Hello. I will try not to make this too lengthy. (this new med has me not sleeping, got 3hours in last nite)

About 4 years ago my facial lips would blow up and get numb, hands, feet and vaginal lips would go numb too. I would get quarter to nickel size welts down my spine, break out in hives, itch, pulling pain in my hip like something was trying to rip it off, and once in awhile get a sharp shooting pain straight through me. Back then I was'nt a complainer and just dealt with it. Till that shooting pain got so bad and dropped me. Started to have trouble going 'P'. After plenty of antibiotics, doctors, and tests they said I had interstitial cystitis (IC). Doc told me,"Like fertilizer..10-12-10 your leaking out the -12- phorspous".
Anyway, my insurance dropped me and 3-cocktail bomb treatments later and a bill for $3800, I was all better. (HA)

This last May I started feeling like crap. Working 12-14 hours a day, tired all the time, going numb (just about EVERYEHERE!), neck and spine pain, stiffness in ankles, feet aching,back, and sereve lower abominal pains.
The next morning I got my monthly and started getting "labor pains"!!!(again..it useto happen 4 years ago too) Thats the only way to describe it. (I have a 16 year old child). First I don't know if I have to throw-up or go #2. Then the pain get worst like contractions! I roll around on my bed in the fetal position breathing, then when it eases up, I think I have to throw-up and go to the bathroom again. Then contractions again! It'll usually go on for about 3-4 hours. Last time it happen, my husband came home towards the end of it (when I can't walk, legs like jelly) and took me to the ER. Bloodwork and CT tests good, and sent me home w/pain meds!!!!!!! Are'nt hospitals freaking great!!! (they tick me off!!!...BAD!)

Since May they checked for endometious. Claims I'm healthily down there. But I have'nt been able to get pregnant since I was 20, (the idiot did'nt know how to put a condom on and it broke! Lovely uh?) But I did get a beautiful daughter out of it!!
I have had MRIs on my brain, lumbar and pelvis. Show'd cysts on ovaries and massive amount of fluid on balsa sag (uterus). Says unremarkable mri of brain, mild chronic pan sinusitis.
Doc says bloodwork is fine. But I got copies and my RA rheumatoid factor results say positive flagged high. CBC bloodwork my gran% and MCH is flagged high and my lymph% and RDW is flagged low.

Anyways, my spine and ankles kill me the worst!!!!!!!! The meds seem to have taken the crawling feeling out of the back of my head, and it does'nt feel like a fly or something is crawling around my arm and legs. If I drive or sit to long my butt, private and thighs still go numb (fun uh?).
My spine and neck kill me!!!! These new meds make me feel 'high'. I have only been on them for about 4-5 days and I can't take it anymore!!! It's like a never-ending high and my spine feels like a stick or a big hose. It feels like a can grip it! If I could I'd rip it the hell out and be done with it!!!
The doctor claim I have fibromyalgia....I've been on sites for it and the pressure points on me don't add up. I pain in different spots (some are the same).
I have to get back to work! I'm going under fast!!! I work at a dairy in the warehouse. Its all heavy lifting, unloading trucks, keeping the floor running with supplies and putting up orders for the next day. Its a very fast pace. I tried going back about a month ago and could'nt do it! I lasted a week in a half though! My feet felt like they were gone and I was walking an two nubs. My spine pain was so bad, I was running around 'stoned' from taking too many meds to try and get relief...it did'nt help.
Anyone out there with similar symptoms and know what they have? I have to find a new doctor or something! I can't take it anymore.
Nice talking to you, or rather THANKS for listening.
LuJazz

It really doesn't sound like many of the fibro posts that I have read.
extreme fatigue, skin/touch sensitivity, all over aches and pains, flu type feelings and the specific tender points are usual for FM.

So your spinal MRI showed no problems there?
no degeneration or anything?

I would definitely get some other opinions and have the MRI films read/looked at by another tech or the new drs.
sometimes things get missed--
and sounds like you blood work wasn't followed up on properly.

Hi Lujazz,

A few things in your post jumped out at me. I used to have that insect crawling on legs feeling a lot. It went away after I began having vitamin B12 replacement therapy. If you aren't using methylcobalamin, the active form of B12, I would get the lozenges and try that for two months to see if you feel an improvement. I would get the 5mg ones and use at least three a day. (I use more like five a day, myself.)

The fact you work in a dairy could mean that the methane... is it methane from the manure, I forget, but it could mean you are sensitive to that as a toxin. I lived in hydrogen sulfide for a few years, in very low amounts, but it made my feet feel the way you describe.

Again, B12 injections, and later methylcobalamin, provided some recovery.

If your problems are related to nerves and a need for B12, then the sooner you start providing your body some more B12 to use, the better you will be able to recover. The longer a deficiency is left untreated the less recovery can take place, though the methylcobalamin does a really amazing job.

In terms of back pain, I had a lot of that before I had B12 replacement. But, recently when I had huge back pain again and I was already using B12, I found that magnesium helped. Magnesium is nearly as hard to get from the food we eat as B12 is, so you might get a bottle of that and try taking it each time you eat anything with calcium in it. Magnesium does a thing with calcium which is necessary in order for our bodies to properly use calcium. When we have an imbalance with too much calcium it can increase pain for us.

