Discussions By Condition: I cannot get a diagnosis.

Heart? Digestive? Lungs? Blood? Hormone? HELP!

• Posted By: Anonymous
• June 25, 2010
• 03:23 PM

I am 23 yo female, with a 12 yr history of eating disorder (anorexia + bulimia), several overdoses on prescription and non-prescription medications, and intense use of diet pills (more than 12/day) in 2004-5.

Recently I am having a lot of symptoms:

1) Sudden nausea (sometimes with vomiting), seems unrelated to eating, maybe worse after, but stomach is stretched out/bloated and very uncomfortable all the time. Feels overly full even when I haven't eaten in a long time.

2) Shortness of breath. Difficult to take a deep breath, similar to what I've felt in the past during panic attacks, but without any anxiety. Very frustrating, and present pretty much all the time now, though gets milder sometimes and more severe other times. Seems unrelated to position and other factors, except that cold blowing air helps a bit. S.O.B has developed over the last few months and is getting worse quickly.

3) Fatigue. I feel generally weak and low on energy even with plenty of sleep. Often (4-5 times per week I'd say), I get sudden fatigue and have a lot of trouble keeping my eyes open. This is a very new problem in the last month or two.

4) Chest heaviness, not always present, and usually mild when present, but have had two episodes of much heavier "crushing" type pain with a lot of pressure. The last time was about a week ago, and when I took my pulse it was 41.

5) Palpitations. Very aware of my heart beating, it is often slower than usual for me (50-60) and then suddenly speeds up to 80 or so, without provocation. My normal heart rate before all this was (resting) 70-80. Now it seems about 55 or 60, and I'm doing much less exercise because I'm always exhausted.

Other info: I smoked lightly for about 3-4 years, about 5 cigarettes a day. A few weeks ago I cut back to smoking only on the weekends, so now I smoke 3-4 cigarettes per week. I have had two yeast infections in the past two months, and have never had one prior. My normal body temperature is low, about 97.5-98.0, and in the last couple months it has been consistently around 99.0-99.5. I have had neck, shoulder, and jaw pain for over a year due to an accident, but they has gotten less severe, and all seem much worse lately. I am eating pretty well and am at a healthy weight (5'4" and 113 lbs). I walk a lot since I'm waitressing and have a 2-yr old daughter, and have done a lot of yoga in the past, but have been unable to practice yoga because of health issues for the past few months. My period was 3 weeks late last month (not pregnant-took 3 tests), and then came very heavy. It is generally awful and requires very strong pain meds to handle whenever I get it.


PCP did an EKG, O2 stats and blood work (unsure which tests). Everything came back fine, though they had trouble determining my heart rate since it was constantly changing during testing. Ranged from 57 to 85 during the 15-min testing period. Referred to a cardiologist for a 24-hr holter monitor, probably next week.

If anyone can make ANY suggestions or offer any way to be more comfortable while the doctors try to figure this out, PLEASE do. I feel like I'm losing it.