Symptoms 2011

For those of you who really want to know, this is what life includes on a daily basis.

Neurological/Cognitive Symptoms
● Easily confused
● Slow information processing
● Difficulty retrieving words (nouns are the worst)
● Difficulty with mathematics (even counting pills can be a challenge)
● Easily distracted
● Forgetfulness
● Loss of editing/spelling ability (I used to be great at this…these days I rely a lot on those little red lines.)

Motor Disturbances:
● Muscle weakness (I can only manage an object of a few pounds)
● Occasional muscle twitching
● Muscle wasting (This is partly atrophy, maybe a little cachexia.)

Overload phenomena:
● Hypersensitivities to light, sound, motion, odors (I can’t bear overhead lights; everything seems about five times louder than normal; video gives me vertigo; can’t bear commercial scents, shampoos, cleansers, etc.)
● Inability to block out background noise and focus on on conversation

Immune Dysfunction
● A general ill or flu-like feeling
● Hypersensitivity to medications and their side effects (I get a lot of weird side effects)

Sleep Dysfunction:
● Insomnia (weapons-grade)
● Frequent awakenings (half a dozen times a night at least)
● Non-restorative sleep (feel worse when I wake up)

Pain:
● generalized muscle pain (like having the flu all. the. time.)

Post-Exertional Malaise and Fatigue:
● Constant, severe fatigue
● Flu-like or hangover feeling w/ general malaise, increased pain and cognitive symptoms (if I overdo it even slightly)

Autonomic Manifestations:
● Orthostatic Intolerance (Unable to stand more than a few seconds, sit up for more than a few minutes with an urgency to lie down)
● Vertigo (from moving objects like ceiling fans, some video)
● Palpitations (occasional)
● Constipation (Sorry, but it’s the truth. This may be an effect of all the pills.)
● Bloating

 Neuroendocrine Manifestations:
● Intolerance to extremes in air temperature (72 degrees F is my absolute limit; anything higher feels like 100 degrees F)
● Low body temperature (This has been true all my life)
● Night sweats (Seroquel seems to make this worse)
● Worsening of symptoms under increased stress
● Loss of adaptation to situations of overload
● Anxiety (This was a very early symptom. Cheney tells me this is a manifestation of a cytokine storm in the brain.)