What is wrong with me?!

[Mumma02]

Prepare yourselves...it's a long one.

I have felt ill with various different symptoms since the birth of my second child 13 months ago. This year I have been diagnosed with an overactive bladder and IBS both which came out of the blue as I've never suffered with any problems linked to these body parts! I definitely have health anxiety by the way since all this which has probably attributed to the IBS diagnosis. Had full bloods done in May as was just generally feeling "off". All came back ok but Ferritin level was 12. Couldn't tolerate the supplements at all so stopped taking them as I didn't feel like I was suffering any low iron symptoms. Fast forward to November and feeling worse with new symptoms which include;
Tiredness
Nausea (completely randomly - never suffered before)
Achey muscles (particularly in legs and right forearm)
Pins and needles in my right foot and hand
Shortness of breath (which woke me at night and prompted me to go to a&e. Had an ECG done which was normal.)
Headaches. Pretty sure I experienced my first migraine which was concentrated on my right side and lasted for days. Made me feel sick and I had numbness in my face.
More headaches...closest I can find matching symptoms to are ice pick headaches (always at top of head or on right side)
Weakness in limbs
No motivation or energy to do anything
There are probably more!
Ferritin levels tested again last month and had dropped to 9. I've been taking oral iron for the last 3 days and am hoping this will improve some symptoms.
So far this year I have diagnosed myself cervical cancer, bladder cancer, bowel cancer and now possibly a brain tumour or MS based on my symptoms.
I am sick of feeling ill all the time but my gp never really seems concerned. I understand that I might look like a hypochondiac but I genuinely have all these symptoms effecting my daily life! I have requested a Vitamin B 12 and Vitmain D test too but can't get them done until next week.
Can anyone shed any light on these symptoms? I'm so fed up!

Under active thyroid?

Have a look at Addison's disease online. I had lots of these symptoms for several years and was finally diagnosed after falling ill with norovirus and being hospitalised. Ask if they will consider testing your morning cortisol levels (it's very rare so gp's generally not very knowledgable about it). Good luck

Speaking as someone with health anxiety, the symptoms you're describing is how I've felt when I've been particularly anxious.

I've undergone a lot of therapy over the years, and there are some things I've found useful.

Remembering that changes in your body are not necessarily 'symptoms'.

Remembering that a set of 'symptoms' are not necessarily related to each other.

Plotting how anxious you feel on a scale (1-100) with 1 being recklessly careless and 100 being consumed with anxiety. Think about where you'd like to sit in that scale (60 is my ideal), and what things in your life would be improved if you could achieve that magic number on the scale.

I have diagnosed myself with bowel, uterus, spinal, and bladder cancer, and at least one type of leukemia in the past year. I'm actually surprisingly healthy.

Notably most of the major diseases I've researched at 4am have been in my abdomen, following a relatively unpleasant csection 4 years ago.

Of course, don't neglect medical investigations, but still, in all likelihood you're probably fine.

fibromyalgia?

Honestly that ferritin is crazy low, and a number of your symptoms could be down to that. I deal with hair loss issues, and for hair, ferritin needs to be at least 80! If tablets don't work for you, could you ask for IV iron? This is available privately, but isn't cheap.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/fibromyalgia/

Agree that ferritin is very low and I get breathless, tired and achey when mine is under 30! Try spatone or feroglobin if you can't tolerate the tablets. As another health anxiety sufferer I would also say a lot of it could be stress and anxiety related.

Low ferritin can cause lots of those symptoms. Anything under 50 can cause anaemia symptoms in women. If you can't tolerate iron supplements at all then ask about an iron infusion.

My concern is why your ferritin is low and the gut problems seemed to come first. Could be coeliac? One blood test doesn't rule it out. Ask for a gut biopsy.

Could also be underactive thyroid. TSH is not enough to assess this. Get FT4 and FT3 done as well. Go private if GP won't.

Or other vitamin deficiencies. Test floats as well as B12 and D.

You sound very similar to my symptoms when I had low ferritin and an underactive thyroid.

If you have tingling and weakness in limbs they should be referring you to neurology while other

Investigations are done.

Post your results with ranges back here - "normal" is not the same as optimal.

Thyroid disease often comes on after pregnancy.

Low iron makes me feel like I’m about to die. All the symptoms you have. Keep taking the supplements. With vitamin c preferably to increase absorption. Also helps if they make you constipated, oranges or something will counteract it.

