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Thu 14 Jul, 2016 06:14 pm
Before i start, i have been having strange cardiac chest discomfort for years, so this may be unrelated but it also may not.
All last year i was drinking about a pint of vodka every night, up until july when i went down to maybe a couple shots a night.
I would occasionally feel a zapping sensation in the center of my forehead. like a zap in coniousness that would last a millisecond. it would happen maybe every 30 seconds for maybe 10 minutes then stop. I figured it was just withdrawal from alcohol cuz i only drank at night. then one day after i had a shot, my head felt really really weird like i messed something up. then for months i had issues with my vision, mild confusion, cognitive and coordination problems. I did official quit drinking at the end of december. I would occasionally have a shooting numbness down the left side of my face. and MRI was done and was normal. The neurological symptoms seemed to have went away by that time. I already had some minor cognitive issues and blunted emotions from damage caused by smoking synthetic marijuana daily from
2011-2012. that reason i used the alcohol was because of this lasting problem with my brain/emotions. anyways back to the story, throughout the beginning of january i was using tramadol for a couple weeks due to a cracked rib from coughing (i have copd). i was also using many herbal supplements like coq10, licorice root, choline, uridine.
well by the end of the month the zapping sensations and tremors were back and more intense. I still just assumed these were some sort of alcohol withdrawal seizures.
One day while out shoe shopping the zapping was intense and i started getting some angina like pressure in my chest that went away. then it came back really intense and i pretty much blacked out, but didnt fully.
i went to the hospital and was told i did not have a heart attack and was discharged. (i felt lightheaded the whole time i was there as well. The next day i felt more strange lightheaded feelings and a bad headache all day. check BP and it was approx 209/120.
went to the ER and they brought it down and i was discharged. I then started to feel a strange feeling in front of head, not completely lightheaded, but similar to what i had last year, but this only occured while standing or sitting. (would not come on suddenly but after like 10 minutes, and went away after laying for maybe 10 minutes)
This continued. Has a repeat MRI in march that was normal. and a normal 20 minute EEG.
eventually i learned to just deal with the feeling as it was not life threatening and i couldnt just lay around all day.
Eventually a new symptom had appeared. A strange numblike pressure in that one spot in my forehead. sometimes feeling like something was physically in there.
so while all this is going on, i am having episodes of waking up at night with crushing chest and shortness of breath, that would resolve after sitting up.
then in april i developed the inibility to lay down. I was short of breath when laying down. Was not releaved by inhalers. I was unable to sleep for several days.
went to the ER eventually who did a fast ultrasound of the heart, ekg, bloodwork, and then a CT scan of the chest and abdomen. Nothing was found and i was sent home.
decided to just use my prednisone i had and did a taper starting at 25 milligrams. the shortness of breath resolved after a few days of that. Do not know if that was a conicidence or not.
after using the prednisone, the forhead pressure returned and last for a few days. also during this whole time the strange frontal head feeling was there but i continued to ignore it. I went to ENT who did a sinus CT scan to see if that was causing the feeling in front of head and face, since i am always congested. was normal.
Well one day while laying down i all of a sudden started feeling a painless stabbing feeling in the front of my brain. I thought i would have a seizure or something and was just aweful and went on for about a week. would go away and come back. The in the very very center of my forehead, there would be this itchy tickle feeling. It also caused this strange seizure like feeling. I would use some gabapentin that was given in the past for pain. I was thinking if these were seizures it would help. only 100 Milligrams
Then all of a sudden one day the symptoms changed to a severe headache that would cover the entire from of my head and switch between my neck/back of head, to whole front of head.
No medication releaved this. I eventually went to the ER, a CT scan was performed. was normal so i was discharged. The pain lasted for several more days before finally ending. But my neck was still sore, the cervical spine felt bruised to the touch as well as back of head.
All while this is going on i continue to have severe angina episodes. had a stress test performed which was normal, and a loop recorder implanted in my chest.
One day i noticed my entire right arm went numb and hurt, like the circulation was cut off. this continued on and off. eventaully the right foot would have similar symptoms. EMG performed and was ok.
So few weeks later the painless seziure stabbing feeling returned and i was scared, then one day i was out somewhere and felt i needed to lay down immediatly because my head felt so strange. I went home, and that itchy tickle was in the front of head. I took gabapentin and napped.
Woke up later and felt better. Had a strange pressure feeling in head like a fullness. was isolated.
I layed down and then after turning off the TV i noticed a high pitched ringing in my ears. head symptoms were gone, but just ringing.
the high pitched rininging continued and i desperatly went from ENT doc who failed to diagnose me with anything. Hearing test was just fine. The ringing is, high pitched, like a radio signal. still there to this day.
went to the neurologist and asked him for something to deal with it. he gave me xanax.
did not help, so then we tried valium. did not help.
