Hello, I’m a 22 year old male who recently just graduated from college. I am very fit, active, and live a healthy lifestyle. But for the past 5 months, I haven’t felt normal at all. I have seen a handful of doctors and done many tests (all normal). No one knows what is going on, so let me explain what has been happening. I apologize in advance for the length of this post.
It first started with random abnormal heart arrhythmias - my heartbeat would shoot up to 140 bpm at rest and the resulting symptoms felt like I was going to pass out/die from a heart attack. This kind of episode happened twice. Extremely scary situations, the first time I went to the ER. The symptoms would last for about an hour, and then after I would slowly start to feel better but be extremely fatigued. I went to a heart doctor, got many EKGs, an ultrasound, and even wore a heart monitor for 6 weeks. Everything checked out to be completely normal. The ER doc thought I was having an anxiety attack, but I’ve never had issues in the past with anxiety and I’m not an anxious person. The heart doc didn’t know what happened, but gave me a Ca Channel blocker to take if it ever happened again. Something just wasn’t right.
Since the 2 big episodes of the rapid heartbeat and feeling like I was dying, it thankfully hasn’t happened again. However, more symptoms started popping up as the summer progressed.
I started to become very fatigued during the day, random headaches, a general sense of feeling bad, nausea, and lightheadedness. I just didn’t feel like myself. A few weeks later I started having constipation followed by diarrhea, heartburn, loss of appetite, dark & tarry stools on occasion, trouble sleeping, stomach aches and cramps. This has continued for about a month until present time. I just feel horrible and not myself.
I’ve done almost every blood test you can imagine. All normal results. I’ve seen a GI specialist who claims it is a lifestyle change from college, which I think is a load of crap!
I’ve done some research and everything points to liver issues. I was a pretty heavy drinker in college (I was in a fraternity) but never everyday, just excessive amounts on the weekends. I have definitely cut back my usage since college, maybe 2-3 drinks a week if I do drink. There have been some weekends where I’ve gotten drunk with some buddies this summer, but not often. I have done all the liver enzyme tests and all of them are completely normal.
I definitely have just started realizing though that I feel the worst whenever I drink, no matter how much. It’s worse with more alcohol, but even a beer will make me feel odd.
So my question is, what is wrong with me? I’m really scared it’s my liver. No one can figure this out because all my tests have come back normal. I’m about to start a career hours away from home and cannot be feeling like this on a daily basis. Have I done permanent damage to my liver? Would this explain my heart troubles earlier this summer? What can I do?