What the heck is my body doing now?

April 2, 2017 1:04 PM

I've been experiencing some unusual fatigue and occasional blips of pain. For the past 3 or 4 weeks, things like walking a slightly uphill block (that I normally walk every day) feels like more work than usual. As do minor tasks like doing laundry and cooking a meal.

I can push myself through the fatigue - spent a morning doing a mild hike in a hilly area, and then spent the next day in bed, flattened. It seems to be a pattern - pushing myself to go to an event or do something that requires a little more physical effort = paying for it the next day.

I also notice pain which comes and goes from different areas on different sides. Inside the left elbow, outside edge of the right foot, the right side of my face, my armpits. It's not sharp, just noticeable, and it goes away quickly. (No pain today).

Sore throat comes and goes - but that could be allergies - it's definitely allergy season here. Occasional slight fever (I think maybe twice).

Saw the doc last week - she did a test for mono (waiting on results) and an EKG which was fine. The pain hadn't happened yet so she doesn't yet know about that.

I know this is definitely a "talk to the doctor" problem but I'm kind of baffled and it's the weekend and I'm curious if any of this rings a bell with anyone.

posted by bunderful to Health & Fitness (13 answers total)

Any kind of inflammation or infection can feel like this. You could be having an arthritis flare up, or your immune system could be battling a low grade infection. It could also be humidity or dehydration.
posted by Jane the Brown at 1:09 PM on April 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

At the risk of this being ridiculously wrong... Fatigue like you describe was one of my first symptoms of pregnancy.
posted by brainmouse at 1:09 PM on April 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

B12 deficiency started like this for me. It's not as simple as a blood serum level to diagnose though most docs think it is. They recommend you do a small suite of tests: MMA, homocysteinie, blood serum and a blood smear. Also you need to not be taking supplements or it'll throw it out of whack.
posted by fshgrl at 1:16 PM on April 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

IANAD but maybe Lyme Disease?
posted by carmicha at 1:27 PM on April 2, 2017

Did you start or stop any medications at the beginning of this period?
posted by XMLicious at 2:14 PM on April 2, 2017

Has your doctor ordered a Vitamin D test and a thyroid levels and thyroid antibody test? Thyroid problems are oh so very common in women, and low vitamin D is surprisingly common, especially at higher latitudes. Both conditions are quite easily treated with Synthroid/ Cytomel and high-dose Vitamin D. My doc put me on these hella-high-dosage Vitamin D capsules (50,000 IU) and my D levels got back to normal after a month.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 2:14 PM on April 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I started hormonal bc and a sleep medication. I'm tapering off the sleep meds but staying on the birth control for now. That may well be the culprit but I'm finally not having horrible periods (see prior question) so I'm hesitant to ditch it.

I'm already being treated for hypothyroidism; thyroid levels were tested recently and were normal. Good guess though as I experienced a similar fatigue when I was last hypo, only with a couple of other symptoms and a far more gradual shift. I've had low vitamin D before but it hasn't presented like this, and I've gotten a fair amount of sun exposure lately.
posted by bunderful at 2:40 PM on April 2, 2017

Ask to be evaluated for asthma.
posted by ewok_academy at 3:16 PM on April 2, 2017

Ask for a test to look for anemia.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:43 PM on April 2, 2017

That kind of fatigue happened to me when my iron was really low. Like Ursula Hitler suggests, get a test for anemia (usually a CBC which looks at hemoglobin among other things), but also specifically get a test for ferritin, which measures your iron stores. You can have symptomatic iron deficiency without having iron deficiency anemia (emphasis only because the terms are so similar). I always had a fine hemoglobin, but when we tested for ferritin it was super low. Getting my ferritin up helped my fatigue a lot.

I don't remember having pains like you mention or specifically sore throats, but I definitely felt icky in general with random weird, sometimes flu-like symptoms when my iron was low, so they may be connected. I described it as feeling like I had "half of the flu" all the time.

Good luck!
posted by bananacabana at 5:44 PM on April 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I had fatigue and a recurring really sore throat for almost a year in my early 30s. Got tested for strep throat about 10 times - all negative. Turns out it was a mono (glandular fever in the UK) infection that I was just unable to shake until I took sick leave from grad school. I didn't get a correct diagnosis until I almost stopped breathing and was pretty much unable to swallow. It turns out that toughing out grad school can mask things that they considered diagnostic.


I really should have kissed more girls earlier when mono would have less of a pain in the arse.
posted by srboisvert at 7:10 PM on April 2, 2017

Hormonal bc and sleep medication can cause so very many things. And combining them even more so. What is the timeline of those medications and your fatigue?
posted by Vaike at 8:28 PM on April 2, 2017

this kind of fatigue happened to me when i was getting sick with heart failure at 36 yo.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:09 AM on April 4, 2017