Just low vit d or CFS?

Sorry to hear you are feeling so wretched. 

Firstly, lots of us have received diagnoses of chronic fatigue or fibromylagia, and some of us have taken a firm decision never again to accept a diagnosis of vague conditions like this, that have no established etiology, or more to the point, cure. 

Many of us here are suffering with osteomalacia, the bone-softening result of chronically low vit D. It causes bone and joint pain all over (but very prominently in the ribcage, shoulders and hips), and together with the chronically low serum calcium levels that result, widespread muscle pain and weakness. Sound familiar?

Have you been given a diagnosis of osteomalacia? This is the clinical result of vit D deficiency, but it seems that many docs (mine included) are not using this explicit term until asked 'Is this osteomalacia?' 

Proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole can cause serious malabsorption issues - consider asking your GP whether this might be the case for you and the knock on effects for your low vit D level. (I have stopped taking it for that reason, but I wouldn't recommend that to anyone else without medical advice.)

The pain, fatigue and brain fog of vit D deficiency/osteomalacia do not resolve over night, unfortunately. I'm now 6 weeks in to treatment, and feeling frankly cr*p, although I do seem to have better days now in with the exhausted, sore bad ones. 

Dr Michael Holick, a well respected expert on all things vitamin D, says that it can take up to a year, and perhaps longer, after beginning agressive vit D supplementation to be rid of most symptoms of osteomalacia. You can look him up online. A couple of his lectures are available on youTube and are really informative.

I hope you find this useful, Ben. I can't offer you medical advice as I am not a medical professional, but I can share with you that I would be exceptionally cautious about accepting a diagnosis like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. You can't be 'checked' for it, by the way - it's an endpoint diagnosis based on excluding everything else - which really depends how skilled your doctors are and how hard they are looking, doesn't it? I was personally railroaded into accepting a similar diagnosis of fibromyalgia and have been through 6 years of hell with untreated vit D deficiency osteomalacia.

All best wishes. Hope you feel better eventually!

P.S. I have a great little app (also recommended by Dr Holick) called D Minder, available for Android or iPhone devices, which helps you to track your additional vit D intake from sunlight - fully customisable for age, skin type, location and clothing, etc. I find it a useful way to keep topping up the D! 

My sister had similar symptoms many years back.  On your next doctor visit, ask about H pylori as well.  She has been ultra vigilant about what she eats and is doing well now.  

Good luck, Ben.

so sorry that you are feeling so rubbish , but hang in there and don't give up .

having read your comments I realised that I too lost so much weight last year ... This was before the severity of my pain increased and kept from my hips to almost every boney area . Think you forget some of your symptoms when you feel so under the weather for so long .

please don't be fobbed off with inexperienced or insensitive GPs ? Diagnosis's.Like you I hit rock bottom physically before ending up having the correct blood tests etc 

managing the pain and symptoms is the key so that you can feel more human again .

i have been on Pred for a week now and the pain is easing (although does return on exertion, my impatience trying to run before I can walk !! )

I so empathise with how you are feeling , as like you have experienced anything like this ever before !!!! 

Do hope that you are able to access a good consultant for an assessment .

take care .

helene