Are random health problems linked?

We often discuss how Fibro and IBS seem to be co-morbid. It has made me ponder life long health problems that I thought were random. I've had so many surgeries a friend has nicknamed me "Liz" for Elizabeth Taylor. Anyway, any Dr. House's out there who may haven seen this on Mystery Diagnosis?

Migraines since early adolescence

Severe ovarian cysts resulting in two oopherectomies ( removal of ovaries)

Adenomyosis resulting in hysterectomy (endometriosis within the wall of the uterus)

Three early term miscarriages

Surgical removal of pilondal cyst (cyst on tailbone)

Have a Meckels Diverticulum (an extra appendix)

Surgical release of anterior interosseous nerve (similar to carpal tunnel but in the elbow)

Surgical repair of rectocelle (prolapsed rectum)

Surgical repair of cystocelle (needs to be done again...prolapsed bladder)

Surgical repair of bone spurs under patella of knee

Chronic sacra ileitis since mid teenage years

Achilles tendon pain

Degenerative arthritis of lower spine ( an age thing)

Frequent conjunctivitis (pink eye)

IBS

Low blood pressure

Easily bruised

Lazy eye

Baby teeth had no enamel on them and had to be capped

When I was five years old my bladder was the size of a 18 month old baby. I'm not sure what it was called but I remember not being allowed to go to the bathroom so the urine would force the bladder to expand.

Frequent bed wetter (still a problem on occasion if I go in to a deep enough sleep. THAT hasn't happened in ages!)

Sounds like a connective tissue problem when it's all put together. I've never looked at it as possibly being all being related before, but perhaps I should have. Or maybe I'm just desperate to find out a name on why I feel so bad.

Thanks for your time in reading this. I'm sure in about half an hour I'll be adding things I forgot

Jewish mother a similar thread I'm going to try and combine the threads tomorrow. Thanks for bumping up that thread, Marion.

Just remembered more criteria

Insomnia

I am 1/2 Swedish, 1/4 Irish, 1/8 German, 1/8 French. I'm throwing that in there because I remember coming across something about Scandanavian women having problems with reproductive organs. My Mom was 100% Swedish and had five miscarriages. Each of her sisters had 3+.

I am sure they are. Sadly my opinion isn't going to get anyone anywhere....

This was sent to me today. I thought it might be of interest to some.

http://www.brucelipton.com/book-excerpts/the-nature-of-dis-ease/

Couple of thoughts....

I have had female "issues" too. Endometriosis, ovarian cysts and several abnormal pap smears (always come back normal the second time). Not to mention really nasty cycles.

When I have an injury, the body seems to go a bit haywire. I've had 2 joint surgeries to remove scar tissue that developed from relatively mild injuries. Had RSD from another injury that involved a nerve.

Rheumatic fever.

Essential tremors run in my family and I've been blessed with them.

Low blood pressure (scared I don't know how many nurses with it).

Bruise easily and scars remain a long time from minor injuries.

Small jaw that meant I had to have several adult teeth removed as well as serious orthodontic work.

Keeping an eye out for heart disease - already had my cholesterol levels out of whack.

I'm sure there are other things but those are the main ones that come to mind. Interestingly, I work with a guy that has a Master's in Chinese Medicine. I mentioned the head issues and after feeling my pulse said something about kidney insufficiency but I don't fit the classic case of it. He thought there might always be some inflammation running through somewhere and to try a inflammation diet. But this has had me thinking about some sort of auto-immune issue. That there's something causing inflammation all the time. Just a musing....

Small jaw that meant I had to have several adult teeth removed as well as serious orthodontic work.

Same here. I had to have my upper palate split to give my mouth room for my teeth. After having six teeth pulled!

Another endometriosis and adenomyosis patient here....had a hysterectomy at age thirty one. I know a few other women with endo and migraine also.

Have had a miscarriage and history of infertility

IBS

History of kidney stones (13 of the little suckers)

History of high blood pressure (Cured by migraine prevenatives! Ha! Something they do work for!)

Also have the small jaw, 8 molars removed to make room for teeth and orthodontics done.

Gall bladder disease

I had 8 baby teeth removed when I was about 6, they called it overcrowding.

And the endometriosis.

And awful periods, always....long cycle and dreadful cramps.
When the migraines came, they came with them, like the IBS before them.

one early miscarriage

Constant sinus problems and tonsillitis/septic throat.

Low blood pressure and low body temperature.

Bruise easy (where to they come from)?

Cholesterol too high, but diet pretty good.

And as mentioned elsewhere. Inflamed and almost non functioning right kidney with stones.

P

Hmmm...let's see..

adenomyosis
hysterectomy
7 miscarriages
1 premature birth (1lb 9 ounce baby boy)
ovarian cysts
fibroid tumors
ganglion(sp) cysts - 7 removed
abnormal paps
IBS-C
severly twisted colon
bruise easily
low blood pressure
depression
migraines/cdh

Gosh I don't feel so bad anymore. I thought I was the only one with a medical record that takes 4 folders.

