One common symptom I come across when I go through a 'fatigue crash' is I also get bad lower back pain (also occurs during period pain). Anyone else had similar who knows what this is caused by?...
It's equal on both sides, if you put your hands on your hips it would be exactly where your thumbs lie. Is this where your kidneys are, can they even hurt, or is it just muscle pain? I'm mostly just intrigued at this further piece of the puzzle, wondered whether it's caused by toxins/dehydration maybe?
Hope you're all keeping well 🙂
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junebug7
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I used to get lower back pain. Never period pain! Always worse when I'm hypo and after exercise such as playing racquet sports.
A physio gave me some exercises which i do before playing sports and they really help. I had an MRI and I have some minor degeneration in part of my spine, I suspect most people do but perhaps not at your age.
After well over a decade I discovered that much of the pain is caused by how I sleep! If I lay on my RHS I get no pain the following day. I get pain if I lie on my LHS, it comes on after 20 to 30 minutes but I don't get pain if I lie on my LHS with my elbow stretched out. Thus, the pain is caused by my body being rotated a little anticlockwise as viewed from above, my chest more to the left than my legs.
The above is rather detailed and specific but I would suggest that anyone who gets back pain carries out a few trials sleeping in various positions. It's quite possible we have trivial spinal problems that are exacerbated by twisting of the body. It was incredibly difficult to discover and has a very simple solution.
As I mentioned earlier being undermedicated definitely makes any back pain much worse.
Thanks for the advice. I do find Yoga stretching does help relieve it a little. I do find it odd that it's very definitely linked to the days when I'm utterly knocked out with fatigue, I'm just not sure of the reason for the correlation although I don't do much sports so it's unlikely to be that 😀
Possibly overnight back pain causing fatigue? Would depend on when and how quickly the back pain comes on. If it was kidney pain you would know about it. Perhaps ask GP for physiotherapy, if that makes it better you know it is muscular and not something more acute. Worth taking some magnesium supplement as that can help keep muscles relaxed.
Yes I was wondering the exact same thing , I have also been suffering for months with the same pain , I had 3 days last week without it , it was wonderful,but it’s back again now 😥
These muscles are some of the most powerful in the human body. These are the muscles designed to hold us upright. I am pretty certain during ‘fatigue crash’ these muscles are very badly affected. They need loads of thyroid hormone (just like the rest of our systems). Sometimes this my first discernible symptom that I am about to have a crash. I am notoriously oblivious/focused on getting stuff done when I seem to be able and don’t notice perhaps earlier signs. This one I pay attention to now because the sooner I rest, the sooner I will get back on track.
So for approximately 10 yrs of similar sounding problems although I was well into mid 40s.I started getting problems year or so after starting Levothyroxine.
I had been diagnosed within weeks of each other Hypothyroidism ( off scale it was reported) and same with Coeliac disease, and pernicious anaemia came a month or so later.
I had a twist in bed which caused paraplegic shock as my thoracic disc hit my spinal cord … then events lead up to me being diagnosed with the mentioned conditions.
Obviously the vastly depleted bordering on just traces of vitamins was most likely to blame for the problems with back going … I had absolutely no symptoms to give a thought I had any of these conditions.
It probably had crossed my mind about thyroid as after having my daughter I couldn’t lose the weight but I also wasn’t trying too really.
So something just gave out.
I had no back pain at this point but tingling and burning sensations down my left leg which resolved after a year after getting enough iron vitamin D & B12.
I had full spinal mri and only degenerative disc in my cervical ( neck) and the bulge in my thoracic disc so was sent away to do only bare minimum for 6 months until my thoracic disc healed.
It was this investigation time I found my other conditions.
I was put on 50mcg levothyroxine for a month then straight up to 100 mcg and there I stayed until last year.
I couldn’t fathom what started my pelvic, hip lower back problems but I did also periodically get shoulder neck pain but might be from degenerative disc’s… I apparently have a straighter neck which is most likely the cause of my degenerative disc there I was told .
