why AM I SO TIRED

[kevieb]

i am sooo exhausted most of the time.  i am on 30 mgs of hydrocortisone daily and it doesn't seem to make any difference.  i am also on thyroid meds right now it's 30 mcg of armour.  i have what i assume is fibromyalgia since my body hurts all the time----even my bones hurt.  i also have arthritis in my feet and in my hands and i've had surgery on one of my knees for arthritis---about 8 years ago.  i take norco and soma with 1/2 of a caffeine pill for the muscle pain and various anti-inflamatories for the joint pain.  i am taking wellbutrine for depression--but mostly becuase i have such severe anxiety and the clonazepam just wasn't cutting it to help with the anxiety.  i am also on 25 mgs of DHEA (my levels were low).  sometimes i feel exhausted when i am just sitting down.  with all of the symptoms and conditions i have, is it possible that one of the other replacement steroids would sork better for me?   i will be seeing a new endocrinologist on june 15.     also, i'm wondering if i could possibly be anemic---i had bleeding hemmorroids (SP?).   i had a hysterectomy 5 1/2 years ago (kept my ovaires)  because i was so anemic from heavy periods.     i have noticed on my blood work that anything to do with red blood cells seems to be on the low end of the normal range---and was told that looked normal for a menstruating woman---i hadn't had a period for several years at that time.
i still have four children at home--my youngest just finished 1st grade---and i just don't have the energy to do the things for my kids that a mom should do.
i think that if i could eat better and get a little exercise i would probably feel a little better---but i can't even concentrate enough to figure out how to eat right.  i am even on vyvanse, which is an ADD medication.  i really neeed it more for the stimulant effect it gives me---if i don't have it i can hardly even stay awake.  i am just so frustrated i sometimes wish it was just time for life to be over-----and no, i'm not suicidal, i just can't imagine going on for 20-30 more years feeling like this.

[kevieb]

i went to a rheumy quite a few years ago--sometime within the last 5-7 years.   i was sent a letter telling me that i was scheduled for an hour consultation.  i had to drive an hour to get there, then i waited for an hour in an empty waiting room, and then i saw the doctor for 20 minutes.  he was foreign, with a strong accent, which made him hard to understand.  he told me that if i had fibromyalgia that i shouldn't be on pain meds---but didn't tell me anything else i could do to manage the pain.  he did do a physical exam, but as far as i know, he never checked the fibromyalgia pressure points specifically.   he ordered a whole bunch of blood work---they drew about 8 vials.  i left there and cried on the way home and never went back.   i did get a copy of my blood work and everything looked normal--except  the BUN and the creatine levels were flagged as high---but he wasn't concerned about it and neither was my family doctor.  my orthoped was a little concerned about it and said i should have the levels checked again a little down the road to see if they were ok.   they have been normal most of the time---i think.  they might have been off one other time.

i really am not sure what is causing most of my problems, but i never have a day without pain i have battled depression and anxiety for most of my life, i have horrible fatigue that seems to get progressively worse, i have tendonitis and arthritis.   i have had pains that will appear in certain areas of my body and last for months to years---and then disappear.  sometimes they will return a few years later, sometimes they don't.  i've had to have orthoscopic surgery for arthritis in one of my knees---just before i turned 40---but i had really bad tendonitis in my knees back in my mid-twenties.  i've had carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists---but i have played the piano since i was 11 and i crochet alot--so that is probably where that came from.  

[rumpled]

Ah, yes, once they are normal they can never become abnormal ever again, right??? I think you are right to switch endos.

Have you seen a rheumy - they treat more auto-immune diseases.

[kevieb]

i was due for blood work this month---but since i no longer had confidence in my endo,  i have an appt with a new endo on the 15th of june.  nothing has been checked since december.  at that time, my T3 was flagged as high.   so far, i haven't had any blood work that indicates i have an autoimmune disease, although they do run in my family.

one thing i did notice, is that my endo would test different things each time she ordered blood work.  some things she would do repeat testing on, but each time new blood work has been done it seems like she orders other tests.  it doesn't seem like she was following things on a regular basis.  i had a number of things flagged as high or low in my original blood work---once she got them normalized she didn't seem to alwys follow them to see if they were staying stable.

[rumpled]

There could still be other issues going on.
You can try other replacements - but you may just get the "wired but tired" response from them (and a lot of hidden side effects) - after all, you are on a full replacement dose already so it is not the cortisol, so it has to be something else. How you are taking it, if you need mineralcorticosteroids - salt, or simply if you just have another auto-immune disease or whatever since having an issue like this the immune system is rather low...

Are you still being checked for things like low vitamin D, low iron etc?