this whole thing.....HELP!
Thanks Much! <3
Emmaline, Thanks for your response. I will have to take your advice and get a copy of my MRI/Report. I try and be proactive with this and my health but I feel like most the time I am not being taken seriously and then when I start to push more I feel like I am being to demanding...ugh...it's never ending. Thanks again though I appreciate any advice I can get at this point. As I feel like I have no clue what is going on ;(
Thanks much Abby, I sure hope hanging out here will help me to figure out what is going on...even if it's not Chiari, I think being able to ask questions and get advice from all of you will help me to rule it in or out either way. I look forward to connecting with all of you in the days to come! Thanks again!
I agree that Chiari should be ruled out- you need to know if you have any herniation of cerebellar tonsils below the foramen magnum, or crowding of tissues at the foramen magnum.
Agreed with what the others have said before me. One thing I can put my two cents in on is DO NOT LET ANY DOCTOR BLOW OFF YOUR SYMPTOMS. You know you don't feel good and you're not making it up. I let my PCP tell me for years that it was just a migraine and despite telling him my condition was getting worse, he simply kept telling me to come back when I had a headache. Not too easy when you're hurting so bad, you're getting violently sick. He finally referred me to a neurologist. This guy has a god-complex and refuses to admit my migraines, fatigue, dizziness and memory loss are possibly related to Chiari. I thought he was the end-all cure for me until a friend actually pointed out what my diagnosis actually meant. Imagine that, going to a neuro thinking he's going to solve all your problems and he tells you that you have Chiari but it's "not a big deal". :-\
If you don't like the doctor you end up seeing, see another one. Get second opinions. Get third opinions. That's what I'm in the process of doing right now. Good luck to you friend. And keep us posted!
http://www.nfra.net/Symchart.htm
Hi here is a web site that compares the symptoms between Chiari/ fibro & fatigue/compress spine cord, it may help with the reasons your doc diagnosed fibro
Thanks for all the responses, I am getting a little anxious about my appt. this Wed. with my family doc. but I am in good spirits that something will come of this visit. Thanks again everyone, I will try and keep ya all updated with what is going on from here on out.