So it started with just dull aches which would make me want to sit down and rest … but by 5 yrs in I was getting spasms which I couldn’t do anything for couple of weeks … I had private and nhs physiotherapy and sacroiliac joint dysfunction was told I most likely had by them, I had dozens of sessions to try strengthening areas but nothing was working and the private physiotherapist mentioned my thyroid condition and from there I started to study this area.
So my age and other conditions messed this up with trying to fathom what it was and was extremely slow process in trying to get few answers and although almost back to normality I do have dips so I’m being honest and I can’t say which has worked but it’s worth trying anything regardless.
I’m still perimenopausal with that I found by going on hrt, then getting few complications I had a ovarian cyst (hormonal type that come and go) and adenomyosis other than being aware when this cyst comes and goes I’ve had no gynaecological pain or problems… I count myself lucky.
I had been under medicated from the off set with my thyroid as my TSH was in range but in getting access to my records this range was often well above 2, and all my events seemed to be connected to my TSH being higher again.
I asked for FT4 & FT3 to be checked and it was and FT3 was low but nothing done as it was still just in range.
So my mission started why is this low … I heard that changing brands that’s not suitable maybe an area that can improve and I definitely felt better on Levothyroxine that contained lactose… I wasn’t good at all on Aristo and Teva.
I had asked to see endocrinologist few times but got nowhere but March 2020 I had my worse back spasms and I couldn’t get out of bed it took months but still in agonising pain to just get out of bed…, then lockdown started so this slowed everything down being resolved but the only advantage was GPs were eager to shift you elsewhere … I had another private (by my health insurance) mri this time included few other areas but only found degenerative discs in my lumbar (lower back) which wasn’t there 7 yrs previously but shouldn’t cause problems … my neck was no worse Thoracic all good now.
I had nothing to suggest on paper anything was wrong, my diet was excellent I had eliminated all Drs thought could be, my blood tests were all good (apparently) so I deepened my mission and came on this forum, and was told my as I have coeliac disease this could be reason I also have issues converting the T4 to T3.
I presented this to my GP, and bingo endocrinologist referral … he immediately rejected the back issue was anything related to my thyroid as it did seem like what he heard of in his whatever years of experience.
However he did say TSH for most is better under 2 and many more under 1… he did lots of tests for thyroid and other conditions which are now all negative and without going down the route of deiodinase investigation it was fairly obvious I’m not converting even with upping the levothyroxine so I was put on Liothyronine (T3).
Endocrinologist is on list of thyroid endocrinologist in U.K.
I can’t get Liothyronine through NHS.
Liothyronine seems to have helped especially in recovery so with the hrt (gel and utrogestan) it has almost got me back to normal, I can’t say which is better or collectively they just helped.
So although thyroid can give pain problems it’s very tricky to pinpoint especially with a GP only involved with limited testing and us women with age and/or gynaecological areas to check, without even considering other historical individual problems it isn’t straight forward.
If on levothyroxine find a brand you feel ok on and stick to it or at least keep record how other brands make you feel.
Assuming all your regular vitamins B12, D iron etc are in good area look at getting that TSH well below 2 you might need endocrinologist to advise you from here… my GP was happy with it in range so that could easily of been 4 or 5 🤦🏻♀️
I definitely started better recovery on Liothyronine it hasn’t stopped the aches completely but I can do most things myself now.
Kidney pain is usually but by no means not felt elsewhere but usually felt lower back flank area, have you had u&e blood tests to rule this area out.
Definitely try to keep exercising even if just a walking… sitting isn’t good at least try getting up and about if only to stretch for a minute every hour.
Magnesium is a good relaxant topically and orally (check which magnesium type you buy some can cause digestive upset)
I absolutely feel for people stuck with these mobility issues and it can be so debilitating.
Hope you find answers soon.
Apologies for my extremely long explanation of my past 10 yrs 🙄
Hi, that sounds extremely painful, I'm sorry you've had to deal with that.
Thank you so much for the detailed response. I've not had a u&e blood test but I'll ask the doctor. I regularly take magnesium (and other) supplements and was doing well at keeping on top of these but I have been experimenting with gluten free and am trying to find a pattern in my crashes to establish whether there is a connection there.
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