Lots of symptoms, No diagnosis!

[cincoscotts]

Need help!  For the past 2 years I have had numerous unexplained symptoms.  My biggest complaint is the night sweats - I only sweat from my neck to my sternum and the tops/backs of my shoulders.  This will wake me up every night - when I wake I notice that my hands are quite swollen, I have some chest pain and a lot of pressure behind my eyes.  I will take my blood pressure and it will be high 160's over 100's.  I've had numerous tests and nobody can figure out what's wrong.  I'm getting desperate for an answer as it is affecting my work/home life.  My other symptoms are:  head pain on left side, dizziness, fatigue, pale stool, loose stool, eye pain, chest pain, joint pain, lack of appetite, facial numbness, burning sensations, frequent UTI's, restless legs at night, twitching at night, metallic taste in mouth, burning on end of tongue and many more.  Help!!!!!

[M_Pounce]

Hi Cin - what you just said makes me more sure it's a pheo.... some done release epi & nor-epi regularly and basically have to be caught in an "active" phase.

"Currently, the most reliable tests for pheos use imaging technologies, such as CT (computed tomoraphy) or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), which can be time-consuming and expensive and which do not necessarily identify a tumor as a pheo. Confirmatory biochemical tests are required for accurate diagnosis. Several biochemical tests are available which measure blood and urine levels of the adrenal gland hormones. But in many cases these tests are not accurate, because some pheos do not release the adrenal hormones regularly or in significant amounts. These tests depend upon catching the pheo during an active episode."

"Symptoms. Pheochromocytomas are usually benign. They may occur in or near the adrenal glands, or anywhere along the sympathetic nervous system roughly from the base of the skull to the bladder. The most apparent symptom, caused by the increased secretion of epinephrine and norepinephrine, is hypertension, or high blood pressure. This hypertension may be constant or intermittent. Attacks may occur every few months or several times daily, and typically last less than five minutes. Physical and emotional stresses can initiate an attack. During severe attacks, patients may experience headache, sweating, apprehension, palpation, tremor, pallor or flushing of the face, nausea and vomiting, pain in the chest and abdomen. There may be a tingling, burning, or crawling sensation on the skin of arms or legs or urinary difficulties."

(http://www.vhl.org/newsletter/vhl1999/99dapheo.php)  

24 hour urine collection is normally what is done, but again - it's easy to miss if it's not active, and it's not occuring daily.

Have they CT'd or MRI'd your entire abdomen?

[cincoscotts]

Thanks for your response - I have had a lot of bloodwork.  Other than being slightly deficient in Vit D I've been told everything else looks good.  The gastro doc is looking into the celiac possibility as both the endoscopy and colonoscopy looked good.  My neuro doc says my MRI's look fine other than a small lesion/lipoma that he keeps track of on my brain stem (have had this since 2005 and it has never changed on all the subsequent MRI's).  I've had the sleep study and do not have an apnea only a slight hypopnea.  I've been to a Rheum doc and don't have RA or Lupus that they can tell.  I've had CT of lungs and abdomen, ultrasound of pelvis and legs, EKG's, Echo of heart, chest x-ray, Holter monitor, fecal fat and 24hr urine collection - all have come back fine.  I see a Therapist and take Zoloft because my Primary thinks it's all anxiety related but I KNOW my body and I KNOW that there is something going on that is not anxiety.  The trigger for all this happened 2 years ago - I was driving to work one morning when I suddenly became dizzy and felt like I was going to pass out and then I got this crushing pain in my chest.  I thought I was having a heart attack, the paramedics came for me and gave me nitro but everything checked out in the ER.  Ever since then I have been having issues - I began calling them episodes because one minute I would be fine and the next I wouldn't.  It has been very frustrating!  I just want answers.

[M_Pounce]

Pheochromocytoma - it's a tumor of the adrenal gland that produces too much epinephrine.

Primary clinical manifestations:
Palpitations with subsequent anxiety
Hypertension
Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating)
Hypermetabolism (fast metabolism)
Hyperglycemia (high Blood glucose)

All of your symptoms can be related to too much epi & nor-epi in your body.   Get thee back to the doctors and request they look for this now. :)  Good luck and keep us posted!