Is this a crash?

[Emily_21]

I am home after being on vacation visiting my Mom for a month. I have not slept well for three nights last night being the third. The first two nights I did not fall asleep till around 4:30 am. Last night I did not fall asleep at all. I fall asleep then wake up and can’t go back to sleep.

For the last couple days I’ve been anxious and on edge, exhausted, body aches, tired, and headache with light sensitivity, and nauseous. I didn’t feel like this with my Mom. Sure the first week I didn’t feel great but nothing like this.

I am not diagnosed with ME but fatigue has been a struggle all my life and got really bad for about two years but all the tests came back normal.

My doctor thinks that I am just having trouble getting back into a routine with working ( I work at my assisted living place) and this will go away as my body gets back to normal.

Is this a crash? I am scared.

 

[wabi-sabi]

It could be anything from stress to acute illness. Don't be scared. Just rest up and take care of yourself. Cuddle with soft animals if necessary.

Do you have a fever? If so, you need to go back to the doctor.

 

[linusbert]

but all the tests came back normal.

all the wrong tests always come back normal... common story in this forum.

Is this a crash? I am scared.

did you crash before? if you dont know, you probably didnt. also it doesnt matter, if you feel tired, get some rest. no matter if crash or not.


people can push through stressful times and phases quite well, sometimes for years. but then when the stress comes off and they get to relax, they become sick or feel the strain. this is normal, also for normal people.
so it could just be that.

fatigue can be a thing of many things like
- thyroids
- adrenal glands , take some hydrocortisol for a week - in assistence with your doctor, if this helps this can be your issue.. but cortisol usually isnt the solution long term, except if you got a real adrenal disease . vitamin C , magnesium, vitamin B5 and sodium can also help in this case,
- vitamin D, magnesium, B12 deficiency and tons of other deficiencies as well and malnutrition, calories deficit, wrong calories.

also people can get to tired to sleep if they are really exhausted. then they feel restless agitated at night. sometimes they feel sleepy over the day. the circadian rhythm went nuts.
what you can do in this case is doing some higher dose of melatonin when you want to go to sleep like in the 5mg+ range.

My doctor thinks that I am just having trouble getting back into a routine with working

and he doesnt feel obliged as your doctor to do anything to help you get back to health?

 

[Emily_21]

We did the usual tests. Psychiatric medications were ruled out as a culprit Iron levels were normal. My thyroid came back normal. My adrenal glands did not show anything abnormal or any deficiency. I assume you do a blood test to find out for those? The sleep test did not show sleep apnea. The blood work did not show vitamin deficiencies although I am taking B12 for fatigue. I take Magnesium at night but for headaches and it can also make you sleepy.

No she did. She said just get rest and get some Vitamin C and to come back if I still feel bad as the week goes on.

 

[Emily_21]

It could be anything from stress to acute illness. Don't be scared. Just rest up and take care of yourself. Cuddle with soft animals if necessary.

Do you have a fever? If so, you need to go back to the doctor.

Not that I was aware. Couldn't find my thermometer.

 

[linusbert]

No she did. She said just get rest and get some Vitamin C and to come back if I still feel bad as the week goes on.

ok , that actually sounds reasonable.
i somehow was under the assumption that you already suffer for longer under this condition. probably flashbacks.

 

[Tsukareta]

Precursors of a CFS crash might be noticeably raised resting heart rate, abnormal changes in mood e.g. strangely euphoric, restless, anxious or social anxiety, ringing in the ears, feeling unusually hot all of a sudden and removing more clothes than usual for the situation. I think all of our situations are different though, in the first 6 to 9 months of the illness it was more unpredictable and unstable. I think when I crash I then get a flareup of my hydrogen sulphide dominant SIBO which then poisons my mitochondria's with toxic H2S gas, so its like a double crash now instead of one.

 

[wabi-sabi]

She said just get rest and get some Vitamin C and to come back if I still feel bad as the week goes on.

That sounds like good advice. Don't underestimate the effect of insomnia on fatigue and feeling horrible in general.

If you've always had low energy compared to other people it's unlikely you have ME/CFS. You don't want to borrow trouble. There are so very many health conditions that cause fatigue.

 

[Emily_21]

ok , that actually sounds reasonable.
i somehow was under the assumption that you already suffer for longer under this condition. probably flashbacks.

No I am not diagnosed with CFS. I've always had fatigue all my life due to being born really preterm. Like to the point I'll never be able to work full time and live in assisted living, but that isn't the only reason for why I live where I do.

I just got really bad the last few years ago and I wasn't sure where to go for support. Reddit wasn't cutting it (some mod banned me after I got salty after he accused me I wasn't taking care of my body-long story) , all the tests came back normal, So I thought I'd give here a shot.

