27 with rapidly declining health – migranes, prostate problems, exhaustion, abdominal pain – what is wrong?
Saturday, October 31st, 2009A year ago my husband was in great shape. He was mountain climbing, kayaking, and backpacking. Although he is only 27 years old, his health has drastically declined in the past year. We’ve been to multiple doctors and have yet to have anyone give a diagnosis or even any suggestions. I’m not sure if these things are related to one another, but does anyone have any idea?
He has always had very bad neck pain, at the base of his skull. There is a lump there that I don’t have on my own neck. He describes it as feeling very tight, almost a pulling, and a lot of headaches originate from the area. His doctor referred him to a chiropractor but after a year of seeing him it didn’t help. Like yoga, it felt better for an hour and then started to hurt again. It has been getting worse lately.
About a year ago he suddenly had difficulty urinating, and we found out that he has an enlarged prostate. We’ve been to 3 doctors reguarding that and they don’t know what is wrong. He had blood work done and they don’t think it is cancer. Beyond that, they don’t know why it is enlarged. He has some trouble urinating now (it trickles) but other wise it doesn’t seem to be causing too many problems.
He has severe abdominal pain (ribcage and pelvic area) and describes it as feeling like he has swallowed "rocks or razor blades".
Four months ago his lung collapsed while he was sitting on the couch with our son. He was in the hospital for a few days, and has never felt entirely better after that.
Lately he is always very tired and listless, every night he feels like he has just climbed a 14,000 foot peak. It seems to be getting steadily worse.
Thanks Barb!
He was on antibiotics for awhile, I forget how long. I think it was a bit over a month, and then the next specialist we saw took him off of them.
I know that his tests for infection all came back negative. They also ran dye through him and took radiographs… I don’t think they found anything with that, either.
As for the neck and back problems… they took radiographs, said that it did look "tight" or something, and then told him to see a chiropractor. I wish they would do an MRI or other things. When we went in with his collapsed lung they almost told him it was nothing, that he was too young to have problems.
It is frustrating because doctors don’t seem to take us seriously. He isn’t the type of person who complains about nothing – when he broke his clavical he didn’t take his pain meds, same after his lung collapsed. He has a high tollerance for pain, so when he complains about this (which is now daily) it really worries me.
His neck also cracks and clicks when he moves it, and he says it feels like he can feel "bone hitting bone" – so herniated disc is a good one to look into, I think?
I thought about diet, too.
We are vegeterians, so I’m very careful to make sure that we are getting enough protein and B vitamins.
He is somewhat a healthnut, so we usually avoid artificial ingredients, hydrogenated oil, excessive sodium, etc.
I went over our diet with a friend who has her masters in nutrition, and she didn’t catch anything.
Sometimes I still wonder though…
If he has prostatitis, and it sounds like he does (an infection of the prostate) that would account for his enlarged prostate, abdominal pain and slow stream. What did the doctor do for that? He should have been put on an extended course of antibiotics (for 3 weeks to 3 months). The severe abdominal pain along with this makes me wonder if it is not a prostate abscess or perhaps kidney stones which could also account for the fatigue. Has he had a CT scan, MRI, any x-rays at all? The neck pain makes me question a herniated disc. This is quite a wide constellation of symptoms. I would try going to a tertiary care center if you live in the U.S. like a teaching hospital at a University, Mayo Clinic, etc. for a full workup.
