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Avatar universal

I hope someone can help me

Hi! I am so scared right now, and I really don't know what to do. On June 9 (tomorrow will be three weeks), I woke up with a headache and a ringing in my ears. I thought I would feel better after I ate, but I just felt worse. I got a very bad dizzy spell, so I went back to sleep, and slept on and off for three or four days. During that time, I woke up only to eat or take a shower and then went right back to sleep. I was awake for less than an hour at a time. In the three weeks since this situation occurred, these are my symptoms: constant ringing in my ears, dark circles under my eyes. I have to comment on these dark circles. They are like nothing I've ever seen. My neighbor gasped when she saw me, that's how bad they are. The ER nurse said it looks like I have black eyes. They're black, purple, red...they're unbelievable. okay, back to my symptoms. ringing in ears, black eye looking dark circles, exhaustion, mental confusion, dizziness, thirst, jerks in all different parts of my body (when I say jerks, it's kind of like contractions, but different. I've had muscle contractions or spasms before, but nothing like this). I don't have medical insurance, so I was hoping whatever it was would just go away, but it didn't. I went to the emergency room Wednesday, and the doctor did blood tests, a cat scan, and an EKG. At that point I was just praying that it was something treatable, and not too serious. There was no question that he would find something. Well, he didn't find anything. He said all the tests came back normal. Blood work was all normal. I honestly don't even know how that's possible. There IS something wrong with me. It is not getting better. He referred me to an internist, but like I said, I have no medical insurance. Can someone PLEASE tell me what this could be?? What could be wrong with me? I am really starting to get scared. What should I do? Thank you for any help.
Best Answer
2143641 tn?1396678143
maybe the terms I used were too dramatic. even when you have migraine or headache there's something affecting your nervous system that doesn't mean it's a disease.

when you google parts of the body you'll always find the diseases related with that part of the body.

so far your symptoms seem to lead to some allergic reaction and maybe Sinusitis. maybe something viral, some sort of a flu.

I don't know how the muscle spasms could be related with that but you said you had them also before. they could be due to many different causes.

neither you, me or Dr. House could come to conclusions without further tests.

Like I said there is no reason to believe that your problem will get worse, although it is giving you a pretty bad time and is affecting your lifestyle heavily. You could wait it out maybe it will regress spontaneously but it could take from 3 to 6 months or even a year.

If it is within your range of expenses you should consult a Specialist, Allergologist, Immunologist, at least he can clarify some of your doubts.

good luck!
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2143641 tn?1396678143
are you sure you didn't have any symptoms before? it happened all of a sudden one day from the other?

what did you do the day/weeks before? have you been to crowed places, eaten something unusual. where do you live?

do you have a copy of the blood tests are you sure there was nothing out of range?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank you so much for responding to my post. I hope you can help me. I have been fairly calm about all of this until this morning. It just struck me how scared I am, and I don't know what to do. I know that something is wrong, and it is not getting better. I do not have a copy of the blood tests. All I know is the doctor told me everything came back normal. I don't know what to do now. If I go to the doctor he referred me to, it will be very expensive to run a lot of tests, and as I said I don't have insurance to pay for it. It's been three weeks now. If it were going to get better, wouldn't it have started to improve by now?
Helpful - 0
2143641 tn?1396678143
first thing you need to realize is that it is very difficult to tell what your problem is if not impossible, only from the few hints we got.

it is not a medical emergency, black eyes and the other symptoms won't kill you. there is no particular reason to believe that it is a life threatening condition and/or it could get worse than it is now.

I would say that you have a Immunological problem, from an infection or allergy. something affecting your central nervous system too and giving you those black circles under the eyes.

that's why you should try to remember if anything unusual happened to you before the symptoms appeared, even weeks before.

Immune problems are difficult to diagnose and to be treated.  

it is perfectly possible that CBC was normal even if you had an infection/immune reaction going on. viral infections can be spot only for a short period of time then the WBC would go back to normal.

If you have no medical insurance and low budget there isn't much you could do, maybe if you had to spend money rather try to consult a specialist instead of GP. Immunologist for example. he'll have you do blood tests but there's a possibility that he'll come up with nothing.

are you sure you don't have any other symptoms? runny nose, bladder/bowel symptoms? urinary tract infections? you should check your renal function too.  

were you given the flu shot last year or recently?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Gio, first let me tell you how much I appreciate you helping me. I can't thank you enough. I had quit smoking a month prior to this illness hitting, and was using electronic cigarettes. The doctor told me any nicotine poisoning or other reaction to that would be out of my system at this point, so he felt that it had nothing to do with that. Do you think it's possible that I had some sort of allergic reaction to the ingredients? I haven't used the electronic cigarette since this happened (three weeks). Is it possible these symptoms are being caused by that even though I haven't used it for three weeks? Is there something that can be done to treat this? Again, thank you so much for helping me.
Helpful - 0
2143641 tn?1396678143
you're welcome!

Not only it is unlikely that there was some allergenic ingredient in the electronic cigarettes but I don't think that an allergy alone could give you all those symptoms.

I've read that black circled eyes are caused by allergies but maybe there's a mixed problem infectious and immunological because there's too much going on with dizziness, confusion, spasms, ringing in ears. it seems like something is disturbing the nervous system, the cranial nerves or sinuses .

one treatment that could be attempted "blindly" are steroids. I don't know whether you can have them without prescription but you should always consult a Doctor.

I don't know what else to say your symptoms are too generic and the tests you've taken so far are negative. The only thing I can think of is to consult a Immunologist! if possible get a copy of the tests they did at the Hospital.

if you think something is affecting you cognitive/mental status take it easy,  slow down a bit, you can't do things as confidently as you did before, it's a bit like driving when you're drunk.

keep a log of the things you do, the symptoms etc.

Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Please if I could ask you one more thing. What happens if I don't treat this at all? If I do nothing about it? Will the symptoms eventually go away? Will my health return on its own?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I googled "central nervous system disorders" and everything I found sounds pretty serious. I wish I knew what to do
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Avatar universal
Again, thank you SO much! You have given me some very useful information and helped me so much! I didn't know what to do, but you have given me some solutions. I so appreciate it. God bless you
Helpful - 0
2143641 tn?1396678143
thank u :)
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