Posted by Mike Andersen on April 3, 2008, at 4:05:14
I'll try to be brief. Every since I was a little boy, I've had these occasional spells of shivering. Just like when you're really cold, except I have felt particularly cold during such an episode. When I was a child, these episodes would always precede vomiting, usually because I was sick or had eaten something bad. I actually appreciated the symptom as a kind of "early warning" that I would vomit in about 10 minutes. After vomiting, the shivering would stop and I'd feel better.
In my 20's this hardly happened at all. Very rare and always associated with binge drinking (which I've not done in the last 10 years or so).
I'm now 39. In my 30's, these little episodes started occurring more frequently, without the vomiting involved. A little indigestion is all it takes. Over the last 3 years, they've because more frequent than ever. It's still under 20 times a year, but this year I'm on pace to break that barrier.
The shaking most often starts when I lie down to sleep. It lasts for between 30 minutes and 8 hours. Nothing I do stops the shaking completely.
I don't know what causes the shivering/shaking/whatever it is, but I know it doesn't match classic symptoms for things like epilepsy: I never lose consciousness, I have normal fine motor control, I don't lose control of my bowels, etc. etc.
There is definitely a stress-reaction of some kind going on here. I broke a tooth recently and suffered a kind of burst of anxiety about it, and the shakes started up shortly thereafter. First, I realized I'd broken the tooth. Then, it seemed like all the blood in my body rushed into my lower abdomen. I felt a little nauseated and very panicked. Then the shaking started. And here's an interesting point: the broken tooth didn't hurt (the nerve was not exposed, it was a very small chip off of the tooth).
I don't expect anyone hear to know what's wrong with me, but I hope somebody maybe knows what kind of doctor I should see? I tried a neurologist and he said "I have no idea what it could be." My psychologist and psychiatrist are also stumped, as is my internist. My many internet searches have turned up a lot about hypothermia, and some things about seratonin syndrone. I'm not currently taking any anti-depressants, although I did take them for many years. But this shouldn't be related to modern medicines as my symptoms precede those medications by 2 decades.
If anyone here could point me in a direction that would help me understand why this happens to me and how to make it stop, it would be immensely helpful to me. I could go to bed at night with no worries about getting the shakes.
I said I'd try to be brief, and it looks like I failed. If you want to know more, go ahead and ask me. I'll be up for a while :(
poster:Mike Andersen
thread:821307
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20071116/msgs/821307.html