Long term time illness thread

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JohnnyO Jan 2014 11:09pm, 3 Jan 2014 17,092 posts	0 JohnnyO Its a difficult one. There are people out there who have very real symptoms that are caused by a psychiatric or psychological problem. These are often symptoms which don't follow a specific disease pattern. The symptoms don't get better until the underlying cause is addressed, but for fear of offending the patient or making them think that there problems are not being taken seriously the potential for 'non-organic' causes is not raised. The symptoms progress, investigations get more and more invasive. Minor abnormalities are found and they are investigated further. In the US they recognise 'vomit' syndrome (victim of modern imaging technology) where patients are put through increasingly sensitive tests which reveal minor abnormalities that get biopsied/removed/ablated for no actual benefit and a significant risk. The patients eventually adopt a pattern of behaviour which is usually associated with chronic disease. The symptoms become their life. My mother is a prime example. She developed 'dizziness'. This only occurred when she was out alone and never resulted in any falls (though she felt like she might). She saw any number of specialists and had multiple scans. She underwent at least three exploratory operations on her ear, none of which revealed anything. She flatly refused to entertain any possibility of psychological problems. She ended up housebound. Eventually, and for different reasons, she went on antidepressants. Her dizziness disappeared. I am not for a second suggesting that this is you, but I am saying that it would be remiss, maybe even negligent for your doctors not to consider the possibility of psychological problems. Being asked the question shouldn't lead to anger. There are a lot of people out there where this is the issue, just because you are not one of them doesn't make the possibility any less valid.
JohnnyO Jan 2014 11:11pm, 3 Jan 2014 17,093 posts	0 JohnnyO (Sorry, didn't mean to sound so pompous)
plodding hippo Jan 2014 11:23pm, 3 Jan 2014 50,189 posts	0 plodding hippo Johnny O thank you for posting such a sensitive assessment of a problem I see at LEAST once a month(and i work in a specialty where peple have measured blood abnormalities!) frustrating for both patient and doctor All i can do is tell the patient what it ISNT But the brain really doe have a massive effect on the body Curly, right, if neuro really does not think it is CFS then id take that How long have you been out of runnng, and could you have overtraining syndrome I am really glad you dont have anything neurological.REALLY glad.I know it wont help cos you dont have a diagnosis and a plan to get back to what you werere but.well, i did breathe a sigh of relief reading what you wrote
plodding hippo Jan 2014 11:28pm, 3 Jan 2014 50,190 posts	0 plodding hippo Johnny put it better than me, but its not a case of being a "hypochondriac" I shall put this basically Sometimes brain pain can come out as physical symptoms I shall hold myself up as an example of this I have a moving left leg pain.it has really affected my runningPhysio says there is nothing physically wrong, i am in good shape it hurts worse when i am stressed or upset
Happy Bunny Jan 2014 7:55am, 4 Jan 2014 53 posts	0 Happy Bunny Hi curly I hope you don't mind me joining in, I've been following this thread for a few days now. So sorry you don't yet have a firm diagnosis but at least things are being ruled out. I was diagnosed with ms in August 2012. I was lucky to get a fairly quick diagnosis from my neuro, I could barely walk in a straight line, had a whole load of weird symptoms and my MRI was very "busy"! I have now been on treatment for 12 months and I'm slowly getting used to the new me. It's incredibly frustrating that I don't have the stamina I once had but I feel fortunate that I can still do the things I like doing to some degree, things could've been a lot worse. I know there are a few of us on here who have long term illness and whilst the conditions vary in their nature it's good to talk to like minded people who understand how important our training is to us both physically and mentally. I think my marathon days are over but I'm really hoping that I'll manage a half one day, but for now, I'll have to make do with little goals to keep me going.
Curly45 Jan 2014 8:56am, 4 Jan 2014 2,264 posts	0 Curly45 Hipps I have been feeling unwell since 28th October. I did a 16 mile long run on the 27th that wasn't very much fun and I just made it back. I assumed lack of fuel at the time, but the week before I had been quite and I had a poor race on 21st Oct as well. Since then I have run less than 60 miles. I think overtraining would be recovered by now, or at least showing signs of getting better. The exhaustion does seem to be getting better since taking B12, but its slow going and the nerve pain, headaches and tinnitus are not budging. I've been thinking about an osteopath to rule out some weird trapped nerve somewhere. Johnny and Hipps. I know you are not trying to, but I do find all that quite upsetting. I'm not an ill person in general and I'm finding the medical profession quite stressful at the moment.
Curly45 Jan 2014 9:01am, 4 Jan 2014 2,265 posts	0 Curly45 Damn pressed submit before I meant to. Just trying to say, I don't think it is in my head. I don't even care if I never find out what it is, I just want to feel better. Or at least more normal. Work peeps agree there have been massive changes in my memory and motor skills as well as my energy levels. I don't know if that says anything useful or not. welcome HB Small goals sound good and lucky you got an early diagnosis. What is your current small goal? Half marathon aside?
DrBob Jan 2014 9:28am, 4 Jan 2014 5,727 posts	0 DrBob I had (probably) overtraining syndrome in my 20s and it finished off my running career. I felt really weary, very muzzy, couldn't see properly, ears ringing, swollen glands etc. After a week's rest, I'd go and run again, and got through it, the next day I'd feel shocking. THe best thing I could have done is really rest as soon as it occured and take it very conservatively, but I get badgering away at it, and i think it probably just perpetuated the problem. One of the triggers was constantly increasing the mileage, and not eating enough as I was convinced that if I lost weight, I'd run faster. Ironically, it had the opposite effect. It took me several years before I started to feel ok again, and if I really overdo things, I still feel some of the same symptoms, but I just back off nowadays before I get too bad. Salazar had something like this, and he did manage to make a recovery to racing, I think through using prozac.
davelord Jan 2014 9:41am, 4 Jan 2014 182 posts	0 davelord Hi Curly, 3 years ago my training went downhill quickly followed by the rest of me, loss of memory,depression,passed out while running, kidney problems nothing was found until the cardiologist i was referred to did a blood calcium test and found i had the grand sounding hyper-parathyroidism. A small op and i was completely fixed, not saying this could be what you have but i know how it gets to you when you know something is "wrong" but no one can put a name / reason to it. Stick with docs and keep asking questions, make sure they know all your symptoms even if they seem irrelevant to you, i know once diagnosed Saw the symptoms list it explained so much more of what was happening to me. Good luck & best wishes for recovery Dave
Krissie Jan 2014 10:03am, 4 Jan 2014 167 posts	0 Krissie Hi Curly. I don't know if it will be any help to share my experience. I had similar symptoms starting at pretty much the same time of year as you last year. Started to get heacaches, tinitis, a burning sensation in my arms and numbness in my face, and severe exhaustion. It got increasingly worse and the headaches got so bad I ended up spending Christmas in hopsital. All tests including scans and a horrid lumbar puncture came back normal. I had further follow up tests early last year and no cause could be found. I felt so aangry that I felt so awful but no cause could be found that I gave up pursuing it any further, and I did slowly start to feel better. My running performance was really down still in March but by summer I was back to pb shape, still not quite able to tolerate quite as high a level of training as before. The symptoms didn't disappear entirely, but they were all very low level. This year, at pretty much the same time it all started up again and I came to the conclusion that I just manage to exhaust myself around the end of the year, always hanging on for the Christmas break to recover rather than taking the recovery breaks (from work and life, not just running) as I need them, as I would during the rest of the year. By taking better care this year, this years 'episode' is far less prolonged than last years. I hope you start to feel better soon, whether or not you do get any kind of answer as to the cause of all of this.