I have been offwork with a huge range of symptoms since last september.
It started with a fall on my finger which seriously damaged it. After a
month or so I started getting pains in other joints and my work at a
garage on nightshift became impossible because of rising stress levels
and not being able to stay awake. I thought a few nights of decent rest
would sort things out but the opposite happened. I started getting
spasms in my hands and fingers in both hands became swollen and stiff
and very hypersensitive. After a couple of weeks of constant sleeping
(in a strange semi-conscious kind of way) I suddenly found that I
couldnt sleep much at all: perhaps three hours and then a huge gap, and
constant exhaustion. I was also experiencing weird temperature extremes.
night heat (especially in the legs and knees) when I would have to throw
off all the bedcoverings, excessive thirst, and then all of a sudden the
opposite and I would be freezing cold and shivering. During the day I
would be wearing three jumpers to keep warm. I stopped sweating
altogether and my skin began to dry out and shrivel like an old man's (I
am 53).
Joint pain and muscle weakness was incessant, of varying degrees, and
I had headaches and often felt really ill - especially at night.
Tinnitus would scream and I would have shooting pains down my arms and
in my legs. I would wake up with a blocked nose and racing pulse and
find it difficult to breathe. Sometimes swallowing would also be
difficult.
When the doctors finally gave up on me (they ran out of blood tests to
do and everything was negative) I started searching on the net and
noticed about yeast. I had developed a strange rash whenever I drank
wine and so I began an elimination diet. I did get a lot better for a
while once I cut out all grains but now, four months into the diet,
there are still a lot of problems and the joint pain has got a great
deal worse. I can now only walk short distances before I get hot painful
knees and hips. Tomorrow, I am having the first of my thirteen amalgam
fillings removed and I will keep you posted on whether or not it helps.
For me, one thing I have learnt about the net is not to take anything at
face value! It's going to cost a small fortune to do this but, if I get
well, my goodness it will have been a good investment.