What the fuck is wrong with me?

[leroy jenkins]

Well appart from the obvious of course...

I've been feeling shitty for the past couple months, barely even noticceable, just like a cold that won't go away. Every once in a while it gets worse, but its been subtle enough that I've been wondering wether I'm just going crazy or not.

Went hiking today and just felt super weak, not even realy out of breath but just weak, like how you feel for the first little bit before you get hydrated and get warmed up, except this lasted all day, and whats more, I started feeling naseous, which continued well after I got off the mountain.

Ok, I could go on about the sublte little sympoms for a while (loss of apetite, tired all the time, etc) but heres my point: I coulda swore I had pnuemonia, I had it last spring and it felt so similar, but I saw the doctor today and theres nothing wierd in my chest x rays. All my glucose and white blood cells and everything are normal, the doctor told me I don't have to worry about having AIDS or Lukemia or something so thats good. The doc perscribed me some asmha medication (Albuterol), although she assured me I don't have asma.

Heres the part that really confuses me, I did a peak breathing type test, I can't remember what its called, but you're supposed to blow real hard into a machine and it measures the force. Mine turned out like half of what it should be for someone my size and age, which really is like a quarter of what it should be, since I do excersize a fair amoutn ussually. Just from looking at that test though, the doc was telling me that unlike most people, when I excersize, the oxygen level in my blood goes down instead of up.

Thats the part I really don't get: How is that possible, and how could she tell that just from looking at that one test?

Fuck, well at least I have a good excuse why I couldn't keep up with workingforturns today.

[Tri-Ungulate]

Could be a lot of things. I'm guessing from your description that you did some PFTs (Pulmonary Function Tests). Was there a computer involved, with a graph that made a loop when you were exhaling? If so, she may have been referring to your DLCO (Diffusing Capacity for Carbon Monoxide), but what she meant I can't entirely figure out. What other tests have you had done? Has she checked your thyroid levels?

[leroy jenkins]

Could be a lot of things. I'm guessing from your description that you did some PFTs (Pulmonary Function Tests). Was there a computer involved, with a graph that made a loop when you were exhaling? If so, she may have been referring to your DLCO (Diffusing Capacity for Carbon Monoxide), but what she meant I can't entirely figure out. What other tests have you had done? Has she checked your thyroid levels?

The breathing test sounded like oriograph or something, definitly started with an o, if that helps at all, there was a computer and a graph showed my breaths, with a sharp upward rise at first, then gradualy going back down to zero, don't know if thats the loop you meant.

I didn't hear any mention of the thyroid, I'm assuming that that is part of the half of the bloodwork they have to send out, so no results yet.

Also, I had a lot a ketatones (?) which I guess is indicative of dehydration, which makes sense because although I've been drinking a bunch of water I just can't seem to get hydrated.

I guess I should have remembered the names of things better.

[summit]

What were the test results after abuterol tx?

[G]

Have you been screened for diabetes?

[skinnyskier]

Sometimes general symptoms like fatigue can take time to sort out. One question is are you exhausted and low on energy versus mostly short of breath when you exert yourself?

When people say they're short of breath when they run up hills, doctors wonder if they have a lung, blood or heart problem. When they say they're tired all the time, and resting doesn't help, we wonder about viral/upper respiratory infections, poor sleep, drug side effects, things like that.

It sounds like your doc is looking for a breathing problem with lung function tests ("spirometry"). You said you were sure you had pneumonia at one point so I think the lung work-up makes sense. She also looked for blood or metabolism problems with the blood tests. If the lung test results were really abnormal, people here can point you in the right direction.

[Tri-Ungulate]

Listen to skinny - he's a heart specialist and knows his shizz fo' sho'. A lung specialist who occasionally posts here is SLCfreshies, if it comes to that.

And Geoff - LJ mentioned his glucose levels were OK, though that doesn't entirely eliminate diabetes from the equation. I imagine you're akskin' 'cause of the ketones mention.

[Yeti]

Stressed much? What do you eat? How much sleep do you get? How much alcohol do you drink? What kinds of burnt plants' smoke do you inhale, and how often? You say you exercise relatively often -- are you talking 45 min per day, 5 days per week?

It sounds like there's a bit of uncertainty as to whether you have "shortness of breath" or "fatigue" as skinnyskier distinguishes the two. When underfed (whether due to inadvertent failure to eat enough or fasting) or underslept (week after week of 6 hours a night catches up to me when I'm training moderately), I've felt that general weakness. I think I know what you're talking about. For me, it's waking up predawn in winter, eating a quick breakfast in the 10 minutes it takes to get to the beach, and paddling to the outside of the lineup. My heart is racing from the cold water and exertion increased by 6mm of neoprene, but more so than it should be. When underslept and underfed, that "prone to racing/panting" stays; I feel like my base cardio output is higher relative to my max output. Having a (temporarily) stressful lifestyle, increased training intensity and substance use all make me need more sleep in order to get beyond that underslept level.

I'm not a doctor, other than a witch doctor.

[Dantheman]

Mono maybe? Don't know about the hydration and lung capacity part, but the chronic fatigue/feeling mildly shitty for a long time sounds about right.

[leroy jenkins]

I actually just got perscribed the albuteral yesterday, so maybe this was a bit premature, the whole thing just seemed confusing as fuck to me, especially the part about my O2 levels going down when I excersize.

Diabetes and mono have been ruled out.

As far as my habits go, I quit smoking pot about a week or two ago, but before that I was smoking everyday for like 2 months, during which time my excersize also went down to about an hour a week. I've been getting a decent amount of sleep, especially now I just seem not to want to wake up even if I've had 9+ hours. I did only get about 5 hours the night before last, which is probably what made me really notice all this much more.

Also, about month ago, I had a killer cold (or thats what I thought it was) tons of congestion and drainage, and I remember caughing up phlegm, but I just blamed that on the combination of pot and cold.

Oh, and the test I had was a spirometry, I don't know where I came up with that other name.

And, I can't really explain how I felt excersizing, I was breathign hard, but it wasn't just being out of breath, I just really felt like I wanted to lay down or something, and I also seemed to not feel too much better after resting for a minute.



And thanks for all the replies, I'm sure it takes a few minutes just to read through all this.

[Buzzworthy]

mono have been ruled out.

How did they come to that conclusion?

So you did have the mono spot test and it was negative?

[leroy jenkins]

How did they come to that conclusion?

So you did have the mono spot test and it was negative?

No, but they did draw blood, and did a urinalysis (sp?) and the doc told me she was pretty sure it wasn't mono, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to rule it out for sure though. Would mono effect lung capacity?

[summit]

again... what affect does the albuterol treatment have on your problem?

[leroy jenkins]

again... what affect does the albuterol treatment have on your problem?

None that I can tell. I don't know if its supposed to be a gradual thing, but if its supposed to make me feel better right away, then its worthless.

[taz]

you don't work with cattle do you?

[leroy jenkins]

Well while the albuteral inhaler doesn't seem to help to much short term, it must of helped because I'm starting to feel noticably better. I still don't get what the fuck this was. I asked my doc if she knew, and she said she was mystified but it seemed to be getting better, so I guess I'm ok. I just am kinda worried by illnesses I don't understand.

Thansk for all the advice everyone, if this pops up again, then I'll know what to do.