My name is Jordan, and I just recently turned 18. For the better part of a month in a half to two months I've been dealing with what my doctor diagnosed as bronchitis. I was first given an antibiotic (Bactrim) and thought nothing of it. My coughing has since become more severe and I've had back pain that I attributed to the cough. Sometime around the end of November, I had a coughing fit so severe that I couldn't catch my breath for a good couple of minutes. An emergency room (ER) doctor diagnosed me with asthma and sent me home with a steroid shot and prednisone after my lung xray was clear.
While waiting in the ER for 5 hours, I developed numbness and tingling in my feet and I was extremely loopy. Over the next day my muscles started cramping and my legs were weak to the point where I couldn't walk, and my face started drooping on the left side. My mom took me to my GP and he said I likely had a potassium deficiency and ordered bloodwork. However, I went to Vanderbilt's ER the next day because the weakness was getting worse. The doctor there did a spinal tap to rule out Guillan-Barre and a urinalysis. The spinal tap was clear but they found protein in my urine and I was told to follow up with my GP for a 24 hour urinalysis.
I went to the local ER again the next day as I had several episodes where I couldn't breathe, and I was transferred to a children's hospital as I was 17 at the time. Two pediatric neurologists diagnosed me with conversion disorder (without any imaging other than an EEG to rule out seizure activity), but during my three-day hospital stay the cramping and weakness subsided. I however continued to have headaches (which I want to attribute to the spinal tap, but it's been a couple weeks) and mid back pain, along with the stubborn cough (which isn't as bad as it was before).
I was back at work this week and noticed my back pain is constant and worsens with any kind of twisting and that my knees buckle once in a while and I really have to concentrate on walking. I returned to the ER within the last couple of days after a follow up with my GP (another instant urinalysis revealed "extremely large amounts of protein) due to the back pain just so they could make sure I didn't have a kidney infection, as my GP is out for the holidays until the 29th. They reviewed my 24 hour urinalysis and said that my GP would likely refer me to a nephrologist and that the amount of protein may warrant a kidney biopsy.
Yet another instant urinalysis in the ER revealed no protein. A back xray revealed nothing abnormal and the ER doc said that if the pain persisted in a week that I should ask my GP about scheduling an MRI.
While reviewing my records, I noticed that while I was admitted for my 3 day stay at the hospital in Nashville that my RBC count was (ever so slightly) low, at 4.44 M/mm3, and my hemoglobin was at 12.7 GM/DL. I plan on bringing a printout in to my GP as he'll likely request another CBC since it's been a couple weeks. My WBC count is normal, but the % neutrophils is low (40.5%) and lymphocytes are high (50.3%).
Throughout the last month I've become progressively more and more fatigued. While I was given two weeks off work to recover from my "conversion disorder", I slept from 12-16 hours a day and have lost at least 15-20 lbs since Thanksgiving without an appetite. I was given tramadol for my back during the most recent trip to the ER, but it doesn't really do much for the pain.
Does any of this indicate myeloma? I'm assuming without more specific testing it'd be hard to tell but I'm currently waiting for the holidays to be over so I can figure out the cause of protein in my urine (which definitely is not conversion disorder). Given my age, should I ask my GP about the possibility of multiple myeloma, or should I let him go through with the nephrologist referral, and, if so, would a kidney biopsy point doctors in the right direction?
Because of the conversion disorder diagnoses I'm really hesitant to even go back to see a doctor at all without fear of someone telling me it's related or that it's anxiety or it's all in my head, but I really would like to get to the bottom of whatever is causing my symptoms