I take it they are prescription strength tablets from your gp, three a day?

It took me a couple of weeks to improve a bit.

Eat red meat too. I noticed having home proper cooked meals helped me too. You are what you eat, as they say.

I think you'll feel a lot better when your iron is higher. Until then step away from googling, you are going to need to give it a few weeks at least to give a chance to help.

A ferritin level of 9 would give you all those symptoms. Push for a blood transfusion - it will take ages to get ferritin up to 50-70 healthy range.

Im just jumping on this thread as I I ordered some blood tests from thriva and it seemed like everything was low.

My ferratin was 55 which was okay but iron was 11 which it said was in the low side of normal. But the transferrin saturation was low. So I'm going to message the doctor as no idea if combined that means I need to take iron or not!

Your ferritin is low! That would explain a lot of your symptoms. Push for an iron infusion or if you can have one privately (they're not cheap sadly). But find out why it's low and dropping first of course. As someone else said upthread, have you been tested for coeliac disease? The IBS diagnosis you mention makes me suspicious. I had low ferritin, low vit d etc etc and felt awful for years, back and forth to the doctors with the same long list of symptoms. Finally got diagnosed as coeliac last year after reading an article online and pushing for that test. I also managed to have another autoimmune disease (under active thyroid) and early onset osteoporosis which was likely from merrily eating gluten all my life, so highly recommend ruling it out ! Good luck x

Oh also my dietician said that autoimmune conditions like coeliac disease aren't necessarily with you from birth but often come on after a traumatic event, where he specifically used childbirth as an example, so interesting that your symptoms have developed after giving birth

Thanks for all your replies. Should add that I was given a coeliac test in June which came back negative. The IBS symptoms fo seem to come and go and are the least of my symptoms compared to how tired I feel.

Least of my worries compared to my other symptoms that should say!

I know it sounds dramatic, but I actually gave myself severe nausea and diarrhoea recently worrying about the fact I felt nauseas. Lasted weeks.

Only thing that stopped it was CBT. I have OCD and Health anxiety and I can honestly turn any normal symptom into a terminal diagnosis.

I hope you get some answers x

Thank you @Tunnocks34 - that is exactly how I feel at the moment. I seem to read a symptom of something and then get it...is that even possible?!

@Mumma02 yes. And what I will say, is a lot of your symptoms are an effect of anaemia, which can be caused easily after childbirth (you lose blood, don’t alter your diet to include more iron rich foods etc) and it’s just a slippery slope.

Personally, I would look into iron rich foods. Increase your intake massively, increase your fibre and drink as much water as you can. Stay off google for symptoms (this really affects my mental health) and see how you get on over the next month. Best of luck x

are you feeling any better? I’m struggling and looking for some hope.

@SB1990 do you have these symptoms? I go through phases of feeling better and then I don't. My ferritin has constantly been in the 20s since this post which I know still isn't ideal. My health anxiety has reduced dramatically. I'm currently getting over covid for a second time and I'm deficient in folate but all my symptoms come and go.

I am 61 and have lots of those symptoms- started in september2020 totally out the blue with dizziness /lightheaded feeling and buzzing feelings round mouth and right leg. All they have found so far was very high blood pressure and high cholesterol and pre diabetes. Beta blockers sorted the migraines and dizziness very quickly about 90% of the time , blood pressure coming down too but still quite high. The symptoms that bother me most are the pins and needles , particularly in feet which I get multiple times most days and what feels like a very weak right leg compared to left- it really feels odd. I saw the neurologist privately (she's a top one too) she did some tests and didn't seem that concerned , enough to say she didn't think I needed an MRI- she has said to see how it goes with beta blockers and statins and losing some weight and if no better then go down the route of looking at it likely being more of a disc problem
Than a nerve thing - as my nerve reflexes seemed all good to her- although having smoked for a lot of years it's likely some artery disease is in the mix . She did say my vit D , magnesium and B12 whilst technically within normal levels were at low end and to up my intake. I think if you are like me OP, the nerve things are way more anxious making than the stomache issues. I've also gone gluten free as weirdly my neurological issues seem to decrease somewhat if I'm strict with it-(not totally though)

@Crikeyalmighty a neurologist I saw said it's pretty much small fiber neuropathy. Can I ask what levels your vit D, B12 and Magnesium were please? He did advise me to get my ferritin up but I'm finding it impossible.

Hey! Do you still get the feet tingling/weak limbs?