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Diagnosis: for all Docs in the house!

1K views 15 replies 8 participants last post by  mlepito 
#1 ·
Hey, I know this is slightly offtopic here, but I know that we at MTBR are a varied bunch. Maybe there is a doctor or two out there that wouldnt mind lending their opinion. Im just looking for some outside imput (I will be going to see a doctor about this again next week some time):

I am an 18 year old male. I am in the Police Foundations program at College, usually eat 4-5 smaller meals a day, get 8 hours of sleep a night, and enjoy a life with very little stress. I live at home, have good hygene practices, and just got the highest mark on an english paper today.

But... I have a problem. One that has been somewhat lingering for the past half-year. Lets start from the beginning:

It may be relevant: I had mononeuculosis with double pneumonia 2 years ago (almost exactly). Within 5 months of mono/pneu, full recovery was made.

Around 6 months ago, I went to the doctor because I was sleeping all afternoon, constantly tired and irritable (this started happening gradually, I went from biking 3+hours a day to nil because I was so tired). Went for a blood test, had low iron (dont remember how low). Went on a course of perscrip. iron pills for 3 months. During 3rd month on percrip, I went to Costa Rica for 1 month travels. Got back, was still tired after course. took follow-up blood test, to see if my iron came up. He said it was much better than before, but was SLIGHTLY low, but nothing a good diet wouldnt completely fix. If I had a mono relapse, would it have shown on THIS blood test? Or were they not even looking at anything else at all? I mentioned the problem to my doctor, he said I should take 2x multivitamin tablets a day. because popping pills solves everything, aparently...

So, Im taking the pills. Feel quite a bit better (went from 40% to maybe 65-75%), but still dont feel energized at ALL to go work out.

Now, I feel that if I have sugar, I plummet HARD afterwards. EVEN after a meal. Like, if I have a large dish of pasta and veggies, then an hour later have 3 cookies, within the hour I will feel exhausted and drained, as if I have been awake for 24 hours. I move in and out of a drowsy state in the afternoons, if I wanted to, I could fall asleep every afternoon. I am drinking lots of water, but randomly may feel thirsty. I have taken this sugar thing into account, and have tried to eat the most ballanced diet I can. It doesnt matter.

I will be going to a different doctor soon, but this is bugging me and I was wondering if there was anything I should do that could identify what was wrong with me. I will mention my previous case of mono. Could this be a relapse? Could this have to do with my vitamins, and it will just take a while to get them back up? Could it be something else entirely?

Thank you for reading this, greatly appriciated!

Dan

p.s. even if you aren't a doctor, but could offer some advice, it would be appricated.

p.p.s. I am a healthy 18-almost-19 year old. I shouldn't feel like I am incapacitated!
 
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#4 ·
I am the wife of wahoofish who asked me to look at this posting(I used to moutain bike!): hi - I am an internal medicine physician and per your history it is NOT NORMAL for a male to have iron deficiency anemia. You should be checked for causes of bleeding (in your stomach and colon) and also for something called celiac sprue which is a common disease where gluten is not absorbed correctly and could explain your symptoms after wheat based meals. DO not change your diet though until you are seen as you need to be eating wheat to diagnose this. Please remember this is just advice and your own doctor will decide appropriate tests. never bad to see another physician for second opinions either as you are doing.

Good luck!
 
#5 ·
Thank you for your post Wahoofish/wife of. There is no blood in my stool, so I think there is less of a chance for that, but I will look into celiac sprue. My aunt has it (she cant eat gluten), I really hope that I don't. I would take a fresh loaf of bread over a bowl of icecream any day of the week! It would be horrible to give it up.

Thanks for your concern.
 
#6 ·
Consider asking for a LYme test as well as some of the other coinfections such as babesia and bartonella. As an outdoors person you're in a very high risk category, and these diseases are more than capable of turning a healthy person into mush.

Goodluck.

EDIT: I'm not a doctor, but am a living petri dish for tick borne illnesses.
 
#7 ·
I went to another doctor today, and right now I am VERY upset at this whole thing. I explained everything to him, and all he could give me was a shrug. He said that he could refer me to an intern to investigate, and that process would START in a MONTH. A FRIGGING MONTH from now. I dont get this, its too much. Here I am, thinking I am an A average student, potentially failing classes because of this illness, and its taking 1/5th of a semester just to SEE about starting an investigation.

I feel so helpless... No one can help me. I cant even help myself.
 
#8 ·
when i had mono, it really screwed me up for a bit. not even gonna say i've fully recovered. but what may help most is to try to hard reset your body.. bed at 9, up at 6, glass of water, a bit of the brekkie, focus on protein, excercise to start your metabolism.. i found that doing this kind of stuff helped me push through my slump after mono. your body just kind of falls into the sleepy mode, and you gotta push yourself out
 
#9 ·
How long ago did you have it?

My mom stopped by last night with $30 worth of fruit. she told me that I was going to be juicing 4-6 fruits (apples and oranges) and a carrot or two every day.
and eat more protien.

Are you sure you aren't my mother, Photo? :) thanks for the advice.
 
#10 ·
You can test for most of the metabolic issues with a simple blood test. If they run a full panel you will know if there is a thyroid issue. In this case hypothyroidism is what we would look for. Also they would do a fasting blood glucose to check for diabetes. With the severity your talking about, the right blood tests would catch it. I'm going to assume that you've had these test already since you have seen two doctors. A large panel like a chem 56 will also get the pancreatic enzymes.

You mentioned some out of the country travel. Have you been out of the country before? Is there a possibility you picked up a tape worm or other parasite? If the intestinal parasite is eating all your sugar on the way through, your body will still dump the insulin to pick it up. When it's not there, you crash. Do you have any weight changes? Is there any issues with bowel movements?
 
#11 ·
I used to live in china, and sri lanka before that. Tape worm? gross, but I guess its a possibility. No weight changes to speak of... except for gaining a bit of flab from not being able to work out like I did :)

No issue with bowels, I DID have an almost constant upset stomach during the iron pill course.

I just got my doctor to prescribe a full-everything blood test. I got it done two days ago, cant wait till I get results back. Nov 8th-ish is when I should know (2 days before my birthday!). I have been eating lots of halloween candy, but at the same time watching myself to see if there are any out of the ordinary side effects. apart from being tired after (the regular sugar crash everyone gets), I didnt feel anything super wrong.

Diabetes was suggested by another doctor, my dad has type 2 diabetes. late onset.

Thank you, mlepito, for taking your time to post.
 
#13 ·
Just a thought, you might want to investigate, "Syndrome X", it is a "pre diabetic" condition. And like others have said, males, in general, don't loose iron. I would take a good organic type vitamin, cook foods in a cast iron skillet and continue to get plenty of rest.
Overtraining can definitely give you the blahs and tired feelings as well as irritability as well.
Good Luck and keep us updated.
 
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