 

[Emily_21]

That sounds like good advice. Don't underestimate the effect of insomnia on fatigue and feeling horrible in general.

If you've always had low energy compared to other people it's unlikely you have ME/CFS. You don't want to borrow trouble. There are so very many health conditions that cause fatigue.

I've had insomnia before. And yes I've had fatigue all my life due to very premature birth-4 months early. I'll never be able to work full time because of it. The reason I suspected something was wrong was around 2 years ago I began to feel more exhausted than usual and it felt out of proportion to the activity I was doing. And I was doing everything right-exercising, eating right, adhering to good sleep hygiene, etc. And all the tests came back normal. It got to the point where I didn't have the energy to exercise, pick things up the floor, or do any of my hobbies. It was scary.

At this point after the sleep study came back normal, I just pace and keep an eye on things.

 

[linusbert]

And I was doing everything right-exercising, eating right, adhering to good sleep hygiene, etc. And all the tests came back normal.

i have similiar story.
for me it was i got really decline in a year where i reduced job to part time to have time to do exercise and good eating (eliminate every sugar, everything cooked myself etc) ... and then it went really fast until i crashed the first time.
it turned out that eating "healthy" is relative and your body might need something which others consider unhealthy.

there are diseases which affect your metabolism in a way that "unhealthy" might be actually right for you. and healthy may be unhealthy.
its very important to do a elimination diet and try high fat/low carb , high carb/low fat, high protein or low protein, grain free, only meat, only vegan etc. to find what actually fucks you up.
some people get relief on only meat + salad diet... some get sick of meat because they are allergic to meat, they get better with no meat. some people get sick from everything, they need to do a 3-day rotary diet.
also there are disorders where body cannot use fats effectively, for them low fat and rich carbs andor rich protein can be good. others do not tolerate proteins or specific proteins, they do better on low protein. its really complex.

my tests also "all" came back "normal" ... except they didnt. the tests which didnt came back normal my doctors ignored. they didnt fit the picture so they just ignored them.
in the long term all markers for myopathy were up. like CK, like LDH and others.

when they say they did everything and "all" tests came back normal, what they actually mean,
"we did common routine diagnostic, there wasnt anything too out of the ordinary or out of the ordinary doesnt fit into our picture... so yea you are fine"

 

[wabi-sabi]

I just pace and keep an eye on things.

Pacing is one of your most important skills. Keep it up!

 

[linusbert]

very interesting!

Also, one may experience chest tightness or a peculiar sensation that he can’t take a deep breath. Sometimes a person may sigh a lot.”

in that regard, this is often also called air hunger can be due to low potassium or b1 (thiamine) or vagus nerv especially when it goes away when changing positions, e.g. from lying to sitting, or messed up co2/o2 balance in blood -> breathing.


did you try subcutanous magnesium injections? we have a few threads and even a group here in this forum regarding that topic.

 

[linusbert]

Oh I did not know there was a group on here. I thought I was the only crazy one giving myself more injections on top of my b12 ones, lol.

it was a group about magnesium injections i believe, from another german guy.
i wrote him month ago, didnt respond. so i guess the group is more or less not active anymore.

i am also a big fan of injecting things subcutanous. wanted to do carnitine. but i might checkout magnesium now too.
i will try the sulfate, even if it stings. i am already on insulin.

 

[cinderella2290]

I dunno if this is interesting or helpful. I currently use b12 injections and also recently discovered I am also magnesiun deficient. I am about to try desiccated beef thyroid for thyroid help.

I know you said your levels were normal and I understand CFS has a myriad of causes. I really dismissed the idea of thyroid being a possible issue for me until I read this lady's story. (My symptoms more closely align with b12 deficiency as I had light sensitivity, decrease in vision, stomach pains, always hot, tingling in hands and feet, restless legs, difficulty concentrating, brain fog. I'm always hot. I don't get cold hands and feet, lol.)

This lady said she was in "normal" range for thyroid. There's also a link between those with low thyroid/ hoshimotos and having b12 deficiency or low iron.

https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/my-story/

Part of her story: I am a hypothyroid patient (who later acquired Hashimoto’s). I personally went from the depths of nearly 20 years of T4-only hell and being told I was “normal” in spite of debilitating symptoms…to having the energy and stamina of a teenager thanks to having T3 in my treatment (which at the time was a working natural desiccated thyroid) and dosing NOT by the TSH, but according to the complete elimination of symptoms and the free T3, plus correcting other issues related to being poorly treated for so long. So have many others and so can YOU! Janie, hypothyroid patient and site creator