Please help!!
So, I’ve been having some health issues over the last 12 months. I am 19 years old, male, in good shape, I’ve been running for the last 5 years, not overweight, non smoking, rarely drinking (a few times a year), blood pressure normal, cholesterol normal (a bit too low actually), I eat healthy, I do not do drugs… But I am in a lot of stress for the last few years.
I do not know what is related and what’s not, so I’ll just start at the beginning. It all started last November with palpitations and a feeling that my heart is skipping some beats. Because of that, I’ve gone to the ER a few times, they checked my blood, blood pressure, sugar, blood, they did an EKG and an ultrasound of my heart. Everything was okay. That happened like 3 times in about a month or so. After that I started having pain in my abdomen, my stool was soft and yellow, my skin was itchy. My doctor advised to check my liver, as ALT was slightly (really just slightly) increased (And the test was done a few days after a party where I drank a little bit too much). They did an ultrasound of the whole abdomen, and everything was as it is supposed to be. Also, my ALT went back to normal. But the problems persisted.
Then came the New year. I consumed a bit of THC (my first and last try), and I drank a couple of shots. About a week later, my head started to hurt, like a lot. I had blurry vision on my right eye and I felt my left arm and leg are numb (I could move, squeeze and everything, I just didn’t feel it right). I also felt dizzy and had vertigo. So, I went to the ER again. Again they checked for everything, they found nothing, everything was okay (except my temperature was 37 degrees celsius). They told me it should stop, but it didn’t. I went back to the ER, same story. Those problems persisted for 3 weeks. In the mean time, they’ve also sent me to the ophthalmologist. Again, they did all the tests, including visual range. Everything okay. Cause of my problems: unknown. But they did not scan my head.
After that, the neurological problems stopped, but my abdominal pain persisted. Again, they sent me to ultrasound, this time, they fount a 1cm of focal steatosis on my liver (Ultrasound with contrast.) They told me that is not the reason of my problems, and that is basically nothing to worry about.
The time went on, my finals were getting closer. Luckily, I had no symptoms during those final months of gymnasium (preparatory high school).
Then, in the summer of 2018, symptoms came back. This time, it was in a camp, 45 degrees outside, we were binge drinking. The next day, I woke up with a headache, palpitations and vertigo. I thought it’ll pass, but it didn’t. Symptoms lasted for a week. My heart was racing like 100-120 bpm. When I came back to my home country I went to the neurologist and cardiologist.
Cardiologist did an EKG, stress test, Holter EKG (24 hour EKG), ultrasound… He said, I only have sinus tachycardia.
Neurologist told me to do an MRI and to test my electrical impulses. On MRI they found a small Rathke cyst (pituitary gland). It was a coincidental find, they said, as it is present in up to 30% of the population and does not cause any symptoms. So, my MRI scan is okay, and a few days after that, I went on a vacation to Asia.
In Asia, headaches occurred again, this time in the back of my head, like a pressure on the back of my head. It happened every day, mostly in the evenings. On the day 10, I started vomiting, my headaches became worse, my heart was racing again, I was dizzy, my temperature was 39 degrees celsius, I also had a chest pain. I went to the hospital, where they discovered I just got a norovirus. I was in the hospital for a few days when they told me my pulse is too fast so they prescribed me Concor. A few days later I flew back to my home country. I was at home for one day when I went back to the ER because of chest pain, vertigo, severe headache… They decided to hospitalise me to diagnose me. I was on neurological department. They did another MRI, lumbar puncture, EEG, full blood examination, they checked my pituitary and hormones… They did not found the cause of my symptoms, so they sent me home (+, they told me to stop taking Concor because my pulse gets to low (like 30 bpm).
After that, I went to the ER for 12 times in 8 days, because I had chest pain and I also developed pain in my left arm). They checked my heart for 12 times, they examined everything. But nothing was wrong with me. They also found, that the reason of my pain in chest in hiatal hernia. In the mean time, they were recording a 5 day EKG, they found a few episodes of a few second long atrial tachycardia - again, something that is totally non dangerous and totally not causing any of my symptoms. They said it is stress related.
That’s when I went to the psychiatrist as I could not even sleep anymore. Diagnosis: panic attacks and severe anxiety disorder. I got Xanax for the first couple of days and paroxetine and Sulpiride. Panic attacks stopped after a day of taking Sulpiride, headaches stopped after a week, and my heart “calmed down” after about 20 days. I am now taking paroxetine only, and in the last month and a half I run 10km per day. There are no sighs of atrial tachycardia anymore, symptoms are (mostly) gone. Sometimes, I still feel pain in my chest though, and I still feel pain in my arm sometimes. I also had one or two headaches in the last month and a half. I also had itchy skin again (maybe because it is cold?) My heart rate is now between 45 and 55 in rest. My cardiologist said that nothing is wrong with me, so did my neurologist. They told me it was just stress. A lot of stress.
Is this possible? Could all of this really be just in my head? And sorry for this being very long and confusing, but I really don’t know what is true and what isn’t. Thank you.
and yes, i believe psychotherapy could definitely help.