brainfog,weakness,eye issues,shaky and more

[mikewaterfall]

hi

i can't believe you lot are having these problems too, i been suffering for nearly a year, whats even more worrying is,
its all under undiagnosed symptoms. I'm suffering from the following symptoms:

Brainfog, feeling as if im half asleep constantly
pressure in the sinus areas which disappeared after a few mnths
body lethargic and weakness, exhausted alot of the time
the tingling feelings on my eyebrows, face, arms lasted for 3 months but they slowly disappeaered, i believe it could have been anxiety not sure.
gas,bloated stomach, gastritis
my eyes are having a problem, had pains on my eyes, burning and very bloodshot, still under investigation

anyways all this started in june for 2 weeks i felt tired and sleepy then one night my right eye lid was drooping down,so i exercised thinking must be a circulation issue, i woke up the next morning with body tingling face arms, weakness, panic attacks, couldnt breath wel, went to drs that whole week and was told it was nothing, maybe a virus and panic attacks,

i had been suffering for a whiplash accident i had over a year ago, ongoing pains affected my lower and upper right . anyways a year later i began physio and the therapist who stretched and made cracking noises in my back.
2 weeks later i got all these symptoms.

i dont know if this could be the related but anyways, i have had a ct scan of the brain whci was normal

alot of people on here say its a ear issue or candida, could this be the case with me? could it be the neck or spinal discs? anyways would love some replies/advice on this

cheers

[ChickenBoo]

Hi Mike,

Glad the neurologist put 'thyroid' on your notes and I am pretty sure that's your problem.

Usually in the UK the labs will only test the TSH level (or perhaps an unknowledgable doctor will only request that one test) which on it's own does not tell the full picture.

Also it seems to depend which part of the country you are in as to whether or not the labs will test what's needed. With your symptoms of feeling shakey and needing to eat frequently I think it's worth asking for a cortisol test to check the function of your adrenal glands too.

Yes, it's usually a larger percentage of women with thyroid disease but men get it too and suffer just as much (but usually do a lot better on the meds from what I read - I think the rest of the female hormones seem to play a big part in this).

You need to ask the GP to test you for the following:

TSH
Free T4
Free T3
Anti thyroid peroxidase antibodies
Anti thyroglobulin antibodies
Cortisol (fasting at 9am)
Vitamin D
Vitamin B12
Ferritin

Make sure the doctor requests to test the 'free' versions of the thyroid hormone and not the 'total' version - The free reading willl give you a more accurate take on what's available to use in the blood.

The autoimmune antibodies will tell you what kind of thyroid disease you have and sometimes can clinch the diagnosis if the bloods are low normal in general.

I've added the vitamins there too as sometimes deficiencies in these can mimic thyroid problems.

I think, given that all this started after a whiplash accident it would be wise to request to see an endocrinologist as they have the 'power' to request all the tests needed and may know of other ones to assess the function of your pituitary gland to make sure it hasn't been damaged.

Good luck - let us know how you get on!

Cindy :)

[mikewaterfall]

hi

i was refered to a neurologist for my symptoms, they did a physical and sent me back with a CT scan of the brain saying it could be tyroid and discharged me, on the notes sent back to my Dr it said to get my thyroid checked even though i have had a TSH test before, had it done again and was told its normal. Im in the UK do they do this test as standard, unless i have to get it checked privately

Sorry but i dont know much about thyroid problems, i had always thought it effects women mainly more then men, plus i was reading some of  the symptoms, i get fatigue, but the rest of the symptoms dont fit in as when im in a warm room, i feel as if im goin to over heat and i sweat too, then again i don't know much about thyroid symptoms.

so the free t4 and t3 test are the ones that should have been done to cross the thyroid out, will keep that noted to ask the dr on the next visits.

i have also got other symptoms that keep comming and going, i try to ignore them, i have to eat food, after a few hours, if i don't i get very very shaky,sweaty,dizzy, it just makes my symptoms worse they they are, i have had diabetes test and was fine, they seem typical hypoglycemia symptoms.I have heard hypoglycemia is a symptom of somthing else thats occured or about to like diabetes. so will be discussing this with Dr too.

[mikewaterfall]

thanks for the reply, basically the treatment for this is to reduce the symptoms and wait for the body to recover, you could be right, will have a look into this thanks

[CHRISTYDRAKE]

Please look into dysautonomia.  It is the dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, which runs everything that is involuntary in the body.  My son has it and it took us 3 years to get the right diagnosis.  He also has heat intolerance, since the autonomic nervous system regulates body temperature.

Go to www.dinet.org   It lists all the symptoms and information.  Sometimes people get this after trauma or sickness, or for no reason at all.  My sons was caused by a 7 inch growth spurt in 15 months, throwing his system out of whack.

Can't hurt to look into anyway.

Thanks,
Christy

[ChickenBoo]

Get your thyroid checked PROPERLY - doctors in the UK are notorius for not checking it properly.

You need to have your Free T4 and Free T3 numbers looked at and not just the TSH reading. Don't accept readings that are within the 'normal' range because that leaves a huge margin for error. One person's 'normal' may not be the same as the next.

The accident may have damaged your pituitary gland, which controls the signal to the thyroid gland to release hormones (even having the blood supply temporarily cut to it and cause it to go wrong).

Good luck.

[LivingInHope]

Since I think you said private pay, if you want to be most specific in magnetic resonance imaging of your head looking for signs of blood vessel abnormalities that may have caused your stroke like symptoms, you might ask for an MRA/MRV, as if they saw anything on the MRI they wanted to further evaluate, they might go on to order that.
I don't know really if a doc w/colonoscopy would pick up on malabsorption like celiac sprue or what have you.  You'd have to check with a GI expert on that one.  You mentioned mucous in the stool- if I remember correctly from about 20 years ago in nursing school, that can signal fat in the stool and I believe that was called steatorrhea.