To think SOMETHING must be wrong with me?

[BastardBiscuits]

I’m 39. Utterly exhausted 24/7. When I wake up in a morning I’m not just groggy, I literally can’t function. I feel nauseous, utterly exhausted, headache, body aches, stiff everywhere, I can barely walk properly as I feel like I could just collapse onto the floor.

I only work part time. No kids at home. No illnesses that I know of other than ferritin deficiency anaemia.

My last shift at work is tomorrow. I’ve had to resign as I literally cannot function properly.

Dr says nothing is wrong with me. I’m 39. I look on Facebook and see pics of people out for lunch or at the gym etc and it makes me feel depressed. I barely have the energy to go to toilet. My 87 year old grandma has more energy than me.

@BastardBiscuits

Last time my ferritin was tested it was 9 but it has been 6 before

That's really low - mine is in the twenties and I feel like shit. I would have thought that addressing will go a along way to helping your symptoms.

Thyroid?

*I think we need to be careful with the assumption that symptoms like these are often psychological in origin. It's less true than some people seem to think, and can lead to sufferers blaming themselves for not being able to 'think' themselves better.

Additionally, if a person with fatigue is depressed, it's often because they are fatigued, rather than for any other reason.*

This is utter garbage. Depression is a serious, life threatening illness with a wide variety of symptoms. Depressed brains are not functioning correctly, they slow down and make functioning impossible. Depressed people don't 'think' themselves better, they need therapies - pharmacological or psychological - to recover.

There's nothing wrong with an illness being a mental one rather than a physical one. Threads like these are always full of amateur quacks recommending this test or that and recommending the obvious depressed OP 'fight' the doctor to find the 'real' cause.

@AlexanderHalexander But there is a long history of people, especially women, being fobbed off with antidepressants when they really have a physical illness. So many people with chronic illnesses report that it took them years to get diagnosed, because women's pain in particular doesn't get taken seriously.

Yes thats true, but this has led to a mindset amongst some people that they won't be 'fobbed off' with a diagnosis of depression, even when it is clear that they have depression and all of their symptoms are due to depression.

The OP even mentions being depressed in her OP, and yet only a couple of people have mentioned it, while many people are recommending the OP goes back to the GP and repeat tests that were normal. If the OP's thyroid function tests were normal, why is it more likely to be her thyroid than depression? The stigma against mental health illness is so clear to see on this thread.

There is a hunger for a 'real' (read:non mental health related) illness on here that I find distasteful. If her B12 was normal, her B12 was NORMAL what is the point of going back to the GP asking them to recheck her B12? It's laughable.

@AlexanderHalexander

Yes thats true, but this has led to a mindset amongst some people that they won't be 'fobbed off' with a diagnosis of depression, even when it is clear that they have depression and all of their symptoms are due to depression.

The OP even mentions being depressed in her OP, and yet only a couple of people have mentioned it, while many people are recommending the OP goes back to the GP and repeat tests that were normal. If the OP's thyroid function tests were normal, why is it more likely to be her thyroid than depression? The stigma against mental health illness is so clear to see on this thread.

There is a hunger for a 'real' (read:non mental health related) illness on here that I find distasteful. If her B12 was normal, her B12 was NORMAL what is the point of going back to the GP asking them to recheck her B12? It's laughable.

I don't disagree with this at all except the OP is clearly very anaemic and that doesn't seem to be being treated as aggressively as it should be. That's absolutely not to say that you're wrong - I thought I was very anaemic but I turned out to be only marginally anaemic and all the symptoms that I attributed to anaemia are actually depression-related. Which is annoying in some ways as that's less easy to fix!

Ferratin you want 10+.
There are supplements that are good for people with IBD/IBS so don't settle. You also need them long term rather than have them for a bit then give up.

I have a lot of what you describe and low ferritin prompted my GP to test me for coeliac disease. My blood test was positive so I'm now awaiting gastroenterology.

But the OP has said I look on Facebook and see pics of people out for lunch or at the gym etc and it makes me feel depressed. I barely have the energy to go to toilet. She feels depressed because she's no longer able to do the things she used to do. She feels depressed because she has a physical medical condition that hasn't been taken seriously. That's not the same thing as what you were suggesting. I'm sure most people would feel depressed if they were seriously ill to the point of having to quit their job but couldn't get a diagnosis.

@AHobbyaweek

Ferratin you want 10+. There are supplements that are good for people with IBD/IBS so don't settle. You also need them long term rather than have them for a bit then give up.

My GP told me this week that the minimum ferritin for a woman is 27 and ideally it should be 50 - 100; lots of people are still symptomatic at the lower end of 'normal'.

Op your ferritin levels are very very low. No wonder you feel awful. Why aren’t they treating you? I second the recommendation for floradix but initially you are going to need a much bigger dose to get your levels up. As in a prescription or IV iron.

