Sick with no diagnosis... parasites?
Hi everyone. I'm new here so I'd like to introduce myself and share my story. I'm Lindsay, I'm 21 years old, and since April of this year I have been sick with a variety of symptoms, mostly stomach/bowel issues. I have doctors completely stumped... the other day I talked to three internal medicine doctors at once, including the main one who runs the clinic, and none of them had a clue because all my tests have been normal. I have honestly lost respect for doctors, because I now realize that if they can't figure it out they just stamp "anxiety" on your forehead and send you on your way. I'm only anxious because I'm sick!
Anyway, at the end of April I came down with what seemed like a virus. For a week I had a slight fever, nausea and vomiting (not severe), fatigue, body aches (my ribs and back were very sore and I had some pain and numbness in my arms that would come and go). I got better after a week but by the middle of May I was sick again. Both times, about a week before I got sick, I was getting these dizzy/flushed spells every now and then and could just tell something wasn't right.
The second time I got sick it really just didn't go away. It died down a little, to the point that the worst part was in the morning and after that I would feel decent. For a while I would wake up every morning and vomit mucus or yellow bile, but that started happening less and less often. I still feel a little nauseous most of the time when I wake up though, and now I have to have a bowel movement as soon as I wake up or I feel sick.
I have no appetite and I lost weight at first but now I've gained it back (plus an additional pound or two) because I feel like I need to eat a lot even though food never sounds good. I went from being able to eat anything at any time of day to only having a few foods that don't seem repulsive. There are days every now and then when I can eat like I used to, and usually on those days I feel the need to eat all day long.
The other digestive problem I've had is a LOT of gas. I belch uncontrollably, especially after I eat. Sometimes I will belch until I gag or even vomit, and sometimes I have horrible gas pains. The belching started a little bit even before I got sick, probably in the middle of March.
Some other issues I've been having are frequent lightheadedness and dizziness. Sometimes I'll feel lightheaded all day. Other times I'll just get these weird spells where it feels like I'm about to pass out... not in a low blood pressure kind of way where everything goes black, but like my brain is about to just shut off. Sometimes I'll get a little short of breath and have heart palpitations. Occasionally I have a slight numbness/weakness in the left side of my body. About twice a month I get a horrible headache, always behind my right eye. I also feel like my hair has been falling out more than usual and my skin is thinner. I don't know if it's my skin getting thinner or my veins getting more visible but the veins definitely stand out more on my skin. I recently developed an ugly purple vein under my eye. I have really bad eye floaters when I go outside.
The main reasons I suspect
parasites are the gas, and the fact that I feel like I need to eat more (even though I don't exactly feel hungry). There's also been mucus in my stool sometimes, and the other day I actually passed a long string of it (at first I thought it could have been a worm)!
It may seem like a crazy suspicion but honestly when you're only 21 and you go from perfect health to chronically ill you start to consider every possibility. I believe it HAS to be either something that I'm exposed to (I found black mold in my air conditioner and for a while I thought that was it) or something I've ingested. Because it doesn't feel like one organ or system malfunctioning, it feels like my whole body is reacting to something toxic. I can't remember when it was but my boyfriend and I made pork ribs one day before I got sick, and they were a little undercooked but I ate them anyway. Actually, when he cooks meat he tends to not get it all the way done so it could've been anything.
Another thing (sorry this is so long)... I've felt worse this month but I also started taking more supplements/herbs recently... I added caprylic acid, chlorophyll, grapefruit seed extract, and some other things because I've also been wondering if I have candida overgrowth, which can go hand in hand with mold exposure. But I'm wondering if it could be killing
parasites and it could be die-off.
Thanks for reading, any help would be appreciated!