UndiagnosedandScared

HI I LIVE IN TEXAS. HERES MY STORY.
My name is Jolene Rodriguez.
Sometime in November, One day I went out with my boyfriend, my sister and her boyfriend. At night we went back to my sisters’ house. It was raining and I was driving. My tires skid into a puddle of water and I got a flat tire and I crashed into a pole. As I ran into the pole I felt my head and neck moved back and forth with great force. I never did go to the doctor that night. After the accident I felt fine. A couple of days later I had a minor cold. I had drippy nose and I coughed a lot. I coughed for several days and took medicine for the cold. One day I took medicine and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling nauseated and coughed a lot. I threw up so much that I threw up blood. I was scared and my stomach hurt a lot. I went to the Dr. and I told him what happened and he sent me to have a test done over my stomach. I went back with my Dr. after I had my test done and he said I had acid reflux. He told me it was minor. He gave me pills for that.

After a week I felt normal again. My cold was gone. Around two days later I had the worst migraine ever. My migraine lasted all day. I took Tylenol and it helped a little. I also put ice on my head. After a couple days I started getting throbbing headaches. It was less painful then the migraine I had. My headaches hurt so much that the front of my head felt tingly and became numb at times. With my headaches I also felt a strong pressure on my chest. I felt like it was difficult to breathe. The pressure would go and come back in times whether I was at home, at school, driving, etc. My mom mentioned it was heartburn. While I felt this I would drive my car. For a couple of days I thought my car had a burning smell. I thought I smelt gas or something similar to it. While I was driving I felt like it was difficult to breath and my heart was beating really fast. I thought I was going to have a stroke. At times my hands became numb. I opened the windows but that didn’t help. A couple of times I stopped driving when I was on the road and parked somewhere because I ran out of breath and could not concentrate on the road. At times I also burped a lot and had a strange taste in my mouth. It tasted like gas. When I burped I tasted it and smelt it coming out from my mouth. I told my parents and they drove my car for a week. They told me they felt and did not smell anything. They said the car was fine. I drove my car again and felt the same thing. One day I was at home and felt like I could not breathe. My parents took me to the clinic. The doctor and nurse checked my oxygen level and blood pressure. It looked normal. They also took an x-ray of my chest and an EKG. It all came back normal. I told the Dr. about the taste and smell of gas I had coming out of my mouth. I told them that I thought it might be carbon monoxide. He decided to do a blood test to see if it was a possibility. A week passed by and I got a call and my blood test came back normal. All I had was low potassium, but this was not anything major. I kept having the same symptoms. More weeks passed by.

I went to rent a movie one day with my boyfriend. Inside the store I felt out of breath. My hands started tingling, so we decided to leave. When we got in the car I felt lightheaded and out of breath, like someone was pressing hard against my chest. Beside my hands feeling tingly, I also felt my face, chest, and legs feeling tingly. It also felt like my veins and the inside of my body was cold. My boyfriend told me I looked very pale. I felt like I was going to pass out. So I told my boyfriend to take me to a different clinic then the one I went to last time. When I got there, once again, they checked my oxygen level and blood pressure and it all came back normal. They also did another x-ray of my chest and an EKG. These tests also came back normal. The Dr. told me what I had were panic attacks. He gave me medicine for my panic attacks. A couple weeks have passed by and I felt better. I learned to control my attacks. The Dr. said I had a lot of stress, even though I did not feel it. I told him I have a calm life. After the Dr. told me this, I dropped two classes out of four from college.

I felt a little better until one day, my boyfriend and I were at my house getting ready to go out to eat Chinese food at a restaurant. I had a bad headache and I felt my chest pressing again. The inside of my chest felt cold. All at once I felt like a lot of tiny needles from the top of my head falling down until I felt the inside of my head completely empty and numb. It felt like a balloon floating. My boyfriend calmed me down. From then my head has been numb. It is just the inside of my head. I felt like my head is going to fall off, so I held my head with my hand a couple of weeks.

One day I went to stay with my sister at her home. I began to have a headache so I went to bed. I tried to sleep but my headache got worse that it woke me up when I was barely falling asleep. I felt like pins and needles were scratching and cutting the inside of my head, esp. on the back of my eyes. I could not stand the pain. My sister took me to the emergency room. I waited about 6 hours and the pain was unbearable. I never cried so much in my life. When I saw a Dr., he put an IV on me because he said I looked dehydrated. He gave me pills for the pain and I went home. I took them and they sort of helped.

