What causes headaches, cold sweats, and breathing problems?

Question

Hi doctor,

Last week, I felt like I had a heart attack. I was nauseous, and I had migraines, diarrhea, cold sweats. It was hard to breathe. I went to the emergency room, and they could not find anything with 3 CT scans. They said they believed I had a stomach ulcer. Yesterday, I went to a urologist because it then felt like a kidney stone attack, and I had the same symptoms minus chest pain. They said I have stones in my kidneys, but I should not be hurting from the stones because they have not left my kidneys. Today I still have all the same symptoms. The headache is not as bad, it is a dull pain today, but I am running out of doctors to go to.

What should I do?

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I can imagine you must be disturbed because of this. Well, it is very unusual to have such sort of symptoms with stomach ulcers. The pain of stomach ulcers is often localized and point towards the stomach and not otherwise. Suppose it were any gross abnormality that should have been picked on CT (computed tomography) scan. Given your recurrent symptoms and typical symptoms, I think you might have the following.

The panic attacks which is the sudden burst of anxiety. However, there are other medical conditions that can cause similar symptoms mimicking an acute abdomen. Condition like diabetes with ketoacidosis, acute intermittent porphyrias (AIP), and lastly carcinoid with carcinoid storm. Remember, they are just possibilities. The actual cause can be established after a thorough pertinent history points and after the set of sensible investigations. I would suggest you give other relevant information in respect to the above possibilities and then I may be able to give you some treatment for it. I hope you can understand my take on this. It is likely that you have some panic attack at your age, and I want you to disclose any information that you think is concerned with, like a recent nervous storm or nervous breakdown or unbearable anxiety or social disparity. These all can cause panic attacks. Let me know if I can be of further help.