Thread: Please halp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been having some lower back pain since 2007 or so. At first it was very random and felt like a needle was poking me. I would jump any time this happened. It was very very random so I didn't have a good history on it. Then after months of the needle feeling, I started feeling like I was being electrocuted or shocked by an electric fence collar is the best way I can describe it. I don't have an electric fence at home. This was also still random enough that I couldn't tell you if it started feeling this way when sitting in a certain position or if I had eaten anything etc.

Then one day just a few weeks ago, my chest started to feel like it was on fire. I was so scared! The sensation went down my left arm from underneath and eventually my right arm started feeling the same way. I looked up the symptoms and played it off as a panic or anxiety attack. The problem is however, that I have a feeling both my back pain and my chest being on fire are somehow related. My back pain now is almost constant. It's tight and feels like it's on fire. Sometimes I have a tingly sensation at the area, but not pins and needles, it's a different tingly sensation. Sometimes the tingly sensation travels down the outside of my leg and sometimes wraps around to the front left side. Underneath my left arm, like starting at my arm pit I have a pain like I did when my chest was on fire, about three inches from my arm pit.

When I was asked about a pain number, I said it was around a 7 or 8, 10 being absolutely unbearable. It's not so much that it hurts, but it is very uncomfortable and I'm starting to get scared. When I was having random pains I could blame it on my cycle or stress or write it off as being related to depression. But, I have not had a period, on purpose, for about a year because I have severe PMDD symptoms and the pain isn't just random anymore. It is constant now, with the tingly feeling coming and going. This may not be related, but my neck hurts right now, too. It's a new pain, so it may be how I was sleeping or that I'm really really tense right now and can't seem to relax.

If anyone has any ideas, please please help! I'm trying not to freak out, but it's hard. I guess the other bits of important info are that I am not, nor have I ever been sexually active, I haven't had a cycle for about a year on purpose, I'm 33 years old, Caucasian. I have mentioned this to my doctor and my mom who is also a doctor and my mom kind of shrugged it off because she knows I get random pain due to my depression and anxiety, and my doctor didn't worry about it too much because I couldn't give a good history. And the symptoms are kind of general.

Also, I have good cholesterol numbers, not too high, my blood pressure is always fine (120/80 give or take), my pulse is usually pretty fast even when resting ( I shrug that off as anxiety), after September of 2008, my stress level overall has been diminished because I moved back home and stopped teaching. When all this started I was extremely stressed out because my third grade class was wild and I had a hard time controlling them.

I was also treated very poorly by a teacher, a couple teacher assistants, and a principal during my last two years of teaching, and I was depressed enough that I could not trust myself to live on my own. I had to stay with a friend so she could "watch me". If anyone can send me in the right direction to finding out what the heck is going on, I would really appreciate it.

I've looked up endrometriosis and I don't think that's it. I started reading about the lymph nodes and that could be something but I'm not obese and I don't have any signs of elephantitis. My pap smears are consistently fine, and I reduce my risk anyway by not having anything to do with sex.

I'm hoping this is "nothing" but it's hard to ignore!

Thanks!