u/MugzySkates

Long story short, I have Crohn’s disease. I went into urgent care plus (it’s sort of like the emergency room) because I thought I was having a gallbladder issue or Crohn’s issue. They asked when my last period was, if I could be pregnant, etc. That’s fine, I don’t mind answering that. I told them I don’t have sex. Lo and behold, they did a blood pregnancy test on me because they obviously didn’t believe me.

I would like to know if anyone else experiences this.

Starting at 2 AM yesterday, I woke up with this weird pressure that started in my stomach (a pressure in upper right area) and spread throughout my whole body, it felt like my head was being zapped and my stomach was dropping or rising. It’s an awful feeling that’s hard to describe. It is sort of similar to riding a roller coaster. These episodes  would last about 2 minutes and kept coming in clusters over the course of 3 hours. It was so strange that I thought something was seriously wrong with me, so I went to the ER. All bloodwork, ECG and CT of my head came back normal (They thought It was just anxiety and sent me on my way). I went home, but it started back up again at 8 AM that day. I am still feeling like this but it has improved some.

I sometimes get chills and nausea with the weird sensations, an acid reflux feeling, or profuse sweating/feeling hot. My heart rate has stayed elevated (100 bpm) and won’t drop no matter how much breathing and relaxing I do. When these feelings come over me, I feel my right side of the abdomen tighten. I feel the right side of my chest tighten, and a weird sensation in my throat. It is a bit hard to breathe when it happens too. My stomach is bloated and distended.  I also have diarrhea. I notice the weird sensations are worse when I am lying on my side, right side especially (or if I push on my abdomen). It hurts to press on that area, but it doesn’t hurt continuously. After one of the waves of weird sensations happens, I feel really washed out and hung over. I have never experienced something like this before. It is like my body is in shock.

I’m theorizing it might be my gallbladder. My dad has a lot of problems with his, and two of his sisters had to get them removed. If this doesn’t get significantly better today, I will probably ask for an ultrasound to see what’s going on.

First time seeing a neurologist today. She actually listened and looked at the notes/research studies I brought her. She was patient and didn’t rush me. She believed me when I said I have weird ass side effects from everything and I’m sensitive to medications. She believed me when I told her I was dizzy all the time and didn’t brush it off as “anxiety.”

Turns out they had Emgality on hand and gave me the loading doses while I was in the office today. She’s going to try her best to get my insurance to approve it (since I’ve already been on propranolol and antidepressants for anxiety, and those gave me side effects even at tiny doses). I’m praying that it works for me.

This is a far cry from my experience at the gastroenterologist. I have Crohn’s disease. Before I was diagnosed he wouldn’t believe me when I said I was having bloody diarrhea. I even had pictures but he brushed it off as “anxiety” for some reason. It was only until I had a calprotectin test come back, which was at levels seen in people who need to be hospitalized.

I don’t know if this belongs here, apologies if it does not. My point with this is, get checked out by a neurologist if your experience sounds like mine.

I have had what I THOUGHT was dissociation for ~2 years now. Things that happened to me in the same day felt like they happened several days ago. The world around me felt like it wasn’t real, and I felt floaty a lot. I would completely check out when having conversations and forget what happened. I would get odd sensations on my face and in my arms, I would feel hot/cold/etc. I felt like I had tunnel vision, things seemed larger or smaller than they actually were, and lots of other weird sensory things. I thought it was anxiety + dissociation, at least that is what my doctor and therapist suggested. A few months back, I noticed this was triggered more in grocery stores or places with bright lights. Car rides too. I could have zero anxiety and walk into a grocery store and suddenly feel like I was drugged.

It turns out that most of my “anxiety” and “dissociation” was actually a medical condition: vestibular migraine.

Anyone else feel like their recent memories are very distant while you’re having symptoms?

I had a migraine + vestibular symptoms all day yesterday. For a couple days before and after I can put something down and immediately forget where I put it, I can walk into a room and forget what I was going to do, I will forget the names of people or places, and someone could be having a conversation with me and I mostly forget what they said. I can go someplace like the doctor’s office, come back home, and it feels like it happened a week ago even though it was the same day.

Last night I was having such trouble sleeping that I would keep moving between the bed, the couch, the floor, etc. I would fall asleep, wake up suddenly, and get freaked out because I forgot I had moved someplace else.

I feel demented or something. In fact, I was so worried I was demented that I started doing long division with large numbers to make sure my brain was still functioning. I didn’t make any mistakes, thankfully. How could I do long division but feel so absent minded at the same time??