3 operations for my ears at age 5 and 6
Multiple sprains and back injuries as my contective tissues are too lax.
Migraines at puberty and on and on
Two miscarraiges
Bunionectomy and osteotomy on my feet
4 whiplashes
Gall Bladder removal at 28
Hysterectomy at age 30 (took two surgeries as one was exploratory, Ovary freaked out and uterus was prolapsed)
IBS my whole life
Operation to repair my shoulder from a car accident.
Episodic Depression
Trigeminal Neuralgia
Fibromyalgia

I think that multiple traumas to the body are not good. It freaks out the nervous system which leads to crap like Fibro. Surgeries are traumas. Add in three car accidents and a couple of serious back injuries and it is no wonder that my body is a freakin mess.

Low blood pressure and high cholestorol point to thyroid.

With history of endometriosis - autoimmune - drag out your old blood tests and check you've had Thyroid peroxidase antibodies level checked. NOT JUST YOUR TSH.

I have wondered this myself... and wish there was a doctor who could put all the pieces together. Sometimes I hate being shipped around to different doctors, being treated for all these things. My rap sheet, other than migraine:
-polycystic ovarian syndrome w/ insulin resistance/borderline diabetic
-gestational diabetes and high BP during pregnancy
-psoriasis
-anxiety, history of depression
-chronic back pain

marion wrote:Low blood pressure and high cholestorol point to thyroid.
With history of endometriosis - autoimmune - drag out your old blood tests and check you've had Thyroid peroxidase antibodies level checked. NOT JUST YOUR TSH.

I am well aware of the thyroid implications Marion, thanks. Its the GP who is not it seems.
I have just had more blood work done. She is only interested in the high Cholesterol.....
NHS guidelines....

Thanks
P

My former cardiologist used to be convinced that there is a connection between migraines and mitral valve prolapse, which I have. He said that most patients he has seen for MVP also have migraines. Descriptions of fibromyalgia also usually list a bunch of conditions that are considered co-morbid. So although the key way to diagnose fibro is by checking sensitivity in certain trigger spots on the body, they also look for these comorbid conditions, such as migraine, IBS, GERD, etc.

Pen, that link you posted is describing pretty similarly what I'm working on with my therapist. We have noticed that during times when I'm unhappy or have something bothering me, my migraines get worse. He's a great therapist, but what also makes him so good for me is that he used to have severe migraines, but these same methods worked on him, and now he hardly ever has one. He does tell me from time to time that he had a migraine, but he also explains what he was doing to cause it, such as not taking care of his body or not dealing properly with stress and how acknowledging that will often make the headache go away.

At times I seem to have seen some improvement. I was starting to get a bit better in the fall, but then my trip to Brazil to see my brother for Christmas really set me back, and I've had a hard time climbing out of that hole that got created.

As for the studies about hypnosis, my former roommate and close friend is a social psychology major, getting her Ph.D., and she told me that they have done experiments where they have told people that they were putting out a cigarrette on their arms, but instead were putting ice on the arms. The arms actually developed the signs of being burned!

So I have come to believe that our unconscious really does play a role in my own pain. For example, right after we got back from Brazil, my dad got busy trying to find a new condo near my parents' house for me to move into. They had just sold the condo where I used to live when I was in grad school and had to put the money into something else, or they'd have to pay high taxes. But every time my parents went looking for a condo, and once they'd found it, to work on getting everything moved and unpacked, I would get hit with a horrible migraine and be unable to get out of bed.

That was when Alan asked me, "Do you really want to move out on your own?" I'd been living with my parents for several months and had come to enjoy it more, and I am terrible afraid of loneliness. So I was afraid that I would be too lonely and not happy at the new condo. As Alan has put it several times, regarding that reaction of increased pain, "They can't throw you out of the house if you can't get out of bed!" Once I acknowledged that I didn't want to move out and made plans to stay here, I did have a slight decrease in the pain, but of course something else came up that made it bad again.

I learned from Alan that we are only able to access 10% of our brain, so sometimes the stressor that makes the migraine get worse may be hidden in that other 90%.

If it ever does me any good, I'll be back here proclaiming that it works! But in the meantime, even if it doesn't get rid of the migraine, he has done a great job of helping me cope better with it.

Surgeries:

Eyes (correct crossed eyes)
Ears (Tubes)
Sinuses X 2
Biopsy ..lump in neck (cat scratch disease)
Gallbladder
Tonsils
Hysterectomy
Knee
Arm
4 other laps due to the endometriosis( before I had the hysterectomy)

Other health issues:
low blood pressure
fibromyalgia
IBS
thorasic outlet
chronic sinus infections

That's it..I think

Oh Pen,
The frustration. My cholesterol was up too and couldn't understand it. Have a good diet......
When the thyroid antibodies came suddenly had an explaination.
But your right, even though the connection is plastered over various very reputable medical sites, doctors still don't look to tyroid for the raised cholesterol.

