Disclaimer: First of all, before I type ANYTHING. I have already been to multiple doctors about this. I mentioned it in passing to my GP, however she tried prescribing something to deal with another issue thought to be related. Just the other day I had to go to a clinic because I was having the problem so badly. Tomorrow I plan on calling my doctor again and telling her about all this. So before you post it, I have been to doctors, and am planning on going to more. Don't worry, I'm not relying on GAF for medical advice.
What I would like is GAF's opinions on what the hell they think this is, so I will try to give as much background as possible.
About three weeks ago, I moved into a new apartment here in beautiful Austin, Texas. I absolutely love this city, lived here a little over a year. I moved here with my girlfriend, and lived with her in the previous apartment too. We have a cat, he is the cutest fucking thing. Since I know how much GAF loves cat pictures, here's one of him for you to enjoy (recent one too, I took this yesterday):
I had been coughing a little bit getting used to the new place. I have had some allergies all my life and am on some treatment for them. Generally, allergies don't get that terrible for me, and if they do, usually it's seasonal and they are pretty bad for many people. I have been close to this cat for tons and tons of time, and he never really gave me an allergy problem. At our old apartment, his litterbox was in our bathroom, and this still didn't bother me allergywise. We have two bathrooms here, so the secondary bathroom is basically his bathroom: His food, water, and litterbox are all in there, and we installed a dog gate on the doorway that has a little cat door in it, as we would be getting a dog pretty soon.
Right now I am unemployed, I made a thread a few weeks ago about how ADHD has affected my life, and caused me to lose my most recent job. I'm trying to work through my issues and get a new job, but it's very stressful and frustrating. Regardless, I've been changing medicines, going through different doses, etc. I had switched off of Vyvanse as it was giving me trouble sleeping to Adderall. This switch happened the same week we moved into the new place. I have gone up in dosage on the Adderall to 20mg, and it was still fine for a while. However this last week was strange, but before I get into that, let me relay one more story to set this up.
I mentioned that we installed a dog gate in the second bathroom for the cat to get through, as we would be getting a dog soon. I don't have a picture handy I can post, so unfortunately I won't be able to post a cute dog picture. The dog is from a rescue that a friend of my girlfriend's runs, and my girlfriend even does the website for it (run out of the rescue owner's house). My girlfriend has been in love with this dog for a while now, and at some points it was looking like she wasn't going to make it. Most of the dogs that came into that rescue were on the streets, bad owner, or something like that, usually with health problems, and some even dying immediately. There was a time someone dropped a bag (yes, BAG) of puppies on her doorstep and left it there. Of course many of those puppies did not make it.
Back to this dog though, she is about two years old, has a problem with her back right leg, and it looked like she would need $4000 surgery at one point. Then the vet took another look at her and discovered that she had a torn ACL, and it actually was nowhere near as bad as they thought, and that they needed to wait a few weeks to see if it recovered on it's own, or if she would need surgery. If she did need surgery, it was more like $1000, which is leaps and bounds better than $4000. If she does need this surgery, this would be paid for by the rescue. Anyway, the point of this is we got to go get the dog and bring her home much sooner than expected. This was last Sunday.
I don't have particularly bad dog allergies either. When we lived at the old place, my girlfriend had her dog, however she passed away last August. She was about 15 years old, which was much longer than vets expected her to live, especially with some health problems she had had, and actually got through. Regardless, 15 years was a pretty long life for a dog. I never really had any allergic problems around this dog either.
Fast forward to this week once again, and I know I'm a bit rambly here, but I want to try to get out as many details. I had this weird feeling on Tuesday night. My stomach hurt (most likely unrelated, as this has not happened again), and then on Wednesday I had this strange feeling like I was dizzy a bit when walking around, and like my heart was skipping beats, or irregular. After the first day, I thought maybe it was a fluke, but it was stressful. On top of that, I had this feeling of my throat closing, or something being stuck in it. I was coughing a lot, having trouble swallowing and breathing. I would even go into a brief few second panic sometimes thinking I couldn't breathe when I was trying to swallow and couldn't do it. Regardless, all my breaths felt shallow, like I wasn't getting enough air. Of course this was not good for my heart thing, but before any of this happened, my heart had felt weird like I described earlier.
I called my doctor and told them about the heart thing, and they wanted me to come in about it, and stop taking the Adderall. The odd thing was, I had been taking that dosage of Adderall for about two weeks and did not have this problem until this week. It was very strange. The doctor said that even if the Adderall wasn't causing the heart thing, it's still something they don't want to play with, so she asked about me trying Wellbutrin, to treat both my depression and ADHD. I started that today, and we will see how it goes.
I hadn't taken the Adderall on both Friday and Saturday, and went into the doctor on Saturday. Of course when I was in the doctor's office, none of this was actually happening in that moment, so it's frustrating to describe or them to diagnose when they can't see it happening.
