Mystery Ailment - adrenals, thyroid, who knows?

No need to get hostile, just stating what i know and what I've been told/done so far.

I dont necessarily believe in the whole adrenal thing, it's a bit whacky, but I'm not ruling anything out. I just know there's something not right with me and I'm ready for it to be over.

Hiya Folks wrote:

Ignore Sagarin. He's been "diagnosed" with a fake disease by doctors who were too tired of dealing with his sh*t.

You must work for the CDC. Yes, most allopathic physicians were so tired of dealing with me that they were gleefully willing to take my money over and over in exchange for providing absolutely no productive, effective service (as is true of most "traditional" physicians). Of course, that's because the abnormal lesions on spect scan, the idiopathic lymphocytopenia and other immune abnormalities such as elevated RNase-L and lack of innate immunity, the gut dysbiosis (oops, there's another voodoo sounding term, despite the hundreds of citations in gasteroenterology journals), etc., are all just pretend.

OP, ignore me at your own peril. Post-exertional malaise, sleep disturbance, waking up feeling trashed, brain fog, pain, tender glands, headaches - these are all hallmarks of M.E. Absolutely do NOT engage in physical activity until you figure out what the heck is going on. If you are on your way to M.E., you will only get worse. I'm trying to help you. I don't want others suffering the same fate as myself. Most infectious disease docs will prove useless, even as I have seen enough epidemiological evidence to believe this is an infectious disease, with potential genetic and stress co-factors involved. There are only a handful of good M.E. docs, some in NY, which isn't too far from you.

If he has small or young RBC, wouldn't his RDW be severely elevated? I'm guessing the chiro sold you all those "supplements"? Chiros who sell supplements or try to treat allergies, adhd, etc should be a huge red flag.

The supplements were all given to me free of charge. They were crazy expensive otherwise and would never have paid for them.

Good friend of mine, like I said.

Beyond the supplements, which seemed to not do anything, and which I am no longer on, he did actually provide me with good nutritional advice to get natural intake of things that he thought may help. Haven't seen any difference.

Sagarin, I am not ignoring you, don't worry.

What exactyl is this M.E.? I must have missed when you explained this or I simply do not understand. What happened in your case? What kind of treatment and timeline? Diagnosis?

At the time when it all started (when I put on the mysterious weight and started sleeping poorly) I was stressed out with some things; relationships, impending graduation, school, etc. I feel like it may have been somewhat stress related, or at least that was a part of the snowball effect.

Training hard-Stress-poor sleep-poor recovery - day after day and eventually something just snapped.

Look, I am not ignoring anyone whether it be M.E., lyme disease, or some made up fake ailment that doesn't exist. I am considering everything, and I very much appreciate this discussion.

Thank you to all.

You need a blood test for lyme disease..The rash does not occur in all cases.. You hmg and ferritin levels are fine for a distance runner.... Have you been checked for Hep C and HIV? How about testosterone levels as well as thyroid?

don't rule out lupus either..

I think the next move is a test for lyme disease. Hopefully I can get in on monday. I have not been checked for Hep C, and I am not sexually active so HIV is not the problem. I haven't been checked specifically for testosterone or had a full thyroid panel done, but those could also be coming soon.

I'm just gonna throw up all of my most recent labs for the heck of it for people to look at:

wbc - 4.3

rbc - 5.57

Hgb - 16.3

Hct - 49.8

MCV - 89.3

MCH - 29.2

MCHC - 32.7

RDW - 13.2

Platelet - 173

MPV - 9.2

Lymph auto - 28.1

Mono auto - 5

Eos auto - 1.2

Basophil auto - 0.7

Neutro absolute - 2.8

Lymph absolute - 1.2

Mono absolute - 0.2

Eos absolute - 0.0

Basophil absolute - 0.0

Glucose Lvl - 83

BUN - 11

Creatinine - 0.9

eGFR - >60

eGFR AA - >60

BUN/Creat ratio - 12.2

Sodium - 138

Potassium - 4.3

Chloride - 102

CO2 - 30

Calcium - 10.0

Alk Phos - 50

ALT -12

AST - 15

Total protein - 7.4

Albumin - 4.9

Globulin - 2

A/G ratio - 2.0

Bili total - 1.2

Iron 166

TSH - 0.94

T4 free - 0.77

Ferritin - 32.5

Vitamin D - 41

Also, never since when this began have I had flu like symptoms or mono or been sick other than one head cold.

things look good...get back to doctor and get those tests done....where do you live? lot of west nile virus this year but I would imagine that would have run it's course by now or showed up in the blood work? lyme disease and Thyroid best places to start...do you suffer from depression at all??

