What If It's More Than Just Mercury?

I need to thank Dana Herbert, you can check out her blog at danaherbert.blogspot.com, for informing me that lymphoma can cause red rashes. This is where my focus is going to be at the moment. This needs ruled out immediately. Part of my gut tells me she is right...

You may think that I am over reacting, but this is a real possibility. I have almost EVERY- single symptom and I have had them for years. I certainly think I need to have this checked out before doing anything else.

Hodgkin's Disease symptoms

• A painless swelling in the lymph nodes in the neck, underarm, or groin
  
• Unexplained recurrent fevers ( I don't have this one)
  
• Night sweats
• Loss of appetite
  
• Unexplained weight loss
  
• Itchy skin
  
• Red patches on the skin
• Severely itchy skin, often affecting the legs/feet
• Alcohol-related pain

Now I never wrote about this before on my blog, but I suspected lymphoma the night I went to the ER in 2007. You may all recall that I had the doctor from hell who said I was a heroin addict? Well I told him about my swollen lymph nodes and cysts, but he had already decided in his head that I was a heroin addict and was collecting fibers in my joints from filtering it. He stood there and explained how it all worked. I told him I had never done drugs, but he didn't want to hear it! Nope I was looking for drugs in his head.

If I really do have Hodgkin's Disease, this could have all been resolved over a year ago. My PCP yelled at me for losing weight and completely dismissed the swollen lymph node on my neck as nothing to worry about. She said it was probably a virus and the rash I had at the time was probably just poison ivy. I told her I wasn't even outside, so there was no way it was poison ivy (didn't matter to her). I still had my hair back then, so it's been at least a year! I'm thinking it was some time in May 2007. My sister was diagnosed with her brain tumor in March of that year, so that sounds about right.

I had night sweats the whole week before going to the ER. I never experienced anything like that before, so it was strange. They weren't drenching, but it was certainly waking me up at night. Now more recently, I had terrible night sweats on Nov 1, 2008 and Nov 2nd, 2008. My entire side of the bed was soaked like I had jumped into a bath tub, but I just figured it was diabetes insipidus. Maybe it still is?

The loss of appetite and unexplained weight loss really sneaked up on my this time. I knew I had been eating less but I didn't realize just how much less. Yesterday I got some food in me, so that is good. However it is still wanting to go right through me for some reason. I can't figure it out.

Itchy skin/red patches of skin. Look at the 1st picture on the 2nd row. I did some digging last night and I found an entire forum dedicated to Hodgkin's Disease. A ton of them had the itching, red skin prior to diagnosis that a doctor shrugged off as poison ivy, dermatitis, a need to change laundry detergent or to get rid of a pet. The itching I am experiencing is so unbelievably itchy it actually makes me shake. I remember having an itchy face when I went to the ER in 2007. No one cared. All they were thinking about is whether my husband beat me or if I wanted drugs. Never at any time did I ask for pain medication, so I can't understand this. Yes the pain in my neck was terrible but I actually hate taking pain meds as all of you should know by now. My goodness, I don't even like taking a Tylenol or an Aleve. That whole encounter totally puzzles me to this day!

Prior to visiting the ER I started to develop the "pain" from drinking alcohol. This was the strangest thing. It would start at my neck and go through my stomach. At the time I thought that perhaps yeast or gluten was bothering me, so I just stopped drinking alcohol. My husband started researching what can cause this and it came back to Hodgkin's Disease. You can read a small case report of it in this medical journal.

When we went to the ER that night, we hadn't gotten the blood work results from the doctor yet. If I had them, then things would have went much differently. As you can see, I list "illness" from alcohol as part of my mercury poisoning symptoms. Even if I drink 3 sips of alcohol, I begin to feel very sick. Therefore I no longer drink it in any amounts. Mercury poisoning can cause this though, so I'll have to see.

I know I have mercury poisoning, but what if it is more? I certainly shouldn't turn a blind eye to all of this. Especially because of everything that has happened in the past 4 years. My health just went downhill very fast. It was like someone had turned on a switch. My sister had a very rare type of brain tumor and she is likely listed in some case study somewhere today. She told me there were a ton of people watching her during the surgery because she was a "medical anomaly". These are words her doctors used.

Let's hope that in a few days I'll report that everything is OK. If it isn't OK, then I'll have to decide what's next. I refuse to take their poison chemo/radiation, so I'll have to figure something else out. This is going to be a stressful week to say the least.