A couple days later, I felt pain around my eyes, cheeks, ears, and nose. I also felt like something cold was dripping from the inside my head. My mom thought it was mucus. She thought it could be a sinus infection. So I put on nose spray for about two weeks. The headaches got worse that I could not sleep at night. I decided to go back to the clinic and the Dr. gave me sleeping pills, Vicotin for the pain and he decided to give me a CAT scan to see if I had a sinus infection. I got blood drawn out to see if my thyroid was normal, to check my blood count, and for other tests. I took the pills and I felt less pain. I could sleep now at night. In about a week, I went back to the Dr. and he told me my CAT scan was normal. I told him I still have pain. I told him I felt like I had something thick and sharp, needlelike sensation, poking the back of my eyes and cheeks. It felt like something was pulling my eyes out. It was like wires were wrapped around my eyes. The Dr. told me he was going to do an MRI. I went to have my MRI done and I did not get my results until two weeks later. During one of those weeks, I went to vacation with my family. When we got there my head started to hurt horribly, painfully bad. I felt that I had something falling from the top of my head. It felt like many sharp pins and needles, at once, were falling and piercing and cutting all the way through the inside of my eyes, nose, the sides of my ears and my tongue. When I felt this, it also had a burning sensation. It felt like the inside of my head was on fire. I had this feeling all day and all night. The pain was so bad I was shaking and could not stop crying. The next day in Mexico I decided to go see a neurologist. He told me based on my symptoms that it sounds like it could be epilepsy with a complicated migraine. He sent me to the hospital to do an MRI and to have an EEG. I did these tests and went back to him. He told me everything came back normal. I told him I felt the inside of my head completely empty and numb, like there was just a hole inside my head. My head felt wobbly. I also felt like a lot of tiny needles were falling down from the top of my head. When this happened I felt the needles or whatever sensation it is giving me shocks or static, or electricity. I felt the shocks inside my head and also at the bottom of my feet. It felt so weird and painful. The Dr. told me, once again, based on my symptoms that the closet thing I could have is epilepsy. He thought I might get seizures. He gave me medicine. He gave me Topomax and Keppra for epilepsy and some medicine for the pain.

When I got back to USA I went to the clinic for my MRI results. The Dr. told me my results came back normal. He told me to not take anymore of the medicine I was given in Mexico because I do not have epilepsy. He said this medicine was not necessary and it could ruin my digestive system. He sent me to have a urine test and I had a minor infection. He gave me pills for that. He also gave me Floxentine pills. He thought that everything I had was caused by stress, but I believe its something else besides stress. He said he was going to fax some papers so that I could see a neurologist and have an EEG done. I still have not seen a neurologist nor have my EEG done yet. But I should soon.

I only took the pills the Dr. gave me for a couple of days because my stomach hurt a lot. I also lost my appetite. I hardly ate food. I also could not sleep during those days. I went back to the Dr. and he told me to stop taking all the medicine I was given. He gave me Nexium pills for my stomach. He told me not to take any other pills except Tylenol or Ibuprofen for my headaches. He also drew blood to see if I had any stomach problems. I started taking my pills and my stomach felt better and I could sleep at night now. Since then until now I have felt different sensations inside my head, but being completely numb and empty. My head has felt completely numb for around two months. Some days I felt like there were wires inside my head. I felt like there were pins and needles, I felt like my head was on fire. I felt like I had air or my head was cold inside. I had a sensation like wires were pulling my skull or my head out of my head. I had a sensation like water falling from the top of my head. It felt cold. I also had itching and tingly sensations inside my head. Almost everyday I have different sensations inside my head. Some days I would have ringing in my ears and my vision would see white spots for just a second.

Recently, my head feels like the numb sensation I mentioned. I am sometime still feeling like the sensation that something is falling from the inside of my head, sometimes a cold sensation. This sensation I have also felt in my neck and now I also feel my neck empty or numb. With this my neck hurts a lot. It feels like my head is heavy and wobbly and makes my neck and shoulder hurt. I felt pressure that was squeezing my whole head moving around and also squeezing the back of my neck. I felt so much pressure I felt light headed and nearly passed out. I also feel like my body feels heavy, like it is tired.

