I think I'm dying and doctors aren't helping.

[WelshBloke]

I don't know what's wrong with me...

I'm going on 43 right now

You're getting old dude.

 

[amdhunter]

I do notice when I eat I do feel bad
Pots makes your blood pool around your stomach which could lead to you feeling bad after you have eat.

I am not sure. I have my Apple watch set to,when me when my heart rate rises above 100bpm for no reason and I've only seen it happen once.

When I was running and going to the gym I found it very hard to get my heart rate up. Also, I've seen a heart specialist less than a year ago for a check up and she'd never had anyone do the stress test and complete it on the fastest/highest setting.

It kills me to see myself revert back to my old self. I've already started giving away my clothes because I can't fit them anymore.

 

[JoeyM]

Fatigue and skin darkening-Addisons disease. JFK had it. Arthritis not usually a prominent symptom but easy diagnosis to rule out. See an internest!

Joe M.

 

[Brainonska511]

I have Aetna through work. They really don't cover much though. I've gotten almost a thousand dollars in bills for blood tests after 3 visits. I can see how people go broke.

They should cover plenty, but you'll want to stay in-network. In-network doctors, in-network testing facilities. The out-of-pocket maximums are going to be substantially higher for anything falling out of network.

If it is autoimmune like rheumatoid arthritis, I suggest trying to address it through nutrition and physical therapy rather than pain meds because they'll have you on nasty NSAIDs, steroids, and all sorts of other prescriptions with side effects that will potentially require you to take even more medications. Conventional modern medicine is great, but it royally sucks when it comes to chronic disease.

This is terrible advice. If it is autoimmune, at the very minimum, he'll likely need some short term treatment to knock the effects down and potentially long-term treatment to prevent further damage. There are numerous medications on the market for auto-immune conditions that don't require continual steroids or NSAIDs and each have a different tolerablility profile. But it may be quite important to have long-term treatment, as even if symptoms subside, you can have long-term damage developing due to the nature of some of these diseases when left untreated.

Regardless, the OP needs to find a primary care doctor that he can see routinely and can coordinate his care. Diagnosis by Google is not a good way to go.

 

[IEC]

I have Aetna through work. They really don't cover much though. I've gotten almost a thousand dollars in bills for blood tests after 3 visits. I can see how people go broke.

Aetna charges out the rear end if you are "out of network" and has a fairly high deductible for most of their plans.

You should use their website or call their # on the back of your insurance card to find an "in network" internal medicine or family medicine doc who sees outpatients and establish care in order to get to the bottom of this (I recommend internal medicine, but I'm biased). Going to walk-in clinics/urgent care facilities is good for acute problems, but not for chronic ones. Wasted $$$$ and was misdiagnosed (they treated my symptoms, not the underlying issue) because I used urgent care instead of a good primary care provider who had the time to follow me and figure out what was going on back before I had any medical knowledge.

You'll want to write down all the symptoms you noted along with when they started, if they get better or worse with certain things, etc so that you can give as much useful information to the physician when you visit them.

Disclaimer: This post does not constitute medical advice.

 

[Kaido]

I do notice when I eat I do feel bad, but it's mostly because I feel full and just sick. Not nauseous...just not normal. Doesn't really affect my muscle or movement though.

I do want to get back into jogging lightly - but it's impossible. And gaining so much weight over the last few months has me in depression and I don't know how to deal with it.

I'm used to eating a lot. It would be very hard for me to slow down.

Another thing that kills me is when I try to make an appointment - months could pass by before an appointment is available. It's why I've been using urgent care.

I'll call Aetna tomorrow and see if I can get a recommendation for a primary care physician.

Good call.

I had delayed reactions with some of my symptoms. There's generally three types - instant reaction, delayed reaction that comes after hours, and then long-delayed reaction that comes like a day after. And some foods stick around for awhile. Like with gluten, it can take up to 6 weeks for your body to completely rid itself of all gluten (and up to 5 months in some cases).

