Feeling awful lately, is it something more than my thyroid?

[Brenjacques]

Hi All, this is quite a long post so please bear with me!

So for a while now, in fact this is getting on for two or three years, I've been feeling pretty bad with my overall wellbeing. It all started two years ago when I became quite ill with three bouts of tonsilitis and glandular fever that left me in a rash for two weeks although prior to this I have always suffered from fatigue to some extent, having two autoimmune conditions (thyroid and hypoglycemia). I can strongly say that since then (the illness two to three years ago) my health has never quite been the same. I have turned to here because no end of times have I been to the doctors just for them to turn me away, we have adjusted my thyroxine, taken B12 and iron supplements, vit D supplements but nothing has helped. Quite a lot of the time I feel bad, it starts as soon as I wake up with flashing joint and muscle pain that travells up and down my body, regularly this is really bad and the aches are painful. It can leave my hands so weak that I can barely use them to get ready, something like buttoning a shirt can be quite difficult. I also suffer a lot of dry heaving, mainly in the mornings and again for no real reason but I struggle to eat during this so I don't really get any food until around 11am. I have also begun to get worn out much easily, something like a set of stairs can leave me fatigued, dizzy and extremely short of breath. I have noticed more recently that for no reason my heartbeat begins to race and I become very dizzy for bouts of around 5-10 minutes and have to have a sit down as if I am doing anything during this time I become light headed and feel faint. I almost constantly have a headache now, always just above my left eye and I've noticed with the more recent sunny weather that I have became very sensitive to the sun, and my eyes are almost shut when outside. I have also had problems with both my memory and brain function, I work a skilled job and I am struggling a lot more lately. I forget things that are common to my everyday work, dispite doing this for over a year and I am having a lot of problems losing track of what I am doing and have the 'walk into a room and forget what you went there for' problem multiple times in a single day. After work I always need a good rest up as soon as I get home as by this point of the day I have that really run down feeling and feel quite weak. Mosy nights I can get to sleep fairly easily but there is a few a week where I can never get comfortable, not just in bed but it almost feels like my own skin isn't comfortable for me. If I have a good nights sleep I still feel run down in the morning, it has been a few years since I could just wake up and jump straight out of bed, I feel lethargic most mornings. I need some advice because this is really starting to run me down, work is getting much more difficult and I have had to cut down on a lot of activities outside of work as I cannot handle it anymore. I'm becoming very short tempered and stressed and I just feel like I am constantly having to push myself just to live my normal, day to day life. I have also lost 3 stone in weight over the past two years. I have had a few blood tests at the doctors and they have given me supplements when I have been low on something but nothing has fixed it. Frankly I wouldn't mind if I were growing old as I suppose that some of these could be attributed with age but I'm only 22 and I just feel like I no longer have any quality of life. This is now beginning to make me feel quite depressed as I have been carrying on like this for a long time and I am really struggling to go any further, but as much as I want to give up on everything to rest up I can't, I have bills to pay so work I must. I am having a lot more time off work than usual, I barely socialise after work anymore and I have lost a lot of interests in my hobbies as I just do not have the energy or brain power anymore. I just want my life back but I feel like every time I seek help it just falls of deaf ears. What do I do? I just can't see where I can turn to help now but I am getting so close to just giving my job up and give in to the fatigue which I really can't do. I just hope someone has been stuck in a similar way and found help.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Brenjacques

Gosh, that woud be a lot easier on the eye if you put paragraphs into your post, reading a massive block of text like that isn't easy.

First things first, let's start with some test results. Please post your latest results (including the important reference ranges as they vary from lab to lab and we need your lab's ranges to interpret your tets). Ideally, to get a full picture, we need to see

TSH

FT4

FT3

Thyroid antibodies (thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin)

Vit D

B12

Folate

Ferritin

Please also say what thyroid meds you take and what supplements, plus dosage.

[Brenjacques in reply to SeasideSusie]

Hi susie,

I will get a print out of my last test and give the results, apologies for the block of text but I am on my phone and it is difficult to view it properly on here. I am curently on Levothyroxine 100mcg daily.

I have been advised to take a B complex supplement which I have been doing since and have finished my course of vitamin D tablets. I do recall all being in range other than my B12 which was low, although not low enough for injections, the 4 times prior it has been low enough to have injections but they based their decision on the final test. My Ferratin has been low before but on my last test this checked out okay. As I said, I will go to my gp desk and get a print out of my last results so I can get the numbers.

[Jazzw in reply to Brenjacques]

You almost certainly need B12 injections - what a stupid way of deciding you don’t! As I read through your post I was certain I’d find a reference to low B12 due to the symptoms you mentioned - and lo and behold, there it was...

Do please post your results. Has your doctor tested for pernicious anaemia?

[Cheryl25]

Sounds like your thyroid may be under not over producing thyroid hormones or you could have Graves’ disease(Barbara Bush had it).Get your tap water analysed.And,insist that the doctor send you to a hormone specialist(starts with an e-sorry I can’t spell it-the doctor will know)!

Good luck trying to find out why you feel so terrible.Its your body.Make them listen until you get the answer!