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February 04, 2012, 11:58:22 PM
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My poor sick hubby (sorry its a lil long)  (Read 1500 times)

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My husband has something wrong and dr after dr can't give us an answer.

To start just a little about us. We have been together almost 9 yrs, married almost 7. I'm 27, he is 32. We have 4 children. A boy and girl both 10 (the boy is his and the girl mine from previous relationships) then 2 girls together 7 and 2 1/2. I'm a stay at home mom and he works on cars. We both have had pretty difficult lives and that doesn't look to be changing anytime soon.  Cry

4 yrs ago it started. One weekend he begin to get very aggravated, snappy, angry and short with everyone. On Sunday, we got into a fight. It got so bad I was going to leave. He followed me out to stop me, we got into it outside, he got madder, punched my truck, we went back in and were done. He keep saying how bad his hand and head hurt. I went to change and when I came back he was in the floor and out cold. Upon waking he had forgot what happened.

We went right to the ER. While there we realized he had alot of memory loss. At the time was just about bad things that happend in his life. The Dr's at the ER found nothing wrong. All the test came back normal. They sent him home and we spent the next 3 months in and out of drs offices.

Test after test, all came back normal. They finally came up with the a answer, not what we feel it is but all they could tell us, it was stress. He had a meltdown. He was put on Xanax and after a few months the headaches went away and he got somewhat back to normal. He went off the meds and seemed to be ok.

He has never got back any memory he lost.

Over the yrs the headaches have come and gone, normally when he does get too stressed out or mad.

Then this past October, he began to get the headaches more. Got aggervaite more. His dr put him back on the Xanax

By this past April, he had gotten almost unbearible. Fighting with me none stop.

About 6 weeks ago, he started to get very "sick" again. The headaches were a few times a week, he was getting dizzy alot and feeling as if he was going to black out again. I told him over and over he needed to go to the dr and make them listen as to what is going on and find an answer, he didn't. Every day he got worse. I knew it wasn't going to be long before something happened.

Then Saturday June 27th everything came crashing down. We went out of town to have a night together since we had been fighting so much. He started to get the headache and dizziness on the drive there. After taking his meds, Xanax and Vicoden (for his back) he would be somewhat ok. He went up and down all night. Then Sunday morning around 2am, it hit him. He went to the restroom and when he came out he was holding his head, I knew this was it. He fell to his knees, I grabbed him and then he was out cold. It took about 5-10 mins to wake him.

Over the next 2 hrs he was in and out, very incoherent, and the memory loss was very serve. I didn't call anyone for the simple fact, but so feel bad for this, that where were the hospital were horrible, it was a party town and I was scared to death they would pass it off as drugs or drinking even though he hadnt done either.

In talking to him and tryin to keep him awake I showed him pictures of what we did that day (which he totally had forgot) and pictures of our kids. When I got to the ones of ours kids, things got bad. I showed him a picture of our 2 1/2 yr old lil girl, he got the look (the omg I forgot) on his face. My heart sank. I asked him, "who is this" "baby please tell me who this is". He said he didn't know. I began to cry as I told him it was his daughter. Of course he lost it, got way upset and began to cry. He said over and over "whats wrong with me?" "what kind of father am I that I dont know my own child". I told him it wasn't it fault, we will find an answer. In talking over time we have found out that the past 4 yrs since the first "attack" are a blur. He has very lil memory of it.

I the past 2 weeks we have seen 5 dr's. He has had an MRI, CT scan, EEG, ultrasound to the neck and heart, and x-rax. All came back fine. The dr's told him again it must be mental, stress, whatever. We felt in our hearts thats its more. But in tryin to believe the dr's knew what they were doing (yeah f**king right) we went to a therapist that specializes in figuring out mental disorders. She was the only one able to diagnose my oldest daughter after we seen about 6 others. So we trust her very much.

