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Avatar universal

I am to the point of giving up

Pardon me for such a long post, but to get the overall picture of why I am at the point you have to know what brought me here.

Two years ago I was in college, finishing up my Junior year, on the Deans list, and perfectly fine. I was 42 years old and had decided to back to college after I had gotten my kids grown and that is exactly what I had done. I was very proud of myself and proving to all the younger ones in my class that someone out of school as long as I could still run circles around them. Accounting was my major and I was good at what I did.

Two years ago is when it all started. It started with pain in my joints, mainly my ankles. It made it very hard to walk from one end of campus to another. I just contributed it to my weight (I am overweight), and my age and just pushed on. Eventually it moved on up into my hips. My back has always bothered me as I had an accident when I was younger and smashed three of my lower vertebra down together. I had a cat scan when that happened and found that out. It has always bothered me, but never enough to limit my mobility to any degree. These pains, however were starting to limit my desire to walk around at all. In addition to school I was an avid geocacher. If you don't know what that is, essentially it involves a high tech treasure hunt in which you hike out to locations and find something hidden. My husband and I did a lot of hiking, and just leisurely walks in the woods. This slowly came to a stop as the pain spread. Both my ankles, my hips, my back, my elbows all hurt. My muscles feel like I constantly am sick. They just ache. There is no one point of pain, it's just an overall grinding dull ache that never goes away.

After that semester was over, and I started my next, things got really bad. I was tired all the time. I had a 45 minute drive from my house to school and I often would catch myself drifting off behind the wheel. I started stopping half way between the two to get out of my car and walk around it a few times to jolt myself back awake so I could finish the trip. It did not matter how much or how little sleep I had, this would happen, and it would happen daily. It was this same time that I began having concentration issues. While I had previously enjoyed nothing below a B in any class, I found it hard to read a single paragraph without completely forgetting what I was reading. It appears while I was reading my mind would drift off somewhere and leave me behind. This started happening in class during the lectures as well. After only about six weeks I decided I had to take a break from school. It was better than failing out after working so hard.

I have seen my doctor, I have seen a cardiologist, and I have seen an endocrinologist. I do not have sleep apena, I do not have heart issues (other than very high blood pressure that also oddly enough started when these same issues started, before this my bp was normal), my thyroid tests have all came back perfectly normal. I don't know what all tests they have run, but each and every one has come back normal, normal, normal... and after 2 years I a at my wits end.

I am just a shell of what I was two years ago. I can't even go shopping without wearing myself out. It takes only half hour out shopping or doing anything really and I break out in a cold clammy sweat, and I can only think about finding somewhere to sit down and rest. I went to two different stores yesterday and when I got home I was so tired I ended up going to bed and sleeping for nearly six hours.

I'm getting the feeling I'm being brushed off now, everyone seems to think it's in my head, or at least that's how they react. My endo even suggested I see a psych because he thinks I'm depressed. I told him strait out that yes I am depressed and he would be too if he felt like I did all the time with no end in sight.

I guess I'm just hoping someone else went through something similar and could direct me toward what it MIGHT be. Not knowing, and having people treat you like you are crazy just makes this more intolerable.
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Avatar universal
any infections you know about? Some of us go downhill after an infection. Have you looked into an autoimmune diet and antimicrobials or anti parasitic?
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10175413 tn?1427170251
Have you checked into an autoimmune disorder , Lupus
Good Luck
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Avatar universal
Tonya, please don't disregard the advice from the endo...it very well could be depression, as fatigue, loss of concentration, and pain are all symptoms of it for many people.  It could also be chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia.  Their is NO definitive test for those and they end up having to rule out other things first.  I would keep pressuring them for a diagnosis and some treatment. Look up in the rheumatology section in your local phone book and see one of them first, if you need a MD referral for your insurance, request it from your PCP.  Good luck to you, and I hope you get some relief and help soon.  Please return here and let us know!  
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