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Looking for some guidance on a wide swath of symptoms I’ve been experiencing.
Warning, wall of text. TLDR at the bottom. Throwaway for privacy.
I'm a male in my early 30s. Prior to the experience I'm about to describe, I was in fairly good shape, not overweight. I ran about 12 miles (about 20 km) a week and did light weight lifting. I don't drink, I don't smoke or take any kind of illegal drugs. I take daily meds for allergies.
Two years ago, while I was on my computer playing a game, I suddenly began to experience what I could only call a "headache". It felt like an intense strain just behind my forehead / eyes. It would last only about a few seconds, then fade briefly until another would come on, maybe 15-30 seconds later. These grew in intensity and I began feeling like I was going to faint, though I never did. I unsuccessfully tried to resolve the headaches by drinking orange juice because I thought I might have had low blood sugar, even though I had eaten a fair bit a couple hours before.
I went to the hospital but decided not to go in, as it felt that the headaches were decreasing in strength. They did eventually decrease but were still happening infrequently later in the night, so I decided to go back to the hospital. There, they did blood work and performed a brain scan, both normal. I had also complained of chills and shaking, so they thought I just had a random tremor and sent me home to get a good night's rest.
I wake up the next stay, still dealing with the intermittent headache. These continue for a week, though much less intense and eventually petered out. I would, however, continue to be plagued by other strange symptoms.
In the following weeks I would start to notice that my heart rate would increase much more than normal for doing even light walking around outside for a few minutes. After it increased, it would take much more time to decrease than normal. As I mentioned above, I used to run for a few miles every few days, and when I would stop, my heart rate would rapidly return to my base of ~70.
Other miscellaneous symptoms that appeared in the few months following this initial episode:
Heart palpitations. These were so strong they would keep me up at night. I saw cardiologist and after an EKG, Holter monitor, and echocardiogram they could see nothing wrong.
Awful acid reflux. I would later be diagnosed with GERD and a hiatal hernia.
Feeling my pulse all throughout my upper body. Laying on my side at night I could feel it in my ribs. If I got nervous, I could feel it in the middle of my stomach, down from where the sternum is.
I also felt like I had trouble breathing occasionally. It wasn't the case that I was gasping for air, it just felt like my diaphragm was weak and I couldn't get a full breath in. Saw a pulmonologist and my allergist, neither could find problems with my lungs or breathing power.
Spasms in my diaphragm, sometimes strong enough to make me gasp. They feel like a light punch to the stomach. One time it was so strong it felt like my whole stomach had dropped.
I would have very little appetite occasionally. This I believe has to do with me being nervous / excited, for example, when I would play a video game. Usually, getting in a nervous / excited state would flair all my symptoms. I would get diaphragm spasms and my heart rate would rise and take a while to come down. I felt like I was in fight or flight long after stopping playing.
Chills
Twitches all over my body, including thighs, hands, even my lips
Occasional pains in my chest, arms and legs that feels like a brief pin prick in the sense that feels like it's localized to a small area
General malaise
Overall weakness
Some of these dissipated to varying degrees as I basically cut all activity out of my life (exciting video games / working out / hanging out with friends). I've kept this up for the past two years, taking some opportunities to indulge in some of these normal activities. I found that doing so would cause some of my symptoms to flair. I tried resuming exercise but found that I would get headaches and dizziness later in the night or a day after working out.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, after a day of walking around in the relatively high heat for the spring, I come home, go to sit down, and have a brief spasm in my diaphragm where it feels like I can't breathe. My heart starts to race (180bpm+) and doesn't stop even after 20 minutes. I'm taken to the hospital and they diagnose me with a Potassium deficiency. I wasn't vomiting and didn't have diarrhea. I was dehydrated though and I had been sweating a bit. I had a blood test a week later and my potassium was 3.9, within the sufficient range. Prior to the initial incident 2 years ago, I had a pretty strict diet and did intermittent fasting. I think I would have been lucky to get 100% of the daily intake of potassium. I wasn't eating many fruits or vegetables or other potassium rich foods.
Although I’ve increased my potassium intake to 100% daily recommendation almost every day, I still feel malaise, weakness., still get body twitches and diaphragm spasms. I think these spasms also trigger something akin to a panic attack in me. I feel like I’m not going to be able to breathe, my heart rate increases and my hands and feet get cold.
After 2 years without answers, I’m at my wits’ end. What could be causing this? I know some of this could be caused by my hiatal hernia. I also think some of it could be cause by low potassium, though after returning to normal levels, many of these symptoms keep reoccurring. My doctor wasn’t sure about any of the symptoms I’ve mentioned here. My blood work looks fine. The cardiologist saw nothing out of the ordinary.
TLDR: Male, early 30s. Got a strange, intense headache 2 years ago. Since then, I’ve experienced a variety of symptoms including heart rate that increases quickly but returns to resting rate slowly, heart palpitations, diaphragm spasms, body twitches, malaise, and weakness. Known issues include GERD, hiatal hernia, and at least one episode of low potassium, the root cause of which is unknown. Potassium has since returned to normal and blood work looks fine. Being nervous or exerting myself flairs symptoms.
Apologies for the rambling wall of text. I really want to feel normal again. So far, my doctor and the specialists I’ve seen have not given me any actionable advice on how to do that. I'd like to thank you for reading this and would appreciate any advice the members of this forum could offer.
It sounds like an anxiety disorder. Has no one offered to treat it as such (diazepam, CBT, etc)? Almost all your symptoms can be manifestations of anxiety.
Thank you for the reply. I am definitely naturally more neurotic than the average person. I wasn't really all that anxious when this first happened. I cant tell if it's because of certain symptoms that I have anxiety or if anxiety is most of these. It's definitely a route to consider trying to improve. I'll see if I can't find some CBT program online for anxiety. Thanks again.
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Seconded, this screams mind-body connection/physical symptoms of anxiety.
Obviously, it could be some super rare disease no one can diagnose. Most likely though? Psychosomatic. Get a psychiatric consult ASAP.
Thirded. I have an anxiety disorder and have experienced all of these. Heck, I'm having a few right now, even though I've got this crap pretty much under control. It's also extremely likely that such a distressing physical event would spark panic attacks.
Find yourself a good SSRI!
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