Extreme Fatigue & Blood Results

[SnugNightsss]

Can anyone suggest what might be going on with my health which I’m waiting for the rest of my blood test results please? I’ll list the results I do have and my symptoms. I’m waiting for B12/Folate, Vitamin D and Thyroid to come back plus some others that I can’t remember.

Results

Haemoglobin 114 range 115-165

Haematocrit 34.3 range 36-46

RBC 3.82 range 3.8-5.8

MCV 90 range 77-100

MCH 31.3 range 27-32

MCHC 348 range 315-345

Red blood cell dist. width 13.1 range 11.6-14

Neutrophil 3.7 range 2-7.5

Lymphocyte 1.7 range 1-3

Monocyte 0.3 range 0.2-1

Eosinophil 0.1 range 0.02-0.5

Basophil 0 range 0-0.1

SYMPTOMS

Palpitations - inc near fainting episodes with sweating

Cold hands & feet

Dry skin, mouth & eyes

Stomach pain

Headaches

Extreme fatigue

Mouth ulcers

Dizzy turning over in bed

Sore itchy scalp

Hair falling out

Heart rate during sleep ranging from 57-141

Pins & needles

Bone pain

Joint pain

The wading throigh treacle comment makes me think thyroid. Thats exactly hoe I describe it.

Its very much hereditary and often rears its head at time of hormonal upheaval (mine after first baby, my mum’s at menopause). Definitely make sure they check full thyroid panel, not just TSH.

I’d wager your ‘fibro diagnosis’ is actually thyroid related too. Fibromyalgia just means muscle pain. Its a symptom not a diagnosis, pisses me off thst doctors get away with using the term as a ‘syndrome’, fobbing off patients with that diagnosis instead od trying to find out what’s actually causing it.

Not yet sadly as was only last week and even then the GP initially lodged it as “ poor mental health / low mood” on my notes 🙄 then the results came back and it’s no surprise I have low mood considering how unwell I feel! Supposed to start injections this week but haven’t heard back yet

I had similar symptoms to you, however it was the shaking that got me to go to the doctor and it was over active thyroid. The medication has taken a while though to help and has needed to be tweaked but some symptoms are better. I am 49 and thought it was menopause.

That’s interesting, the hormonal aspect, I didn’t realise that. Thinking back I suspect my Mum’s was probably diagnosed when she started the menopause. I always felt the Fibromyalgia diagnosis was a cop out. I tried for years to work out what was really happening. Then gave up.

It’s infuriating that women’s health issues are so often dismissed as anxiety etc. I hope they get your treatment started soon and it helps.

I guess putting things down to menopause is convenient for doctors, so they’re probably unlikely to look further if patients are happy with that as an explanation.
The surgery have just rung me to make an appointment. I would have to wait weeks to see my own GP though, so I’m seeing a bloke I’ve never heard of this week instead.

How much vitamin D are you taking? And what is your current vitD level?

It’s not been tested since 2020 when it was 52. I take 20,000 iu once a week.

Hair falling out is classic for thyroid.

Thyroid problems can fluctuate so it is a good idea to do two panels of bloods three or six months apart.

Which thyroid tests should I ask for?

Sjogrens syndrome. I am being tested for it, it’s autoimmune and I have many symptoms you describe. Dry skin, itchy scalp, tiredness, cold hands and feet, mouth sores. I have had pneumonia twice in the last year which is a rarer symptom (interstitial lung disease) but there is a list of 20 or so signs that you may have Sjogrens and it does often coincide with perimenopause but isn’t the same, it just appears around the same age. PM me if you like. I’m due blood tests to test for immune / rheumatoid markers and have an appointment with hospital in April. Treatment is often management of the separate symptoms but it’ll be good to have confirmation that I’m not going mad! Mine seemed to be triggered by Covid 15 months ago.

I developed hypothyroidism when I hit menopause which is apparently quite a common time for women to get diagnosed.

sjogrens.org/

I know a lot of people are suggesting thyroid and it’s worth checking but those weren’t my symptoms at all. And I would be able to say as if normal range is .5-5 mine was 89.9 so yeah I had symptoms.

I know everyone is different but those symptoms don’t feel quite right to me for thyroid except extreme fatigue and dry skin.

Free T3 and Free T4 will give you a reasonable picture of whats going on, but often they only do TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) which isn’t enough to really understand how the thyroid is working.

And you’ll need to make sure your levels are optimal, not just ‘within range’, as sometimes being at the bottom of the normal range for T3/4 or the top of the TSH range can still make you feel awful.

Iron etc will all interplay too, but if your thyroid is buggered everything will be harder to correct. Good luck.

Do you have any root canals?

Thanks. I was tested for that a few years ago when I had some of these symptoms but not as severe. Blood tests were negative but I didn’t have the biopsy. I had swelling in my hand last year so was then tested for RA, but those tests were ok as well. I didn’t feel anywhere near as bad as I do now though.

Yep two.

There have been several people that struggle with these sorts of symptoms (like unexplainable fatigue) and later turns out to be because of their root canals. The reason for that is because root canals don’t get rid of the infection 100% and your body is continuing to fight it with its immunize system 24/7 (you don’t feel pain or anything because tooth has no nerve ending anymore- tooth is dead) and that’s causing you to be fatigued

How weird! What’s the remedy, take the tooth out or antibiotics?

From what I’ve read, people just take the tooth out, because once the tooth gets infected it’s bound to come back sooner or later and that just continues keeping your immune system working on overload… :(
Maybe you could test it out, you could take an antibiotic for a week and see if that happens to show some improvement in your energy levels