please help me figure out if I need to get a grip or if I need help

[Bumblesquat]

I've been working up to this for days now, because I'm fairly evenly split over whether or not I'm fine and this is just life, or whether I have something genuinely wrong with me. I don't want to ask Dr Google, because he'll tell me I have everything. I haven't worked up the energy to go and bother my GP because I work in health care and feel like I should know better than to turn up and just whibble at them.
I'm rather hoping one of you lovely people might be able to help, or tell me to get over it. Possibly that's one and the same thing.

Symptoms:

Exhaustion - I have been chronically sleep deprived for 18 months due to a young family, but now get about 6-8 hours a night, and have done for a month or so. I never just wake up under my own steam, but am always dragged from a profound sleep by family needs/the alarm etc.

Aches and pains - the sort one might associate with flu, sore joints, tender skin etc. This sort of comes and goes in waves, I feel worse when it's cold outside. Looking back, these have been with me since the birth of my child nearly 2 years ago.

Lethargy - everything feels too much, I used to be active and busy, now if I have to go grocery shopping and go to work in the same day I feel like the piffling amount of juggling needed to pull that off is too much. I can cope with one thing at a time, but I always feel almost under seige because I never get to just do one thing at a time.

Raw emotions - I constantly feel like if you scratch me I'd bleed tears. A man spoke sharply to me in the street yesterday because he needed me to move away from his dog, he wasn't unreasonable, but I found myself fighting tears. Everything brings me to a point where I feel either desperate with anxiety or tearful with no obvious source.

Blank episodes - I don't really know what to call this. I have these periods a couple of times a week where parts of my body (often face and hands) tingle and I find it hard to concentrate or think and plan. I guess it's most like a panic attack, but without that heart juddering fear. I do feel scared during an attack, but it's more like a vague unease that I'm forgetting something because my head is fuzzy, rather than the need to crawl into a tiny space and concentrate on breathing so that my heart doesn't burst.

I don't feel depressed or blank, or any of the other signifiers of depressive episodes I've had before. I am mostly upbeat, keen to do things etc. I just feel kind of like I am constantly running to stand still. My life isn't complicated but it just exhausts me: I don't know any other mothers of one who have a stable relationship and a part time job who are brought to the verge of tears at the prospect of having to do laundry and cook dinner. Am I just being wet, or is there something amiss? I've never felt so lost in my life, and I've been through some appalling stuff over the years, which I sort of coped through, and now, here in this relatively calm water I feel like my boat has sprung a leak.

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

You should have blood tests done to see if your hormone levels related to the thyroid gland are out of sync. What you describe could all be indicative of problems with the thyroid gland.

This is an informative non woo website:-

www.thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/

[Bumblesquat]

Thank you attila. I'll have a wee look. I sort of swither between feeling like I'm just failing at being an adult and the rabid fear that there's something very wrong and that it won't be treatable and this is just "it" and I'll be like this forever. I think that's why I'm hesitant to go to the GP, because I think there's a 90% chance nothing will change. Which is daft.

[SushiAndTheBanshees]

I'm not medically qualified at all, but it sounds to me that you may have a combination of things that exacerbate each other: chronic, accumulated exhaustion and maybe anaemia, which impact your mental state which then impacts your physical state...

6-8 hours each night with anaemia doesn't sound like a lot. Bring roused daily from deep sleep would make anyone struggle. Can you alternate childcare shifts with DP at the weekends so you are able to get up at least once a week when your body is ready?

[MyFavouriteClintonisGeorge]

Other than the tingly absence episodes, I would have said possible Vitamin D deficiency. I know it sounds faddy as it is said a lot on here, but I am currently about to finish a prescription course of Vit D and the difference it has made is astounding. I was diagnosed after full bloods following a similar period of feeling as though I was living at the bottom of a murky pond.

Thing is, it could be a lot of things, including hypothyroidism, so you can only proceed by process of elimination, starting with blood tests.

[Bumblesquat]

I'd love to alternate sushi, but sadly I work most weekends, so I rarely have time when my partner and I are both available at breakfast time. I'm going to have to suck it up and make an appointment with GP. They're going to think I'm as daft as a brush: here, listen to all my odd nonspecific moans and then give me magic pill to make it better.

[Bumblesquat]

myfavourite that's really encouraging to hear, I'm glad you're feeling better. I hadn't considered something as obvious as a vit d deficiency, which is daft, because I'm still breast feeding.

[Floundering]

Another one here who can identify with those symptoms, so due to Vit D deficiency but bit could also be linked to thyroid.

Go & see your GP it could be something as simple as that .

Hope you fel better soon you soud exhausted x

[Borninthe60s]

I'd say thyroid or fibromyalgia. Definitely visit your GP X

[Bumblesquat]

Thanks guys, off to make an appointment now, I'll let you know!

[Imnotaslimjim]

I'm here to echo possible vit D deficiency. I felt horrific - utterly wrung out constantly, life felt like it was just too hard. I couldn't even climb a full set of stairs without pausing half way up! My bones ached constantly and I would fall asleep after cooking tea, sleep through til morning and feel like I hadn't slept. I went to the dr in desperation and a course of high dose vit D and and felt loads better within a fortnight. I now take it daily to keep it topped up.

[Alfabetibisgetti]

Get your b12 checked too. That might account for the tingling.
I took this screenshot earlier for myself. I'm also hypothyroid but (supposedly) optimally medicated.

[Bumblesquat]

Right, I've got an appointment on monday afternoon. I'll keep you posted. Thanks everyone so much for taking the time.

[SpotlessLadybird]

I have a very similar list of symptoms Bumblesquat. I have been to docs today and having bloods done on Monday. Thyroid fine last time it was checked. Chronic fatigue syndrome was mentioned.
What you said about feeling that you're failing to be an adult struck a chord with me. I feel like that too - like I should really be able to cope with life, but I'm constantly exhausted and feel like I'm wading through treacle.(I do have depression too so that doesn't help).

Sorry, I'm not much help - just wanted to say you're not alone. Hope it goes well with the GP on Monday.

[Bumblesquat]

spotless thank you for sharing. The treacle analogy is so on point. Everything is an effort, even the stuff that shouldn't be. I'll just tell you what I tell myself: keep going! Keep wading, because there isn't another option right now. I hope you get some good or at least helpful news soon.xx

[Bumblesquat]

Hi all update just in case you were wondering:

Blood panels have all come back normal, I'm not deficient or over producing anything. So, the next thing to rule out is sleep abnormalities. We're pretty certain I don't have sleep apnoea, so I've been prescribed something to induce deep sleep, if that fails to work wonders then I'll get a diagnosis of elimination: Chronic Fatigue. I had so desperately hoped to avoid it, but it seems likely that that's my lot for the minute. I'll know more clearly in the new year I suspect.

[Plumm]

Have you tried Vit D as pp suggested? I had very similar symptoms to you, got tests done and the only thing wrong was low iron. I have been taking iron tablets and self-prescribed 2000mg a day of vit D (after reading about it on here and other places, as well as previous experience taking it) and have seen a huge difference in my energy levels. I haven't taken it for a week or two (busy/lazy!) and can feel the tiredness and bone aches creeping back in. Back on to the vit D tonight for me!

[HyacinthBouquetNo1]

You sound just like me, i always say just existing is exhausting. I have fibromyalgia and have had vitamin D deficiency in the past, i am on supplements but haven't noticed any improvement on them.