Unknown Illness - Side pain & Snycope
For the past few years I have seen multiple specialists and had many tests.
Physical - Female, white, 32yo, 200 lbs.
Historical symptoms:
Ongoing: Low blood pressure, bradycardia (normal resting is in the 40s bpm range)
Side pain 1
Frequency changes from weekly to multiple times daily. Can happen anytime, but laying down can make it worse.
Duration is hours to days.
Pain is throbbing, increasing and decreasing in intensity, ranging 2-9 in scale.
Location - lower left side behind last ribs.
I have always experienced this pain in my left side since childhood.
Side pain 2
Frequency - infrequent. Only occurs at night while sleeping.
Duration - until I revert to a safe position (laying firmly on left side or sitting up).
Location - left side, under lower ribs.
Pain - intense, burning, feeling like something burst.
This pain is immediately followed by dizziness, clamminess, nausia, and sometimes fainting.
If I feel this pain, I immediately change my position to reduce the intensity of the symptoms.
Syncope 1. My "normal" fainting is from failure to eat, blood loss, etc. I have remedied my behaviors over the years and no longer faint for silly reasons.
Syncope 2.
While laying down, losing consciousness multiple times in a row. (For 30 minutes, losing consciousness, waking up for less than a minute, before fainting again).
Other symptoms: numbness in the back of my head, neck pain, chest pain, clamminess, nausia, exhaustion that last multiple weeks, etc.
Original tests all came back negative. Latest episode - didn't faint but was dizzy for several hours while trying to sleep. Couldn't move without making it worse. This episode resulted in a heart murmur that went away after a month or so.
I have seen:
Cardiologists
All tests were fine, until this last time. Health does very well during exercise.
Rheumatologist
Test positive with very low levels of autoimmune. Since all my other tests are healthy, they say they can't help/diagnose me.
Neurologist
Heard my symptoms and told me I wasnt his problem
Gastro doctor
Clean endoscopy and test for acid reflux.
Endocrinologist
Nothing appears off with my thyroid.
Other:
Have had an abdominal untrasound - clean
Any suggestions for who to see next is welcome. My doctor doesn't know what to do or what's wrong with my. After an episode, my vitals are in the toilet but stable.
I know you already saw a neurologist, but I'm wondering if a consult with a different neurologist would be helpful. Your side pains remind me of some of the pain I've had with my abdominal migraine. My neurologist put me on medication for the pain and nausea and physical therapy also was helpful in further reducing my pain. And I recently learned from attending stretching sessions that when our muscle are tight they can compress our nerves causing numbness. 
Hi
, Thank you for sharing the details of your long history with the mystery pain and dizziness, plus low BP and low resting pulse.
The only suggestion I can think of right now is to keep pushing your primary care doctor to refer you to another specialist, if possible. Perhaps even another cardio doc? Have you stressed with your primary care physician the scariness and potentials dangers of not knowing if/when dizziness and possible fainting may occur?
Hang in there... and, I sure hope that someone else will see your post and can help with suggestions on other specialists to consider, given these symptoms.
Hugs,
Gina Miller, Team Member