Now it is July 2007 and I have gotten new symptoms. I get chills at night inside my whole body and sometimes during the day, I feel congested, my chest gets really tight. My throat also hurts. Sometimes I can’t swallow my food. My throat feels like it wants to go to the back of my neck. I also can’t sleep because I have to wake up every 20 min. to go to the restroom. I think I have a bladder infection. Some days I couldn’t sleep the whole night because I felt like I had water trapped inside my chest, I tried to sleep but I felt like I couldn’t breathe and it woke me up over and over again. I burped a lot for days and nights. I also have ringing in my ears. My ears hurt sometimes too. My work had a health fair and I had a test done for my ears. I had to do a balance test and I had to close my eyes and I feel over to the side twice. So the Doctor told me I might have a severe ear infection and that I should get it checked out. One day I freaked out at work because I had a lot of pressure in my head and I felt like a pop sensation, like it was expanding and I had the sensation of something cold falling from my head. After that I have gotten big horrible headaches and a lot of pressure in my head. It feels like a pump, pumping air into my head and it just wants to shoot up. My neck hurts a lot. It feels strain, wobbly. I think my head has so much pressure because of my neck feels weak. My head shakes a lot and when that happens my body does too. I went to the Doctor again and he gave me tests to see if I had a throat infection and a bladder infection. He told me I did have a minor infection in my throat. But he also told me I had a severe bladder infection. I told him how I have been feeling. He set up an appointment so that I could see a throat and ear specialist. He also set up an appointment so I could have an EEG. As I mentioned before I saw a neurologist before and he told me I had stress and it would go away in 3 weeks but it has been longer and I felt like I have gotten worse and that is why I have not got an EEG done before. So the doctor gave me antibiotic for my bladder infection and just in case I have an ear infection.
Today July 26, 2007 around 7:00 p.m. I went outside to walk around the block with my boyfriend. As I was walking I felt my head very cold and had a sensation of something inside my head dripping down like liquid and I freaked out. When I felt this, I felt my head getting number and air pushed inside my eyes and all around my head. It felt like a balloon expanding and when I felt something moving around and falling down from the top of my head. I felt a lot of pressure on the back and on the front of my head. My boyfriend carried me home.
I still have a sensation like something cold and lots of it dripping from the inside of my head. My head also have a lot of pressure and also around my eyes.. I also have pressure around my nose like someone wants to pull it off. I have so much pressure on the back of my neck it feels like my muscles are squeezing really tight and it also feels like its squeezing my throat and it sometimes it hard for me to breathe. My ear also hurts like its throbbing and also I feel like my eyes are burning. I also wake up exhausted, like my body is detached. I can't stand the pressure in my head and my eyes anymore. My head feels really heavy all the time, like it is a bobble head, like it is heavy and going to fall off my shoulders. The top of my head to my neck tingles and it feels like my head is detached from my body, floating above my shoulders, difficulty breathing, head pushed forward to breathe. I get this fluttering feeling in my throat-low down close to my chest and it is difficult to breathe. I feel a warm wet sensation in the top right part of my head, it feels like a liquid seeping out inside my head. I also have pressure in my face and sides of my head feels like its raining, like drops of water rolling down your face.
I already went to the Dr. and had a 2 hour EEG done and he said it came out normal. I also have a urine test. I have another severe bladder infection. All the Dr. gave me was Floxentine medicine and antibiotics for my infection. I only took these medicines for 3 days and then stopped them. I got diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and a fluttering swollen throat from the medicine. I feel dizzy all the time, even though I do not take any medicine. I have a lot of pressure inside my head and around my neck and spine. My head feels like it wants to explode.
It is September 27, 2007 around 3:40 a.m. and I can not sleep. I woke up feeling weak. My body is shaking and the inside of my chest feels really cold. My stomach hurts with a lot of cramps and I am really thirsty. After a while my whole body aches and then I feel my body really hot inside. I feel my heartbeat pump really fast and then it pumps really slowly. I try to go to the restroom but it is really hard to, so I try not to anymore. My veins feel really cold. My head is shaking inside. I feel like I can hear moving waves inside my head.