Ive been ill most of the last year , im wondering if anyone has experienced the !

Ive been ill most of the last year , im wondering if anyone has experienced the same as me ?

well basically for the last year Ive been ill on and off ! first i started to become exhausted really quickly and felt fatigued all the time and still am ,then i collapsed with heart palpitations this has happened 3 times with palpitations and now I'm fainting more than 3/4 times a month !overall i get severe headaches where it feels like pressure in my head ,im tired contantly , my joints and muscles ache plus last week i was paralised ! my legs become very heavy alot of the time i have aches and pains all over on and off ,ive suffered alot of stomache pain! ijust dnt know whats going on ive had tilt test ,all heart tests ,im on beta blockers for palpitations and solpadol for my pain but they are reffering me to neurology now ! oh i have also had most blood work done and they cant find anything there! im just getting so dwn as i dnt know whats going on and its scary some of the things that have happened !every morning its a surprise to me on how im going to be that day !somebody hel

I can completely understand your frustration. You know you are ill, that there is something wrong, but the doctors cannot or have not found anything, yet they are doing all the right tests. I am not a doctor, but you are presenting the same symptoms as someone suffering from ME (often confused with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which is different). It is notoriously hard to diagnose and even though they should not be, many doctors are still skeptical about it. However, it is now recognised as a real neurological disease. It is hideously complex and as I have said, difficult to diagnose. There are many variying degrees of this illness and it can vary greatly from day to day, week to week, even hour to hour.

The usual way of diagnosis is ruling out other conditions first, then matching a set of crieteria set out for diagnosis. I suggest you look on the net and research it yourself, as every case is very different, and when you know more about it, and the many symptoms associated with it, it may help towards a diagnosis. You must not self diagnose though, keep on with your doctor, until you get a diagnosis and other conditions have been excluded. Also, you will realise that you are not alone. Not knowing what is wrong with you only increases your stress and anxiety, which with ME is often a problem anyway, as your body and brain do not regulate the amount of stress hormones correctly and can produce anxiety and depression as part of the illness, not as a by product. I recommend you visit the webiste for the me association (think it is meassociation.org) and action for me (I think that is afme.something or other) once you get diagnosed, if that is what you have, there is an excellent site called a hummingbirds guide. It is heavy going though, so I would visit the other sites first.

There is still much controversy over this illness, and even more so with the distinction between ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I did not get a diagnosis for 14 years, being diagnosed has not changed my illness and there is not a huge amount they can do, but understanding it has helped a lot and has given me a better understanding of how to pace myself. Early diagnosis is essential with ME/CFS.

I hope that the neurologist you see is ME friendly, if not, please ask to be referred to someone who is, I saw a neurologist for four years who refused to believe it existed, and kept telling me I had MS, then telling me I didn't and then telling me I did. In the end, I asked to be referred to someone else who diagnosed me on the spot by taking into consideration all my tests, MRIs and a detailed medical history.

The good news is that you are still fairly early on in the stages of the illness, diagnosis now may not prevent it getting worse, but may mean that you can make an almost full recovery, and certainly that you can learn to manage your lifestyle accordingly. Most people make a good enough recovery to live a mostly normal life, the longer it is left undiagnosed, the worse it tends to get, and the less your chance of recovery. 25% of sufferers are severely affected, some for life.

Incidentally, a tilt test is often a good indication of ME, but then as it is a varying condition, it depends on what is affected on the day. I passed a tilt test with one doctor, and failed it miserably with the next a few months later.

It may not be ME or even CFS, but it does sound remarkably like it. Good luck, and I hope you get a reliable diagnosis soon. God bless x