I finally found out why the weird symptoms.
...I mean, the weird symptoms besides my thyroid and rheumatoid problems that I've been dealing with for about a decade now, and they've been confusing enough!
Since January of this year, I've had a number of oddball symptoms. I occasionally had trouble swallowing, a burning sore throat, a feeling of pressure in the throat, heart palpitations, and a feeling that things in my very upper chest weren't quite right. I often felt very ill as if something was seriously wrong but that sensation inexplicably came and went. How can something serious come and go? All the symptoms seemed very erratic and not necessarily associated with each other.
I went to doctors, the emergency room, and sometimes kept it to myself because seemingly serious symptoms would come and go, something further confused by the fact that a previous ('86) episode of anaphylaxis (means your throat tries to swell shut, an allergic reaction which can kill you) led me to develop panic attacks in reaction to the current intermittent difficulty swallowing and occasional feeling of pressure in my throat (I got into self-talk and no longer have the panic attacks).
About week ago diarrhea came and went so I forgot about it but, come Friday evening, my whole neck seemed involved in some kind of infection.
- My esophagus felt swollen and chemically burned on the inside or something -- hard to describe because no sore throat I've ever had compared.
- I was having trouble swallowing again and whatever I swallowed moved way too slowly down my neck. What do you do when you have a sore throat? You're supposed to suck on lozenges and drink fluids but I wondered if I should or could. I engaged in a lot of self-talk to keep the panic attacks at bay and started wondering if the trouble swallowing could possibly be psychosomatic too because who has trouble swallowing unless they have ALS or something?
- The muscles in my neck felt so fatigued that I wondered if could hold my head up much longer. I've lifted weights and have seriously overdone exercise but never felt fatigue in the muscles like that. (There were minor muscle aches in the forearms and calves.)
- I got blisters in my mouth the last week or so and at first wondered if I could have possibly bit the inside of my cheek and lip in my sleep. These came and went and I didn't associate them with the other symptoms...until all this was going on and I developed rough red areas inside my mouth.
I felt somewhat better Sunday, saw the Dark Knight with da hubby (yes, it was excellent), started feeling worse soon after, discovered red patches inside my mouth, and the blisters inside my mouth were back. Early Monday morning, I made an appointment to see my doctor ASAP instead of going to the Walk-In clinic only to be told to follow up with my doctor. She squeezed me in early this morning, listened, examined, and told me that I have Gastrointestinal Reiter's Syndrome, I should have seen the worst of it, it’s not very common at all, and I shouldn’t be able to infect others in the family (quite a relief to know because the youngest developed a sore throat).
I hope this really is the tail end of it because I have really had enough! I'd rather have both legs broken rather than have difficulty swallowing ever again.