After listening to EVERYTHING that has happened she said there is no way it was mental. That alot of his symptoms only come from a physical problem, not a mental one. The headache that does not go away, being unbalanced, and a few others are in no way caused by a mental problem.

So we feel like we are back at the begin. Everyday he gets worse. He is in alot of pain 24 hrs a day, he stays dizzy, he is off balance, no memory has came back, he forgets what he is doing, forgets what day it is, shakes, and is just out right miserable. He gets very mad and upset with himself about everything. He can't work, drive or even be alone. He says he feels like an empty shell. I am heartbroken to see this everyday. I have to sit back and watch as my soulmate fades away. The biggest fear at this point is he will black out again and awake asking me who I am. I dont know what to do, or where to turn. We have yet another appt with a neurologist this week. I pray for an answer, a real one     

Thank you so much for reading our story. God bless you all. May he help the doctors find everyone an answer


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First of all bless you for keeping your family together and being there. I know this is very hard for you and your family but this is definately something that is not his fault. I know my husband gets so frustrated that I am sick all the time and in all his frustration he is still here for me, he is still willing to take care of me. He just wants answers for me as much as I do.


I am thinking the ultrasound of his heart was an echocardiogram? It may also be an good idea to do a 24 hour event monitor for the heart and maybe even a table tilt test... once on mystery diagnosis there was a guy who was blacking out and everyone thought he was having seizures so they put him on siezure meds but during the tilt test he passed out, I don't know about the agression though but that a thought.. just before does he have any symptoms that tell him he "may" be getting close to a black out besides the aggression? is he nausiated? sweating? etc?

Do you have a blood pressure monitor at home? The episodes of sickness I get are not constent so I had someone once suggest to me to start checking my blood pressure and blood glucose level during those episodes. Sometimes when you black out or pass out it can be from low blood pressure, another thing is hypoglycemia can cause black outs and fainting as well as memory problems, dizziness etc.
The headaches are they all the same? are they throbbing? migraine like? in one spot?? was the MRI done with or without contrast?
Sorry you have to go through all of this but hang in there, this is a great place for support!


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**Kristin**

First Struck with Anorexia on and off for about 6 years beginning in 1993. 1995 Diagnosed with GERD, IBS, Anxiety. 2006 Diagnosed with CFS, 2009 Diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and Circadian Rhythm Disorder and Hypoglycemia. 2011 Diagnosed with Vitamin D Deficiency and Hyponatremia. But... why?! I think I am one step closer to that answer ON my own. Your are your own advocate for your health! No one can tell you how you can or can't feel!
   

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Thank you dear. It has taken a toll on our lives, family and minds for sure. I def feel for your husband. Its like we know that being sick with no answers kills ya'll and there being not much we can do kills us. I try my best to take care of him, stay calm with him and not get aggervaited but its hard. I get stressed about everything. With having to watch him whenever he is awake, having to remind him things ovrer and over, helping him get up and move around and tryin to convince him not to be hard on himself, I get annoyed, aggervaited, and stressed out. Then with having to take care of the kids, house and everything else alone I feel like I'm going to lose it. I love him dearly and I try to do my best but I fell I fail him in cuz I can't handle it all. My family is my world and I hate that I can't deal with all this better.

I think your right about the name of that test. I will have to ask the dr about the table thing. He has only had 2 attacks where he blacked out. They were both under diff circumstances. The first he was angry. He had a headache about I dont know about anything else. The last one he wasn't mad, we have had a great day. He had the headache, dizziness and I think thats all. I know when he gets mad it makes him worse, but the last attack there was no anger or anything like that.

We do have a blood pressure thing. He has had problems with it being high off and on for a few yrs. When he gets to feeling really bad it is normally high. But the drs have said its not high enough to cause this much problem.

The headaches are all the time. I don't know what kind of pain. He just always says it hurts horribly bad, all over his head. I know that everything makes it worse. Lights, noise, moving, getting to hot, anything like that bothers him. The MRI was done without contrast I believe.

