My Medical Mystery

I call it, "My Head Thing." Since my early 20s its the only way I know how to describe the feeling that comes over me when this "thing" happens. It comes out of the blue. One minute I'll be going about my day and the next I feel an incredible weight inside my head. Like a squeezing sensation. Kind of like an elevator feeling. I don't lose consciousness, but I sense a definite darkness in front of my eyes, as if a shade has been pulled down in front of me. My extremities are the next in line to go. I get almost an electrical shock feeling in my hands, followed by complete weakness in my legs. Then my heart goes BAM! Super rapid heartbeat followed by sweating, hands shaking, dry mouth, dizziness and just complete and utter fear.

It usually subsides within a half hour.

Doctors have labeled this as everything from Panic Attacks to SVTs to TIAs to Vasovagal Syncope. I label it "Hell." It has come to rule my life, my activities and my entire psyche. There was a time that I was fun-loving, happy-go-lucky and always on the go. But as these clusters occur (they always occur in clusters - I can go a couple of years without having an episode, then once one occurs I have them for months on end), I find myself retreating further and further into seclusion.

Its through this "disease" that I have come to understand how people can become agoraphobic. It seems safer to be home than out in public. I absolutely DREAD being in circumstances where I feel there is no way out. Dinner with strangers, movies, weddings...anything that would keep me in one place for a set amount of time - where an episode would be an embarrassment to me or an interruption of the event - causes me to avoid those events completely.

I just want an answer. I've had every test under the sun. MRIs. CT Scans. Tilt Table Tests. 31-day Holter Monitors. EKGs. EEGs. Doctors have found that I have mitral valve regurgitation (not what's causing this), a cyst on my right temporal lobe (not what's causing this), and sometimes high blood pressure (not what's causing this). No one can pinpoint the cause of my symptoms, and therefore, make them stop.

If you have had similar symptoms and have found an answer, by all means send it my way. Meanwhile, I'll continue my search.

And if you have a problem that has gone undiagnosed, send me an email and I'll post it on this site. Perhaps there is someone else out there who is facing the same symptoms and just needs a little comraderie in their search.