My Vitamin D Deficiency Recovery - In Progress

[sethw74]

My Problem
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My largest symptoms were middle insomnia, loss of appetite, weight loss (15 lbs in about 5 weeks), frequent bowel movements, and upper leg pain (what I thought was weird quad pain at the time). Additionally, I would get tingling feelings in my hands and feet..

I tried eating better (1), seeing the doctor (2), and exercising (3).

(1) My diet previous to this date was just OK. I ate square dinners at home around 5 nights a week. But lunch and the weekends consisted of too much fast food. I loss my appetite when things were at there worst but forced my self to eat what I could. I started eating a lot more whole grains, fruits, and veggies.

(2) The doctor found nothing. He performed the normal blood work and did the normal work up. I got sleeping pills, which would put me to sleep, but I would still wake up in 4 hours or so. Given that my only problem was staying asleep and the sleeping pills were expensive, I stopped taking them after only a few nights. During this time the internet was the best and worst thing. I would search for what could be causing my issues and find one thing after another I thought it had to be. Of course all but one of them was wrong.

(3) Prior to this, my exercise regiment was slow walks with the dog once a twice a week and weekend golfing without the cart during the summer... not nearly enough. After working from brisk walks a couple miles a day to a slow jog, I started experiencing sharp chest pains. I was active as a teenager so I know what normal pains should be while exercising. These pains scared me. Specialist found nothing. I was still glad to spend the money to see the specialist to get cleared to exercised.

During this time, things did seem to improve slightly, but I was never getting more than 4 hours of good sleep.

My Diagnosis
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At the start of April, the best thing happened. The doc tested many of my fat soluble vitamin levels - including vitamin D.

I was in the single digits! I am on 50,000 IUs twice a week for three months. After that, I am to get rechecked and see the doc again.

My Results - 5 Weeks into Treatment
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I have taken my 50K IUs of D as prescribed, along with trying to get 15-20 minutes of noon time sun daily. In addition, I have become religious about taking my multi-vitamin, and have increased my calcium intake - not easy because I am a moderate lactate intolerant. I have had a good deal of improvement already, but not all days are good.

- Insomnia - Almost complete gone. It went away almost with the first Vit D pill. I have had a recurrence lasting a few days.
- Appetite - Normal
- Weight - It steadied at first. Then I put some back on, which I was OK with
- Bowel Movements - Normal
- Upper Leg Pain - Was most likely not my quads but my bones. This took the longest to start getting better. It kind of got worse before getting better. The pain traveled to my hips too. I still can't sit for more than an hour without having to just stand up or walk for a minute.
- Tingling - The tingling in the hands, and feet went away in a week or two, but I still get a general off feeling that at its worse turns into tingling on bad days.
- Chest pain while exercising - Gone

My largest complaint � It can be hard to get enough sun. After 2-3 days without any sun, I have bad days were some of the symptoms start popping up again. Most recently, it has been cloudy something like 9 out of the last 10 days. My middle insomnia came back for 3 to 4 nights.

Also, my prescription is D2 not D3... I have read all about how it is not as effective I figure it can wait till my next scheduled appointment to talk to him about that.

My questions - Does any of this sound familiar with any one else recovering from vitamin d deficiency? How long did it take you to recovery and did you notice a steady improvement a more up-and-down improvement like I think I am having? Any suggestions?

[Phyllis2010]

There's a posting on this site where we all describe our symptoms...among my many symptoms were (and still sometimes are) a shaky feeling...My problems have been going on since March so I empathize with you. Interestingly, I've just been found to have benign colloid nodules on my thyroid; however, my thyroid and parathyroid labs are normal. But who knows? I have thyroid disease on both sides of my family and one day my labs will sync up -- many of my symptoms are textbook thyroid but I'm wondering if thyroid and vitamin d deficiency often occur together. A friend with hypothyroidism had d levels in the single digits.

[darcypog]

Hi,

I just got diagnosed 2 months ago. Having my levels check again next week. I was a 12. I have all the symptoms you describe here but I also have the shakes and have had sharp pain to the left of my chest. Do you guys with Vit D def have any of those symptoms?

I also have Graves disease so it might be symptoms of a level increase or drop in that.

Tired of it all. 1.5 years of feeling like this takes it's toll.

[sethw74]

Thanks!  It just nice to hear others improvements are similar to mine.  It gives me hope that this will eventually be in my past.  The post you linked does give me some timelines to discuss with my doctor.

The muscle and bone pain suck, which is what is mostly discussed in the post.  When that was at its worse, so was my sleep.   I was in pain and not thinking straight from like of sleep.  The pain was severe, but it wasn't even on the top of my complaints to my doctor. Loosing sleep is torture!

For me, the pain relief came surprisingly quickly (couple weeks).  Now the pain is mild enough it is more annoying than anything.  However, that improvement has seemed to stopped.  So I suspect this mild pain will be around for a while... :(


The thing that is the worse is just an over feeling of malaise on the bad days.  Kind of like a head ache and an over all body tingle.  Not the same tingle I had at the start which is similar to a limb falling asleep.  Just an off feeling all over.  It is hard to concentrate on those days.  It is hard to stay positive.  The feeling is completely impossible for me to describe, but it *****!

The bad days are also always in streaks, and normally starts a couple days after a streak of cloudy weather has begun.  But today is the first day we have had good sun here, so I soaked up the rays until I was about to turn pink!  Tomorrow will be better.


Thanks again for the words.  They help.

[gadgetsmidnight]

I have been on Vitamin D 50,000IU weekly for about 16 weeks. (Starting level was 11)  Yes it is the D2, but that is fine for now.  D2 will get your levels up and then you should switch to a D3 daily supplement to maintain levels.  They rechecked my level in the beginning  of April and I had made it to 32 (My doctor wants me to be in the 70's).  He asked me to continue taking the weekly dose and will recheck in August.

I have some improvements in my symptoms, but like you I do have good and bad days.  Especially when the weather is bad.  It is more like two steps forward  and one and a half steps back.

I read a post that had some study information in it regarding how long it may take to recovery from low Vitamin D symptoms.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Undiagnosed-Symptoms/what-happens-after-treatment-with-vitamin-d-deficiency/show/1151898
hopefully it will provide a little comfort.