Ok, this is definitely a bit long, but I made it as detailed as I could to narrow down what it might be. If you think you can help please read it all the way through.

To start, I’m a 24 year old male 5 foot 8 158lbs. I’ve recently gotten into great shape through a workout program P90X, coming down from 195 lbs in mid March. Daily (since March), I take a 1-a-Day multivitamin, a post workout recovery formula, and I eat 5 times a day on a schedule An example of my daily eating so we can rule in or out my food intake:

Breakfast – 1 cup Total cereal 8oz Skim Milk
Snack – Banana, Apple, or Nature Valley Granola Bar
Lunch – Variety of Campbell’s healthier soups or a Veggie Wrap
Snack – Egg Beaters (weight lifting day) or apple/pear etc (cardio day)
Workout
Dinner – Beef, Chicken, Fish, Whole Grain pasta etc, always with a side of 2 -3 veggies
I rarely drink anything other than water, V-8 and Crystal Light, but mostly just water and I drink plenty every day (by my first snack my urine stream is almost clear and stays that way all day)

When I was losing weight I took in around 1200-1500 calories a day, now I take in about 1750-2000. I wouldn’t say I sleep like a baby, but I generally get 6.5-7.5 hours and very rarely 6 or less. Now onto the symptoms

Recently, I’ve been getting very very fatigued out of the blue. This has happened to me on and off all my life, usually 5-15 times in a 3 month to 1 year span and then disappearing again for months or years. The earliest I remember it is around 6 years old. This time around it’s much more pronounced. First I’ll get what seems similar to post-menopausal women’s hot flashes. It’ll feel like the room is suddenly(over a 5 minute span) 20 degrees hotter and stuffy and I’ll break out into a light sweat just sitting there. Soon I feel slightly dizzy, but mostly it’s a keen sense of rubbery, shaky legs and elbows. My hands are usually surgeon-still when I hold them up but in this state they’re slightly shaky. I’m not tired or sleepy whatsoever, but I’ll feel totally exhausted like if you’re up 36-40 hours straight or got 3-4 hours of sleep a couple nights in a row. It’s that same deep-bone weariness. The weak feeling lasts 3-6 hours and departs as suddenly as it arrived, over about a 5-15 minute span. Usually when this has happened I’d just ignore it or take a break from playing (when I was a kid) but this time around it’s real bad, I went home from work because of it last night and also this time I felt really ‘wrong’. I can’t describe it better, it just seemed something worse was going to happen, like I’d faint or have a seizure or something. My chest felt almost fluttery, but I checked my heartbeat and it was strong, slow and regular during this ‘episode’. (64 beats a minute, timed twice for 15 seconds) The fatigue usually hits mid day, yesterdays came about 3 hours after I’d gotten up.

To finish – I have no food allergies(also I’ve noted what I ate previous to these ‘episodes’ and I don’t think it’s something I’m eating). I don’t smoke or use any illegal drugs. I drink very little, usually 1-2 beers or 1-2 mixed drinks less than once a week. I’m not on any prescription medication. The only other pills I take are aspirins for occasional headaches. I do technically have asthma, but I haven’t had a true attack in almost 7 years and I only use my inhaler 3-4 times a year just to catch my breath if I feel a shortness of breath. I have no medical history that stands out and other than a severe reaction to poison ivy years ago, my trips to the hospital have all been injury related. My last physical was 4 months ago for a new job and everything checked out fine. I’ve never fainted, passed out, has a seizure, panic attack or anything like that. I’m not stressed out, depressed or unhappy. I’d best describe my mental and physical state (other than this fatigue thing) as ‘normal’. Other than when fatigued I usually feel great.

I’d simply go to the doctors about this but I became dissatisfied and left my primary care physician 3 months ago and due to a very busy schedule I haven’t had time to find a new one. An E.R. visit it over 100 bucks with my insurance and I really can’t afford it unless I really need to go.

Thank you in advance for reading this short novel and thank you for any advice you can give!

I’m going to my opthamologist on Wednesday, so I’m not looking for a professional diagnosis, but I would like to find out if anyone has the same type of problems and what the diagnosis was, just to get a head’s up of what might be the problem.
My eyes are extremely complex to begin with. I’ve had neurological problems develop recently, and now even more complications are arising. First, I was born with a fourth nerve palsy, which causes strabismus and inward jerking upon outward gaze. I’m one of the rare cases that didn’t develop a lazy eye; I see two images, but each eye is roughly the same strength, which is just a bit nearsighted, and corrected to 20/20 or so by prescription lenses. I shift my vision from one eye to the other.
After the birth of my second son, I developed downbeat nystagmus (and a host of other problems, but this was the only visual problem). I was diagnosed with Arnold Chiari Malformation, where the cerebellar tonsils herniate into the spinal column, putting pressure on the spinal cord. I had decompression surgery in October 2003. The surgery was successful. However, the nystagmus is permanent. I knew this before the surgery. There were no complications.
I had strabismus surgery (finally) in Aug 2004. Although my eyes were brought closer into alignment, they are still not lined up, which is next to impossible to do with a correction as intense as my situation. I still have double vision, but surprisingly, the nystagmus is not as profound. This was not supposed to happen.
In June of 2005, I noticed I couldn’t see as well as a month or two prior, so I went to my regular eye doctor to make sure my prescription was correct. It was. I had an MRI to make sure there was no scar tissue causing problems from the brain surgery. The surgery site was fine. I chalked it up to my crazy eyes just being difficult.
My eyes remained the same until May of this year. I wasn’t able to see slight imperfections at work all of a sudden, and I couldn’t find something unless I knew exactly where to look. Not good in a metal pressroom. Fortunately, I was laid off for the summer a few weeks later.
About two months ago, I went to my aunt’s funeral and realized I couldn’t recognize anyone’s face unless they were less than four feet in front of me, and only then I knew them by voice mostly. I was lying awake that night thinking and realized I wasn’t looking at blackness. I was looking at a light pattern that resembled reverse static on a TV; mostly black with small flecks of light throughout both central and peripheral vision, and it’s not moving or flashing. I see it all the time, even after sleeping, before looking at any light source. Also, I’ve completely lost my ability to scan. I have to know exactly where something is before I can see it. All details are lost if I focus anywhere beyond a foot or so away from the end of my nose. I can thread a needle, but my computer screen has to be enlarged. As far as I can tell, my color perception isn’t affected, and my eyesight isn’t blurry, the details are just not there.
I’ve got all kinds of ideas, from retinal disease, to cortical blindness, to just the mere combination of symptoms finally being too much for my eyes to adapt to. I would like to hear from anyone that’s had any of these symptoms and what caused it. I’ll post when I find out what doc says. Thanks!