I had no idea that food was causing my issues because I just felt crummy all the time & a lot of my reactions didn't happen until hours after I ate. I ended up having SIBO, which is where my small intestine is screwed up. Basically it doesn't digest food properly (too much bad bacteria) & the food moves slowly through it (slow motility). I have to nuke it to reset it every few months with very expensive medication & also force the food to move through regular daily cardio, but I feel pretty normal all the time now. If you had known me before, you would have thought I was a hypochondriac...endless symptoms. Headaches, migraines, fatigue, weakness, insomnia, pale skin, random aches & pains, no energy, asthma, you name it. I had really bad exercise intolerance...within about thirty seconds I would just completely drain & HAVE to lie down. It's a big reason I got into computers, actually...nice low-energy job.

The key is being persistent until you find the root cause. Obviously something changed - your trigger - and now you're experiencing the symptoms. So you have to figure out why your body isn't working as designed. There are tens of thousands of problems with the human body & sometimes, like in my case, it takes years of research on your part to figure out what it was. I spent a lot of my own money seeing all kinds of doctors to figure out what was wrong with me. My GP had never even heard of SIBO before I found it online & requested a GI consult. Took the test, got the meds, felt better than I had my whole life, it was amazing. But it was also a waste of 20+ years of feeling crappy, having no idea what was going on, and having doctors essentially be useless for my situation. Granted, SIBO is a pretty new finding & there just isn't a lot of information out there, but the moral of the story is keep plugging away & pushing doctors to get a proper diagnoses. SOMETHING is causing this; the first step is to figure out what that root cause is.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I have nothing to offer, just my well wishes.

 

[GeekDrew]

My recommendation is much like the others here: find a primary care physician. For everything common, they'll be able to figure it out, or refer you to a specialist who can. If that fails, try again.

See an Internal Medicine Specialist, You should not need a referral. Another thought go to a place like the Mayo Clinic for a work up.

Also, this. I suspect that a lot of people would disregard the recommendation for the Mayo Clinic (or for that matter, any other major medical institution not near them); I know I used to. Long story made somewhat short: I was very surprised to find that my insurance covered most of the Doctors at the Mayo Clinic (including all of the ones I needed to see). A situation that I'd been dealing with for more than two years, without any resolution from multiple hospitals, was diagnosed by Mayo's staff very quickly. They had a suspected diagnosis within a few days of me being evaluated, and testing made the diagnosis definitive a couple of months later. Even if you aren't interested in their facilities specifically, don't rule out traveling to some institution that can help - particularly if they receive high scores or are otherwise well-known for any relevant specialties.

 

[UsandThem]

I'll share my story of using urgent care doctors. They're not all bad, but they are more focused on putting a band aid on the problem to get you out of there.

In my early 30s my back began occasionally locking up. It was very random, and sometimes happened at work, or from bending over to tie my shoes. This began a cycle for almost 10 years. My back would go out, I'd go to an urgent care place who would usually do an X-ray, and it never showed any problems. They always said it was a sprained back, give me some pain pills and muscle relaxers, and send me on my way. The problem would usually get better, and I'd continue on in life for months at time before the same thing happened again.

So my back continued to get worse, and once I couldn't even stand and get out of bed. My legs were useless. Once again went to an urgent care who did a X-Ray, told me everything looked fine, and gave me pain pills and muscle relaxers. So in 2013, my back went out again and this time I had burning going down my leg and it did not go away (I had the burning in the leg for several days before, but it would go away). By this time I had a primary care doctor for the first time in my life. He did an X-ray, and it came back showing no issues again. I explained to him that I have been battling this problem for many years, and he sent me to get a MRI. When it came back, he told me he was amazed that I was walking and not in crippling pain because my L4 and L5-s1 discs were totally blown out, and were severely pushed into the nerves that run in a narrow tube in your spine. I told him that I had the pain for so long, I just learned to push myself through it. So I had to have surgery to remove most of the discs, and cut several of my vertebrae to prevent them from crushing the nerves. To this day, I am still not 100%, and I never regained all of the feeling in my right leg/foot. I had pushed myself through the pain all of those years, and it definitely made it worse. However, if even one of those urgent care doctors had looked at the "big picture" and the history of all the times I had been in there for my back, maybe they could have saved me from making it worse. Looking back on it now, I bet many of those doctors thought I was a pill seeker.

So the moral of the story is find a good primary care physician, and ask questions when you see him.

 

[TheVrolok]

Fatigue and skin darkening-Addisons disease. JFK had it. Arthritis not usually a prominent symptom but easy diagnosis to rule out. See an internest!

