Still no diagnosis

[Ladyheart]

Hello everyone,

I am posting cause i am hoping someone has similar symptoms and can help me. To start I am a 45 yo female who is active doing taekwondo, yoga, and zumba. I was working full time and in grad school full time when in June I awoke and had excruciating right hip pain. The pain was in my lateral thigh, with tenderness making laying on my side intolerable. I would get occasional groin shocks, and the nails in my heal feeling. My back never hurt, and as a nurse myself I am struggling with the idea that someone can wake up and have the pain the totally changes their life and there is no reason. I have tried PT but had to stop due to increased pain with load-bearing exercises.I do a lot of core exercises at home, my pain starts an hour after activity on most days. If I am really active for a few days in a row, I am in bed for a week. I did do a Medrol pack which changed my pain to tolerable, and I also had an epidural steroid injection in the lumbar region, day two I had complete relief that disappeared 13 days later. I am unable to work, and the Lyrica and the gabapentin prior to this kill my short-term memory and increase my confusion.

Tests:

Xray of pelvis - negative for necrosis, dysplasia, arthritis.

Ct of spine - negative except for mile arthritic changes to lumbar spine

MRI of spine - mild L4 disc bulge which was present almost 2 years ago.

Bone scan - negative

CRP - started at 6.1 now is 13.5

CBC - normal

CMP- normal

ESR - normal at 15

A1c - 5

TSH - 5 but my T3 and T4 are normal

B12 normal

I am currently waiting for my skin biopsy results and results for and HLA B27

Medications:

Tumeric 1000mg daily

Evening primrose 1300mg daily

Vitamin D 5000units daily

Lyrica (new) 100mg BID

B complex 1 tab everyother day

Symptoms:

Still no back pain

I have extreme fatigue, dry eyes (evening primrose and otc eye drops helps)

I am always thirsty, over the past two years, my food intolerances have increased following a pretty bad case of gastritis. I eat most foods on a Mediterranean diet. I do not eat red meats since it just sits in my stomach.

Sitting and standing for long periods of time exacerbates the burning pain in my buttocks and right hip and thigh, as well as the heel pain.

Important to note that after my epidural injection my symptoms are now bilateral, but still mostly on the right.

I do have auto immune issues in my family such as sjogrens, RA, OA. I myself have no real medical history and prior to this I only took vitamins. Even though I have lost only 30 pounds, I went from a size 16 to a 10. I am just looking to see if anyone has any Ideas or may be experiencing the same symptoms.

Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays.

[Marz]

Your TSH is too high for a healthy person. You mention your FT4 and FT3 are normal - sadly normal is an opinion and not a result. What was the actual result - ? Also were you thyroid anti-bodies tested - TPO & Tg ?

B12 needs to be above 500 - so the B Complex you have been taking may have skewed the result. Are you taking the co-factors with the VitD ?

Happy to help

[Ladyheart in reply to Marz]

Thank you so much for your reply. No, they have not done any antibody tests for my thyroid. My free T4 was 0.79, my T3 is 123. Last year my TSH was 1.2. For the past few years, my TSH has been going up and down. My last B12 was a little over 1000. I do take a calcium with my Vitamin D. And the B complex I take every other day since it causes nausea if I take it every day. Unfortunately, I had to switch health care providers since my other providers would have just left me in pain and were not concerned that a young active person wakes up with debilitating pain.

[Marz in reply to Ladyheart]

I believe you are in the US - so the ranges with your results would be helpful as I am not familiar with the FT4 and FT3 readings

As you are taking 5000 IU's of VitD3 I would not take additional calcium. D3 encourages the uptake of calcium from foods so taking more is not good as any excess can be deposited in the arteries and other soft tissues. It would be better to take the VitD3 co-factors - magnesium and VitK2-MK7 to ensure the calcium from foods is directed into the bones and teeth !

I would most certainly get those Thyroid anti-bodies tested - TPO & Tg.

Calcium can also block the uptake of iron from foods. Do you know your Ferritin and Folate numbers ?