Hello all,

My name is Brandon 5'8'' 160 lbs, athletic and seemingly healthy 30 yr old, and I suffer from pretty sever health anxiety (hypochondriasis). It takes up so much of my thoughts that it is hard to focus on anything else in life for any extended period of time. I'm just not in a good place right now.

My most recent story goes as follows:

I woke up a couple of weeks ago with a mild fever, and had a headache for about 2 days. After rest and plenty of liquids, I was feeling better then woke up last Friday feeling like I had put in a full body work-out and went to my GP. It said it seemed like a classic virus and I would be over it in a few days. Well, the 2nd day was worse, and I lost a lot of stregnth in my grip and felt fatigue. I went to an urgent care the next day and talked to a doc who just agreed with my family guy.

Thankfully the soreness went away, and I went to a follow up on Wed. I had been feeling pretty weak in my arms and legs, but there wasn't actually any stregnth lost. Still, my doctor said it's probably viral and ordered a couple of blood test for my peice of mind. Well, my hemoglobins came back perfect, but I got a call the next day that I had an abnormal CPK reading (just over 1,000) . Immediate Panic! My doctor called later on saying he still thinks it's viral and would like to retest in a week, and run a couple of other tests. I'm thinking it will be another cpk test and maybe a muscle biopsy.

So over the last couple of days I still have some feelings of weakness, especially in my forearms, and upper thighs. I am extremely nervous and have had little appietate since I started thinking obsessively last weekend. I am actually down about 8-9 pounds.

Yesterday started out as the best day so far so I decided to test myself a little. I did a couple of sprints in the backyard, shoveled, and went swimming with my kids. I came home feeling great. I took a bath, and when I got out, my arms gave in again. They have been feeling funny ever since. They feel like a weak, kind of cold, semi-tingling, and over all uncomfortable feeling. There is no question that they are still stronger that they were a week ago though. I was almost terrified to go to sleep, and I thought I might wake up without any feeling in my arms. I did wake up this morning with my right arm asleep a little but that's pretty common for me.

The nice thing is I have not had a fever or headache in a week, when usually without caffeine I succumb to one by noon.

Obviously, I am thinking there is a possibility that I have some sort of debilitating cancer, ALS, MD, or some muscle wasting disease they have not discovered that is going to kill me in the next couple of weeks. Maybe it's my heart not delivering enough oxygen to the rest of my body because of a leaky valve. Maybe a tumor on my spine somewhere! I know that viruses can take their sweet time leaving their hosts the way they found them, but it can't be that simple for me.

The last thing that I'll mention that is with each doctor's visit, they keep addressing the fact that I have a compulsive disorder of some king and want to put me on Celexa, which I have been on before and I remember it working well, so for everyone who realizes that I am a bit cooky I am starting that right after this is over. It's just that I remember one of the side effects of the drug was that it casued my arms to tingle! (5 yrs ago)

Well, For anyone that has actually taken the time to read this, I want to extend my thanks, and if you have some feedback for me I would love to read it. I see a lot of activity on this board, and will keep you updated as my situation progresses.

I am going to play some softball today to try to get my mind off of this for a while!