I had lyme disease last year, I never had a rash. My main symptoms were fatigue, headaches, and knee pain. Since being treated, though, I have many of the same symptoms as you. I believe I have chronic lyme disease, or else some kind of chronic fatigue syndrome. I went from being a very good runner to barely being able to run 8 miles at a slow pace, so I understand your frustration. I will be monitoring this thread, hopefully someone has a good idea. But, I do agree that you should be tested for lyme disease, it seems very likely.

Wondering..... wrote:

If he has small or young RBC, wouldn't his RDW be severely elevated?

If essentially ALL of his RBCs are small (not necessarily young, but just small) and it's been stable like that for a while, the RDW would likely be normal. Excellent thought, though, and it is one more thing to consider here.

Any update on your condition?

Best of luck.

2slow4lane1 wrote:

You are describing classic Hashimoto's symptoms where the thyroid is compromised by an autoimmune attack. A "normal" TSH reading can be a diagnostic red herring. You need to have the anti-thyroid antibodies tested. If they are elevated - then you will have your answer. A compromised thyroid will put tremendous strain on the adrenals - so you might be looking at two issues with the thyroid being the primary concern.

If he has a TSH of 0.94, i'd say it's pretty far fetched the he has hashimotos. if he was 4.5, i'd say it's more likely.

No updates yet, but I will come back to this thread whenever I have anything.

I agree that it doesn't seem like hashimoto's or hypothyroid since I am below 1, but shouldn't my T4 be higher if my TSH is on the low end? And they both seem to be low. Maybe I'm wrong.

The next step is to hopefully later this week get tested for lyme disease and also get a complete thyroid panel done.

fyi- your calcium levels are borderline high. Have you been tested for hyperparathyroidism (PTH test)? It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep an eye on your calcium levels over the next several weeks. Ask your doctor to provide you with a script for repeat calcium tests (3x) to be taken over a few weeks. You also should be screened for multiple myeloma to rule that out as a differential diagnosis.

If you're taking vitamin supplements other than iron, stop. You may have sensitive parathyroid gland that may not be able to handle the calcium and vitamin D concetrations.

Seek out doctor who specializes in environmental medicine in your state.

http://www.aaemonline.org/AboutUS.html

They usually send blood to a pathology/toxicology lab for analysis; conventional doctors do not or can not do this and they usually treat symptoms and never find the cause. Your symptoms could be chemical (cleaning products, perfumes, air freshners, etc.), food, mold, etc. related. Find out what's lurking in your blood and a urine sample will show if there's any type of mold present.

This is the best way to determine if you have Lyme Disease:

There is a Lab in California called IGenex and you take the Western Blot test which is $100. You pay for it through check and when you ge the receipt just submit it to the insurance company and you usually get most of it back.

I personally had Lyme Disease from 7th grade until this past May and I am 25 currently. I never had a rash or anything but I did get really sick that year and from that point on I had a continued build up of symptoms until this past fall I finally felt like I was dying. I had a spordadic running career with on and off Adrenal Fatigue diagnoses and other overtraining issues. I went from running 14:55 one week to running 4:42 for the all out mile and that was off of 30 miles a week because my body couldn't handle high volume without getting over trained.

After all of this I went through about 10 doctors over the years until I had a Lyme test done. It came back negative for the regular test and the specialist I saw suggest the Igenex test and it came backe extremely positive.

I started treating it in May and I did 3 straight months of Doxy and Tretraclclene, and I am currently on a 3 month dose of another antibiotic. I am running better then I ever have and my body is recovering properly.

You may not have Lyme but your symptoms sound just ilke someone suffering from it. the $100 I spent was the best thing I have ever done.

If it is Negative at least you can check it off the list.

Good Luck.

email me if you have any questions.

OP, have you gotten further resolution? I'm curious, if not better, what tests have you run? I hope you are ok.

Well I don't have lyme disease (didn't think that was it really anyway), all thyroid numbers seem to be pretty normal as well.

Over time, I have seen some improvements in sleep, getting back to regular weight, and even while running it is fairly tolerable often times; but I am not the way I was before this. Still pain and tightness in legs, especially if I even attempt to go faster than like 6:30 pace. Just still an overall sense of fatigue and lifelessness overall, both while running and in everyday life.

The more I think about it, and looking back at the training I was doing in the months leading up to this, I think it was an overtraining issue. I definitely wasn't doing things to recover properly and was pushing too hard too often. It just baffles me that almost a year later, and with quite a bit of time off I am still feeling this way, albeit not as bad a before.

My family doctors and endurance specialist type physician can find nothing apparently wrong with me.

Still unsure where to go from here. Keep running easy and hoping I break through the wall? Take more time off? Is there a way to actively get an overtraining issue?

Would love to get more discussion going on this again.

Thanks folks.