Persistant "illness"

[jackstraw186]

Greetings,

I'm a 35 year old male.  For the last month, I've had this odd,  ill defined "sickness" that won't go away.  At first, my chest felt heavy and tight, I could not breath freely, and then I noticed that my sinuses may be slightly inflamed due to the fact that I have a crusty nose and slight sinus symptoms such as mild frontal headache and cheek ache,  and waking up with a slightly sore throat.   However there is little need to use tissue for my nose, and I'm not sneezing or coughing and I'm not really stuffed up at all.  

But these symptoms persist after a month:  a very slight sinus issue, light headed spells, slightly enlarged lymph nodes, slight headache in the front, and a tight chest and not being able to breath in right.   I also have slight need to clear my throat when I wake up in the morning.    I also feel somewhat run down like I am about to get full blown sick but nothing ever comes on and develops.  

I did see my doctor 3 weeks ago, who examined me and did the usual basic tests but nothing showed up.

It may be worth mentioning that I have within the past few  years had an ill-defined tooth/jaw pain issue related to a previous filling in my molar, which flares up occasionally and responds somewhat to amoxicillin   (it is not an abscess, perhaps it's related to food getting trapped above my filling, or something else related to my filling).    In past episodes, I had slight fever and swollen neck lymph nodes and severe jaw pain, from these flare ups.  

I work from home, so I've not had any particular environment changes or anything like that.  The one and only thing I've been exposed to differently is that I got a new cat back in April, 6 months ago, and I've never lived with a cat before now.  But remember my "illness" only started a month ago.

[David Tinkelman, M.D.]

It is hard to know what is going on, but clearly it is something in your respiratory tract, both lower (lungs) and upper (sinuses).  It is highly likely that you have infection, causing both upper and lower respiratory disease- likely to be either acute bronchitis or asthma. the presence of infection can frequently give clinical expression to asthma, in a person who’s asthma may heretofore have been silent.  It is also possible that the tightness in your chest is a sign of that.

The sore throat offers another clue and, if the enlarged lymph nodes are in your neck, would suggest the possibility of a strep throat or given your feeling of being “run down” the possibility of Mononucleosis.

What I can say with certainty is that the most important feature of your illness is that it has persisted for a month or more. This is unlike most viral respiratory infections in that most acute respiratory infections would have begun to resolve by one month.  What is likely to not to resolve within a month's time would be diseases such as Mono or any of a variety of non-infectious diseases.  

What ever is going on  in your body may not have been evident on examination by your doctor and almost certainly will be now.  I suggest that you arrange for another visit with your doctor.  He will want to examine you carefully, with special attention to your lungs and will probably elect to order a blood count, chest X-ray, a throat culture and possibly testing for Mononucleosis.

I wish I could be more specific but your symptoms are a bit non-specific and there are too many diagnostic possibilities for me to speculate.

The one thing you shouldn’t do is to just decide to live with your current symptoms. Please go visit your Doctor.

Good luck

[jackstraw186]

I also feel unusually sleepy or sedated, like I have when I have a fever, yet I don't have a fever.