Hi-
I'm 28 years old and I believe this is the worst thing I've ever been through. In February (26th to be exact) I was at work one day and it hit me. I got sweaty, my heart started to race and I felt like I was going to throw up. I got home and was 100% sure I had a stomach virus. After 3 days of digestive issues and no appetite I felt like something was wrong. My only symptoms at this time were extreme nausea, no appetite, and mild anxiety. I began to sleep 14+ hours a day and started having worse nausea. I went to the hospital where they thought I was pregnant. I knew I wasn't but let them insist on a blood test and urine test to make sure. I was sent home with some zofran and told my white blood count was like one point above normal so nothing major, no other tests. Now it is march 10th and still no appetite and a very nervous nauseous feeling. I was losing a little weight from not eating but thought this was going to stop soon. My husband thought I was crazy and chalked it up to anxiety and depression. I knew deep down that these anxious feelings were caused by something being wrong health wise not just anxiety alone. I had a full blown panic attack one day. First one ever. For no apparent reason. In the next few days my mom called me from Florida and told me my dad was in the hospital and had a ruptured aneurysm and it didn't look good. I think I switched off the sick feeling and got in the car and drive to Florida to see what was going to happen. I arrived and after many surgeries and 40 days in the ICU my dad walked out of the hospital. During this time I was there my only symptoms were digestive issues and nausea. I ate a little just to have energy and I slept a little when I wasn't by my dads side in the hospital. I stayed in Florida until July 1st. So between April 20th when my dad got out of the hospital and July I had some extreme symptoms. I developed a fast heart rate upon waking in the mornings along with extreme nausea. Every single night I could fall asleep fine but as soon as I opened one eye it was game over every morning. I had digestive issues all along this time as well. I developed a weird feeling like a hair was in my throat but no white covering on tonsils no swollen throat no pain. I began to feel extremely hot and had a slight weird red rash on my cheeks. Make up hid it well though. During this time I was in Florida I was supposed to be helping my dad recover and spend time with my family as I had been away for 4 years and only saw them for a few holidays and random short trips. I felt useless I couldn't do anything. I didn't even want to walk the dog with my dad around the little block. I felt like I would pass out and fall. I had extreme pain in my thighs. My organs felt huge. I continued to have IBS like issues. Mucus in stool, constipation and soft stools alternating. I took pepto bismol way too much. I also took a lot of zofran and looking back that could have caused the constipation. Between may and July I made some trips to doctors looking for answers. I started at a walk in clinic asking them to test me for h pylori. No go with that test. I had the dr feel my body he didn't feel a single thing swollen. I was disappointed with this visit. Blood work all fine within normal limits. Next I went to a GI doctor. Because of the pain on my right side he wanted to send me for a hida scan of the gallbladder but I had no other symptoms of those issues. I never went for the scan. He gave me some type of omprezole for my issues. No help from this place either. Next up was a psychiatrist I maybe thought with the stress of what happened to my dad I was going crazy and I had permanent anxiety. I was told I had something happen to me as a child and given some anti depressants in the 30 minute consultation. Thanks but no. I knew this was not the issue. I never took the anti depressant but I did take the hydroxyzine they prescribed. It helped with some nausea and helped me sleep a little. But they only gave me 7 pills. Next stop was the hospital again. More blood tests. All within normal range except maybe the liver enzymes which showed a few points above normal so again no one thought anything of it. My heart rate was elevated when I went in so they took a chest X-ray. It was normal. They thought maybe a blood clot because of the weird pains I was having but ruled it out with a d dimer blood test or something of that sort. Again no answers. At this time I was going insane with this feeling of doom. I asked the ER doctor if it could all be caused by my impacted wisdom tooth. They said no and took a look at it anyway. Gave me some ridiculous strong antibiotic because I could have slight pericornitis (where the gum grows over the tooth a little) it didn't hurt and I thought maybe this was not my issue but it was worth a try. The antibiotic ruined me. Amox clav I think was the name. I think it contributed to the rash on my cheeks. Then more symptoms started to pop up. My left cheek felt tingly. Again I went into panic mode. Such anxiety I had these months. I googled and googled all day everyday. I self diagnosed myself with cancers, brain tumors, heart problems, and other insane illnesses. Looking back I think my salivary glands were infected. As mono attacks them. So still no diagnosis. I was putting off driving back to Texas (home) because of the long drive and thinking I would never make it alone. I honestly thought I'd end up dead on the road if I went. I had some slight headaches around my ears behind them. Specific points on my forehead hurt to touch. Very weird feeling. My joints hurt, my muscles hurt. Everyday was a new