There a few other symptoms I forgot. He has been having problems with his vision, blurry, seeing double, spots, tracers.  Going from light to dark or dark to light bothers him. He has swelling in his hands. He has aged alot in his face over the past 4 yrs. His thought process is not right, he does things out of order doing them almost backwards. He is off balance when he walks, bumping into things all over the place. He can be laying down and will say it feels like the room is spinning

I can't believe answers are so hard to find


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Gender: Female
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I am a little concerned that the doctors he has seen don't want to try to treat the high blood pressure, as high blood pressure causes headaches, dizziness and blurred vision to nausea. If it is not resolved it can cause alot of damage to other organs of the body up to a brain hemorrage to a stroke.

I would also recommend doing an MRI with contrast if it was not done. The dye that is injected makes it alot easier to see any shwannoma tumors and tumors that sometimes could be missed without contrast.

I hope he starts to feel better soon! keep us posted


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**Kristin**

First Struck with Anorexia on and off for about 6 years beginning in 1993. 1995 Diagnosed with GERD, IBS, Anxiety. 2006 Diagnosed with CFS, 2009 Diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and Circadian Rhythm Disorder and Hypoglycemia. 2011 Diagnosed with Vitamin D Deficiency and Hyponatremia. But... why?! I think I am one step closer to that answer ON my own. Your are your own advocate for your health! No one can tell you how you can or can't feel!
   

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I Will Be Diagnosed !


 welcome to the forum breebug1982

Sorry about the short reply, not feeling the greatest lately so spending less time online. But just wanted to say hello

 Huge Hug
Sammy



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He needs a lumbar puncture ASAP - they need to be looking for anything that causes a chronic encephalitis.  Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain, caused by an infection.  It does not show up on *any* type of brain scan - the doctors need to look at the spinal fluid itself.  It can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites, and includes a number of tick-borne diseases like Lyme.  It causes headaches, personality changes, dizziness, confusion, photophobia - just as you describe.  The symptoms can get worse or better at various times.  His symptoms could be caused by periodic severe hypertensive episodes as well, but as the doctors noted, it would have to be very severe elevations of blood pressure.

Sometimes doctors don't do a spinal tap because it takes a lot more effort than just running a person through a machine or attaching wires, and this is especially true if the person doesn't have a fever or other obvious signs of infection, and it has lasted for months or even years.  But it is absolutely essential to have it done if it has not been done, because an infection can continue to get worse.  Even if it has been done, have them do it again and run the tests for the infections that they didn't test for in the first batch of spinal fluid (and I can assure you they did not test for everything.)  Regardless of ANY of this, even if he's had two spinal taps before, if your husband is as impaired right now as you describe, take him right over to the emergency room and refuse to take him home - I'm not kidding.  Tell them his memory is so bad you can't leave him alone and you can't care for him and your four kids - which is true!  At a minimum this will force a "social admission" to the hospital so that they can figure out a discharge plan.  They will then see from his behavior in the hospital just how confused he is and take it more seriously.  Even if for some reason they did not, you would at least be given assistance at home to care for him.

Just to repeat:
Take him back to the emergency room.
FIGHT for a full evaluation including a spinal tap.
Refuse to take him home again if necessary.

Please hang in there.


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Gender: Female
Posts: 263


I would definately listen to Julie... (11Bluemen.) She is very knowlegdable and helpful! Its so nice to have an MD in our lil world.  Smile


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**Kristin**

First Struck with Anorexia on and off for about 6 years beginning in 1993. 1995 Diagnosed with GERD, IBS, Anxiety. 2006 Diagnosed with CFS, 2009 Diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and Circadian Rhythm Disorder and Hypoglycemia. 2011 Diagnosed with Vitamin D Deficiency and Hyponatremia. But... why?! I think I am one step closer to that answer ON my own. Your are your own advocate for your health! No one can tell you how you can or can't feel!
   

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Did you husband work around toxic chemicals, or anywhere where heavy metals would be present like in an industrial area? 


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