Hi I ve been having the following problem since I was 18 (I m currently 29). This is a little long, sorry.Maybe once or twice a month sometimes even more rarely I would suddenly without much of any warning feel an intense feeling of impending doom. Very pronounced, an extreme sensation like I was about to die, and thoughts of impending doom. Difficult to describe the sensation other than that it comes along with an extreme feeling of anxiety. Then within about 2-4 minutes after having this sensation I would pass out. I don t ever remember passing out. My father once saw me when this happened and he said I stand up straight and then slump down to the ground. After I wake up which I think is usually almost immediately or a few minutes after losing consciousness I feel intensely sick, like I m about to die. I have temporary amnesia. I don t know who or what I am or where I am, and I usually can t see for a few minutes. This memory loss goes away in a few minutes as well as my ability to see. The other very apparent symptom is intense and sudden sweating. I m literary drenched with sweat. Also, I feel incredibly weak, slightly nauseous and intensely sick like I am dieing. I can t even get off the floor. Eventually these feeling fade within about 30-40 minutes after which time I feel still very sick but have enough energy to stand up. Then it might take 1-2 hours to feel normal again although sometimes when I have a really bad attack it can take 24 hours before I feel normal again. I ve seen a few doctors for this and one doctor said he thinks it was syncope. The other doctors just ran quite a few tests said their results were normal and never really got back to me. It didn t seem like they really new what was going on. I ve had ecocardiograms done and mri, botChatDoctore back normal. I ended up just living with it for some several years until when I was about 27 one day for no real reason I bought some raw barley that I saw in the supermarket. It was just an impulse buy as I never noticed it before and thought it would be interesting to cook it like rice. I liked it a lot, but that day I became intensely sick maybe several hours after eating it. I had extreme diarrhea, repeated vomiting, and a general feeling of being sick. At the time I thought I had a stomach virus so I thought I would just stay at home and rest, but it kept getting worse and worse so I went to the doctor. The doctor thought I might have a stomach parasite since one of the blood tests indicated elevated eosinophil count but the stool test showed no parasite. She sent me to a hematologist, who ran more blood tests which showed nothing wrong and the eosinophil count dropping down to normal. By that time I was feeling better. That doctor just recommended contacting him again if symptoms return. They didn t for a long time until after several months I decided to finish eating the rest of the barley I had. The same symptoms returned. I haven t asked any doctor about it since but was just assuming that it was some strange allergic reaction. At about that same time I began noticing that I was beginning to feeling slightly itchy whenever I at spicy foods which I ate alot. I decided to stop eating barley and spicy foods and I noticed that my fainting spells stopped. I hadn t eaten spicy foods for a year and I haven t fainted since. About a year ago I decided to try to test it out for sure so I ate spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce and a few days later I had a fainting episode with the same symptoms. I assumed it was an allergic reaction and after having read a bit more I was assuming that all the time I was going into anaphylaxis. The only two symptoms I don t seem to have is swelling of my throat and hands as well as any rash or itching. The itching comes immediately after eating spicy foods and the anaphylaxis maybe a few days or several hours later. My question is the following, is this the likely diagnosis? And is there a simple definitive test to diagnose this? What type of doctor should I see? I ve also noticed a few years ago that I seem to also be allergic to tylenol after never having been before. I had pretty standard allergic reaction symptoms. My lips swelled up, I felt itchy, and difficulty breathing. It lasted for only a few minutes and went away. Since then I have been staying clear of barley, cayenne pepper, and tylenol and it seems to work although I haven t seen a doctor about this allergic reaction guess for my past problems. The reason why I am asking now is because a few days ago I stupidly ate something with cayenne pepper in it and had another fainting spell without having had any problems for a long time. I noticed that the symptoms were the same but extremely intense this time around and a few hours later I noticed that my right eye felt itchy. When I rubbed it slightly I felt a sudden burning sensation that quickly went away. I immediately rushed to the bathroom mirror and noticed that the skin surrounding my eye was pitch black, as if I had a really bad black eye. I don t remember having hit my face as my face didn t feel sore after i fainted. The after affects after the faint lasted all day this time and out of curiosity I took my temperature and it read 95.2 degrees F (oral). Thinking this low I decided to have a hot bath. After sitting in the bath for about a few minutes the nausea suddenly intensified and I spontaneously began to vomit multiple times. For some reason the bath made me really sick. Anyway I m committed to stay clear of cayenne pepper and be more careful in the future, but the reason why I wanted to ask a doctor about this now was because I wanted to know if you think I should have an epipen on hand. I was a little afraid as to how much more intense the symptoms were after having not had them for so long. I was wondering if you think I should get checked out again or if there is really no way to definitively confirm such an allergy. Also, from what I read barley, cayenne pepper, and tylenol allergies are rare and also I don t experience every common allergy symptom. So I was wondering if you think I was wrong about this being an allergy or if this is indicative of some other type of unusual condition. I just didn t want to waste my time and money seeing another doctor about this again since I wasn t sure if there was going to be anything also they could test or do for me other than to advice staying clear of those foods for which I already know.
Hi...thanks for using Chat Doctor .I have noticed two problems in you...one panic disorder which lead to anxiety symptoms and second allergy to barley, Tylenol and cayenne pepper. For panic disorder u have to consult a psychiatrist and for allergy related problem better to consult gastroenterologist.  There are few allergy tests which help to find out the list of things to whom u have allergy. For that u have to give your blood sample to lab who deal to these testing.