A Complicated Medical Problem, Part 2

Yesterday I shared with you the complex past medical history of a reader I am calling ***. He gave an excellent and detailed past history. Today he will continue his story.

He continues:

“ I continued to have extreme fatigue, very poor concentration, numbness on the left side of my body, significant stomach pain, general weakness and muscle pain until a few months ago.  It should be noted too that after that period I fell into poverty and I ate little and was also received little sleep because of my housing arrangements, once those things were corrected my symptoms improved but did not go away.  A few months ago I saw a neurologist again and received a MRI/MRA and am scheduled for EMG testing.    I do not know the results of the MRI/MRA and see my neurologist next month.

Once I started to feel better and could think more clearly I started to review my symptoms and these episodic flare-ups and the reason I can list them in detail is because I keep a daily journal and during each flare-up I wrote down all my symptoms.  I realized is that the symptoms I have during each flare up are the same, the severity the same and each time after I suffer severe memory loss.  Based on the severe memory loss which I recognize by the loss of subjects I learn, I have presumably had this flare-up of symptoms 5 times in my life.

Current symptoms- Constant chest pain, pressure behind the eyes, cold intolerance, intermittent blurry vision, occasional black spots in vision, tingling sensations in head, muscle twitches, pain on the left side of face upon waking( I believe due to teeth grinding and the my bite is unbalanced so the left side of my teeth naturally connect but the right do not) and also pain on the left side of my face present throughout the day. Also slight pain on the left forehead.  Decreased hair growth, decreased facial hair growth(less shaving), public hair loss, low sex drive. General back pain although I believe this will improve with pt and at home exercises.  Fatigue and drowsiness, poor short term memory, poor concentration.  Shooting pains in my leg when walking and intermittent burning in both legs.  Constant thrist and frequent urination. Occasionally waking up at night with an intense need for sugar, blurry vision and wobbling.  Constant headache. Regular stomach upset, acid reflux and constant feeling of tightness in stomach.   My financial situation has made it difficult to see specialists but I have been referred to a urologist, my prior urologist suspected scar tissue in my bladder and also a gastroenterologist who has ordered a endoscopy.

My doctor is at a loss and during the last visit I asked to be tested for low testosterone levels.  Upon reading about testosterone, I learned about the pituitary gland and asked to be tested for secondary hypothyroidism.  Also I asked to be tested for diabetes insipidus again.  Also I asked for more in depth vitamin b12 tests which I think could explain the numbness on the left side of the body.
Although not a doctor I suppose many of my problems could be explained by a disorder of the pituitary gland and if the aforementioned tests are positive, I will ask for further tests for problems releated to that gland and/or be referred to an endocrinologist.  Also I have thrush, athlete’s foot and symptoms of a UTI. I will be asked to get tested for UTI and also for a yeast infection test on my next appointment. “

So this is the reader’s complex history. Right now he awaits the results of his MRI/MRA of the brain and of his EMG study. He will be seeing his neurologist soon to go over them.

Tomorrow, I’ll discuss my thoughts on this complex medical problem.

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