Saturday, my girlfriend and I went to a bar for a party for her brother's friend that lived here in town. It was about 6:00 pm, pretty hot outside (it is Texas), and the bar was open air mostly, not much air conditioning in it. It looked like it had a way to "close up" if it was raining or something, but it wasn't, it was a clear day. When we got to the bar, I wasn't feeling that great, I was still feeling like my throat was closed up and having some trouble breathing. I got a beer, but only drank two sips of it and felt absolutely horrible. This didn't feel brought on by the beer at all, but I definitely couldn't really enjoy it with all this going on. I felt bad the entire time, and my girlfriend was pretty concerned about me. We decided to leave and seek out a nearby clinic, because it was getting really bad. We got to one not long before closing and got in. They told me it was likely allergies or something like that, prescribed me a steroid pack to take over the next 5 days, and an inhaler. Both of these have helped a little bit, but still diminish within an hour it feels like.
I've looked around on Google (and WebMD and the like) and just based on myself, and being able to easily go "lol I definitely don't have that" at some things, I have a few guesses as to what it may be, in order of which I think is most likely.
1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
2. Allergic reaction to something in my apartment
3. Acid Reflux Disease
That third one may sound a bit weird, but a couple of times I have felt a burning sensation in my chest and creeping into my neck a bit, like it was stomach acid getting up there. I am still not 100% sure though, as my diet has not changed significantly lately, which makes this seem odd and like it might be a result of something else.
Now here's the weirdest part about it, and this could be a number of reasons. I feel like it's at it's absolutely worst when I'm in the second bedroom (which we refer to the office, as it has no bed in it, just my computer and other stuff, and is basically the "game room"). Before I started typing this post, I was playing Dota, and every single time I have played Dota over the last few days, it always gets close to that point where it's at it's worse. In fact, in the last match I played, I had to pause to go to the bathroom and cough a bit. As I am writing this post, I still definitely feel the symptoms, however it's nowhere near as bad as usual. This is something that makes me think it's Generalized Anxiety Disorder, as I do have a hightened tension as I play Dota, as opposed to other games or doing anything else in this room. An example of this is when I played some Rocket League today, I was much more relaxed in general. I still felt the symptoms, but it wasn't as bad.
I also have trouble trying to sleep at night with this, as I am coughing, feeling like I'm gasping for air, even having to sit up to just try to breathe normally. Eventually this stops enough where I can fall asleep, but it usually takes a lot. Lately it's involved my girlfriend holding me to calm me down.
The weirdest thing about it though is that it seems like it comes out of that room. I'm leaning mostly toward it being generalized anxiety disorder, but I had no idea it could take this much of a toll on my body if that's really what it is.
So, if you're still with me up to this point, my question for you GAF, based on your own personal experiences, or experiences of someone you may know, what the hell do you think this is? Even if it's something I didn't mention, feel free to ask about it. If you need any more information, ask and I will probably answer.
What I would like is GAF's opinions on what the hell they think this is, so I will try to give as much background as possible.
About three weeks ago, I moved into a new apartment here in beautiful Austin, Texas. I absolutely love this city, lived here a little over a year. I moved here with my girlfriend, and lived with her in the previous apartment too. We have a cat, he is the cutest fucking thing. Since I know how much GAF loves cat pictures, here's one of him for you to enjoy (recent one too, I took this yesterday):
I had been coughing a little bit getting used to the new place. I have had some allergies all my life and am on some treatment for them. Generally, allergies don't get that terrible for me, and if they do, usually it's seasonal and they are pretty bad for many people. I have been close to this cat for tons and tons of time, and he never really gave me an allergy problem. At our old apartment, his litterbox was in our bathroom, and this still didn't bother me allergywise. We have two bathrooms here, so the secondary bathroom is basically his bathroom: His food, water, and litterbox are all in there, and we installed a dog gate on the doorway that has a little cat door in it, as we would be getting a dog pretty soon.
Right now I am unemployed, I made a thread a few weeks ago about how ADHD has affected my life, and caused me to lose my most recent job. I'm trying to work through my issues and get a new job, but it's very stressful and frustrating. Regardless, I've been changing medicines, going through different doses, etc. I had switched off of Vyvanse as it was giving me trouble sleeping to Adderall. This switch happened the same week we moved into the new place. I have gone up in dosage on the Adderall to 20mg, and it was still fine for a while. However this last week was strange, but before I get into that, let me relay one more story to set this up.
I mentioned that we installed a dog gate in the second bathroom for the cat to get through, as we would be getting a dog soon. I don't have a picture handy I can post, so unfortunately I won't be able to post a cute dog picture. The dog is from a rescue that a friend of my girlfriend's runs, and my girlfriend even does the website for it (run out of the rescue owner's house). My girlfriend has been in love with this dog for a while now, and at some points it was looking like she wasn't going to make it. Most of the dogs that came into that rescue were on the streets, bad owner, or something like that, usually with health problems, and some even dying immediately. There was a time someone dropped a bag (yes, BAG) of puppies on her doorstep and left it there. Of course many of those puppies did not make it.