Well here's what I can remember:
surgery to correct my crossed eyes
several ear infections
strep throat a lot
random bruising
migraines began approx. Age 11-now have chronic daily headache as well
polycystic ovarian syndrome
insulin resistant later becoming diabetes
Gallbladder removed
low bp
low grade fever all the time
appenidx removed
ibs-diarrhea
surgery to have septum repaired
years of sinus problems
severe allergies
dislocated hip from birth/hip replacement at 25
asthma
depression
anxiety/panic attacks
had surgery twice for MRSA although had 5 times total
undiagnosed pelvic pain-dr 85% sure is endo
ovarian cysts
undiagnosed body pain
reynauds disease

that's all I can remember. As if that's not enough. I find it interesting that several of us have some of the same conditions. Now some of them are common but is seems a little strange that we all have migraines AND several of the same conditions. I may take this list to may neuro and get his opinion.

Migraine since eight or so
IBS
GERD
Low blood pressure
Mouth ulcers
Leg & foot cramps
Low body temp. (hands and feet often cold)
Different eyeglass prescription in each eye

This sounds silly, but I could never shake the water out of my hair the way other kids did (shaking the head side to side) I still can't.

I think I'm a walking time bomb at 24...got the fibro diagnosis last week and its depressing.

New Daily Persistent Headache
fibromyalgia
suspected IBS
Reynaud's
non-allergic rhinitis
eczema
auto immune issues & sick all the time
low body temperature
low blood pressure (the pain has brought it to normal)
childhood asthma, allergies, and fainting

Don't think I actually get migraine. I was diagnosed mainly on the basis of family history and that I get nausea a lot, but I don't get bad pain & nausea together, and I don't have clear episodes that I could recognize at migraine, just bad pain and worse pain.

Interesting that it's only the ladies who have posted here so far.

Low blood pressure.
Low body temperature.
Easily bruised.
Slack joints/double jointed/dislocations of knee.
History of cramps.
Whiplash once and head injury when attacked in the street.
A period of IBS now gone.
Tooth extractions and orthodontic work as a youngster.
Depression and anxiety attacks.
Recurring periods of acne.

FYI for John:

http://www.medicinenet.com/ehlers-danlos_syndrome/article.htm

Cheryl

i might as well chime in here, too. ehlers-danlos and a bleeding disorder were suspected by ME, since i have many of the symptoms of both. both were ruled out by extensive testing.

bruising, entire life.
many oral, neck, septum, sinus surgeries
8 years of orthodontia
constant sinus infecions
new diagnosis: vasomotor rhinitis. along with allergic rhinitis
appendix out, age 22 (while pregnant)
fibromyalgia, diagnosed by rheumatologist
chronic daily migraine and chronic daily headache
chiari malformation
low blood pressure
sleep apnea
inguinal hernia (way more common in men)
extensive allergies
multiple chemical sensitivity and food-chemical intolerance
extremely different eyeglass prescriptions in each eye, as shirley mentioned. just 3 years ago a new ophthalmologist said there's a name for this: anisometropia

that's all i can think of now. dianne

sure enough i just thought of two more.......trigeminal neuralgia and 2 miscarriages. (but i did have 5 full-term babies with no trouble. including the 40-yr old "baby" in my avatar picture)

Cheryl

In looking at your link I had a eureka moment. My mother was almost textbook for EDS. Velvety skin, advanced premature osteo...many more, especially wounds not healing, but most importantly she died from blown blood vessels during a "routine"surgery.

She spent so many years searching for an answer...this is almost a text book description of her life. When my son was a little boy he used to like to play with Mom's elbow skin because it was so soft and stretchy...

Both myself and and my two sons have terrible stretch marks, me just on my stomach from pregnancy, but my boys have them on their shoulders and back and have since puberty. it makes me wonder about them.

That's really something, Paradox.

Geneticists are the health professionals to see for an EDS (or other connective tissue disease) evaluation.

Cheryl

Anna's Mom wrote:FYI for John:

http://www.medicinenet.com/ehlers-danlos_syndrome/article.htm

Cheryl

Thanks Cheryl. I do fit 1 or 2 of the EDS types quoted and it could run in the family. My grandmother was embarrasing in that she could get both her ankles behing her neck! I used to be able to the same. My eldest daughter had Congenital Dislocation of the Hip and years of surgery to put it right. We were told this was likely to be related to her slack joints inherited from me. My son had a club foot.

As it happens my other daughter had none of these. Instead she has migraines and bad eyesight which is also blamed on me!

I'll discuss this with my GP next week.