symptom. I felt so hot. I couldn't deal with the heat of Florida summer the humidity the 90+ degree heat. I felt like I was going to keel over. The brain fog was ridiculous. I couldn't watch a 30 minute show on tv even. Had no intention of watching it or following along, nothing. Eventually I sucked it up and drove home. I got back and had gained my appetite back a little but not much. At this point I had lost 50lbs. I needed to lose the weight but not this way. I was 240 when this all started and had some bad eating habits and not exercising and working too much made too many excuses for me to not be healthy. Besides the point...I made an appointment with a GP and another therapist. I was still feeling off. And had some weird pains in my body. I think I was over sensitive to every little thing I felt in my body. A hangnail = cancer at this point. I was losing it. The GP did a head to toe exam and sent me on my way with some herbal bs. No blood work because I had told her I had 3 blood tests March, may and June and they were all fine. So waste of her time and mine she decided. I saw the therapist. He tried to help me think positive and I told him all my doom and gloom feelings of something being wrong. If anything he was the most helpful because I can be negative sometimes and he taught me to think differently in everyday situations at work and so on. So I got something out of it. Right after seeing the GP I developed a real physical symptom. I was elated. I finally had something I could show someone. My tonsils were covered with white patches. Except no pain. I told my husband to take a look. He's a doctor by the way LOL. This whole time he told me I'm anxious. He didn't once think it could be any disease I asked him about or anything else. He told me I had cryptic tonsils. And to leave them alone. Ok so the white stuff went away. My left tonsil blew up. Still no pain. It felt like I was swallowing it. I started to salivate a lot more than usual and he said it was maybe an infection but didn't want to give me antibiotics. Could be viral. So fast forward to now. September 20-whatever day it is. My left tonsil has just started to shrink. And the one and only lymph node that popped up under the tonsil is getting smaller. When that one did pop up I was convinced I had lymphoma. It was there from about the first week of August till now. I would say as of today my symptoms are mild mild nausea but not everyday. And I have gained some appetite back. I can eat 3 times a day now and eat crap I shouldn't. I have pain in my chest in one weird spot on and off. Seems to flare with stress. I still get a little fast heart rate sometimes but not noticeable like before where I could see my chest jumping basically. Or imagined it because of the anxiety. I have had more normal days lately than bad ones. I just went to Vegas and walked miles and miles up and down the strip and feel fine. I'm still trying to take it easy though. My husband wants to go to the gym. I don't think I'm ready. He thinks I'm still depressed and anxious for whatever reason. He never once went along with what I was trying to say about any illness. He blew off the tonsil as nothing to worry about. I mean I trust him. He looked at all my blood tests and if he felt something seriously wrong in my body he would have told me obviously. The feeling of my spleen and liver being huge though is something I can't describe and maybe he didn't feel it at the exact times I felt like it was enlarged. My theory is that this mono has been acting up based on stress. The thought of losing my dad put me over obviously during the time from march till July being home with him was just an unhealthy time for me. I was so stressed and worried. I didn't allow myself anytime to recover because I also didn't know what was wrong with me. I tried so hard to do things. It got to the point I wouldn't even go to the grocery store with my mom. I wouldn't get out of the car to go to the redbox stand even for fear of collapsing on the ground. I didn't tell my parents how truly bad I felt during this time. I didn't need them worrying about me on top of the medical bills and my dad's health. I tried to play it off and even downplayed the symptoms to my husband because I was getting no where with any test or had nothing physical to show for this. In all I think this has been a long virus. Whether it's ebv or cmv I don't know. I will go back to the doctor eventually and suggest a igm igv whatever antibody test one day and see if it shows I've ever had the hsv type viruses these are. But until then I think I'm ok now. The tonsil still scares me but it's shrinking and I don't feel like it's going down my throat anymore. Obviously I'd go to the doctor if this doesn't resolve in another few weeks or whatnot. But I can relate to all of these posts where people have said they have felt this way for months. For me, 7.5 months is where I'm at. I could have written all of these posts describing all of these symptoms. I hope I don't relapse. I'm trying to keep stress levels low. Work part time. Rest more than anything even when I want to go out and do stuff I'm choosing to stay home and hang out for now. I truly feel like I've lost part of my life from this it was awful and I'm glad I'm feeling a little better each day but to think about it I have to measure it in how far I've come. Not day by day. I feel better this month than last. This week has been better than last week etc. it's been a long process and I feel like I'm finally healing.
I know this was long but it honestly is just a short account t of how this whole ordeal went ....
