Undiagnosed Illness.. This is a CHALLENGE..

[whatswrongwith_me]

Hi everyone, I am ADHD and can get sidetracked but I'll try to keep it short and to the point.

I use chewing tobacco. I don't use chewing tobacco while at work. I work 3-4 days a week, 12 hour shifts.I drink rarely, and don't use illegal drugs. I am literally quitting tobacco today..

January 2020, had a virus. Bad cough, short of breath sore throat, negative test for flu and strep. Obviously, we now believe that to be covid. I continued to have shortness of breath until fall of 2020, but not to the degree as while I was ill.

January-April 2020, had blood tests and an xray, trying to figure out why my lung capacity had diminished. Everything looked good except for high blood pressure. Something I had never had an issue with in the past. The high blood pressure would last as long as the shortness of breath, around the fall of 2020.

April 2020, I began to itch, from my neck down. It was sporadic but pretty miserable. My PCP physician had decided to retire by this point, he was 84 years old (no joke) and retired because of covid. Can't blame him. But the NP I had seen for the past 2 visits just told me to take Zyrtec everyday. He didn't seem too concerned with it

May 2020, I went to another NP at the same practice. By this time, I was taking Zyrtec everyday and mostly not having issues from the itching, I had started to welt from scratching if I wasn't on Zyrtec. The new NP, we'll call her Jane, wanted me to get more lab work done because of the itching. WBC came back very high (16.4 when it shouldv'e been between a 3-10. Don't remember the units, I haven't looked at the paperwork in a while). I went to the office and received and antibiotic shot, as well as a week of what she said was the strongest oral antibiotics she could prescribe. Came in a week later for blood work and it came back clear. I would have more blood work performed a couple weeks afterwards to make sure it stayed away.

I don't remember the dates as well after this but between May-October 2020 this is what happened. Jane sent me for a CT scan to try and figure out the breathing problem. The CT scan came back clear. Jane sent me for a breathing test, can't remember the actual name of this test right now. This test also came back good, even though the tests left me feeling exhausted. I also started to experience some abdomen pains. After Jane felt around my abdomen, pressing on my appendix causing TERRIBLE pain, as well as some pains on my right side, right below my ribs, she thought could be a hernia. She sent me for another CT scan, was able to get it scheduled for the next day. When I went in for my CT scan, my appendix, or that area, was still hurting pretty bad from her feeling around the day before. I knew we were finally gonna find something.

I went back to Jane a few days later for the results and to ask about some other issues that I had yet to ask about, sleep paralysis, insomnia and the inability to wake up. The sleep paralysis seemed to go away about the same time as the HBP and breathing issues. The insomnia and hard time waking up still plagues me. When talking to Jane about the CT scan results, she just seemed disgusted. She really wouldn't even talk about the results. I assume they were also negative. It was at this point it seemed like she no longer believed me. This was the last time I would see Jane, around October 2020, until last week but that's a different story. She referred me to a psychologist for the sleep paralysis and a sleep study for the insomnia and inability to wake up.

At this time, I lost interest in figuring out what was wrong with me. I don't know if it was because I respected Jane a lot and to have her seem like she had given up on me. It was devastating. I went to the psychologist and for the sleep study. I told the sleep study Dr about my condition, have the study done, slept make 1.5 hours all night during that study and they said I had Apnea. This irritated me more. I told the dr I had came for Insomnia and Inability to wake up and she just said 'well, you have apnea. 80 percent of patients with untreated apnea die younger, blah blah.' I still question the validity of the test because I had a HORRIBLE night there but I opted to lose weight instead of getting the machine. I'm still having sleep problems. The psychologist diagnosed me as adhd, a diagnosis I had already received a decade ago, I had stopped taking adderall because of lack of insurance.

The psychologist sent me to a psychiatrist for adderall and noted that I did have some anxiety but otherwise said I was mentally healthy, which I tend to agree with him. And that's where we are now. I have good(ish) days and I have bad days. Most say "it's because of the adderall" but my sleep has been awful for a lot longer than I have been back on adderall. Everyday, I notice things like muscle weakness, easily fatigued, muscles seem like they get sore much easier. On bad days, the symptoms are worse, I also experience abdominal pains and working in a factory environment, during this HOT and humid summer, I am getting highly agitated when I get hot. This has been happening all summer. I am just now quitting tobacco, like today, so I have not attributed this to withdrawals. I have worked at the same place for 6 years. I never dipped at work. It has been just as hot every year and I never experienced the amount of irritation I do now. Even if the irritation is withdrawals, the sleep issues and weaknesses are still there.

Friday, I was terminated from my job due to attendance. I have never even had write up. I was a good employee. Yes, I thought the company could do much more for it's employees but I did my job and more. I don't blame the company for letting me go. I can't get the doctors to believe anything is wrong with me, how can I expect my employer to blindly believe I am sick forever? They had helped me out on many occasions. Attendance was NOT an issue until the sleeping issues started.

I now have no income, no insurance, no diagnosis. I am probably starting another job soon, not sure how long until I have insurance, but if I can't find a remedy for this, I WILL lose this job as well, and much quicker. How longer does a new hire last that cant make it to work? I am in desperate need of help.

I will indicate my symptoms below. Things I experience on bad day. I know I'll miss some.

I personally think that I have developed a new allergy to something that I consume nearly everyday, I just can't figure out what it is. Allergist can't do standard allergy test because of the dermatographia.

Working in the heat today, helping my parents with their landscaping business, about killed me.

Insomnia doesn't seem as bad as it did 6 months ago, waking up is still hard. Some nights, I can wake up on my first alarm after 6 hours of sleep. One night last week, I went to sleep at 9:30pm. Randomly woke up at 4am, 1.5hrs before my alarm (waking up before my alarm is really rare for me). I went back to sleep. Woke up at 6pm. I had slept for 20 hours! I had missed work. Heck, my 12 hour shift was almost over!

What is wrong with me? I can NOT believe nicotine is doing this to me. I dip less now than I did a few years ago. I'm quitting it regardless.

[Paxiled]

This is very confusing.  First of all, a nurse practitioner isn't a doctor, and even a GP can't usually truly read a CT scan.  You have to see a specialist about that.  When you get one, there is a radiologist report, and then the specialist diagnoses based on that and your symptoms.  You can't get a CT scan and not see the results and discuss them with your doctor, but of course, you apparently weren't seeing a doctor but a nurse practitioner, if I get you right, and they are not highly trained and can only diagnose very simple things.  Even a GP, a fully trained doc, can't diagnose anything complicated and will send you to a specialist who is more highly trained.  In my opinion, you haven't had any diagnosis yet from a qualified practitioner, you have gotten tests but not the results of those tests, you have almost been taken by one of the most corrupt industries in the medical business, the sleep study racket, which is there to sell you a CPAP machine and the lifetime of things you need to buy to maintain one so you have to really really careful who you see because most centers are known to diagnose pretty much everyone with apnea.  In your case, you say you have insomnia, but report the opposite, which is you sleep too much.  In sum, you are having very difficult problems to diagnose and yet you seem to be relying on docs and not docs who can't possibly do that.  You need much better docs.  I'm glad you stopped the chewing tobacco, but doubt that's your problem.  If you do have ADHD, that can cause a lot of problems, but that too is a very much over diagnosed problem and also a very much underdiagnosed problem, meaning people without it are being told they have it and people who do have it are being told they don't.  No idea what's going on with you, but something is.  And you could have long covid.  Anyone check for blood clots in your lungs?  Anyone tell you why you had that pain in your side?  Doesn't sound like it.  Friend, again, you need some real medical treatment.  Peace.