5 years of worsening brain issues

[SeanOfTheDeadGC]

Hi everyone.

Does anyone have any idea what would cause severe cognitive problems of sudden onset along with a flu-like illness, which continue to get worse and lead to other symptoms and health issues if not treated?

I'm not taking about a typical case of "brain fog", this is more like brain injury of some kind, which came on suddenly with a flu illness back in 2016. I was finishing off my college work at the time. Then when I tried to do my work on a computer, I was shocked to find that I could barely even think up and type a single sentence because a sudden cognitive deficit I had. I was no longer able to use my working memory and recall under any kind of time constraints. My brain would just hurt and strain itself endlessly if I tried to force my brain to think faster than it was able to. Though I can still write coherently like I'm doing here if I remain patient and give my brain all the time it needs to think.

The initial flu symptoms went away within a week, but this brain symptom remained and just kept getting worse, with my GP doctor neglecting the issue at the time and simply calling it post-viral fatigue, refusing to investigate my problem in any way and just telling me over and over "there's no cure". This went on for about a year untill I eventually changed doctors and got several blood tests (total blood count, glucose, cortisol, thyroid, liver and kidney function) which all showed up normal. Since then, my condition kept deteriorating and eventually led to more worsening symptoms including a continuous headache, vision problems, insomnia, horrible head feelings (hard to put into words, a flu-like feeling that only affects the head), a worsening state of lethargy, heart rhythm issues (bigeminy and SVT attacks) and more recently, muscle degradation and weight loss. As far as where my brain is at now, I'm still the same person mentally and preserve all my faculties, but my brain is getting weaker and increasingly worn out due to being in this prolonged diseased state for so long. I just hope I can manage to find some answers.

Does anyone here have any thoughts on what could have caused this, or what condition I could possibly have? Thanks.

[Van604]

It sounds like your doctor thinks it's FND, but doesn't want to tell you because people have problems "accepting the diagnosis". That's because they used to believe that it's psychological, but nowadays they're also looking at other things like viruses, injuries, surgeries etc as a trigger. You could look at neurosymptoms.com, which is a site built by one of the top specialists in the field. There's also an FND message board on Health Unlocked. Good luck!

[SeanOfTheDeadGC in reply to Van604]

I'm not convinced that this is FND either, I don't really fit the criteria for this and patients with FND all share similar experiences that are completely unrelatable to mine, mostly featuring a lot of debilitating physical compaints (as opposed to just brain/head related issues) . This is the same for other common cases of chronic illness as well. Given the nature of my condition, I will still continue looking for answers.

[Van604 in reply to SeanOfTheDeadGC]

You'd be surprised - we mostly have different, but sometimes overlapping, issues, but we all get thrown in the same FND bucket. Some people only have cognitive issues - they call that FCD. You're better off not being diagnosed with it though, because it carries a terrible stigma in the medical world and leads to all kinds of medical abuse. Good luck anyway, I hope you find some answers soon.

[Hidden]

something like meningitis?

[Amaranthine]

You need a complete neuro work up. Do look up Lauricidin.....