Hip
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@poppythecat
Well the fact that a flu-like illness started off your long term illness is suggestive of ME/CFS. It often starts this way.
If you had fully recovered within a few months of you thyroid hormone protocol, it would make sense to assume that your health problems were all caused by thyroid dysfunction.
But the fact that thyroid hormones improved you, but did not bring remission from your symptoms (since you still have an ME/CFS-like illness), suggests that you may have either ME/CFS, or some other condition that has ME/CFS-like symptoms.
A good list of diseases that can mimic ME/CFS is found here.
Also, the fact that your blood pressure drops when you stand indicates you might have orthostatic hypotension (OH) or neurally mediated hypotension (NMH). These are common in ME/CFS. Some info:
If we were to assume you have ME/CFS, then there are a number of avenues you could explore in terms of treatments. Treatments that people frequently find improve their ME/CFS symptoms include:
• Vitamin B12 methylcobalamin (as injections or as B12 sublingual tablets)
• Methylation protocol (requires certain supplements to be taken, including vitamin B12 and methylfolate)
• Low dose naltrexone (LDN requires you to take the drug naltrexone, which you can buy prescription-free online)
It may be an idea to look into these, just to see if they help. There's a lot of info about them on this forum.
Well the fact that a flu-like illness started off your long term illness is suggestive of ME/CFS. It often starts this way.
If you had fully recovered within a few months of you thyroid hormone protocol, it would make sense to assume that your health problems were all caused by thyroid dysfunction.
But the fact that thyroid hormones improved you, but did not bring remission from your symptoms (since you still have an ME/CFS-like illness), suggests that you may have either ME/CFS, or some other condition that has ME/CFS-like symptoms.
A good list of diseases that can mimic ME/CFS is found here.
Also, the fact that your blood pressure drops when you stand indicates you might have orthostatic hypotension (OH) or neurally mediated hypotension (NMH). These are common in ME/CFS. Some info:
Orthostatic hypotension (OH) and Neurally mediated hypotension (NMH)
OH and NMH are conditions in which your blood pressure drops upon standing. In OH the pressure drop is immediate; in NMH the drop occurs after a long period of time standing, or also sometimes after having an unpleasant or upsetting experience.
Symptoms of OH or NMH include: dizziness or light-headedness, feeling that you are going to faint, blurred vision, confusion, weakness, fatigue, nausea. These symptoms appear within a few seconds or minutes of standing up after you've been sitting or lying down, and will disappear if you sit or lie down for a few minutes. 1
Patients with ME/CFS have a high prevalence of neurally mediated hypotension (NMH), 1 which is due to a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. In some cases ME/CFS patients can experience almost complete resolution of their ME/CFS symptoms once their NMH is treated. 1
Orthostatic hypotension is diagnosed when, on standing from a sitting or lying position, there is a fall in systolic blood pressure of 20 mm Hg or more, and/or a fall in diastolic blood pressure of 10 mm Hg or more. 1 These blood pressure measurements can be made with an ordinary home blood pressure meter. Note that a blood pressure reading is expressed as systolic / diastolic, for example: 120 / 80.
If we were to assume you have ME/CFS, then there are a number of avenues you could explore in terms of treatments. Treatments that people frequently find improve their ME/CFS symptoms include:
• Vitamin B12 methylcobalamin (as injections or as B12 sublingual tablets)
• Methylation protocol (requires certain supplements to be taken, including vitamin B12 and methylfolate)
• Low dose naltrexone (LDN requires you to take the drug naltrexone, which you can buy prescription-free online)
It may be an idea to look into these, just to see if they help. There's a lot of info about them on this forum.