Joe M.

Also associated with weight loss, not significant weight gain.

 

[mikeymikec]

What I call 'vending machine' style healthcare irritates me; patient comes in with symptom, if doctor immediately identifies the underlying cause or at least can put the patient in for a valid referral then the system is perceived to work. If however a patient comes in with symptoms that the doctor is immediately unable to do either for, then the shortcomings of researching and following up on a case comes into play.

Same problem in the UK despite state healthcare, so while the OP would be getting his service for free, it doesn't change the fact that it's still bad service. I acted as my mum's advocate in order to ensure that she didn't get fobbed off by doctors, and even then she ended up going to a private practioner in order to get the diagnosis she needed so she could get the op done free under the NHS.

It took me about 8 months to get diagnosed with Crohn's; what was especially irritating was when I finally got to see a gastro specialist, pretty much his immediate reaction to hearing the symptoms was "sounds like Crohn's".

 

[Anubis]

Lyme disease?

?

first thing i thought of as well

 

[Brainonska511]

first thing i thought of as well

Lyme disease would likely only be a suspect if the OP spent some time on the past year in areas where the ticks may be prevalent (e.g, hiking near tall grass in the NE). If he's just in a city all the time, I bet the chances of contracting Lyme disease are extremely low.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I don't know what's wrong with me. In the span of 5 months, I've gone from being able to run 5 miles a day, to not being able to get out of bed.

It started with my right knee. It hurt like hell for a little bit and the doctor gave me Aleve and a muscle relaxer. It helped a lot, but still couldn't really run anymore. I figured I'd take a month off.

A few weeks later my left knee did the same thing, and then my right shoulder. I could barely walk, and I still can't raise my arm, or get my shoes from under my bed.

This week it's my back - it feels like a knot and I have to roll off the bed. I couldn't put my underwear on just a few minutes ago after a shower and had to shave with my left hand. When I walk I have my arm curled.

Aleve works great, but I want to know what it is that's causing so much pain. I've gained about 20lbs because I still eat a lot but am not longer running, and my face has gone from reddish tone to a burnt black.

I don't know what to do. Doctor's bills are climbing and they aren't helping. They've performed xrays but not an MRI but there is no pain in my knees right now - just weakness. For example, I need to use my arms to push myself off the toilet. I can't just get up.

I'm going on 43 right now - and I'm actually worried that I am going to get killed crossing the street.

WTF is wrong with me ATOT? I'm doing a good job of hiding my symptoms once I get up and start walking, but the moment I sit or lie down - it's a mission to get back up.

☹️

Could be gout. Have them check you for hyperuricemia.

 

[zinfamous]

See an Internal Medicine Specialist, You should not need a referral. Another thought go to a place like the Mayo Clinic for a work up.

This. Try to grab a contact at Mayo Clinic if possible and see if they can work something out with Aetna through work.


Actually, PM me and I can hook you up with my stepmother, who is an infectious disease specialist at Mayo in Jax, and could probably put you in contact with the right people based on your symptoms. You probably need to go through a comprehensive battery of tests with multiple specialists, and few do that better than Mayo.

 

[gill77]

You are in New York, you should have access to some of the best medical services available. Find a clinic that takes your insurance and is associated with a respected hospital.

Make an appointment, even with a nurse practitioner. If she cannot diagnose it immediately, she will get you to someone who can.

Walk in with your insurance card and a copy of all your lab work.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Aetna charges out the rear end if you are "out of network" and has a fairly high deductible for most of their plans.

You should use their website or call their # on the back of your insurance card to find an "in network" internal medicine or family medicine doc who sees outpatients and establish care in order to get to the bottom of this (I recommend internal medicine, but I'm biased). Going to walk-in clinics/urgent care facilities is good for acute problems, but not for chronic ones. Wasted $$$$ and was misdiagnosed (they treated my symptoms, not the underlying issue) because I used urgent care instead of a good primary care provider who had the time to follow me and figure out what was going on back before I had any medical knowledge.

You'll want to write down all the symptoms you noted along with when they started, if they get better or worse with certain things, etc so that you can give as much useful information to the physician when you visit them.

