35M, 5'10'', 188lbs, white, 10mg citalopram daily for anxiety, do not drink or smoke, symptoms began in February 2023
Hello, I am a healthy, fit 35 year old male, that before the year of 2023 was an avid gym go-er, ate healthy, and lived generally a healthy lifestyle. My occupation is EEG Technologist which I have been doing for almost 8 years. This job requires me to be in awkward positions for long periods of time and/or sitting for very long periods of time (sometimes only getting up a handful of times for some quick stretches within a 12 hour shift). This occupation has led me to have chronic back and neck pain, but not to any point where it limited anything in my life.
In 01/2023, I banged my head in my garage, I did not think I had even hit my head hard at all, but I started to have symptoms of a concussion and ended up in the ER where I was diagnosed with a concussion based off of symptoms I described only. CT scan was normal. I recovered rather quickly from the concussion and was back to myself working out feeling good.
In 02/2023, still dealing with my everyday back and neck pain, I decided to go see a chiropractor in my town. I had seen many chiropractors in the past for adjustments and it was always quick and painless, never experienced any bad side effects. At this chiropractic visit however, he did a full body adjustment including cervical manipulation, and he also did "dry needle therapy" where he put acupuncture-like needles in muscles and then attached electro stim to the needles. This burned so bad. It was very painful. He reassured me its normal to hurt but after about 5 min I had him remove everything. Immediately following the visit, my head didn't feel right, I was lightheaded and just a bit confused.
That night I experienced insomnia for the first time in my life. I slept maybe 1 hour. It felt like my brain was burning. The insomnia continued everyday for an entire month following the chiropractic visit. In addition, my pain in my neck and back became excruciating. It felt like I had been in a car accident. I went to the ER on multiple occasions thinking that the chiropractor must have caused damage that I needed to seek medical attention immediately for. The ER did an MRI brain MRA brain and MRI cervical and MRA neck ALL without contrast. All imaging was normal.
My symptoms continued to get worse: sleep was disrupted all night every night, pressure in head/eyes 24/7, When I would wake up from my short bouts of sleep I would have very high BP 180/112 (during the day I am 120/80), sometimes shaking in sleep, pain in back the worst but began feeling pain in hips, knees, calf, back pain so bad I would feel pain in my stomach, extreme fatigue 24/7. Also pain in back of my head.
I started to see a PCP who did blood work, checked vitamin levels, check testosterone levels, checked for pheochromocytoma, checked thyroid, inflammatory markers, lyme disease. Everything came back normal. The only thing that was abnormal was my lyme test was reactive for 41 KD (IGG) band. But the doctor said that I would need 2 strains in addition to this one being reactive for it to be a positive lyme test, so he said it is negative. In addition to my PCP, I saw a neurologist who did a 5 min assessment of "pull my hands push my hands" and told me he feels neuro is not the best team to treat my symptoms and dismissed me. I followed up with my cardiologist because I was experiencing an increase in chest pain and palpatations. I had a long bout of A-fib in 2021 which is when I began seeing this cardiologist, but all my tests were normal and he felt no medication was necessary at this time. He said my heart is in good condition and even though I was waking up with high BP in the middle of the night he did not want to start me on BP meds. I just did an in lab sleep study which I am waiting on the results (will receive next week).
I am going on 7 months of feeling like I am going to die any day now. I can't do much in life now. I wake up throughout the night with pressure/lightheaded feeling in my head over and over. It takes me a few hours in the morning to feel good enough to start doing things. There were 3 days I thought I felt good enough to try a light exercise and it caused my insomnia to return full force with high BP upon waking up after 1 hour of sleep. If the sleep study comes back saying I in fact do not have sleep apnea I am in big trouble as no doctor has any clue whats wrong with me.
I have come up with some theories of my own, some are a bit "out there" but I have to consider everything:
1. sleep apnea
2. Nerve damage/dysautonomia triggered by chiropractor
3. Post concussion syndrome
4. CSF leak (left ear itches everyday for years, sometimes feel wetness that is not wax when scratch)
5. I take 10mg of citalopram daily, perhaps the manufacturer changed something in the medication and it has effected me. When I refilled my prescription it does line up with when symptoms begain
6. Lyme disease
7. Nocturnal seizures
8. Cyst on top of head. Seems superficial but perhaps it is larger than I know and causing symptoms.