I used way more than i was supposed to of each. because i have a high tolerance, most likely from all that alcohol and that k2 damage.
eventually i started getting occasional feelings of losing conciousness. were very rare. but my face and head started feeling weirder sometimes. Had a squeezing like feeling down the left side of face one night. went to ER. CT scan was normal.
I thought maybe these new symptoms were just withdrawal from the benzos..
I then asked the neurologist to do a spinal tap. I was reading increased pressure in head can cause tinnitus.
That was normal.
By then though i was getting new symptoms, felt more strange in the head, was affecting my consciousness a little bit.
The day after the spinal tap, i developed im assuming was a spinal headache. but it didnt act the way it should. was not relieved by laying down, and mimicked the headache i had a month earlier, where it was throughout my whole forehead and would switch between neck/back of head and forehead.
i drank some caffeine at work the next day hoping it would help, but then i felt my level of consciousness VERY low. I had to lay on the bathroom floor for over an hour.
this headache did go away after about a week.
So the next series of events came on, this now was about 3 weeks ago. most likely unrelated.
one night was very short of breath while laying down on the couch. used inhaler several times, then used nebulizer. Nothing helped Went to the ER and they did xray and found no cause for this.
I also had a strange burning localized pain in my chest, where the shortness of breath seemed to be coming from.
I was discharged and was right back in there an hour later complaining of this feeling in chest.
Breathing was so uncomfortable. talking hurt. Its like maybe i injured my diaphragm from coughing. It was sore to breath, every breath was horrible. CT scan of chest was normal so i was sent home.
all that week i had issues talking because it was so sore.
Then i started feeling very lightheaded. VERY lightheaded. it was an unusal lightheadedness combined with fatigue. i tried to take a nap but when i almost fell asleep it was like i was not concciouss. i eventually napped.
the chest feeling continued for days, along with the lightheadedness. I decided to the ER again and an abdominal xray showed stool lodged up in the upper abdomen.
Used magnesium citrate and the discomfort was gone after a day.
Now im still getting this lightheadedness and then on the couch one night i got that tickle, itch, maybe seziure feeling again.
took 2 of the xanax and some benadryl and that got me very drowsy, but the feeling was there. It was then i realized this is NOT a drug withdrawal.
the next morning i felt like i was about to have a stroke and had a flushing down my head and upper chest. the feeling went away, but when i got home
my whole right side of my face was numb. I went to the ER. the ER doc saw my history and claimed i had already been there for this. she would not listen.
I was discharged and while waiting for taxi, the right side of my face and behind eye felt so weird and i felt like i would have a stroke. I then had a that sudden flushing feeling in the right side of my face and chest. I went back but the doctor just refused to help me.
I had my dad pick me up and just told him to keep an eye on me that night.
The feeling contiued for a couple days. the feeling behind my eye was the EXACT same itchy tickle feeling i had in my forehead. it was so horrible and that seizure feeling was aweful. I could feel that tickle then move to the back of my head and go down, till it went away completely and then.. Angina and shortness of breath.
Very strange how this happens at the same time.
so a few days later i developed a strange horrible squeezing pain behind the right eye where the strange feeling was. And the right side of face continued to get numb. Around my eye was very numb and when the pain was not there, it felt like sometime was bulging my eye out and was numb.
this continued and i had 2 ER's do CTA's of my head. first one was normal, second showed a possible aneurysm in an entirely different area of the head, nowhere near my eye. (now i forgot to mention sometime in the month before i felt a physical sensation behind the right eye and my eye was drooping, lasted a day only).
this right sided headed eye pain is unbearable and responds to nothing. it is localized too.
Well i believe a day later, now just about a week and a half ago, i am getting a very increase in pressure in head, feel like i will lose conciousness so many times a day, almost all day. I am getting very confused, very disoriented. the eye thing is severe.
Then sometimes im getting this itchy tickle feeling in the head behind both eyes, and it is associated with new angina and shortness of breath/nausea.
Im getting weakness numbess in all extremeties now. I actually woke up sunday paralyzed completely for a minute. I keep feeling like there is inadiquite blood flow to various parts of my body. My extremities are cold and numb, getting a new strange kind of lightheadedness in the front of my head, and this new nausea with chest burning and squeezing. like my heart is being choked.
now starting yesterday my whole neck hurts so back, and forhead. its hurting so bad. Im getting pain shooting down my left shoulder.
I felt an increase in chest pain last night. I woke up today and felt so lightheaded. I cannot get up from the couch because i feel like i will die. its that bad. the chest pain squeezing severe and im nauseas. I ended up calling 911 but refused transport because ekg did not show a heart attack.
My cervical spine is hurting so bad today, the neck pain is legit so severe. And my lightheadedness is bad.
I feel like my heart will fail today. it has never been this bad. its like my entire body is not getting adequate blood flow at all.
What is wrong is that you are asking a bunch of strangers on-line for medical advice. Consult a physician. As you allude to problems dating back years, consult a physician as soon as possible.