StephenR
30-11-14, 19:45
Hey y'all!
Look, I am extremely new to all of this. I never thought it would get to the point that I would have to post on here but, here is goes.
I am a 23 year old college student. I am a smoker. I am not in the best shape, but I am actually underweight.
This all started this past summer when I began to experience almost daily headaches. They did not bother me much at first but eventually they bugged me enough to visit the dreaded google. After reading up on brain tumors and the symptoms of them, I was convinced, that is what I had. My headaches immediately got worse after that. Lightheadedness for days on end coupled with the headaches and fatigue. It was at that point that I made a visit to the ER. They ran some tests. The main two being blood and a CT Scan. The blood tests showed that I had a "slightly high white blood cell count" but that was attributed to stress. The CT came back totally normal and I was told to stop worrying and that I was fine. This eased my mind a ton for a few weeks. I thought I was past all of it. No headaches at all the past month and the lightheadedness is completely gone.
Then, earlier this week, I headed home from school for thanksgiving break. I woke up one day with slight back pain and just thought that it might be from sleeping on a different and less comfortable bed. For some reason, that night, like an idiot I went back to google for answers and awake old demons. I started reading about ALS and just how terrible it really is. The next day, I woke up and had a constant heaviness in my legs along with the feeling of having pain or a knot in my back. It was then that I made the worst realization of all, I wave swelling on the underside of my wrist. It looks like it is stemming from one of the muscles or tendons that come down from my hand. A few weeks ago, I was screwing in a new banister on the steps at my house and I did put quite a lot of strain on my hand and wrist but that was so long ago and I just noticed this now. I have been twitching off and on all over my body for the past week and I feel so tired and fatigued all of the time. My wrist and hand have no pain where the swelling is but even while writing this, my entire body feels tight and my left hand feels off (I am a lefty). I have been looking at my biceps in the mirror for the past few days and I am almost positive that my left bicep is smaller than my right. I am scared that the wrist is the start of atrophy and that would be my biggest fear.
My sister is a registered RN and she seems to think that there is nothing at all wrong and it is all in my head. How can she be so sure? I just don't want to act like nothing is happening when there really could be. The physical evidence is there in my wrist. Has anyone else been though something like this? What else could be wrong with my wrist and why do I feel so weak and off?
Any reply is appreciated. I don't want to live a life like this. I feel like this is the start of a long and nasty road and I want to try and get off of it now before it is too late.
I have attached pictures of the swelling in the wrist. Sorry for the bad quality. Probably can't tell much but I figured that I would give them a shot.
-Steve
Look, I am extremely new to all of this. I never thought it would get to the point that I would have to post on here but, here is goes.
I am a 23 year old college student. I am a smoker. I am not in the best shape, but I am actually underweight.
This all started this past summer when I began to experience almost daily headaches. They did not bother me much at first but eventually they bugged me enough to visit the dreaded google. After reading up on brain tumors and the symptoms of them, I was convinced, that is what I had. My headaches immediately got worse after that. Lightheadedness for days on end coupled with the headaches and fatigue. It was at that point that I made a visit to the ER. They ran some tests. The main two being blood and a CT Scan. The blood tests showed that I had a "slightly high white blood cell count" but that was attributed to stress. The CT came back totally normal and I was told to stop worrying and that I was fine. This eased my mind a ton for a few weeks. I thought I was past all of it. No headaches at all the past month and the lightheadedness is completely gone.
Then, earlier this week, I headed home from school for thanksgiving break. I woke up one day with slight back pain and just thought that it might be from sleeping on a different and less comfortable bed. For some reason, that night, like an idiot I went back to google for answers and awake old demons. I started reading about ALS and just how terrible it really is. The next day, I woke up and had a constant heaviness in my legs along with the feeling of having pain or a knot in my back. It was then that I made the worst realization of all, I wave swelling on the underside of my wrist. It looks like it is stemming from one of the muscles or tendons that come down from my hand. A few weeks ago, I was screwing in a new banister on the steps at my house and I did put quite a lot of strain on my hand and wrist but that was so long ago and I just noticed this now. I have been twitching off and on all over my body for the past week and I feel so tired and fatigued all of the time. My wrist and hand have no pain where the swelling is but even while writing this, my entire body feels tight and my left hand feels off (I am a lefty). I have been looking at my biceps in the mirror for the past few days and I am almost positive that my left bicep is smaller than my right. I am scared that the wrist is the start of atrophy and that would be my biggest fear.
My sister is a registered RN and she seems to think that there is nothing at all wrong and it is all in my head. How can she be so sure? I just don't want to act like nothing is happening when there really could be. The physical evidence is there in my wrist. Has anyone else been though something like this? What else could be wrong with my wrist and why do I feel so weak and off?
Any reply is appreciated. I don't want to live a life like this. I feel like this is the start of a long and nasty road and I want to try and get off of it now before it is too late.
I have attached pictures of the swelling in the wrist. Sorry for the bad quality. Probably can't tell much but I figured that I would give them a shot.
-Steve