And, the other thing I discovered was that when I began eating more protein I had less pain. When that happened I did some research on the internet and found some studies that had been done that showed protein is needed to heal pain. The study said something more complicated than that, but basically that's about what it boiled down to.

I hope you get to feeling better.

If you try any of these things you should keep notes so that you can review them and see what kinds of changes you had. It's impossible to remember correctly. Notes are essential.

Karen

Do any of the symptoms here look familiar?

(this is from the valley fever survivor web site)


Flu-like symptoms

Malaise/chronic exhaustion
Fever

Muscle aches
Shortness of breath/wheezing

Muscle stiffness
Coughing (can be chronic and severe)

Joint pain
Coughing up blood

Joint swelling
Chest pain/pressure

Joint stiffness
Night sweats/Chills

Leg/ankle/foot swelling
Headaches

Photosensitivity
Nausea

*Vision problems/blindness
Loss of appetite

**Neck stiffness
Weight loss

**Inability to focus and concentrate
Rash

**Foot drop or partial paralysis
Burning sensations at various parts of the body (foot, joints, etc.)

**Severe head pain (as opposed to a normal headache)

*This can be a sign of lesions in the eye, but also a side effect of Vfend (voriconazole), a medication use to treat Valley Fever.
**These could be a sign of meningitis from Valley Fever and may therefore require aggressive antifungal therapy.

Valley Fever is often misdiagnosed as cancer, tuberculosis, or bacterial pneumonia. It can disseminate (spread) throughout the body. The fact that the symptoms of Valley Fever vary so greatly is a part of the reason misdiagnosis is so common. In addition, the lack of training and lack of accurate information available to doctors is a contributing factor in the frequent misdiagnoses of this devastating illness.

The disease can cause hydrocephalus (harmful pressure from spinal fluid on the brain), verrucose ulcers (wartlike outgrowths on the surface of organs and skin), arthralgias (joint pains), myalgias (muscle pains), otomycosis (fungal infection of the external ear canal), hypercalcemia (extra calcium in the blood that can be fatal) and other terrible conditions.

The simplest, fastest description of Valley Fever is that the disease can create lesions or inflammation in nearly any part of the body. Lytic lesions involve rupture of cell membranes, keratotic ulcers are scaly and wartlike, and the disease can create lesions on other internal organs or manifest in visible, hideous skin conditions.

Depending on where Valley Fever causes inflammation within the body, a patient may experience arthritis, conjunctivitis, endocarditis, meningitis, myocarditis, osteomyelitis, pleuritis, tenosynovitis, vasculitis or a variety of other painful or life-threatening conditions. Meningitis, the swelling of the brain's lining, is universally regarded as the most deadly and dangerous form of Valley Fever. It occurs frequently in patients who have the disease spread from their lung.

Valley Fever usually starts in the lungs and can disseminate to virtually any part of the body such as:

skin lymph nodes
bones eyes
joints heart
spine kidney
brain thyroid
liver gastrointestinal tract
testicles genitourinary tract
prostate

Valley Fever in Animals

The above symptoms also apply to Valley Fever in animals. Since animals can't express that they have these problems as clearly as humans can, pet owners should watch their animals for any of these symptoms.

The most prevalent signs of veterinary Valley Fever are respiratory distress, coughing, fever, malaise, loss of appetite, lameness, and unexplained personality changes. These could be particularly significant if the animal was exposed to soil in an endemic area.

Valley Fever disseminates very often in infected dogs. Many more cats are being diagnosed than in the past. All mammals are subject to contracting Valley Fever. However, to date, there have not been any reported cases of Valley Fever in birds.

If your pet shows some of these symptoms and lives in or has visited an endemic area, we recommend you contact your veterinarian and suggest the possibility of a coccidioidomycosis infection. This could save your pet's life.


You are a little north of the usual area for Valley Fever but if people in northern Utah can get it, (recent paper showing spread to Dinosaur Natl Monument)

I am sure you can. Do you visit dusty places? Or have you been in any dust storms or been near construction sites that didn't take dust control measures (wetting down dust)

Have you travelled to the southern part of your state (lower elevation?) or gotten severe flu like symptoms, ever? Or have you ever driven through or flown over/stopped over in southern Arizona, New Mexico, California (especially the Central Valley) or Texas, especially Phoenix, AZ.?


You should look up the symptoms and if it looks appropriate ask your doctor to give you a "cocci comp fix" test for coccidioidomycosis. If you have it, you would want to see a good infectious disease doc ASAP. I am sure that there are doctors in New Mexico who are familiar with it. You may have to look a little. If you have disseminated VF, its important to get treatment.

I am not a doctor and basically, just saw that you are in the Southwest, so please DON'T take what I am saying as medical advice.. do your own research and get tested for it. It can cause a huge variety of symptoms and despite the mainstream propaganda, with current treatments and certainly with someone never even having realized they had it.. (it often just seems like the flu..then it goes away) However, it doesn't ever actually go away, so people who have had it always need to be on the lookout for it coming back. When it comes back, its often as a result of some kind of stressor.

For some people it can be very dangerous. (people who are immunocompromised)