Unintentional weight loss

[DollyLlama]

I'm a little bit puzzled so thought I'd ask here and see if anyone has had similar. Sorry it's a long post.

I've never been a small girl, but not big either, I normally hover around sizes 14-16 / 12 stone until I got pregnant with my first. Just before I got pregnant I was dieting using the 5:2 and exercising a lot and got down to 9stone 6 which in all honestly was a bit too thin for me at 5ft 8 and a lot of hard work to keep the weight off and shot up to around 13 stone and stayed that way give or take until I fell pregnant with my son who I had in November.

I went to the doctors last month as I've had symptoms such as hair loss (far more than average postpartum hair loss but luckily I have a lot of hair so it's not too noticeable and it's included my pubic hair), stiff joints, hives, swollen hands with a rash and bruised looking skin on my legs that has now gone and migraines and auras to name a few. I just got my blood test results back and no thyroid problems, no rheumatoid problem or diabetes.

I didn't mention the weight loss though because it wasn't something I can say I noticed as I didn't have scales indoors, although I did have a good idea of my weight as I was being weighed at the blood clinic as I was on thinners for a blood clot that's cleared up.

My weight loss that I'm aware of has been

December - 13.9
January - 12.4
March - 11.3
April- 10.12

I bought my wedding dress in February and it was a size 16 and fitted like a glove, I tried it on last week and it literally fell off! I've had to have it altered as since I've been checking, I've been losing around 1lb every 3 days. I'm getting married in 3 weeks and need the dress to fit!

Since it's always been hard to lose weight, I'm a little worried! Is it going to stop? I'm eating like a horse with 2 small children and if I'm honest, I'm not very active so i can't work out why I'm dropping so much!

do you have a print off of your results? GPs are notoriously poor when it comes to thyroid issues (having results within range can still indicate a problem).

@saison4 I actually haven't, I've made an appointment to see the gp again next Thursday to discuss as the receptionist just said within range, although a few symptoms do sound classic thyroid.

Lots of possibilities. Obviously nobody can diagnose here but some people might be able to make suggestions if they know a bit more. When you say "no thyroid problems", that's presumably your GP's judgement. Do you have the triiodothyronine/thyroxine (T3/T4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) numbers (you might only have the TSH)? When you say "no rheumatoid problem" do you mean rheumatoid factor (RF) was negative? This isn't a very useful test and a negative result wouldn't exclude systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or "lupus"), for example, any more than it would confirm rheumatoid arthritis. Or was the non-rheumatoid judgement made on the basis of other tests, e.g. erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and/or C-reactive protein (CRP)?

Also, are you on any medication? My ex-father-in-law had severe "unexplained" weight-loss a few years ago that turned out to be a side-effect of something he was taking for a heart arrhythmia. What anticoagulant were you on? Was it warfarin, another oral drug (rivaroxaban [Xarelto®], apixaban [Eliquis®], dabigatran [Pradaxa®]), or something given by injection? Obviously, don't answer any medication questions if it would cause embarrassment.

In terms of diseases, the most likely causes of weight loss are thyroid disorder, other endocrine disorder (e.g. type-1 diabetes), systemic inflammatory conditions and cancer. It doesn't sound like there's any suggestion of cancer or diabetes but you do have a lot of symptoms indicative of inflammation, although you would probably still want quite a bit more evidence before ruling out thyroid disorder. Do you feel hot much of the time? Do your hands shake?

I'm not a doctor, but if you can fill in some details a qualified person might be able to advise.

Within range is just bollock-speak. Don't let them
wriggle out of it with that. I have to be below range to feel well. I'm hypo not hyper.

Wow that's a very detailed response, thanks for taking the time @Skiiltan

Like I said I have no numbers yet. The doctor checked for the RF due to inflammation, and apparently nothing notable on the thyroid test.

I'm not on any medication currently but I had a PE in pregnancy so was taking Clexane injections for 3 months then Xarelto for 3 months and that stopped in January.

I don't think I feel any hotter than normal and my hands don't shake.

I do get white / blue toes when very cold but no problems with this since it's warmed up, I've had that years though.

I had a slightly enlarged liver and gallbladder crystals diagnosed when pregnant due to extreme upper abdominal pain and a alkaline phosphate level of 2300 but they never found the cause of that and these things seemed to have resolved after a blood test and scan to check apparently.

