I have a problem, and may possibly need an alternate diagnosis. I am really frustrated and tired at this point. After 17 years of chronic pain and degenerative symptoms, I was diagnosed with Chronic Myofascial Pain (CMP) and possible "nerve damage" last year (whatever that means - "nerve damage"?). This was when I was working full-time and had health insurance. I am now a full-time college student with no insurance. I never found out where this suspected "nerve damage" was, so the only diagnosis I have is CMP. I have all of the following symptoms and more, getting progressively worse since I was around 12 years old:

-extremely stiff neck with very limited movement, for 17 YEARS
-constant but migrating pain in my upper back, shoulders, and chest muscles (sometimes it is on the right, sometimes the left). This is NOT "burning" pain, or like pin pricks or needles, it is acute "STABBING" pain, sometimes feeling as if it is deep in the bone itself, I don't know how else to describe it.
-severe difficulty sleeping because of stabbing pains in back
-migraines (headaches with nausea and dizziness), severe light sensitivity
-chronic "frozen shoulder"
-sciatica
-chronic attacks of what one Dr. called hyperesthesia (a feeling like all of my hair follicles are being rubbed the wrong way, extremely sensitive to anything touching me, or even a breeze against my skin)
-extreme muscle weakness in my arms and legs
-inability to grip a pencil tightly enough to write legibly (I tested negative for carpal tunnel, but I knew that wasn't the problem, anyways. Pfffft.)
-sudden muscle spasms and severe twitches, causing me to drop things, knock things over, and sometimes to become temporarily disoriented (this is mortifying, I am only 30 years old!)
-short term memory loss becoming progressively worse, I am often going into different rooms of the house and have no recollection of why I am there or what I was looking for, as if I was senile.
-a general...fogginess? I was always an A student when I was younger, in the top 1% of the U.S. on all standardized tests, in honors classes, started college at 15, etc., but I feel as if my IQ has dropped significantly. I have trouble focusing on more than one thing at once, and remembering the simplest words, whereas I used to be like a dictionary.
-very poor judgement of distances (I walk into things even in my own apartment, despite the fact that they have been in the same spot for years, and I had a really hard time in driver's school, eventually giving up on it altogether).
-shaking/twitching while my body is at rest. My hands shake pretty badly, and I spill things WAY too often.
-slurring/stuttering/stumbling over my words, whereas I used to be very eloquent.
-narcolepsy...? (uncontrollable sleepiness, nodding off despite trying desperately to fight it off, blacking out at inappropriate times. It is like I can't get a deep enough breath of air, and I can't get enough oxygen to my brain all of a sudden)
-my feet swell up and turn purple when I'm on them for more than a few minutes (probably unrelated, and this is even worse when I'm menstruating, so that I can barely walk at all without help)
-when I'm sitting for too long, my hip bones, tail bone, and thigh bones start to ache (as opposed to my muscles aching, it is more like I'm actually feeling the bones ache)

Possible "nerve damage" causes?:

-I was X-rayed and diagnosed with scoliosis, an extreme curvature of the spine, when I was 12. I was told that I may need to wear a metal brace for the rest of my life. After seeing a chiropractor and being in traction every day after school for 1 year, new X-rays showed the curvature to be minimal. However, the pain in my neck remained.

-In 8th grade I was hit in the upper back, right between 2 vertebrae, by a baseball traveling at a very high speed. It knocked the wind out of me for several minutes, and I was in severe stabbing pain, but so embarrassed that I refused to call attention to myself. I sent myself home early afterwards and my mother put ice on it. Probably not it, but I note this because while the rest of the pain migrates, this is a spot that has never NOT been in pain.

-After a work injury 5 years ago (cervical strain), I had X-rays that showed nothing except for that miniscule curve in my spine, and the fact that my neck curves backwards into my skull (which is to say, it curves forward). The Dr. did not seem to think this was a big deal, though. But it certainly looks really weird.


I have not been able to get a single doctor to refer me to a neurologist, except to test for carpal tunnel because of the weakness in my hands (although I tried to explain that I was pretty sure this was connected to the pain in my cervical spine, NOTHING to do with my wrists). Does anyone have any advice?? And can anyone point me in the right direction?? The CMP and "nerve damage" are vague, but before that all my many doctors could come up with were depression (and I can not tell you how depressing THAT is!) or hypothyroidism (but my thyroid levels have been normal for 10 years, and I was just tested again a week ago)... And although I know I have all the symptoms of Lyme disease, I live in California (I used to spend summers in New Jersey swampland as a kid and can remember getting ticks on my clothing, but I can't remember ever being bitten by any, and it seems like I'd remember that, I was so afraid of them!). How can I convince a doctor that I need something other than X-rays for my back?? (I can't believe they keep wanting to give me x-rays and just leaving it at that, as if I'm coming in with a broken arm or something...). I live in a small town, so I'm beginning to worry that broken bones are the only thing they know how to diagnose or treat? But I've only seen general practitioners...

Oh, and the only thing I've found that seems to help with the pain at all is acupuncture, oddly enough. I just can't afford to do it more than once every few months, and it only helps for a few days, then starts to wear off and all the pain is back again.

Thanks for any advice anyone can give me. It is so hard to talk to doctors, they only want to know about one symptom per visit and treat it independently of everything else...