Blood work MRI menopause major anxiety
I am a wreck. 48 year old
Female. The last 6 months I have gone to ER about 6 times for feeling short of breath and dizzy Have had tons of blood work a few different times lots of in depth checks in my heart etc and the only thing that ever comes up abnormal is my hgb as a am mildly anemic (minor thalasemia) never a big issue. Every time I feel better within 20-40 minutes and it’s been chalked up to anxiety attacks. I’m nervous of taking anti depressants but have been prescribed generic Celexa. Recent stress at home and work has caused my anxiety be be almost 4-5 days week. I was sleeping and felt pins and needles on left arm and shoulder so went again to ER. The cognitive tests are all fine. I also had a recent colonoscopy and no issues Ithere other than internal hemmoroids since having children bother me mildly from
Time to time. I had a brain MRI and shown2 hyper intense flares on right side brain that are non specific. Since this news, I have not been able to sleep more thann3-4 hours a night, major anxiety and depression and of course now feeling tingling, chills, always have bouts of blurred vision and mild left hip and lower back pain which could also be from walking briskly for 90 minutes a day. I’m active, only am slightly tired from little slee but no fatigue when I do get adequate sleep. I took a hot bath for an hour and felt like their symptoms seemed exasperated for a day but then felt great for 3-4 days in a row. I am having a brain stem and spine MRI in a few days but my doctor says the flares are very non specific, more for reassurance and my blood work looks remarkable. I’m hopeful but I thought that blood work not showing any syptoms actually makes the possibility of ms higher? Which looks tests would be “off”? My syptoms never last long but have been learning that’s not a sign and they are not specific to a certain area of my body. Little tingling here, little there. Because of my age, being woman and have also had mono about 25 years ago. My grandfather on my moms side had ms as well. Might also have hit menopause; haven’t had a period in 2-3 months.
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One of the best things you can do is keep a written log of your symptoms. It sounds like you are experiencing a lot of things all at once. I recall my doctor telling me that if everyone had brain MRIs we would see many have non specific spots and these are not of notable concern. So, it sounds like you need to take it step by step and have the next group of MRIs. For me, I had to have several MRIs and then only after a spinal tap, determined it was MS. Do you have a doctor who is assessing your breathing difficulties? What about seeing a counselor also in the meantime to talk about your anxiety. Now is a good time to reach out. I always felt like counseling is an underutilized treatment….typically covered by insurance, but people are sometimes reluctant to seek that type of support. Remember that your main goal is to learn what is going on with your body, so that you can get the right treatment. Perhaps having a diagnosis of any kind is still better than the mystery of ongoing symptoms.