I'm also b12 deficient so when I said no medication I suppose I should have mentioned I have that injection 3 monthly but I can't say I have any real symptoms other than fatigue.

@PrimalLass I'll challenge her when I see her next week and see. It may be the other gp that reviewed them as she only works 1 day a week so I'll see what she says.

I was skeletal when breastfeeding. Literally couldn’t take on enough calories to sustain myself.

I know it’s obvious and you’ve probably ruled it out, but are you breastfeeding?

@whifflesqueak no I'm not so I can't even blame it on that

Just an update, I went to the doctors today and was told the following

Thyroid levels are totally fine

Dr suspects zero negative rheumatoid arthritis (level is 10?)

I'm pre-diabetic (42 on a HbA1c)

I've been told to come back in 2 weeks if I continue losing weight and sent on my way.

I'll do some googling and see what's the best diet for the pre-diabetes and any other information I may need.

I'm only 27! Feeling like an old lady now 😬

Seronegative * that should say!

Are you still having upper abdo pain Dolly?

@moggiek I haven't in a few weeks but it comes and goes. I'm hoping I won't get it again, it's on par with contractions sometimes!

I think you should ask to have your pancreas checked out. The weight loss coupled with becoming pre-diabetic makes me wonder if there might be something going on there.

Isn't the pancreas responsible for insulin production? I may be well off there.

Yes this is suspicious of a pancreatic problem. Do you have pain when you lean back? Left or Right shoulder pain? Has your GP taken a liver panel?

Look up other autoimmune conditions. It sounds very similar to some of my mums and Coeliac disease.

Pre diabetes - low carb!

(Weight loss is usually advised - but, ahem)

No pain leaning back or shoulder pain.

I don't think I had a liver panel this time but I did to check the alk phos levels in about January to check they had come down and they said they had reduced from the 2300 (noted in October, it kept rising til I had my baby then went down) but didn't say the number. I know that's really high as the hospital got very panicky about it when it came up so I imagine they are happy with the new number.

Nothing else came up on the panel to my knowledge.

I have looked up autoimmune conditions as I know I had markers for a few but not enough to point to one particular if that makes sense.

I don't think it could be Coeliac, I had an old colleague who had that and she was so damn ill for about 2 years and I don't feel as bad as that.

Yes, part of the pancreas is responsible for producing insulin, hence the tie in with suddenly becoming pre-diabetic. GPs, in my experience, tend to be very bad at considering the condition of the pancreas when trying to diagnose symptoms like yours.

@moggiek I know I was fine in pregnancy as I had the GTT as my baby was a bit bigger and the family history and nothing came up so it's definitely recent.

Thinking about it, the pain started in pregnancy because I went to the triage a couple of times worried about the baby and I had it after too, but I think the last time was March maybe so it's been a little while.

When you say the pancreas, what do you mean? I've looked at things like pancreatitis and I don't fit the bill for that IMO.

I hate being pushy with the gp, I've been in and out with all sorts of niggles for ages and feel like they think I'm a hypochondriac but I just haven't felt right in what feels like forever and everything gets palmed off with "well you have just had a baby so..."

I know exactly what you mean about being embarrassed. I spent SO many years trekking to the GP with stomach problems. I was even hospitalised a few times because of the pain. I was diagnosed with IBS - drink more water, eat more fibre ..... Eventually, I was just too embarrassed to go back again to the GP and paid £600 for a private body scan. Turned out it wasn't IBS, but a tumour in my pancreas. I was very, very lucky. It wasn't cancer, but I had to have a huge operation to remove it. If I hadn't taken the bull by the horns and done something about it myself, my story might have been different. You're a young woman, you're losing weight, and there has been a recent change in your diabetic status. These should be massive red flags to your doctor to get your pancreas checked out.

@moggiek thank you for being so honest. I'm glad it worked out well in the end but it's dreadful how you were palmed off!

I'm going to keep an eye for the next month and see if I lose any more weight, and if I do I'll be straight down there asking them to look into it. I feel like some things like the hair loss, the pain etc were just to be taken at my word but with the weight loss, I can actually show them that so that gives me more ammo.