The Cycle of Symptoms

I have been very sick since June. I have been having fierce chest pain which is exacerbated with exercise. Doing the slightest amount of exertion causes me to be gasping for breath, and I clutch my chest in severe pain. I become very dizzy, light-headed, nauseous and feel as though I am going to pass out. Sometimes, the symptoms are too much, and I collapse to the ground.

There is always a constant chest pain, which often prevents me from sleeping and will wake me up from sleep. I am concerned because my blood pressure is elevated at rest. Usually my blood pressure is 90/60. Since July, it has been 135/85. I have also noticed my heart rate is faster than normal whenever I leave my bed. Additionally, it feels as though there is a knife in my back. It began in February and has progressively gotten worse. I have started sleeping on my stomach in a vain attempt to alleviate the back pain.

As the day progresses, my body retains water. In the evening, I notice my ankles are swollen. My abdomen nearly doubles in diameter. My face swells, and I look as though I took a punch to the face when my right eye becomes puffy.

The chest pain builds up more and more each day and then BAM! I have an attack in which I feel as though my heart is being strangled. My heart races. My blood pressure soars. Although I am on a ventilator, I fight to breathe. The pain is horrific. My heart rate is irregular and bounces between 80 and 145 beats per minute. I feel as though I am going to die.

After fighting through all the symptoms, like magic, the tremendous pressure on my chest instantly lessens. My body stops struggling to breathe. My heart rate decreases. My blood pressure drops. My chest remains painful and achy, but I no longer have the horrible sensation as if my heart is being squeezed to death. My breathing remains slightly more rapid than normal, but I am not gasping for air.

The day after the attacks, I cough up blood. Two days after these awful attacks, I develop severe pain in my calf. I cannot walk on the leg without it exploding in pain. When I elevate the leg, the pain decreases. As soon I try to put weight on the leg, the pain comes roaring back. The leg symptoms last for the next 2 to 72 hours. Then, the pain will instantly disappear. I will feel a release in my leg and associated with it, it will feel as though lightning shoots up from my calf through my blood vessels and to my lungs. I then develop excruciating chest pain, cannot breathe and often collapse to the ground. After a minute, the chest pain goes away, and my breathing returns back to normal. There is a residual soreness to the calf area for a short time, but soon it is as if nothing was ever wrong with the leg. These painful leg attacks will happen several times during the week after the severe chest pain.

I am tired and exhausted. My arms are covered in bruises from blood vessels which ruptured and broke during blood draws and IV lines from my last hospitalization. I am grateful to be feeling better than what I was, but the mystery still remains what is causing all these symptoms. I have more appointments and testing in the weeks to come.

I know God knows what is wrong with me. I just cling and hold fast to God and trust that whatever happens, He will lead, guide and direct me in the way I should go. During a time in which I should be depressed and without hope, I rejoice in each day God lets me live. May the source of my health issues be soon revealed.