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Complex Medical Question-Need Advice

Hi,

I have been feeling unwell for quite sometime now (about 3 months) and am barely able to function the past few weeks.  It started with horrible abdominal pains 3 months ago (had every test in the book for the stomach and everything came back normal)  I have been dealing with extreme headaches, fatigue, weakness, severe light-headiness, cloudy-headed, general abdominal pains as well as on and off heart palpitations.  Some days it is almost impossible to get out of bed because of all these symptoms.  I was on lexapro for about 5-6 weeks since docs assumed these symptoms were due to stress/anxiety and it did not help at all so I am slowly tapering off each week dropping my dose a bit until I should be completely off the lexapro in the next week.  I have been to an infectious disease doc, endocrinologist, rhematologist, cardiologist for tons of blood work and tests and everything has come back normal.  I have been to a neurologist for my headache symptoms, he put me on proponolol which dropped my blood pressure too low so I went off that medication.   He recently started me on 25 mg of Topomax for severe tension type headaches (migraine variants) which are extremely severe and often last more than 12 hours.  I am generally very healthy!  

I finally went to a specialist for thyroid and he suspects I have a thyroid imbalance although my blood work for thyroid is normal an ultrasound revealed a slightly enlarged thyroid and he started me on some medication as well.

Currently I am on Armour thyroid (low dose), tapering off lexapro, on Topomax (50 mg), taking various vitamins and trying to eat well but I feel absolutely awful.  Do I need to give it time for all these medications to start working to feel better?  Any other advice you could offer?  At this point I feel like I have been to every doctor imaginable and recently visited with a psychologist to see if he has any additional advice but am not getting any better if anything I feel worse.

Thank You!    
2 Responses
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4610897 tn?1393865602
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Thank you for your question.

When a patient describes a constellation of symptoms, which are predominantly constitutional (i.e. fatigue, lightheadedness, confusion) it can be difficult to find a unifying diagnosis, probably because often there isn't one.

A good place to start, in addition to a history and physical, is a CBC (blood counts), renal panel (electrolytes and kidney function), thyroid function. Normal thyroid tests are reassuring.

Also, the individual symptoms should be tried and be tackled if there isn't a unifying diagnosis. For example, treating the headache is an excellent idea to decrease your symptom burden.

I also make sure patients are up to date on age appropriate cancer screening.

I would recommend you ask your physician to make sure you are up to date on age appropriate colon and prostate cancer screening.

I also recommend you continue to take a multidisciplinary approach like you are doing, seeking the help of both physicians and mental health specialists. I would also consider stress reduction techniques like yoga, tai chi, massage etc.

Thank you,
Dr. S
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
results of my blood tests:

TSH:  1.96   range:  .40-4.50
T4:  Free 1.5 range:  0.8-1.8
T3:  Free 3.7 range:  2.3-4.2

Antibodies <20 range:  <20
T3 Reverse:  21 range:  8-25
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