I'm 31 years old, and 25 pounds overweight, so on the boarder of "over weight" and the low end of "obese".

Unbeknownst to myself, I have been physically sick for several years now, apparently as much as a third of my life... the symptoms came on gradually, thought noticeable in memory, so that I was not aware that I had a chronic condition.

I have a family history of just about every major negative thing a person can think of, so there's that to start with.

high blood pressure
stroke
heart attack
diabetes
brain and skin cancers

I have been diagnosed with Hypertension, tachycardia (heart rate rarely drops below 100, and is often in the 120 to 140 range even when resting,) high cholesterol, and of course have extreme neuropathy.

I have been having neuropathy for at least 10 or 11 years, in the form of "Pins and needles" especially in my head and scalp, although I didn't realize that's what it was until about 6 months ago. I've had it all over my body as "pins and needles" and "fire" for about 5 or 6 years or so. Sometimes it doesn't happen at all, and other times it's so bad it makes me cry almost uncontrollably like a little kid, or cry out in pain.

I used to think it was some sort of headache, or was afraid I might be going crazy or that it was something "spiritual" as I saw it, but it was none of those things. I was afraid to tell anybody because I was sure they'd think I was crazy. I thought I was hallucinating.

I did not know exactly when it started, but thinking back, I have been having panic attacks and/or heart attacks for at least 10 or 11 years, but panic attacks don't make people pass out or collapse from weakness after throwing 5 or 10 feed bags, or walking 2 miles. I even have trouble opening a cola or a jar of pickles sometimes, and I used to crack that stuff right open...

I've also had two episodes a cataplexy (descending paralysis, not total,but extreme weakness and numbness,) within the past 15 months, and one episode of neuropathy that was so bad that it behaved as an ASCENDING psuedo-paralysis (not total, but weakness and severe pain,) starting in my feet and moving up over my whole body as burning fire and needles. When I explained these to the emergency room doctors, he simply said he didn't know what it was, but ran no tests to find out what it was...

I am currently on Xanax for anxiety, starting about a year ago, as well as blood pressure medicine that now has the blood pressure under control, and back exactly where it was supposed to be (it was 165/120 to 180/120,) and two statins to try to solve the cholesterol.

I'll add that I probably should have been on Xanax my entire life, because I've always suffered from severe social anxiety, but this was actually prescibed for the physical manifestation of PAIN caused by anxiety, which has apparently been happening for as long as 10 or 11 years.

I never add salt to ANYTHING, and when I cook, I don't even put salt in food when I cook. I also never add butter or margarine to anything. Never have.

When I told my primary care physician that the stuff seems to be helping "take the edge off" of the phantom pains, but that it still wasn't stopping it, he prescribed me Neurontin, but I don't want to be addicted to all of this stuff, so I don't take it at all unless the symptoms are already happening, or I take just 1 per day instead of 3.


I've had 3 EKGs, 2 Chest X-rays, a chest ultra-sound, a CT scan, and 4 CBC and metabolic panels done in the past 15 months.

The EKGs, X-rays, ultra-sound, and CT all came back normal, even during a cataplectic episode, in fact one emergency room doctor claimed that HE wished he had my heart, that it was that healthy, which is ridiculous given what a pulse ox counter says.

On the CBCs, there are actually 6 major factors way above normal, but not sugar. They said I was not diabetic.

When I asked about other markers on the CBC which were wack, including a second opinion, the doctors said not to worry about it.

Anyone knows me, I go and look up what the markers are for, and guess what?

*Meningitis (which I had as an infant and was hospitalized for 6 weeks)
Kidney and heart failure
auto-immune diseases
ALS
MS
certain weird pet and livestock diseases*

when I mentioned this to the second doctor, he told me "don't worry about it, only thing on the CBC concerns me is the cholesterol," in spite of 4 other major markers being outside normal range.

*= the meningitis I had was a unique strain which comes from livestock, which one of my great aunts had handled an animal before holding me as an infant and i got it from that somehow.

It's also possible since I'm a pet owner, or have been, that it could come from cats or dogs. I've been bitten or clawed by spooked pets on any number of occasions.

I guess it's possible these markers are getting a false positive from left-over antibodies Spinal Meningitis, which are otherwise unknown to medicine.

I've also noticed objectively that my concentration and multi-tasking may have decreased by as much as 50% from peak performance several years ago, some of this is normal aging, but certainly not all of it can be explained by that, not by a long shot. Heck, 30 is supposed to be human prime for some mental functions.

Ok, in spite of people on here insulting me and disagreeing with me on just about everything, I'm no idiot. I'm smart enough to know that I am either not being treated or diagnosed properly, or else the doctors are hiding something from me.

They haven't done a single test on me, as far as I know, to search for pathogens or toxins, except the CBC and metabolic panel.

Did the blood pressure cause the neuropathy, or are they both just symptoms of something else? Have I suffered permanent nerve damage?


I don't want to end up like Stephen Hawking in a wheel chair not even able to wipe my own ***, and with 80% of my body not working, but I'm afraid that may be where this is going if something doesn't change.

Psychogenic?
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Desiree_Jennings