Feels Like Their Brain / Face Is Swollen, First Thing In The Morning ? Anxiety In My Sleep ! Crying Like A Child Upon Awakening !

[hyperpots]

Did a search and can't find anyone saying this. I feel like my case is so similar to some of you, yet so different.

Not sure why this happens to me, but I wake up feeling like my Head/Face are swollen. My right eye is drooping half shut out of bed, but the rest of my face looks swollen too. Of course this is all after 8 hours of sleep.

I also get this anxiety is my head between the eys "3rd Eye" some call it or "God Spot". I feel that while I'm sleeping and lots and lots of morning anxiety while I am sleeping.. Makes no Sense to me. Anxiety should be while your awake ! There is no panic with what I feel, but lots and lots of off the wall anxiety.

So, I wake up and start crying like a child. It's like the crying one would do if they had a stroke or maybe it's just total despair b/c I wake this way each and every single day for 2 years now.

Get up and take 1mg Klonopin, 2.5mg Percocet for body aches, 25mg Liquid Benadryl as this seems to help settle me down. I know I'm clenching my Jaw all night while I sleep. I wake up and try and relax it and go back to sleep.

So, after I'm awake for about an hour, things settle down, but I still feel like Garbage.

This new Dr. who is putting me on Mestonin and Midodrine on Tuesday claims I might be near 100% better 3 days after taking the meds. Problem is I have to wait for Tuesday for Prescriptions. I'm a bit lost. I know he need the Tilt Table test, which I did on Thursday, to give me the right dosages of the meds. But, he saw how much agony I was in and to make me wait almost a full week to start meds which he claims will get rid of all of this is like dangling candy in front of a child. Just the way I see it, but I also know he is busy and this is how medicine works.

So you all know, I'm not trying to complain or looking for pitty, but I am being tortured by these sympotms now for a very long time. I look forward to going to bed from the time I wake up. I'm taking this and that all day, every day just to make it through the day.

I want to be well and be able to do things with my kids. They are still young, but both getting ready to hit puberty and I look back and realize I havn't been able to do any of the things I have wanted to do with them for a good while now. They deserve such a better life. My X ran out before I got sick and has her own problems, so it's just me and my kids.

So, I'll finish with this question. Is it possible the blood is pooling in my Head/Face/Brain while I sleep to wake up like this ? Every lab is out of whack.. Testosterone, DHEA, Aldosterone, etc. Ran a Neurotransmitter panel and Dopamine and Seratonin are very low, Norepi is high... Not shocked from the way I feel.

Thanks for all the support,

Steven

Edited November 6, 2011 by corina

[juliegee]

Steven-

Sorry things are so rough right now. I used to wake with a swollen face. One eye has even been swollen tightly shut before. Some of us with hyperpots have a mast cell disorder. Here's a link to learn more: http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Mastocytosis-and-Mast-Cell-Disorders.htm (I usually recommend The Mastocytosis Society site, but it is undergoing revision.) Your swollen face, improvement with benadryl, and AM anxiety (histamine is highest then) made me suspect this for you. Also, do some searches on this site to learn more.

Better Days Ahead-

Julie

[sue1234]

Could you elaborate on your endocrine labs being "out of whack"? What were your values(with ranges) for each?

[lieze]

I know very well what it's like to feel so rotten.

I do think you may get some answers at some point so hang in there.

I am on probably the strangest diet I'm wondering if you've experimented with food at all to see if certain foods might be causing some of this.

It wouldn't explain the low dopamine or serotonin.

Maybe an elimination diet or many do well on a paleo diet....I know this may seem out there and like the least of your worries at this point but for me this was huge.

[lieze]

Oh also I know you've had symptoms for a while now but in the beginning my head was a mess...I was seeing halos around lights...everything DID feel swollen-I remember.

I couldn't handle driving because it was like everything was coming at me too fast. I had dizziness, migraines, strange sensations in the head. It would feel like my head was separating into layers and extending way beyond my body.

Really strange I tell you. I was afraid to know what was going on in there.

I would get sensations that I was going to fall as I would walk and that my body was going to be thrown to the ground.

A lot of buzzing especially as it got late at night I'd feel as if I was coming unglued. Weird like I was just going to lose consciousness.

So a lot of the head stuff I went through but improved in time.

[ramakentesh]

The AM anxiety i think relaters to the daily cycle of blood pressure and sympathetic/parasympathetic balance. I know when a flare up is coming nbecause i start to wake up early in the morning feeling shaky, jittery and general terrible. Kind of like a body anxiety.

You may find yourself fidgetting in bed to make it feel better.