Could my mystery illness be Fibromyalgia?

[Wlkrdude]

WlkrdudeNew Member

Hello everyone. I am new here! Please bare with me as this will be a long post, but hopefully you guys could enlighten me as to whether this prolonged mystery illness I have could in fact be Fibromyalgia.

To begin I am a formerly healthy 30 year old man, 5'11'' and 150ish lbs. It all started in late December of last year when I began having night sweats and chills during the day. When it first began, I immediately went to the doctor. Since my cervical lymph nodes were also swollen, she performed a neck CT scan, CBC, and metabolic panel. All normal. I was uneased by this, and so I also began developing bad anxiety and depression.

My symptoms continued until February when my resting heart rate suddenly began staying around 100 bpm. Went to a cardiologist and diagnosed with sinus tachycardia. Well then I began noticing darker colored stools and weight loss... went to a gasteroenterologist, and had a tiny peptic ulcer.

March comes around and I begin experiencing dehabilitating fatigue. Also, I begin having urinary symptoms. Occasional flank pain, nocturia, foamy urine, and cloudy urine. When all of this first began, I thought it was cancer related due to the sweats, chills, lymph nodes, and eventual weight loss.

Since March, I've been convinced it's entirely kidney related, with my current theory leaning towards a vicious kidney infection. Here are my current symptoms:

Occasional headaches
Tinnitus especially at night
Daytime bruxism
Seems my vision is "different"
Mental confusion
Bad fatigue
No appetite at all
Nausea about once or twice a week
Hair growth has slowed
Nails seem pitted
Restless feet during day
Occasional muscle twitching
Occasional insomnia
My muscles seemed to have atrophied. For example, my calves and thighs are doughy. When I flex them, they get hard, though.
Skin is very dry/scaly/cracklely
Muscle cramps occasionally, especially legs
Hand Tremor - varies from none to mild
Muscle weakness
Loss of libido
Strange skin manifestation on back
Cloudy urine / foamy
Nocturia seems to have subsided.
Occasional dizziness
Anxiety*
Depression
Uneasiness*


To me, everything points to uremia and a kidney infection. The problem is I have seen 2 Nephrologists, urologist, and a rheumatologist. All of my labs come back normal. The only thing that doesn't is sometimes my MCV is a bit low, blood sugar a little high, vitamin d a bit low and my urinalysis will sometimes show mucus, hyaline casts and micro rbc.

So I am suffering from some undiagnosed condition, believe it is kidney related but has alluded lab results. The more I read about Fibromyalgia, the more I think it is possible. I guess the main doubt about my own theory is the fact that I am still alive. It would seem if I had uremia, which manifest went kidney function is less than 5-10%, I'd be dead considering the majority of those symptoms began in March. I keep thinking I'm dying and I'll be dead in x time, but I always make it to x.

Thus now I am open to other possibilities. I know Fibromyalgia can cause fatigue, skin, urinary, mental and gastrointestinal symptoms. Perhaps it is indeed somatic in nature. Do any of you experience the severity of my mentioned synptoms? I'd be interested to know. By the way, I am seeing a psychologist as well as to not completely rule out mental aspects. My biggest fear is my muscle weakness/atrophy which theoretically could be from disuse.


Thanks!

 

[Forgetmenot]

Welcome, yes fibromyalgia can show many many symptoms. It's also a long road for most as there Dr needs to rule out everything else.
I'd have to say you seem very panicky.i do understand that btw.
But as your Dr can find nothing wrong I'd try to stop worrying so much.the best thing to do is ask your gp if he thinks it could be fibro and go from there.
I know the worse part it feeling unwell and not knowing why, you start to notice every little thing you didn't before.tinnus will be with u all the time it just get louder when u go to bed and all is quite. I no as I suffer from this for well over 20 years.
If that real bad I put a watch under my ear or a nice loud ticking clock in the room.u will learn how to block it out but it is a bugger I no.
Anyway have a good hunt through there forum and ask the Dr. We look forward to finding out with you x

 

[Peregrine]

Hi wlkrdude,
Have you been tested for hyperthyroidism and/or Graves' disease? It might be worth having that done, you do mention a lot of the symptoms...
I hope you find an answer soon. I know that the not knowing is killer, even if when you do have a diagnosis there is not a lot medical science can offer for treatment...

 

[diamond]

You will want to rule out everything else but severe anxiety can also bring on just about every symptom there is. My grown up son who is level headed, travels the world constantly and seems very confident had a bit of a crisis over his health last year starting with blurry vision, dizziness, fatigue ,aches, weeing a lot, feeling spaced out,unable to concentrate or take in what he was reading etc, and feeling generally on edge and unwell. He made the mistake of googling his symptoms and convinced himself he had MS.

The fear exaggerated and increased his symptoms and he lost his appetite, lost weight etc. He had to fly home from a 2 month trip to get my support and medical checks.

He was given the all clear physically and given antidepressants for anxiety

He took 2 but hated pills and decided on a more holistic approach.

It took a while for him to push through and recouperate by staying physically active with swimming, cycling , getting out with friends even when he didn't feel like it etc and lots of talking and reassurance. Within 6 weeks he was fine and all his symptoms disappeared when he stopped checking mentally.

I am not saying it is anxiety for you and it could be fibro but if you look after yourself you may improve a lot.