Debilitating symptoms. Brain fog...extreme memory loss...spacey 24/7!
Posted , 640 users are following.
The last year of my life has been a brutal one. At the age of 22, I am in the lowest of lows and I desperately need some help!
Here’s my tale:
About a year ago, a couple months after an extremely strenuous relationship, I began noticing that I was tired all the time…and all around, I wasn’t really satisfied. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed my friends, and activities…but life just wasn’t as bright and vibrant anymore after a month of noticing this ever-present fatigue, it got a bit stronger. I would wake up each morning completely zombie-mode…and that feeling would remain throughout the entirety of my day, until my head hit my pillow that evening.
Initially, I suspected some form of sleeping disorder. I set up a sleep study, got my thyroid checked, ferritin levels, all the basics. Sleep study revealed I sleep just fine and all my other blood tests came back negative.
The fatigue and the weight of the world slowly got worse over the next handful of months, UNTIL I woke up one morning and everything escalated greatly. I felt completely stoned. I couldn’t think right. I couldn’t concentrate. I felt inebriated. I felt totally disconnected and spacey. I felt as though I had no control over myself. I lost drive and motivation. I lost a lot of confidence. I always had an incredibly sharp memory. It was actually something well known about me to those in my family and friend circles. Yet, on this morning, almost all new information could not be retained. Things that happened earlier in the day, by evening, I felt they happened a day or two before. I could no longer recount the activities I took part in. This is possibly the worst of all the symptoms. The extreme short term memory. I have no context for time and I sort of feel like I’m just floating through life suffering.
For months I visited doctors getting tested by specialists. I visited a neurologist, infectious disease, I had an MRI, & I had about 20 different blood tests. NOTHING. My doctor literally said “I have no idea what this could be. I am beside myself” TOTES reassuring! I tried altering my diet entirely to organic and all natural. I continued my workouts and ran 15 miles a week. I tried sleeping even earlier. I tried all I could think of .
I have scoured the message boards and found a few people suffering from the same, but without answers.
I’m not sure if depression is the culprit, but depression sure has found its nasty venom-coated fangs into my veins. Tired, depressed, failed memory, no drive, scared…it’s no way to live. I want my life back.
PLEASE OFFER INSIGHT! I will be so grateful J
Sincerely,
Taylorsaurus Rex
54 likes, 1428 replies
Rockers TaylorMason
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Renitence Rockers
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It didn't help in my case. I was in MMA and went to the gym. I was in a better mood overall, but it didn't do anything to clear up my brain fog.
carmen44474 Rockers
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lindathepinda Rockers
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kim31778 TaylorMason
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carmen44474 kim31778
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Have you tried antidepressants, anti anxiety, therapy, lifestyle changes, or diet changes?
I've been suffering from this since January 2016. I feel like we m starting to feel alive again from changing lots of things in my life.
kim31778 carmen44474
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Thank you carmen...I am on prozac but feel more anxiety. I've been told that cutting out sugar and changing to a gluten free diet is helpful but I can't even seem to function at the moment. I'm glad you've found successes. I pray the same for me.
MrsCGlanville TaylorMason
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I don't have any answers for you but I am in the same boat. I've suffered with depression for roughly 12 years (it started when I was about 10 years old), I got diagnosed with anxiety when I was 14 yrs old, I've been on antidepressants for the last 3 years and they didn't help any of these symptoms but made my general mood better. The last 4 months have been brutal!! My brain fog has gotten so much worse, my memory has gotten worse (short and long term), time just completely passes me by to the point I am so glad I've taken thousands upon thousands of pictures and videos of my little girl as I can't remember any of it at all!!! My other health problems that have been diagnosed are as follows; coeliac disease, iron deficiency anemia, Gilbert's syndrome, a duplex kidney, migraines, chronic back pain, I also have terrible menstrual cycles (to the point when I was 12 I was so close to having a blood transfusion and my gp wanted to put me on the pill to regulate it a bit but my mum went mental and refused!) I've been on daily medications since I was 14 years old and sleeping tablets on and off, migraine tablets on and off, and 2 medications for my menstrual cycles!
carmen44474 MrsCGlanville
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Oh my goodness. That's awful! I'm so sorry! Have you ever been tested for mono (Epstein Barr Virus)?
MrsCGlanville carmen44474
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Got tested end of September/ early October! It showed that I have had it but that I didn't have it at that time!
