Hi, I’m a 20 year old girl and am a bit concerned about the symptoms I’ve been having.
I spiked a fever a week or two ago that went up to 38.5 at its highest and never went under 37.5 at other times. It’s gone down now thankfully but I’m still either feeling boiling hot or freezing cold - no in between.
Over the past few weeks I’ve lost almost 10lbs, which is a lot for me because I struggle to lose weight at all. I haven’t been exercising at all and haven’t been dieting.
I’ve had a swollen lymph node on my neck that’s been there for about two weeks and hasn’t changed size, and one on my groin which has been there about three weeks and I think has gotten a little bigger.
I am no stranger to joint pain because I’m severely hypermobile, however I’ve been getting pain that I can only describe as being deep in my bones. It switches out between my legs, ankles, hips, arms, wrists, fingers, ribs, shoulders, jaw, back and neck. Something is always hurting.
I’ve had head congestion that never goes away, as well as frequent headaches.
I feel weak and breathless all the time. I’m breaking a sweat at the lightest of exercise, even walking up and down the stairs doing laundry.
My ribs feel bruised, my chest feels like there’s a weight on it. I’m getting sharp pains under my left ribs, and sometimes my right, and for the past few nights I’ve had a strange warm feeling down the side of my left ribs when trying to sleep.
I’m absolutely exhausted all the time. I’m either sleeping 12+ hours a day, or I’m struggling to fall asleep/stay asleep/wake up from sleep. I never feel refreshed and can’t focus on anything.
I had my period last week and it was very unusual (sorry if this is TMI). My periods are always heavy but normal consistency, this time it was a short period and relatively heavy but my blood was super thick, it basically came out in all clots.
I also have what’s called migraine with brainstem aura, where I get episodes of tongue tingling, facial numbness, vertigo, nausea, weakness, internal tremors etc. Yesterday I had my first episode since last September, and during the night last night I had another episode, this time making my legs mostly numb for an hour, which doesn’t normally happen. I was also struggling for breath so badly last night I nearly went to get my mum to take me to the hospital. I’ve had the internal tremors throughout today too.
I went to see the GP on Monday for my symptoms. I saw a paramedic because my case was classified as acute illness. He checked my chest and said I mostly look okay, except my chest sounds a little rattle. He said it’s probably a chest infection, and put me on antibiotics. It’s day 5 of antibiotics today but I don’t feel any better. The chest pains have spread to my sternum, I feel absolutely exhausted all the time and my bones really hurt. We went back to see him and he said my chest actually sounds a lot better, and everting else looks okay. I asked for a blood test because I get ill so often that I’m sure I have to be iron deficient, but he said no. He said it’s a Friday, they don’t have the people to do it, and he also doesn’t know what he’d be looking for in a blood test. He said there’s nothing they can do for me, and if I struggle badly for breath again the only thing to do is go to A&E.
I came out of the doctors crying. My symptoms come and go but there is always something there. Maybe it’s all my conditions flaring up at once and it’ll probably resolve itself in a week or so, but I’ve heard stories about people not catching things like leukaemia in time due to the generic symptoms and their lives being taken due to it.
Am I being dramatic? I feel like I’m not being taken seriously at all. My mum said I’m likely not helping myself by resting so much throughout the day, and says I should get up more to do things and get my body back in a routine, but I’m just so exhausted. I know chances are it’s nothing but I’d hate for something big to be missed if that is the case.
Should I go down the A&E route next? Should I wait it out and see if it gets worse?
