Concussion causing widespread joint/muscle pain, twitching
 

Hi, thank you for taking the time to read this. ANY help would be appreciated. My history is rather muddled! Sorry if its a little long . I have done my best to use paragraphs. I'm a 27 year old male.

In November of 2010 (close to 2 years ago) I sustained a concussion from a punch to my upper left jaw and a kick to the forehead. Starting when I woke up the next day ( I didn't go to the hospital because I didn't realize I had a concussion) I had joint and muscle pain and weakness. I had trembling and shaking. It was bad enough that I had to quit a construction job that I loved.

In Feb. of 2011 i got a head cold and the feeling of fatigue that comes with a cold. It seemed pretty regular except that after the cold passed the feeling of fatigue never went away. Later that year I began to experience symptoms of what turned out to be Ulcerative Colitis. I feel that the physical stress from this concussion brought out the auto-immune disease, but I cant prove it of course.

The problems I was having got a little better (the shaking mostly stopped) and after a couple of months seemed to be stable (but still didn't come even close to going away). Then starting a few months ago (April 2012) I began having attacks where my entire body gets very painful. My heart starts racing and I get short of breath, dizzy, heat sensitivity. Also spasming/twitching on my left side.

After every attack the acute pain subsides, but the chronic pain and shortness of breath and fatigue is always worse than before. At this rate I'll be disabled and on a ventilator in a few years. I always feel like I've just gotten done with an intense workout.

I was concerned that I could have Multiple Sclerosis (this is where the Colitis comes in: I thought that I might have MS because it's an auto-immune disease), but MRIs ordered by my neuro (Dr. Edwards of Empire Neuro in Latham, NY) of my brain and spine revealed nothing wrong. No MS and no herniated disc or anything else that might show in an MRI.

All of my reflexes are normal. I don't have any loss of mobility but more a loss of stamina/endurance.

I have had a minor Lhermittes sign that comes and goes. When I press hard enough on my left limbs I can make tingling shoot into the part of my limb below where I press, especially my left shin area. This abiltity to interact with my nervous system scares me (it started with the attacks in April). What could be causing this, and for it to come about so long after the original injury.

Along with the attacks that began in April, my Colitis flared really bad.

I have horrendous cramps in my groin and sometimes thighs down to my knees. I can't pass a stool and have ED that isn't helped by Cialis.

I don't know anymore what could be autoimmune and what could be injury related. Wouldn't the sudden onset of the joint/muscle pain suggest injury. But all of this seems to be interacting. Weird.

I've had a Lyme panel and an anemia panel done. Both were normal. And a nutritional deficiency wouldn't cause problems on one side, right? My testosterone and blood glucose are normal.When I was taking an OTC B-Complex for awhile it didn't seem to help.

Could it be seizures? I have a friend who has PKD and it sounds alot like that. Not saying that I have PKD because it's quite a rare disease, but maybe I have a seizure disorder in general. Her problems also began with a concussion.

I'm continuing to go to more Dr. appointments but this is taking a while. I've seen five specialists so far and have several more to see, I'm sure. They all tell me it could be anxiety because all my tests are coming back normal. This IS NOT in my head! I'm upset for sure but my anxiety isn't that bad!

Thank you all for your patience reading this!

-Matt