Wanna Be My New Doctor?

I don't know about the rest of you, but as for me, I've lost just about lost faith in the medical community. And I guess they've lost patience with me. It seems my body was made for experiments, and most of the ones tried on it have backfired. So I decided it makes as much sense to ask my friends on AC for medical advice as it does to go to yet another doctor.

Yes, I'm partly joking, but seriously, I have a problem that has just about taken over my life, and I don't know what to do about it. Has anyone out there ever heard of a situation just like mine?

Here's the way it's going right now. Every day I get out of bed and try to get some work done, and before long the pain hits me in the upper back and I know I'd better get on a heating pad immediately before act two starts. The pain in my back quickly spreads to my stomach and if I don't get it stopped immediately, it's in my entire chest, neck, and the top of my shoulders.

The pain intensifies quickly to the point that if I don't get it stopped in a hurry, I'm vomiting, not because I feel nauseous, but just from the pain. Sometimes it feels that the vomiting will literally turn me inside out. I've had those spells when we were driving down the road and had to try to find a place to get off the road so I could get out. It's extremely embarrassing to be groaning and heaving in a public place. I'm always afraid someone will call an ambulance and I'll have to tell them this is nothing-it happens all the time.

The only thing that helps is to get on a heating pad---quick!---and put one on my stomach as well if I have access to two. I have a heating pad in my recliner, another one waiting beside it, a shiatsu cushion two steps away, and a heated, massaging cushion in each of our vehicles. I carry a spare everywhere we go, and a couple of times have had to change to the spare and stop at a Wal-Mart along the way and buy a spare spare after one goes out. I'm afraid to leave the house without one.

I have all kinds of massagers and everything I know of to try to get over one of these incidents. When my husband was still working, I had to call him at work a couple of times to come home and help me. He can pat, rub, or beat my back, or use my Genie Rub massager on it, usually while I'm doubled over the toilet throwing up, and sometimes it helps. Sometimes not. Thankfully, most times after I vomit, it feels like peace just washes over me slowly and it's like seeing the clouds roll away after a thunderstorm. But not always.

These things hit at random times, but usually not when I'm doing really hard work like raking leaves. A stressful situation will often set one off, but not always. Most of the time I have no idea what starts them. If I sit at the computer, like now, chances are good I'll soon have to flee to my heating pad. Lately I'm having these spells every day, which is why I comment on so few articles on AC. Just can't stay here long enough to do more than one or two.

I've been tested for gall bladder problems, treated for ulcers, have taken muscle relaxers and enough pain medicine to kill a horse, and all the meds do is create more problems.

The symptoms sound like a possible heart attack, but apparently are unrelated to my heart. Because of these ongoing spells, if I ever do have a heart attack, I won't know it in time to get help.

Years ago I was x-rayed, MRI'd and told I had degenerated disks in my back. I had both hips replaced, which helped a lot of my problems for a few years. Now I've learned one of them is a recalled DePuy hip, and as a result I have high cobalt levels in my bloodstream. I'm still having regular blood tests to keep an eye on that situation. I have no idea if there's any connection between those things and these spells or not. But I think not, as I had some of them several years before my first hip replacement.

I know this makes me sound like a hypochondriac or as they say, "One who enjoys poor health." But my husband and others who have had the misfortune of witnessing one of these spells would say otherwise. It's terrifying for me and probably for anyone who has the misfortune of seeing me have one. For that reason, I seldom leave the house anymore. I just don't enjoy being the center of attention, and certainly not in that way.

My question is, has anyone ever known anyone else who has experienced this sort of thing, and do they know the cause of it? I'm really getting tired of it, but don't know anywhere else to go. I've seen several doctors with it, and as I said, have been given medication which only caused other problems. So I just have to live with it and try to survive the best way I can.

Any information would be most appreciated!