New Here,Urgent Advice Needed!

Hi there,

that´s Patrick,25 from Germany.

I will try to give you a very brief overview of my situation.

Since June know I am suffering from body wide muscle weakness,twitching,lack of balance and coordination.Along with that I experience a whole lot of jittering,shaking and fatigue.

the weakness seems very real to me and is affecting every muscle in my body although slightly stronger on my left side.My muscles vibrate and jitter often with every movement and extremly while exercising.Every activity seems harder than usual even walking,standing or holding normal postures.Every time I bent towards a certain direction I feel like I´m getting pulled abnormal in this direction.Because of this or seperatly I have difficulty with my coordination and balance.Walking around is already annoying as if you have to watch every step.And when I try to look to the left or right the problems tend to increase.

I have been testet over and over by neurologists and other docs and they always told me that it´s nothing serious,although I feel completly debilitated.

It´s so bad that my feeling has already convinced me that I am going to die on a nerve and muscle disease.The symptoms are there and pretty real so it´s hard not to think this way.90 percent of the day I think I already no that I will die cause it seems the only plausible option.The other 10 percent I try to at least convince myself that that is not the case.Today I read about Conversion Disorder for the first time,and I try to explore if it makes sense.

So I could need your help.Could this disorder present itself this way? Has anyone of you any similar problems with muscles or coordination?!

Could really need some insights...

thx in advance

best wishes

patrick

P.S. I forgot to write that a month before all this started I already began to experience panic attacks and rapid heartbeat which left me unable to sleep every night always fearing another scary night.thought I should mention that as this would eventually not fit into a conversion disorder...

Hi Patrick,

Before this happened, did you have any problems - physically or mentally? Conversion disorder is a very strange thing, and I feel bad when people think that they have Conversaion Disoreder. Having it effectovely means that you don't actually know what is wrong with you, and that thought must be scary. If you move away from psychology here, however, do your symptoms match the symptoms of any parasitic infections? In the past, parsitic infections have been mistaken for psychological disorders (because some parasites can directly affect the brain).

Do some research on these:

Toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii)
Sleeping sickness (Trypanosoma brucei)
Pork tapeworm (Taenia solium)
Beef tapeworm (Taenia saginata)

There are many more parsites, but research these ones first. There is also a bacterium called Brucella sp., that you should research.

Kevin

Hi Patrick,
I suffered for years with weakness on left side and balance disorder. I was diagnosed with Vertigo and given some medication for this, that made it worse. As the years went on I suffered more and ended up buying a wheelchair myself to get about. It was only when I went for a check up when I was having a baby that the doctor in the maternity hospital asked why I was in a wheelchair, and when I told her she made an appointment with a friend of hers in neurology. This made me feel better as I then might have a name for the thing I was suffering. The meeting went well and he arranged an MRI scan I thought this meant he thought there was a physical problem which at least they could treat. Although he did say there was no physical signs of disability or weakness even though i could hardly move out of my wheelchair.
I had to wait 14 months for the MRI scan and as time went by the symptoms got worse, and I had now nearly lost all power on my left side.I had read about people suffering with MS and had convinced myself that this was the cause, this was helped when my GP had mentioned that my symptoms matched MS. The time came for my MRI and although it was really uncomfortable to get through I was glad as it may lead to diagnosis and treatment. After the MRI I was in hospital A&E twice, once for just not feeling good in my left side and total weakness which they checked with ECG and blood tests which they said came back negative. The next time I actually collapsed and had to go to hospital in an ambulance. They did other tests and found nothing, this was all very disappointing as it was not helping to even give what I had a name. The meeting came round for the results for the MRI and I met the chief neurologist. It was he who said I had nothing physical wrong with me and that he thought I had Somataform disorder. This was the first time I had heard of this and was bitterly disappointed, I should have been glad I had nothing wrong with me, but I still had no control over my left side and couldn't walk and was going deaf and blind by now. He was nice but so adamant that there was nothing there for him to treat. I had to accept this too. He said it was usually due to a traumatic experience in childhood or after-wards and although it is not known why, the body can create physical disabilities because of these. I had suffered the tragic lose of a very close sister, and had also suffered sexual abuse as a child and young adult. I can see that this must be the cause of my suffering, although why I don't know. I just have to accept this and try to get better. The Neurologist said that accepting this was the first big step but the rest would be very hard work and small steps at a time. I am working on this now and hope to come back and let you know my progress. I hoped this has helped in some way, I am just accepting that each day is the first day of the rest of my life, and getting on with it.
Wendy.

Hi patrick, my daughter has the same symptoms along with a few more and unfortunatly have been very unlucky where our doctors and specialists are concerned. I wish u luck, health and happiness in your journey to freedom from this terrible illness