Vague Symptoms, but "Normal" Test Results?
I am a long-time migraine sufferer w/ basilar migraine as well as PCOS, but for the past year or so I have had generalized joint pain (worst in my hips) of varying severities. Recently I have had shooting pain down my right arm to the pinkie and ring finger as well as pain in my legs and shoulder blades along with generalized fatigue and muscle pain. This week my throat has been quite sore, the lymph node in my left armpit hurts and my temp has been elevated- 99.4. My blood work came back normal- including my sedimentation rate- and I was negative for ANA. Today I had an MRI of my brain, neck and lumbar spine and all that came up was some scarring in the brain (neuro said that happens with severe migraine) and one degenerating disk. I am now taking amitriptyline at bed time and tramadol for pain. Any medical professionals with an opinion regarding what I'm dealing with? Blood tests seem to rule out Lupus, MRI rules out MS- Fibromyalgia? Any thoughts are appreciated. Thank you
Oh, I forgot to mention that my thyroid levels came back normal as well. Really, on paper there appears to be nothing wrong with me- but everything hurts and I'm still getting at least one migraine a week.
The more research I do, the more I come up with CFID or Fibromyalgia- both of these are "diagnoses of exclusion" so how many more tests need to be run before I have an answer? With the swollen lymph nodes and sore throat, the neuro wants to check me for Epstein-Barr- will that be enough to point to CFIDs?
Sorry to ramble, but I have two small children and would like to actually be involved in raising them- my husband is wonderful, but I'm still their Mom, ya know?
Public Comments
1. The "one degenerative disc" could be the root of a neuro evil. Ask your doctor to send you for a discography to see if that's the cause of your pain as a discography will "duplicate" the pain if, in fact, the disc is causing the problem. Perhaps it is leaning on the nerves and causing sharp shooting pain to numbness, etc. I would rule out the obvious first, but I'm not a doctor - check to see if your doc will refer you to a neurosurgeon and bring whatever tests you have with you, especially the test result that shows the disc.Good luck.
2. hello,
I'm not yet a doctor, I'm a medical student.
I have absolutely no idea what you have. But I can try to explain some stuff that's going on.
The shooting pain that affects your pinkie and ring finger is something affecting your ulnar nerve (which supplies these fingers). You might even find that on the ring finger the pain is localised to the pinkey side of it only. (This nerve is the one you hit when you hit your "funny bone")
When I started reading it I thought it was SLE for sure! And then I got down to that line where you said ANA was negative so that's a real curveball.
I would've also thought for sure that it was an inflammatory process but your ESR was normal.
So yeah, sorry I can't be of any help, but I'm not going to take careless stabs in the dark (like saying it's all due to the degenerating disc).
All I can recommend to you is that you write down all these symptoms you have and make sure you tell every one to the doctor.
The patient history is one of the most important aspects to a medical examination and resulting diagnosis.
Make sure you also mention your sore throat, fever, and enlarged lymph nodes and mention when they came on. Although it might all be connected, these symptoms could be an infection that has manifested independently of your other symptoms.
Also, think of your family's medical history aswell. If your parents or siblings had any particular conditions.
UPDATE:
Please try not to worry too much. We have no idea what this is, so there's no reason to assume the worse, it could really just be a simple infection like EBV as your doctor wants to check for.
