Are vitamin A blood tests reliable for hypervitaminosis A?

[Sarah030609]

Hello,

In late September I suffered hypervitaminosis A from topical tretinoin. I, unbenownkst to me, was suffering from a vitamin D deficiency at the time. I was working from home and applying sun screen every time I went out, even to the shops (thanks internet, it turns out the 2 things you recommend strongest for anti-aging: tretinoin and sunscreen can actually be very dangerous when used together) and was eating a vegan diet with very very little vitamin D.

But I knew little about vitamins and there was no warnings on the packet.

Anyway I had an awful reaction – migraines, photosensitivity, dizziness, hallucinations, inability to read some days etc.

I also noticed my face changed immediately and my eyes hollowed out.

I read this had happened to other people. So as my other symptoms cleared up I figured the distorted eye hollows would be something I just had to live with.

But this spread.

First to my neck, then to the back of my head, then it ate my jaw bone, then my entire body.

The doctors will not listen to me and are refusing to even look at the before and after pictures and are calling me mad.

I am so fatigued that it’s hard to fight them.

From my research, vitamin A overdose can resorb bone, and it seems mine is just doing it at an insane rate.

My questions are; are vitamin A blood tests reliable?

The internet seems to have different things to say about this topic.

My second question is: which type of

specialist would be likeliest to help me and would they believe me?

My partner seems to think they won’t treat bone loss until they establish the cause.

I have the markers proving it yet the GPs all swear that tretinoin is fine and cannot cause these side effects, even though I’ve found vast amounts of proper medical sources (i.e. journals and studies etc) online that say that it can.

Is this the medical community’s consensus as a whole?

Or is there a specialist that could help me (e.g. endocrinologist, orthopaedic etc) that would be likely to believe me?

Thanks

[katie_huffman Administrator]

Hi Sarah030609. I'm sorry to hear that you are still struggling to get answers about your health. This sounds very frustrating.

Does anyone in the group have advice about navigating a complex health condition?