Hi all my name is Rita,
I'm happily married with four beautiful children and I am 29 years old.
I have just completed my spring semester with As and Bs and am part time military. That means I'm in the national guard. It's a lot of fun even though some people think I'm crazy for thinking my job with the guard is an exciting way to spend a weekend. So anyway now I've shared some back info. Right now
I'm undiagnosed but I'm flip flopping from physiological to psychological as I've been told a couple things by a couple doctors.
So let me break down all of my symptoms and my history. When my (now husband then boyfriend) and I were dating everything was fine. After we got married we liked to go on hikes. On our first hike it was a warm summer evening. After the first mile I had to stop. I had an intense itching in my thighs. I was 21 years old. This was all new to me it wasn't like I wasn't used to walking or I was a slothful couch potato. I had a normal lifestyle prior and no weight issues and we weren't hiking through bushes or trees or vines. We were taking a trail in a local park. Well the itching was borderline burning but I never saw a doctor about it. I figured maybe it was sweat or a bug bite. A few weeks later we were walking on a board walk by a pretty river and taking pics and I started itching again. He said lets just go home and enjoy a quiet evening there.
Anyway soon I was pregnant and all the symptoms were gone. Itching, burning in my legs and occasional balance issues gone!
After my boy was born my itching, pins and needles and even weird numbness and itching in my torso came back. Still I'm one to avoid doctors and I wasn't about to go to a doctor for itching. God invented chamomile for a reason, I told myself.
Well the circulation issues worsened slowly over time. After my fourth I started having (embarrassing) loss of sex drive then with that came balance issues again. Like I said,
I'm not one to lament so I didn't call the doctor until the coordination issues, paresthesia, and numbness were all together all at once and causing me to fall. When the stuttering kicked in I called my husband. (I was just leaving class) my speech had stated slurred a few days before but was full on stuttering when i called for a ride. He said "that does it. You're having a stroke or something!"
After a cat scan of the head and a MRI of the head the neuro comes in and says "no disorder presents with stuttering and balance issues sooooo..."
And trailed off...then the house doctor comes in and suggests complex migraines. I said "well sure can I just get some pain relief and go home?" So he says he's not sure maybe I need to go to rehab.(physical therapy). I'm all about it. Whatever to stop the symptoms. So then another neuro comes in and says no it's conversion disorder. I google that and I start crying. How can I have a mental illness? I have never been raped, molested, kidnapped, witnessed a murder, been to war etc..
She says not to worry it doesn't reflect poorly on me. She was real nice and since I was crying she said "definitely conversion!"
I sobbed a bit more but after googling and finding out cd patients spend a lot of money and time in denial I asked "well let me see the psych on call so i can get some meds and go home"
She brings in the psych the next day. He gives me a full work up. Question after question. Distraction techniques, trying to make me think of a trauma I haven't overcome. Asked me to name off stressors. I admitted to being phobic around escalators. He said do I see them a lot. I say no of course not. I avoid my trigger. He says "nobody gets cd for being afraid of one trigger. This isn't cd. And you're very compliant. The neuro is passing the buck"
So after three weeks of symptoms and three nights in a hospital I was able to get some Tylenol and go to sleep. On the forth day I had little stuttering left and I could walk enough to get home...if
I wouldn't have passed the morning pt they were going to send me to rehab at a local physical therapy center. I walked good enough. I had to go home because I hate hospitals and missed my life. The symptoms seemed good. Then this past Saturday I was having a blast at a fun festival with my family. We were eating hot dogs, visiting with costumed super heroes, but it was warmer than normal. I felt my legs go numb then drag behind me. I said "well if it's cd f it. I'm not drawing attention to a symptom that exists because my mind is having a tantrum." My husband points it out and I'm like "nope. Ignore it." I continued to experience bilateral weakness but I stayed distracted.
Got home in the ac and the weakness was still somewhat there but it was less so? We went to a birthday party where there was body heat and it made my symptoms worse. In addition to paresthesia, bilateral muscle weakness and coordination troubles, itching In my trunk and random loss of feelings in random body parts I also have isolated sleep paralysis and intense cervical spine pain that hurts from the cervical spine to the area below my bra. Also when my legs are weak my muscles hurt in my calf and thighs.
So idk. The one neuro said she hasn't ruled out enough organic causes to actually call it cd but she is making it a place holder diagnosis while we wait...I don't see a neuro until September.
So I'm landing here since my place holder diagnosis is between migraines and cd. Will you guys have me?
I have no mental health history to discuss and no life altering traumas so I assume if it is cd I won't get therapy because there is legit nothing to talk about. are there other treatments when you don't have anything to talk about? I'm not one to pill seek. I always sign off on the doctors paper work that "no medication" thing.
But I want anything to make my body work again. A diagnosis of CD will get me tossed from the NG since I haven't gone to bct yet.
But I'm useless with these symptoms anyway