Hi all

I don’t even know where to start so this might be a long read. My name is Eugene and I’m from South Africa. I’m 30 years young .

About two years ago I had a operation where (pardon the details) I had rectal polyps removed. Everything went fine. It was just inflammatory polyps and nothing to worry about. The surgeon wanted a colonoscopy as a follow up just to make sure there were no other polyps located in the colon. (Colonoscopy was clear).

A few days after the colonoscopy everything went haywire. I had pains in my hands and feet, shocklike sensations throughout my body, burning skins sensations and abdominal pain. Went to my GP and he diagnosed anxiety. Was put on citalopram and alprazolam but it did not help much. So my drama began in 2006. When my symptoms continued, my GP sent me to a specialist physician. He did quite a lot of bloodwork. Everything came back negative. So he said major depression with anxiety. During the whole of 2006 I went to different specialists (neurologist too). Everyone could not find anything wrong and just brushed it off as anxiety.

End of 2006 I started getting terrible stomach pains and a terrible burning sensation over my whole body. The stomach pain started after numerous courses of antibiotics for pelvic pain. (which eventually was diagnosed by a urologist as chronic pelvic pain syndrome. This is gone now…thank goodness). The burning skin also started. It went away after about one month but the stomach pain persisted. So start of 2007 I was referred to a Gastro doc and he did a colonoscopy and gastroscopy. He found chronic gastritis due to H. Pylori infection. Could not finish the antibiotic course as my skin started burning due to the medication. Other than than all was clear. 2007 went by with stomach pain which was now diagnosed as IBS. Burning skin was gone too.

August 2007 I went to my Psychiatrist and asked him if my IBS could be due to my high stress levels. He said definitely and prescriped Paxil to take. Then all hell broke loose. Two days on Paxil and my skin all over my body burned so much that I had to stop the medication. This time the burning skin did not go away. It got so bad that I was hospitalized for a week due to it. Was told it was due to anxiety and was put on Effexor. Effexor made the burning worse. Tried moclobemide. Made the burning worse. My psychiatrist now feels that I have developed a hypersensitivity to antidepressants. I still have burning mostly on my hands and shoulders and face. Sometimes on my feet too. My psychiatrist took me off all medication and my skin felt a bit better. But some days the burning gets so bad that the ONLY thing that helps is 1mg of clonazepam. I have been given Lyrica 150mg to try, but I started it this week. Feels like my skin burning is getting worse. I have been to a neurologist about a month ago. He just said it could be small fibre neuropathy, but seemed to side more with the anxiety diagnoses. He said to try Cymbalta and see him in 6 months if no improvement. I had a CT and MRI of the brain and spine which came back normal.

So basically I have the following definite diagnoses:
- Slight liver enzyme elevations due to fatty liver disease (GI doc says to loose weight. I’m about 20 pounds overweight)

- Been diagnosed with insulin resistance about two weeks ago after a glucose tolerance test. Internist prescribed Metformin 500mg daily. He said I needed to see a nutritionist and get excersise.

- Chronic gastritis due to H. Pylori infection which cannot be eradicated as I’m extremetly hypersensitive to the antibiotics.

I still have skin the burning sensation. I KNOW this is some kind of neurological thing as I saw a dermatologist and he said there was nothing wrong with my skin itself. So what do I do now. My normal GP also starts to think this is neurological.
Could it be due to the fact that I’m pre-diabetic? Could this all just be anxiety. I’m so tired of doctors I don’t feel like going anymore. I just don’t know what to do anymore….and I feel very desperate. Please if anyone could shed some light on this it would be much appreciated.

My current medication is: Lyrica 75mg twice daily (doesn’t seem to help), Clonazepam 0.5 as needed if burning gets very bad. It works great.
If the Lyrica isn’t helping my GP said we could try Neurontin.

Sigh….I just don’t know anymore.