Since all my tests thus far have come back negative, I’ve been picking my own brain trying to figure out what in the hell I’m experiencing.
I have great doctors who are willing to help me figure out what’s going on, but it takes so much time and the not-knowing is almost worse than the knowing – at least with knowing comes plans and treatments and the like.
Up until now, I’ve felt very focused on a few differential diagnoses that I found and felt certain these matched. Tests so far have ruled these out (ish – none of these tests is 100% conclusive so there’s that).
It made me wish House, MD was real.
He would greet me and sit with me as we went over my family history, personal health history, and tests done so far. He’d made crude jokes that I’d laugh at because he’s handsome and – well, you get the picture.
Most of all, I wanted his team working on their whiteboard of symptoms, examining things and ruling things out simply by how I’m presenting.
It’s silly to be so dependent, at least in thought, on this fictional character. I mean, House doesn’t exist. This can’t ever happen… right?
Well… On Monday, I bought myself a whiteboard and began listing what I could on there.
The differential diagnoses list has grown in size, thanks to pals across social media offering their thoughts and ideas. Together, we’ve even found some that fit better than those listed here.
It’s also culminated in an ‘asks’ list for me to take back to my healthcare team, from easy stuff like additional blood work to more rigorous tests to even a full spinal MRI and spinal tap. I really would like it to not get to the spinal tap level.
This pain and weirdness is already at 11, know what I mean?
Do you have thoughts on what this could be? Here are some things I ask you to keep in mind:
These symptoms have been off and on since 2012, happening maybe three hours here (when overheated) and two hours there but not consistently like it happens at present. This rules out some things like guillain-barré syndrome that would’ve had me kick the bucket in five years’ time.
I have a familial history of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases.
My genetic makeup (courtesy of 23andme because of familiar record issues) is heavily European:
- 58.1% British Isles (British, Scotish, Irish, Welsh)
- 10% Scandanavian
- 6.5% French and German
- 23.8% Broadly Northwestern European
- 1.4% Broadly European
- 0.01% North African and Middle Eastern
I do not have Ashkenazi heritage which rules out a number of conditions.
There may be symptoms I am having that are not listed on the board as they overlap with other conditions I am currently diagnosed with (fibromyalgia, systemic JIA, etc). This is not a complete picture of my health.
I too suffer from something but the doctors fail me. I was particularly interested in your genetic makeup. I really want to know my own as I know it's not all British..I'm small, dark skin, dark eyes, and just never burn in the sun. But apparently 100% British…
Your heat/temp comment and all the associated stuff in the same colour made me think dysautonomia perhaps due to EDS. Mast cell disorder might account for the itching/temp weirdness too. Chiari Malformation for the neck/migraine issues?? Some things to maybe add to your list?