In Feb 1987, I returned to the UK after a 3 year posting in Cyprus and we were accommodated in married quarters on a nearby former USAF base. About 6 months later, and without any warning my symptoms of tiredness and general malaise started. I was prescribed an iron tonic, which eventually I was drinking from the bottle, but the only effect it had on me was constipation. Then in 1988, we moved home to the base where I was stationed & worked, and by the autumn time all my symptoms had disappeared just as suddenly as they had come.
There has never been a definitive diagnosis and the best the medics at that time could do was to label it as Post Viral Effects and suggest that it was akin to a sub-clinical attack of hepatitis sometime in the previous year of 1986. They cautioned that it was likely to recur in the future and it did roughly every four or five years with the first being in 1993.
Note: I was a fit as a fiddle in those Cyprus days and I never had any prior symptoms of any sort.
Then in the 2000 and after re-settling to Ireland four years earlier, it all started and the following is a list of the more serious illnesses I've had: Bell’s Palsy, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Hypothyroidism (diagnosed by Dr Peatfield), Small Cell Vasculitis, COPD, Liver Function Test Hep C false negative concerns, Hypertension, A Fib, BPH (and a very vascular prostate), Tremor, Genital Vitiligo, GERD, Polymyalgia, Dermatitis, Eczema, Sleep Apnoea, Asthma, Eyesight issues, CKD, Secondary PTH, Template Biopsies of Prostate.
Note: I have seen doctors and consultants for nearly all of the above and whilst they all agreed that I have a complex medical history, they nearly all said that as I have so much going on with me, that they would all just concentrate on their own specialities and look where that has gotten me!
For many years I had suspected that my over exposure to toxic chemical & solvents was a contributory factor and then in 2011, it was disclosed in the UK press that a number of USAF bases in the UK had suffered with contaminated ground water and one of those was the base where I first got sick in 1987. The main culprit is a solvent called Trichloroethylene (aka TCE) and recently there was an appeal on BBC1 breakfast television for similarly effected UK servicemen & women and who served at Camp Leguine in the USA to come forward.
Earlier this year, and as I waited for and faced into yet another annual iron infusion, the benefits of which were always short lived, my GP prescribed a daily dose of iron tablets as an interim measure on 13 April 2024 and whilst my ferritin level and which at times has been as low as single figures, has already increased from 50 to 85, I haven't felt as good in years! I have since seen a Consultant Haematologist and as she reviewed my historical blood test results data I had prepared, she said, "My God you should have been on Iron tablets for years"!
My diet has been developed over the years, it is very stable with plenty of red meat, chicken & pork most days along with mostly wholemeal breads, loads of standard vegetables and the odd glass of red.
I would welcome any constructive comments and advice.
Frustrated and Tired of Being Tired
T3 Lost in the Post?
Had my thyroid checked in Cyprus. Fed up with 'out of range' results being ignored by my GP