Back to this dog though, she is about two years old, has a problem with her back right leg, and it looked like she would need $4000 surgery at one point. Then the vet took another look at her and discovered that she had a torn ACL, and it actually was nowhere near as bad as they thought, and that they needed to wait a few weeks to see if it recovered on it's own, or if she would need surgery. If she did need surgery, it was more like $1000, which is leaps and bounds better than $4000. If she does need this surgery, this would be paid for by the rescue. Anyway, the point of this is we got to go get the dog and bring her home much sooner than expected. This was last Sunday.
I don't have particularly bad dog allergies either. When we lived at the old place, my girlfriend had her dog, however she passed away last August. She was about 15 years old, which was much longer than vets expected her to live, especially with some health problems she had had, and actually got through. Regardless, 15 years was a pretty long life for a dog. I never really had any allergic problems around this dog either.
Fast forward to this week once again, and I know I'm a bit rambly here, but I want to try to get out as many details. I had this weird feeling on Tuesday night. My stomach hurt (most likely unrelated, as this has not happened again), and then on Wednesday I had this strange feeling like I was dizzy a bit when walking around, and like my heart was skipping beats, or irregular. After the first day, I thought maybe it was a fluke, but it was stressful. On top of that, I had this feeling of my throat closing, or something being stuck in it. I was coughing a lot, having trouble swallowing and breathing. I would even go into a brief few second panic sometimes thinking I couldn't breathe when I was trying to swallow and couldn't do it. Regardless, all my breaths felt shallow, like I wasn't getting enough air. Of course this was not good for my heart thing, but before any of this happened, my heart had felt weird like I described earlier.
I called my doctor and told them about the heart thing, and they wanted me to come in about it, and stop taking the Adderall. The odd thing was, I had been taking that dosage of Adderall for about two weeks and did not have this problem until this week. It was very strange. The doctor said that even if the Adderall wasn't causing the heart thing, it's still something they don't want to play with, so she asked about me trying Wellbutrin, to treat both my depression and ADHD. I started that today, and we will see how it goes.
I hadn't taken the Adderall on both Friday and Saturday, and went into the doctor on Saturday. Of course when I was in the doctor's office, none of this was actually happening in that moment, so it's frustrating to describe or them to diagnose when they can't see it happening.
Saturday, my girlfriend and I went to a bar for a party for her brother's friend that lived here in town. It was about 6:00 pm, pretty hot outside (it is Texas), and the bar was open air mostly, not much air conditioning in it. It looked like it had a way to "close up" if it was raining or something, but it wasn't, it was a clear day. When we got to the bar, I wasn't feeling that great, I was still feeling like my throat was closed up and having some trouble breathing. I got a beer, but only drank two sips of it and felt absolutely horrible. This didn't feel brought on by the beer at all, but I definitely couldn't really enjoy it with all this going on. I felt bad the entire time, and my girlfriend was pretty concerned about me. We decided to leave and seek out a nearby clinic, because it was getting really bad. We got to one not long before closing and got in. They told me it was likely allergies or something like that, prescribed me a steroid pack to take over the next 5 days, and an inhaler. Both of these have helped a little bit, but still diminish within an hour it feels like.
I've looked around on Google (and WebMD and the like) and just based on myself, and being able to easily go "lol I definitely don't have that" at some things, I have a few guesses as to what it may be, in order of which I think is most likely.
1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
2. Allergic reaction to something in my apartment
3. Acid Reflux Disease
That third one may sound a bit weird, but a couple of times I have felt a burning sensation in my chest and creeping into my neck a bit, like it was stomach acid getting up there. I am still not 100% sure though, as my diet has not changed significantly lately, which makes this seem odd and like it might be a result of something else.
Now here's the weirdest part about it, and this could be a number of reasons. I feel like it's at it's absolutely worst when I'm in the second bedroom (which we refer to the office, as it has no bed in it, just my computer and other stuff, and is basically the "game room"). Before I started typing this post, I was playing Dota, and every single time I have played Dota over the last few days, it always gets close to that point where it's at it's worse. In fact, in the last match I played, I had to pause to go to the bathroom and cough a bit. As I am writing this post, I still definitely feel the symptoms, however it's nowhere near as bad as usual. This is something that makes me think it's Generalized Anxiety Disorder, as I do have a hightened tension as I play Dota, as opposed to other games or doing anything else in this room. An example of this is when I played some Rocket League today, I was much more relaxed in general. I still felt the symptoms, but it wasn't as bad.
I also have trouble trying to sleep at night with this, as I am coughing, feeling like I'm gasping for air, even having to sit up to just try to breathe normally. Eventually this stops enough where I can fall asleep, but it usually takes a lot. Lately it's involved my girlfriend holding me to calm me down.
The weirdest thing about it though is that it seems like it comes out of that room. I'm leaning mostly toward it being generalized anxiety disorder, but I had no idea it could take this much of a toll on my body if that's really what it is.
So, if you're still with me up to this point, my question for you GAF, based on your own personal experiences, or experiences of someone you may know, what the hell do you think this is? Even if it's something I didn't mention, feel free to ask about it. If you need any more information, ask and I will probably answer.
