Symptoms

I've said more than once in the last few months that I've been feeling tired and run-down and, now that things may be coming to a head, I thought I'd write a little bit more about what has been going on. This will probably take a few posts so bear with me.

Two weeks ago, I was finally talked into going to see the doctor about why I'd been feeling so crap for so long. Until that point I'd been happily (well, not so happily, actually) ignoring it and hoping that it would just go away. Head in the sand - that was me. Anyway, the appointment was made for the 13th and I had to start thinking about how to describe what was wrong with me.

Before I go into that, a bit of background. In the first couple of months after we found out that L was pregnant, she suffered quite badly with morning sickness. With her, though, it occurred mostly in the evening and meant that she wasn't up to doing much around the house. So, for I was spending at least a couple of hours on my feet every night, doing all the jobs we normally share. Quite naturally, this made me pretty tired. After our holiday in September, L started to feel better and to do her share of the jobs. The problem was I didn't begin to feel any better and eventually I felt worse. For this reason, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when this all started.

So, what is actually wrong with me? Mainly, it's just the tiredness. It's a physical tiredness, felt in the muscles and bones, rather than a mental or emotional one (though it does have a knock-on effect in those areas). There are times when my legs feel like they could give way beneath me at any moment. The slightest exercise (like going up and down the stairs a couple of times) leaves me feeling hot, a little breathless and causes my heart to pound. I get up in the morning and feel like I've just been out for a run or come back from a hard work-out in the gym. Having remained feeling roughly the same for several months, in the last week I have felt much more tired than I had been, though this may be as a result of having to concentrate all week in a training course. My energy levels are consistently low.#

What else? There have been other symptoms that have popped up occasionally and may be merely incidental. Headaches; a little nausea; some quite bad heartburn; gradual weight loss despite me eating a lot (of course, that could be due to the fact that I'm not drinking anywhere near as much).

The doctor sent me for some blood tests: U&E, FBC, Glucose, LFT - the usual Casualty terms. Then last week I got a call telling me to pick up another blood test form as there was something they wanted to check out further. This time it was FBC and ESR and the form said I had a low white blood cell count (from the FBC test). I still don't know what the results of the other tests were.

Tomorrow, I'm going to write about the effects this has been having.