MrsCGlanville carmen44474
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I think I have had it a few times so that would make sense but wouldn't the flare ups show up as positive on the blood test!? When I had the blood test in sept/oct I had been suffering for 3 weeks and docs had given me antibiotics to start with then and out of hours gp said EBV and to get tested by my gp but my gp wouldn't because they were convinced it was just a virus or that I needed to take more antibiotics! Then finally they did the blood test and all they said was that I have had it in the past but didn't currently have it. I have been advised to get all my blood test results so I can do my own research as the gp will say everything's fine even when it isn't! e.g. The last time I had my FBC my ferritin was 17 "normal range" is 14 to 150 or something like that so gp said it was fine however my dietician said that's still really low!
lindathepinda MrsCGlanville
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Very sensible to get your blood panel results, and other ones. I already have been doing this for 20 years and have built up my own medical record this way.
The ranges which are used in blood tests are fairly random: they are based on samples of the population, not on any scientific theory. Most GP's aren't aware of this.
You're lucky to have a sensible dietitian. Maybe you should consider gettting a sensible GP also. He seems to be the guessing kind, which isn't the one you need since you have some complex health issues.
MrsCGlanville lindathepinda
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I honestly didn't even know you were allowed to get the results to any of your tests yourself. I thought only health professionals were allowed the results until someone recently told me on a Facebook coeliac group that they have been getting printouts of their test results for years!
While my GP is a nice person as my gp I don't think he takes me seriously at all... I went to him telling him I thought I had depression for 4 years then I moved to another part of the country, told them for about 3 years then got diagnosed after I had my daughter as they thought I had post natal depression but then looked at my file and saw I'd been suffering like this since I was about 12/13 but to this day my gp won't entertain the idea that I have depression!
He tends to just guess what tests to do as well, every few months I go to the gp because my extreme exhaustion is getting on top of me and he does a blood test every time! It was just luck that he eventually tested for coeliac. And even though he put me on iron tablets 10 years ago and has prescribed them to me for most of those 10 years he still thinks my ferritin was fine at 17, yet I was on 644mg of ferrous fumarate a day at the time!
lindathepinda MrsCGlanville
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The most common sign of celiac disease in adults is iron-deficiency anemia that is unresponsive to iron therapy.
I'd recommend to find yourself an up to date GP and immediately ask for a blood test for B12, since B12 also isn't absorbed well in celiac disease and a deficiency can cause extreme fatigue, among other complaints.
I think you need a doctor who likes to get at the bottom of things, not an automated blood panel and prescription generator.
If a doctor repeatedly does the same blood panel, he repeatedly will get the same (lack of) results.
lindathepinda
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carmen44474 lindathepinda
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Thank you so much for the suggestions! I'm seeing my gp next week and I'll ask for a blood test and my results.
lindathepinda carmen44474
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You're welcome carmen. while you're at it you might as well want to ask for a vit.D test. A deficiency is much more common than people think, especially in the more Northern regions of the Earth, and it also can cause brainfog, memory problems etc.
MrsCGlanville carmen44474
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I have been on a gluten free diet for just over a year now and I haven't felt any better in that time. My only gastro issue with my coeliacs is bloating but not sure if that is just something that happens to me anyway. I know how you feel, I really wish I had the energy to do more with my little girl!
MrsCGlanville lindathepinda
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I've seen every gp in the surgery I'm in and when I was 14 I changed to the other surgery in my town and saw some doctors there, they were a bit better and seemed to take me more seriously so I have been thinking about maybe going back there! The best doctors I've had have been out of hours gp's if I could get one of those to be my gp I'm sure I'd see some improvement or at least more answers! An out of hours gp told me to get tested for mono and my gps kept refusing to test me as they didn't think it was that! I saw an out of hours gp when I was going through a really rough patch with my depression and he was so helpful, he even emailed my gp about what he thought would be a good option for me though my gp completely disregarded this and simply told me to just go to the local safe haven if I felt really low! I honestly feel like the quest for a great gp is more difficult than trying to find the right person to marry!
lindathepinda MrsCGlanville
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It's indeed quite a quest to find the right GP, I had 5 different ones in the past 10 years and my current one is perfect. He's smart, acts like a sparring partner and doesn't mind to say he hasn't got a clue what is going on and to look up on the spot if my own suggestion could be valid.
So searching and switching was absolutely worth it!
You definitely need a good GP when you have this kind of ambiguous complaints.