Adrenal related?

Hormones
1

Symptoms:

Very sore flanks near kidneys and adrenals.

Heavy constant low back pain.

Have lived with intense social isolation and behavioral stress with rare friendly relaxation since high school. No friends, no acquaintances, no lovers, no parental involvement. Religious repression of personality. Just me alone and stressed out 24/7. Social events (including work) requiring long periods of recovery with coping addictions (games, food, porn).

Regular history of all-nighters.

Achy, creaky joints that pop everywhere.

Heavy fatigue.

Sleepy during day. Mild insomnia until I fall asleep at night.

All lymph nodes ache. Began in 2011 with two on sides of neck.

Lymph nodes never swell in size, just hard.

Nodes are not painful. Surrounding tissues are painful.

Thyroid warm and aching, with a nodule seen on ultrasound.

Hypothyroidism, taking WP-thyroid 130mcg.

Sore all around thyroid.

Slight difficulty swallowing.

Inside of mouth around jawbone is sore.

Back of tongue sore.

Face sore and aching.

Preauricular nodes extremely sore, even painful.

Mild ringing in ears.

Headaches often.

Bloodwork and CT scan of head/neck showed nothing in 2012.

Spent six years in increasing duress as pain and pressure moved from head/neck down to clavicle then armpits and chest, and now abdominal cramping with intense low back pain, and groin/pelvis soreness.

Dry cough for a month now.

Low back pain not abating.

Pressure in chest near spine.

Vertigo when driving at night.

Shortness of breath.

Dry mouth.

Heavy malaise.

Cold extremities.

Random body twitches.

Lost 50lbs in the past year.

Constipation/diarrhea/heavy urination for a month

Eosinophilic and Low platelets for at least two years.

I've been to three doctors and a few specialists who showed barely any interest. They look at me like I'm fine, and order some blood work. Even in a horrible state like a month ago from which I've now barely begun to recover (Huge wave of abdominal cramps/back pain/malaise. My symptoms were semi-manageable before. Of course, I'm not a cry-baby. I drive myself and walk into work or the doctor's office as upright as possible despite needing to lay on the floor and crawl.)

I'm at my wit's end with pain and malaise and can't afford more visits or bloodwork. I have no idea what the threshhold is for illness, but apparently I do not meet it yet. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Do I have to ask for tests myself? Is that the sign a patient is really sick? What tests would I need? I'm not a doctor...

2

Poor you..The thing I found out,  the more you go to the doctors the less they care, it happened to me for a whole year they put mine down to deression, felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall..Until the day I took myself to accident and emergency. They found I had Addisons disease, and was in a crisis, they reckoned I had half hour left as my body was shutting down, when I arrived and was put on all kinds of machines. Some doctors Eh..

The best thing you can do Is ask your doctor to make an appointment for a scan of your stomache or full body scan, and say I am not prepared to go on like this..They have to listen to you..Hope you get it sorted

3

I think television shows have made so much out of malingering (I can think of three or four characters on popular shows that caricatured someone faking it) that there's an epidemic of doctors who ignore less obvious symptoms of patients. It's probably part of the natural human psyche, not wanting to pay attention to people who look normal on the outside but aren't working as hard as you are.

Anyway, enough of me hypothesizing why they don't listen. Did you have any darkening of the skin with Addisons? That's the only symptom on the differential list that I don't match. I have dark armpits and groin creases for a skinny guy, but no blotches or anything noticeable at a glance. I would just strip down naked as soon as they put me on the table so they can get the whole picture during consultation but I bet it would put me in some special category of malingering, maybe "Exhibitionary Munchauser-Schnauzer Syndrome", lol.

I haven't had any hormone panels beyond the basic thyroid tests. Do you have specific ones you get that I could request?

4

Yes I did have darkening patches,if I had a little bit of Eczema that would go a light brown , the palm of my hands (lines were pale brown) gums at the bottom were brown,  patches on face etc.  I am in the UK, and here I learnt if I ask to see a specialist in whatever is boththering me that the doctors are just are not getting to the bottom of, then they ask the Hospital to send me an appointment, but that is in the UK...You have a long list of problems, Whats you Blood Pressure like ? One way to check adrenals is buy a good Blood pressure monitor, then drink a full glass of water sit  and relax for half hour, then do your BP, then stand and take it again, if BP drops adrenals are weak, if it goes higher then good adrenal activity. If they are weak then you can ask the doctor to do a morning cortisol check, as Cortisol is highest in the morning. Other than that as you have a lot of symptoms, a full Body scan,, it can pick up most things..

5

Nope, I don't have splotches then. I am slightly yellow for a white guy, but I've been that way as long as I can remember.

It's unbelievable that I have to research and ask for tests and specialists, when everytime I open my mouth the GPs tell me not to research any symptoms online. I went quiet for a few years letting them tell me what to do (i.e. nothing, along with anti-depressants even though I feel happy about 99.9999% of the time other than the pain). Differential diagnosis sucks. I can't wait till artificial intelligence takes the place of human doctors.

I'll go to the pharmacy today and try to learn how to take my own blood pressure. Thanks for the tip.

Free access to A&E is one reason I would choose to live in the UK if I had a choice. It's thousands of dollars for me to drive myself to the ER in the States, and everyone in my family scares me when I ask them for advice. "ER docs have no specialty so they won't find anything and you'll be buried in debt.."

6

Hi I do feel for you, it must be a nightmare having to pay for healthcare, in the UK we are very lucky indeed to have free healthcare..the only thing that comes to mind with some of your synptoms is your Kidney function , just a thought as you said you are and have been slighly yellow for years, or have you checked out Hypercalcemia, or Diabeties, I am sure you have but just a thought..The list can go on as you are probably aware the internet is full of many illness's  that have all the same symptoms, a mind field to be honest trying to pinpoint the one that fits your symptoms...

7

Your story sounds so similiar to so many others and myself trying to get a diagnoses from doctors. I too have to tell my doctors what test I want and need otherwise they will only do the mer basic and send you off. When you try to explain to them, they tell you to stop searching in google.

It's not like they are going above and beyond to help you and you are left with little choice but to dig deeper because our health is deteriorating and it's affecting our daily lives not theirs.

I'm on the same boat as you, utilizing doctors to run tests and I try to connect the dots as they are stumped unless you have an illness that is easily detected by blood test. Otherwise if it's a mineral deficiency or dysregulation within the body, doctors are clueless.

I would recommend you get your aldosterone, dhea test. If dhea is low chances are your adrenals aren't working optimaly like a healthy person.

You should also check your whole iron panel because excess unbound iron causes inflammation and is a buffet for bacteria and viruses. Next check your zinc and copper levels. They are very important for adrenal and thyroid function. And check your ceroplasmin levels as it is a protein carrier for iron and copper. Your levels will tell you if it's transporting iron and copper safely to be utilize efficiently. If it's low than that is a good indicator that you have unbound iron and copper.

These are good places to start to find answers. Hopefully you will start feeling better soon.