Normal Bloods but feel like shit

[BlueCornishPixie]

I've been feeling really shit for about 5 years now, but in the last year or so it's got worse. I thought maybe my thyroid or aneamia

I'm tired all the time, like I can sleep 10 hrs a night then need a nap at 10am. I'm always cold, people walk into my room at work and their like "it's an inferno" and I'm shivering.

I've got a foggy head, weight gain, aches in my joints and muscles, dry skin, dry hair, I've got so many symptoms of underactive thyroid but my TSH is normal.

I had bloods done and they are all normal and I just want to cry. I don't want to be ill but at the same time if nothing's wrong with me that means that I'm just going to feel like this forever.

My TSH was 2.7 so slap bang in the normal. My ferritin was 24 so normal but in the brink. That was all I could get out of the Drs over the phone. I'm gonna get the results in writing but I just don't know where to go from here. I just feel shit, I had 3 months off over summer and was still tired all the time, it ruins my holidays.

I eat well, I exercise, I get lots of sleep. Everyone tells me to get more sleep but I sleep 8hrs a night! I'm going to try some iron supplements as I think 24 is still pretty low but do I go back? Would I just be wasting their time?

3 months was a break in work I didn't have time off for illness or anything.

It sounds like you may have fibromyalgia. I have all of these symptoms and this is the conclusion my doctors came too.

Next time you go to your doctor's mention it and see what they reckon.

I could have written this OP. Doctors are adamant the bloods are fine but like you I’m freezing, constantly tired, weight gain, thin hair, crap nails, no energy.

No muscular aches or pain though so not fibromyalgia etc.

Would love to know the answer.

I don't want to go into any more details here as am right in the middle of trying to get the correct diagnosis but anyone who has been diagnosed with fibro should read this:

www.thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/related_conditions/Fibromyalgia-medical-mystery-solved.html

Thyroid tests should look at, at a minimum, the TSH levels, the free T4 levels and the Free T3 levels. As an absolute minimum.
And different laboratories have different ranges of what is considered normal as well.

I think the thing is I go in and say My symptoms and the Dr hears "weight gain and tiredness" and just thinks "young girl", but the weight gain is the least of my worries. It's the tiredness and how my brain feels that's worrying me, and depressing me.

That article makes a lot of sense. I hadn't actually thought of fibro but the article describes me to a tee, I have literally all of those symptoms but normal TSH! I'm worried that if I go back they're just going to dismiss me. He was already dismissing me while I was saying my symptoms!

That ferritin should be at least 70 and preferably 100. TSH on it's own doesn't tell you what is happening with your thyroid, it;s not even a thyroid hormone.

Ask for a print out and post it here or on the thyroid board on Health Unlocked. You'll get lots of good advice.

Don;t be too quick to go down the fibro route, not with classic thyroid symptoms and iron issues as well.

I have exactly the same symptoms as you, have had virtually every blood test possible & other than having B12 deficiency, everything comes back as normal or the top side of borderline. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia 15 years ago & with ME/CFS 6 years ago, ask for a referral to see a rheumatologist & your local ME service. My thyroid results have always come back as borderline & I can't get anyone to understand that what is borderline in one person could be low & deficient in someone else.

Vit D ?

I don't want to go down the fibro route really. I just mean the article where it said people got diagnosed with fibro but it was actually thyroid, that made a lot of sense

When I worked in the hospital they used to say that although your iron levels are normal that could be aneamic for you. It's sort of annoyed me they've just gone normal but they're still low.

I'm gonna for for some iron, I have been taking vitamins with vit D but iron makes me sick so I was avoiding it. Then get a full print out from my gp, but because of my work it's difficult to get there when they are open!

Get your vitamin d checked.

Yep. Ask for a vitamin D test.

Ugh, I sympathise OP. Have you had your B12 and folate tested? It's definitely worth trying an iron supplement. Floradix syrup also contains B vitamins and is easier to digest that tablets.

I did have folate and b12 but I don't know the levels until I have the full results.

I'll try to get vit D checked too. Thanks everyone for replying!

You might have to go private for the vitamin D test; not all areas offer it now.

You need to have your vitamin d, b12 and folate checked. Your ferritin is far too low. Levels below 50 can cause same symptoms as Anaemia. Please get your setup iron checked and if that is not high you can supplement to bring up your ferritin. Low levels of other vitamins can cause symptoms similar to hypothyroidism - you want them optimal (so mid range usually) to rule out vitamins causing symptoms.

Ask your doctor to check you for secondary hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormones but also low or in range TSH). You need your T4 checked and ideally your T3 too but that will be tricky under NHS as even if doctor orders it the labs often refuse to do it.

Get your thyroid antibodies tested too. People often feel very unwell when they are developing hypothyroidism (ie they have Hashimoto s, the autoimmune disease that is the most common case of hypothyroidism) even before their bloods are out of range.

I have hypothyroidism and also Graves' disease that causes an overactive thyroid. I was diagnosed first with hypothyroidism. To give you a picture I felt increasingly unwell for many months before I even went to the doctor. When I first went they tested my TSH and T4. My TSH was well within the range but my T4 was one point below. It took 8 months for my TSH to respond to my low thyroid hormones and gradually creep up to being over range at which point I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I felt extremely unwell by the time I got my diagnosis and my T4 was only just under range and TSH just over. So you can feel unwell but while your blood tests show that you are "in range".

I would be suspicious of a TSH of 2.75. A healthy euthyroid person has a TSH around 1.

Definitely go back and ask for the above tests. If they won't do them go private. Keep going back and don't accept a fibro or CFS diagnosis until hypothyroidism has been properly investigated and ruled out.

Don't supplement vitamin b12 until all testing for Pernicious Anaemia has been done. Take a look as the PAS website for more info. Or their forum on Health Unlocked.

Also look at the Thyroid U.K. website and they forum on Health Unlocked.

There's a wealth of information and support.