Bloods came back normal but really unwell

[Azayleah]

Since July I have been dealing with a number of undiagnosed symptoms which include:

• Numbness/weakness/tingling in left arm and right side of face
• Sudden onset of feeling like loads of small needles are pricking into the palms of my hands, the upper back of my legs, my buttocks and my spine
• Burning, itching and hot/cold sensation in skin (arms and scalp)
• Rash in left elbow crease
• Suddenly feeling very cold when it’s not cold
• Tension headaches and pain in right side of neck
• Waves of dizziness and nausea
• Black parts and white mucus in stools, smells like vomit
• Frequently bloated and stomach pain, very gassy
• Everyday at around 4pm become very suddenly exhausted and generally dizzy and feeling unwell
• Heart palpitations and sudden panic when any symptoms happen


Current symptoms:

• constantly feel unbalanced/dizzy, drunk like
• Pressure in right side of head, random pains and face tingles and goes numb on that side
• Constantly lethargic and exhausted, sleeping a lot more than usual
• Random waves of sickness, intense dizziness and then panic
• Eyesight feels strange keep seeing colours and lights
• Bottom half of legs feel weak and uncomfortable (restless legs syndrome?)

I have gone to the doctors a few times regarding these symptoms, mainly the abnormal sensations as they scared me and was told its due to my anxiety (but I have never experienced this before). However, despite cognitive behavioural therapy the symptoms persisted and began to change regularly (e.g. numbness would turn to needle prick sensations, and headaches would get worse and better) and new symptoms would appear. I began to realise that the episodes would not be triggered by anything, I could be doing something I enjoy and not feel anxious at all then suddenly a wave of dizziness and sickness would hit me, arm would go numb and my heart would feel very irregular causing me to then panic. I've not found anything at all that can make it better or worse, the only common factor is that it seemed to keep happening at 4pm daily and would last hours.It was almost as if my body ran out of energy and fuel at the same time everyday as I would become completely drained and drowsy.
I had a blood test last week and was very convinced that they would find I had some sort of vitamin deficiency or something simple like that. However, bloods came back all normal (although they didn't tell me what they tested for, they just said they ran a lot of tests) and now I'm back to square one. Doctor started talking about anxiety treatment which I'm open to, but I'm not at all convinced that this is caused by anxiety. He said next port of call is an MRI to rule out anything like MS or tumours etc but if that comes back normal he will put it down to 'medically unexplainable neuropathy'.
On Saturday I had another intense episode and haven't felt right since, now I'm starting to feel quite depressed and hopeless. I'm only 20 years old and I feel completely exhausted, unbalanced, dizzy, my muscles feel weak and I have constant strain and pressure in the right side of my head. Every week I seem to develop a new symptom which only makes me worry more and reminds me that this isn't going away. Sometimes the symptoms are so intense in my skull that I become scared that I will start having seizures or collapse as I've been given no treatment at all and it seems to just get progressively worse. I'm supposed to be starting my last year of uni but my eyesight is completely altered and i just can't focus on anything. I'm in pain, feel sick and worried everyday of my life and I'm scared to put myself in any slightly stressful situations in case of another attack. I've dealt with anxiety for years and this feels like something else, I'm convinced I have some form of nerve damage or autoimmune disease but the doctors just aren't taking me seriously because of my age.
I've lost hope now and feel really emotional everyday. I can't do the things I used to do anymore and I know it s going to effect my university. What steps can I take next? I need to get to the root cause of this as I feel absolutely awful all the time. Do I request to see a neurologist?

[Paxiled]

If your anxiety is causing this, you should be thinking a lot of very anxious thoughts about all sorts of things.  To cause all of this it would have to be one huge anxiety problem and anxiety is first a disease of thinking, although nobody knows the cause of it.  Now, if you have been suffering anxiety you should get treatment for it, and if the CBD didn't work try a different therapist.  If this is being caused by anxiety, though, you'd probably need medication from a psychiatrist, but one never assumes physiological symptoms are caused by anxiety unless everything else is successfully ruled out.  A neurologist might be of help, might not, it could be all sorts of things if it's not anxiety.  By the way, you should have been given a copy of your labs -- nowadays these are most often posted online by your medical practice with a portal you sign into.  But my opinion of what you're going through is, you're reporting a whole lot of things going on that would scare anyone, so unless something very traumatic happened such as rape or abuse or the like, again, this is a lot of stuff.  Bottom line is, when your docs can't find anything, find better docs.  

[Azayleah]

This is exactly what I've been thinking. I've suffered with anxiety for a while but have had no extremely traumatic events happen that should be causing it to have gotten this bad. The symptoms definitely bring on my anxiety but I've noticed that they do not feel linked to it when they first happen. I think because my blood tests were normal and I'm young that they just want to put it down to anxiety. I will do the MRI when the appointment comes through but I may have to switch doctors as I cant live like this