Need help figuring out symptoms!

[Joni13]

Hi,

I've been feeling crappy in various ways for months and months, have been to the GP a few times, had blood tests which have all apparently come back 'normal' (incl thyroid and diabetes). I feel like I need to come back armed with some possible causes, and specific tests to ask for, so thought maybe you guys could help me self-diagnose some possible options...
I am 35, have a 3 year old, I work 3 days a week on a farm and am reasonably active, not overweight. I have/have had endometriosis which I've had surgery for 5 years ago, but it's possible it's returning. However, these symptoms are mostly 'new', not like how I felt when my endo was bad before.

My symptoms are:
Fatigue, even when I've slept ok
Weakness
Dizziness/feeling faint
Nausea
Digestive issues (upset stomach out of nowhere fairly regularly)
Daily headches (these are the most recent, I don't usually get headaches)

Longer-term, I seem to have regular episodes of hypoglycaemia (solved by eating something, but I eat well and regularly). I also seem to always feel thirsty, even thought I drink a lot of water (and need to pee a lot).

Any suggestions of what I might look into to help me figure out what's going on would be so helpful. Thank you.

Should add that I've just come out of a period of several months over summer where I was constantly ill, not terribly, but one virus of some sort after another, constant sore throat, which made me feel like my immune system was out of whack in some way...

Can you share your blood results? Nhs normal is often not optimal.

@Chillisintheair I wasn't actually given the results, just told they were normal. Probably a good idea to ask for them.

Have you considered POTS?

Sounds like so much of what is happening to people after Covid. Obviously don’t take that as read.

Were you on antibiotics? Pretty much everything you describe happens to me after a course of broad-spectrum antibiotics: they kill off a whole load of the bacteria, good and bad, and then I'm left with having to take a year or more to build them back up and get my body back to normal.

You could try getting your microbiome tested.

Depending on what blood tests you already had, you could also look for vitamin & mineral deficiencies.

There's a lot of generalised symptoms you've got though. Sorry to not be more helpful, but it could be a huge range of things.

I don't get dizzy standing up particularly...

This is ridiculous but I can't think whether I've been on antibiotics recently... I don't think so though.

How do you go about getting your microbiome tested?

Yeah... I do think I had covid earlier in the year quite badly, and had a couple of colleagues say that to me. Not sure what to do with that though...

I had those symptoms when I had an overactive thyroid. Have you lost weight or are you eating masses and not gaining?

It would be a good idea to request a print out of your results.

Yeah when I’ve googled symptoms in the past thyroid issues have always come up, but it I believe with my blood tests they checked my thyroid… will definitely request copies. Thank you.

I would maybe consider asking for a test for Coeliac disease - I had most of those symptoms in the months leading up to being diagnosed. Does your headache clear if you take paracetamol? That was the final symptom that made me go to the doctor - constant headache despite drugs.

Microbiome testing is only done privately. It's not 100% embraced by the medical community: see here, but people I have known who did it found it useful. A bit like DNA testing from commercial companies.

I’m not sure actually, I don’t take paracetamol often, but I’ll try it tomorrow (the headaches aren’t terrible).
I have wondered if it’s something dietary, as it does all seem to come and go a bit (ie I’ll have a few days where I feel ‘better’ but then it all returns). I’ll have to look into that.
thank you.