Disclaimer: This post does not constitute medical advice.

This post may not constitute medical advice, but, it does constitute great advice in order for him to get the best medical advice at a hopefully affordable rate.

My Doc is an internalist and he is awesome. Has helped me out a ton.

 

[RLGL]

My Doc is an internalist and he is awesome. Has helped me out a ton

If it wasn't for my Internist's Care I probably would not be alive today.

 

[Thebobo]

Could it be Lyme disease? I had it last year and it's not fun, and there was a 24 hour period (before I knew I had it) where my joints were aching like shit. Like my knees, wrists, and ankles, all out of nowhere, like I had arthritis. And that was just part of the "fun". I had fevers reaching 104 degrees and then went to the urgent care clinic and get there and have no fever. Then later that day the fever comes back. It all around just made me feel like shit. I never had the bullseye either, and I can't pinpoint when I got it, but I can think of a place I could have gotten it.

That's what I was suggesting and as well but it also depends if he lives in an area where he could've gotten a bite this time of year.

 

[TheVrolok]

Could be gout. Have them check you for hyperuricemia.

Serum uric acid is unreliable for diagnosis during an acute attack.

 

[highland145]

Best of, AMD.

Took ~9 months before we knew the wife even had an autoimmune disease. The symptoms mimicked glaucoma, shingles, Bells palsy, breathing issues...sarcoidosis, ftl.

 

[Scarpozzi]

My wife is a Physician Assistant in an Internal Medicine office. She has issues with auto-immune disorders and depression herself, so she understands a lot from experience. Definitely avoid older doctors...get someone around your age....you want an experienced person that isn't just going through the motions. It's really tough to find a good doctor that actually thinks. Many of them just go through the motions from patient to patient.

Definitely start with your labs....get blood work done and see if any of your numbers are low or high. I've known people to have issues with cortisol (Addison's Disease), b12 deficiencies, vitamin D, etc mess them up...

Some foods you're eating may be encouraging inflammation and even causing you issues with nutrient absorption. Eating right can fix a lot, but you may need supplements or a few shots to get you back on track. Read about the Whole30 diet and see about removing sugar, grain and dairy from your diet. I did this and felt a lot better while on the diet....I basically ate shredded cabbage and beef stirfry for a month...lots of unsweet tea and fruits when I had sweet cravings. If your blood sugar is out of whack, removing sugar from your diet and boosting your vegetable intake can help your system regulate itself better.

Make sure you don't have any real GI issues going on. If your stool has changed since this stuff started, it's a good way to identify if you may have something going on in your gut. Most of medicine when doesn't connect the dots from muscular-skeletal stuff to GI....but often, you can fix everything from your brain to your brawn by figuring out if the fuel you're eating is actually doing what its supposed to do. Just keep that in the back of your mind if the labs don't shine a light on the real issue.

 

[amdhunter]

Thanks for the advice guys. My new battle is finding a doctor in a convenient location that is accepting new patients. I didn't try very hard - I'll have to spend a day trying to get one that is convenient. It's probably a luxury though.

 

[JoeyM]

Also associated with weight loss, not significant weight gain.

Only thing I could think of with skin darkening. Fatigue could be anything and weight gain from lack of activity and increased appetite.
Admit it's a bit of a zebra.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Do you eat unhealthy or excessivly? Stopping to work out for a bit should not have you gain weight that fast. I weigh around 140-145, sometimes hit as high as 155, and I don't really work out all that much. Whether or not that's the cause I don't know though. Given it started so suddenly it may be some other issue. I do find it annoying how doctors seem to be dismissive, they only want to treat stuff, and not actually cure it. Recently saw my family doctor for a general checkup and basically there's nothing he really wanted to do. How about checking blood levels, maybe prostate check, and other tests? It's better to be preventative than wait until something happens. Since heart issues run in the family it would even be nice if they'd do an angiogram every couple years. It can't hurt. But nope they rather wait until something actually happens first. At least I don't have to pay anything.

I did end up getting blood work done but just because I mentioned a few other things that were wrong with me.

I would give this more time though, maybe it's something that will pass. I woke up with a sore knee once, though in my case it got worse and worse, never figured out what caused it. Had to go for physio. Maybe try to do some stretches and stuff and see if it helps.