Don’t know what’s wrong, scared

[Sugarcoatt]

I feel so weak. Jelly legs and arms. Aching all over for months. My shoulders and arm muscles are so achy today that my hands feel weak and I’m struggling to type. Terrible acid reflux that makes me feel like I’m being strangled.

I’m 43. Please someone tell me this is due to menopause! Because I’m shitting myself thinking I have MS or ALS or something. The doctor has given me meds for panic attacks and anxiety because I’m so scared. I’ve already had blood tests which say I need iron and Vit D, and I have meds for the acid reflux.

I was about to say this too. I was feeling so bad when I went to my GP, similar to you, that I thought I must have something seriously wrong with me. My GP actually thought I had glandular fever. My mood was really low but it was as a result of my physical symptoms.

Turned out to be virtually no vitamin d. I was prescribed 6000 iu per day for 8 weeks then 2000 iu per day for a further 8 weeks. I started feeling better after about 7 days then continued improvement from there.

Thank you. I also knew someone who was diagnosed with this terrible disease, it terrified me. So when I started having muscle weakness and twitches, that’s the first thing my mind went to, and I started having panic attacks.

I’m just scared that something awful is going to happen to me. Cancer, mnd, ms. Something debilitating that will destroy or end my life. I don’t know why I feel like this, but it’s coincided with the start of perimenopause.

That’s exactly how I feel. Like I’m having a breakdown. It feels physical not mental. Or rather, the mental distress is caused by the physical symptoms, not the other way around.

A large part of the problem is that my parents are facing death. I lost someone very close to me about two years ago and I never recovered. I can see my parents going the same way, struggling to accept their own imminent death. And I remember them being my age, and it seems like five minutes ago. Which means in another five minutes I’ll be in their situation, facing my own death. Death death death, everywhere.

And of course my life is shit, everything goes wrong. So I keep expecting my health to go wrong too. It happens to some people, and I’m the unluckiest person alive so I keep thinking it’s going to happen to me.

I never felt like this until recently, which is why I think it’s related to menopause. Which is in itself a sort of death. It’s awful.

Absolutely this. I had a severe vitamin d deficiency and the joint pain and muscle weakness were very much as you describe, OP. It can affect mood too. I didn't have anxiety but was feeling low and very tired.

Having panic attacks again this afternoon. Left calf and ankle is terrible with pains and pins and needles, right shoulder too, with pins and needles down my right arm. For days I’ve resisted googling the symptoms of motor neurone disease. Then I’ve done it and had a panic attack.

The nurse said it’s not perimenopause because I don’t have hot flushes. I’m on iron and vit d. I’m not getting better. I’m so scared but all the medical professionals are unconcerned 😭

The medical professionals aren’t concerned but you have been prescribed propranalol for the anxiety, so they have diagnosed that, and you haven’t taken it. I think you need to follow doctors advice, not the chemist, try the propranolol, if it doesn’t help go back.

As well as the medication could you try CBT as others have suggested, meditation, yoga, cold water therapy, anything that’s said to be good for mental health or do you do any of this already?

Medical professionals aren’t concerned. The problem is I think they’re wrong. There have been several instances where I’ve seen direct evidence of them being wrong in the past. My mother was my age when the same GP practice failed to diagnose an illness which nearly killed her (it could have been treated if she’d been correctly diagnosed). And only a few months ago they told me I did NOT have thrush… so I bought the treatment over the counter and it cured the symptoms of the thrush they said I didn’t have.

Also I’ve read several case studies where initial symptoms of scary diseases were dismissed as normal aches and pains, even though the victims subsequently died. In fact I had a bereavement just last year, my relative was thought to have a minor tummy bug until she vomited blood and died a few hours later. So I am not comforted by medical professionals being unconcerned.

I am trying meds (they gave me the runs so I’ve already been back and was told to halve the dose). I’m also trying meditation. I’m still shitting myself thinking these muscular pains are serious. I’m absolutely terrified and it’s awful.

Op you sound exactly like how I was end of 2020. I got covid and my main symptoms were a horrendous back ache and spasms, plus numb kidneys.
For months and months afterwards I had horrific anxiety, constant all day waves of panic attacks, body pain, tingling all over. I thought I was dying too. I ended up bedridden for 4 months thinking I'll never walk properly again as I didn't even have the strength to walk to the car and my anxiety made me feel like I was in the pits of hell.
I listened to a lot of self help on YouTube and briefly went on sertraline and gradually all the pain went. The panic settled to just anxiety and then I eventually had days where I could barely feel the anxiety. I have gone up and down since then but the body pain and tingling is gone. My joints are definitely not the same these days,m though and my muscles pull a lot more easily but I can go on long walks, climb hills etc no problem.

Obviously I'm no health professional but from what you've described I really do think it's a long covid type thing you're suffering from.
Covid is weird, I think it ramps up your histamine levels, it attacks your immune system, destroys your gut health (gut is linked to brain btw!) you can get a cytokine storm and all your nutrients depleted.
You need a bunch of multivitamins, meditation , anti depressants a holiday and a full once over from a really good doctor.

Are they addressing your vit D deficiency as my friend has terrible hand/ arm issues and it was just due to that, totally resolved with prescription vit D?

I'm in peri(I'm 45), and have felt most of how you are feeling. Digestive issues seem to be very common in peri, and I also suddenly developed a lot of food intolerances that I'd never had before.(again common in peri) It took me a while to work out what was going on(I'm vegetarian and suddenly had an intolerence to soya. Which was difficult!)

I've had the weakness too(another common symptom) Mine used to come on suddenly, usually accompanied by sudden tiredness, and eventually I worked out that for me, anything peri related comes on suddenly. Almost always with tiredness . So that always helped me to worry less, that and looking up symptoms and finding there's a well known peri link. Especially as I'd been repeatedly fobbed off by doctors..

At my worst, I was pretty much unable to live functionally. It does improve, and although I still have symptoms, and occasionally weakness, it has improved a lot. I make sure I have vitamin d-a high level,-peri increases nutritional needs, and iron, also your magnesium needs go sky high in peri, and it will help with the symptoms. I'd also recommend cbd and bach rescue remedy-expensive but it works for calming down

Forgot to say, aching muscles should be helped by the magnesium too

Did they check your B12 levels? Low B12 (generally under 400) can cause every symptom you describe (including anxiety), but it tends to get overlooked.

My B12 is 271 ng/L, they said this is normal. Borderline low folate of 3.2 ug/L so they gave me pills which aren’t helping. Ferritin 12ug/L, they said normal is 15 so I’m low but they said not low enough to cause symptoms. Again I have pills which aren’t helping. Vit D was 24 in Feb, they gave me pills which raised it to 77, perhaps it’s fallen again because they gave me more pills.