What the heck is wrong with me? Dizziness, numb/tingling hands

[gemloving]

I posted here twice before but I'm awake at 2am and very sad.

I had my second son 10 months ago and had no issues with my health until January. I have very heavy periods (now been prescribed some sort of acid which will stop the bleeding from being so heavy). My hands started to tingle and it seemed to get worse, saw the GP, full blood count and my iron came back as low, ferritin level was 7 but the rest of my blood count looks good. Thyroid, B12 & folate was checked all levels within normal range. I am taking 200mg iron tablets twice a day and can stomach them ok.

They didn't check for Vit D or any other vitamin related things.

My main symptoms are dizziness, fatigue, brain fog aka can't concentrate as I zone out (it's actually quite relaxing), I feel like I could go to sleep at any time, the tingling in my hands has now almost turned into numbness. I woke up at 1am dizzy and my hands were numb.

I feel like I'm on edge / restless at the same time. Something new that has happened & is new as of this week is that I get jittery if I hadn't eaten in a while, I eat and it's fine. Some people on here suggest that it could by hypoglycaemia. I'm very slim, almost skinny - always been and eat fairly healthy.

I just want to know what's wrong with me as it's starting to take over my life.

Have you been tested for coeliacs disease? A lot of what you’ve written was how I was feeling before I was diagnosed. The sleepiness was horrendous, it felt like a combination of first trimester and newborn sleep deprivation rolled in to one miserable exhausting experience, and I’d fall asleep in random places if it were quiet! Also had the tingly feeling, brain fog, dizziness and jittery food thing.

@Bitterbean

OP I had the same after second childbirth and was sent for an MRI as dr thought it was MS. It wasn't and in the end I went to the osteopath who said that after second birth I had diastatis recti, where stomach muscles are ruined. It means that when your baby gets heavier and you are carrying them about a lot, you reply on your back muscles too much and it pinches nerves in all kinds of places and causes tingling hands amongst other things. The stress of it made me feel exhausted. I won't want to diagnose but I do think this is a very plausible explanation and one that would very likely be overlooked by a GP who seem to completely ignore the muscular skeletal system altogether. I have no idea why my GP reached for MS when diastatis recti was a far more obvious a cause of my symptoms, but it caused me no end of stress at the time.

Oh yes, I also had this, and it led to prolapsed discs, sciatica, and a life long subscription to pilates!

I had almost exactly this as a teenager - it was a combination of low blood sugar and anxiety. I had to drink something sugary and breathe into a brown paper bag. I saw specialists about it at the time. I'm not sure which led to the other but they're linked.

It's so overlooked as only women get it after child birth so no one takes it seriously. It doesn't need to even be full diastatis recti, just any loosening of the stomach muscles will cause you to put strain on upper back to pick up your child and that will cause nerve pinching that effects the hands. My hands still go dead every night 6 years on. The brain fog and dizziness have receded.

@GeneLovesJezebel I don't eat a lot of meat and no red meat but do try to eat a lot of beans and pulses and have added a lot more green veg to my diet.

@MoonminMummy9 I'll look into this. The numb tingling hands are very disturbing.

@Solosunrise will definitely look into breathing excersizes but I'm almost over being anxious now because it's my new normal and I'm trying to learn to love with it whilst we're trying to work out what it is.

@Toddlerteaplease I'm not really thinking of MS yet. It could be but I've read quite a bit about it and it doesn't seem to be it (who knows though!)

@RoyKentsChestHair B12 was good - higher end of normal range.

@CatSpeakForDummies I have always had quite low blood pressure and I've decided to order a blood pressure machine and a blood oxygen level measure thing (reminded me now, will order on Amazon right now).

@TheCanyon I came on today and started taking my acid to stop them from being so heavy. I really hope that'll work and has no other side effects. It's not worse leading up, it's just always bad. When I'm out with the kids I don't notice as much but as soon as I get home and sit down, the world is spinning .

@tiggergoesbounce it doesn't run in the family for me and no, it doesn't really feel like that. It tingles and is uncomfortable at times almost like shooting pains but doesn't change the way I can use my fingers.

@Reluctantadult I have some of the symptoms, not all. My level is 7 (night be a bit higher now).

@coffeeschmoffee if I had it, I wouldn't have known. I've been triple vaxxed so should have antibodies anyway right?

@MuchTooTired no, I always thought your be diagnosed in childhood? I look into it.

7 is basically none, if you think about it. Mine was 5 I think. I didn't have all the symptoms.

@gemloving I thought the same thing, but I was diagnosed at 35! Google suggests that a possible cause is extreme stress such as pregnancy/childbirth so I assume that’s what kicked mine off. Obviously I’ll never know for certain, but it does stack up timeline wise I guess, now I’m gluten free I’m starting to feel much more like myself.

@gemloving how are you now? X

@GeneLovesJezebel

Oh, and think about getting a mirena coil to reduce your bleeding.

I had tingling arms and my iron levels came back low. I had iron tablets for the short term and a Mirena coil inserted for the longer term - which did eventually stop the monthly heavy bleeds.

@Starrr123 thanks for checking in.

Ultrasound referral. I was supposed to be seen on Sunday 20th but then caught the novo virus from the kids, couldn't cancel because it's a Sunday (tried ringing 20x) so had to be re-referred. New app on 28/04.

Seeing a neurologist on 05/05.

No improvement but as I would now consider it chronic, you learn to live with it. I just hope they find something that's not life threatening, we can treat it and we can all move on.

Could still be effects of low iron - when my levels were at 6 following a post birth haemorrhage I was told getting my levels up would take at least 6 months and I was likely to feel pretty terrible during that time, so I was given a blood transfusion. Got levels back up to 9 and I still felt like garbage!

I would definitely also ask for Vit D to be checked - I incidentally discovered that my levels were low 4 years after birth, during which time I suffered a lot with fatigue and anxiety. Didn't fully disappear, but substantially improved following a loading dose.

Don't ever put anything down to anxiety without being satisfied the basics have been checked out first!

@gemloving did you ever get to the bottom of what was going on please? I’m suffering a similar thing now post virus. I have low ferritin but that’s it. When I lie down at night I have this horrendous pressure/ pulsating in my head and it makes me feel incredible dizzy with pins and needles.

Low ferritin is horrible! How low is it? Mine dropped to 3 and I sat in front of my GP and said “I think I’m dying.” He was horrified by result had been missed and I was given an iron infusion immediately.

@gemloving mine was 25, so not all that low. I’m struggling to come to terms with it being ‘just iron’ (I know it’s not just iron, but HA is telling me otherwise) mostly because all my problems started with a virus. It feels like the virus hasn’t fully cleared or I’m dealing with inflammation or something that’s causing pain and pressure but bloods say not