Also I would not take a ‘normal’ TSH level as any sort of guide on your thyroid. It can be very misleading. The problem you’ve got is though that GPs won’t do the full screening if your tsh is in their normal range. I’d suggest you pay £50 and get it done youself via Medichecks. I did it via their website. Fab service.

Good luck

Ferritin shpukd be between 50-70. i once had ferritin of 12. I couldn't get up the stairs.

Floradix has v low iron levels. You need a significant supplement for at least 6 months just to sort that.

Tectonicplates - how do you know she has a serious medical condition that hasn’t been taken seriously?

She has a low ferritin, I imagine that she has been given iron supplements that she hadn’t taken due to her IBS. So that’s been taken seriously.

What’s the other physical health condition that hasn’t been taken seriously? The other bloods were normal. How do you know she doesn’t have depression? Why don’t you want it to be depression? Is depression not a ‘serious’ illness to you? Do you think a vitamin deficiency or autoimmune disease is more serious or important than depression?

I was going to ask if you'd been tested for coeliac. The saw your IBS update. You definitely need testing.

IBS is an exclusion diagnosis. Have the excluded all possible dietary issues, such as ceoliacs?
I'm just asking as I was exactly like you last year. I would sleep 10h a night then physically had to lie on the sofa and have a nap before getting up. I was always fuzzy and the exhaustion was a constant weight on my shoulders, so much so that I felt as if I was being pulled down.
I have hashimotos and an iron deficiency so had levels checked and they were fine.
At this time, I got horrendous bloating-8 month pregnancy belly. I was told IBS. Pushed for bloods and referrals and its ceoliacs.
I Cut out wheat, gluten and dairy and follow FODMAP.
It has literally changed my life.
Im still tired all the time (work and kids) but I can function and manage work. I know if I've been 'glutened' as the feelings of doom and overwhelming exhaustion come crashing back and stick around for days

What’s the other physical health condition that hasn’t been taken seriously? The other bloods were normal. How do you know she doesn’t have depression? Why don’t you want it to be depression? Is depression not a ‘serious’ illness to you? Do you think a vitamin deficiency or autoimmune disease is more serious or important than depression?

Why do you want it to be depression? You seem pretty intent on disagreeing with practically everyone else on this thread. There's a whole string of suggestions on here, some of which I'm sure the OP will take up. And CFS/ME is diagnosed by process of elimination when everything else has been ruled out.

I am not prepared to converse with you any further.

alexander the problem many of us have is that we do have actual physical illnesses (in my case sleep apnoea and psoriatic arthritis) yet it's taken years to receive proper treatment due to doctors trying to write off my symptoms as depression or anxiety. Patients ARE being fobbed of with 'depression', when they're only depressed because no one can be bothered to find out what the fuck is wrong with them!

IBS is an exclusion diagnosis.

Yep. There are thousands of people who've been told for years that they had IBS, only to find out years later that they actually have Crohn's, Ulcerative Colitis, Coeliac or other conditions.

I used to know someone else who had this problem for years, constantly told it was IBS. She even had a colonoscopy and was told it wasn't Crohn's, wasn't Coeliac, was definitely "only" IBS. Doctors kept insisting there was nothing wrong. And yet, years later, she was finally diagnosed with Addison's disease. It happens all the time.

If you have any type of stomach problem ulcers gastro gallstones
Then you need to to really take liquid/spray version of vitamin tablets
I don’t absorb vitamin tablets due to problems with gallstones and other stuff.
I might as well be eating M&M if i take vitamin tablets so I take the spray version of vitamin tablets

You need iron and the drink called floradix, which can be bought on amazon.

With a normal TSH, what is the indication for thyroid autoantibodies?

TSH is not a satisfactory way to gauge thyroid health. At all. Yet the NHS persist in their argument that it is.

The NHS missed my hypothyroid for years because of this. As it turns out, I don't convert the hormone properly into the active form. So I now take medication which had me improving within days, quite literally.

Sorry didn’t read all replies but what is your diet like? Do you eat well?

I felt very similar to this when I went started with early menopause at 41,the crashing tiredness and aches especially hit me like a bolt out of the blue and went on for a long time,I only went to the doctors as I thought there was something seriously wrong with me and eventually one doctor checked for that,hope you feel better soon.

I haven't read the full thread.but just from what you're saying I'd say fibromyalgia. My mum has it and I'm being 'investigated ' for it. I go to bed at half nine the latest, get up at five, go to bed at 12pm for a nap, be exhausted for two hours and on again, but I never feel awake...ever. If I get a cold, even my hair hurts, sounds stupid but all I can do is keep moving and take ibuprofen. Hope you get answers soon