Hi, I'm new here
I have suffered from a lot of weird things since an accident back in 1998. I had no idea that they might be related but doctors have been unable to find reasons for all of these things and have all simply dismissed me with apologies. Except for the lower back pain, that has been dismissed with subtle suggestions of the cause being mostly psychological. Which has probably kept me from insisting on HELP. The look in their eyes. In hindsight I should have demanded to be taken seriously but deep down I'm just not a person who enjoys attention. I'd rather be left alone than be subject to scrutiny, which has done me no good. Now I'm 31 years of age and very ready to be taken seriously because I have lost my ability to hold even a part-time job. Existence is physically painful. Emotionally I'm doing fine all things considered but whether or not that will last is hard to say if I have to continue to add another symptom to the list at least once a year
Here's a timelime (each thing is added to the list of problems, no issue mentioned has disappeared again):
1998
Car accident, lower back pain began and increases slowly during all the years to follow
2003
The headaches start
2005
Lower back pain developed to include legs, particularly the left
2006
Pains now include the neck and the area between the shoulder blades (burning, stinging, like bees caught under skin)
2007
The left foot, mostly the heel, is added to the list
2008
(stomach ulcer from NSAID)
2009
Symptoms that resembles Chlamydia (no cause found)
2010
Now both legs are equally affected
2011
Joint aches in arms and knees, legs feel heavy, heavy, heavy
2012
Dizzy spells, loss of sense of space, confusion, stomach cramps, diarrhoea (no cause found)
2013
Flu like symptoms complete with aching skin and fever symptoms (although no fever to measure) every 3 weeks for 4 months until I finally stopped working entirely.
At least once a year since 1998 I have been sitting in my GP's office saying that I am in too much pain to lead a normal life. In the beginning, it was "just" lower back pain, which no amount of physiotherapists, chiropractors, massage therapists and other manual practitioners have been able to anything but relieve for a short while. Over the years there have been so many issues added that just made no sense as they seemed to appear out of the blue and it seems I have tried everything and nothing has worked. I have been held under observation for Bechterew's disease and at some point even for depression for which I accepted treatment mostly to prove I wasn't crazy. I have been examined for parasites, hernias, cancer, STD's, deficiency diseases, arthritis and numerous other things - all tests have come back negative.
I've had 3 MRI's done. One in 2008, one in 2011 and then one in Dec 2013. The latter revealed that the cysts had increased in size and had eroded even more bone away. The cysts are in S1 and S2 and haven't been mentioned to me till Jan 2014.
Could all or at least some of these things be the related to the cysts?
I'm still waiting to hear what they'll recommend for me in terms of surgery or no surgery but I am definitely going to demand to see a neurosurgeon - hopefully an expert in Tarlov cysts.