En bonne santé (naaat)
For those who missed it, I was diagnosed with CFS/ME in 2010. Since then, I've met with specialists and late last year began physiotherapy in the form of Graded Exercise Therapy. However, earlier this year I began (on top of my "usual" symptoms) experiencing chest pain and difficulty breathing and so my new GP ordered an ECG, a spirometry and, in a split-second off-the-cuff decision, a blood test because anaemically pale skin.
My blood test results came back negative for all forms of anaemia, but positive for Vitamin D3 deficiency at 13nmol/L (anything less than 50nmol/L is regarded as insufficient). Vitamin D3 is needed for the body to absorb calcium from your diet; without it, your body takes the calcium it needs from your muscles and bones. Most people's bodies are able to produce enough D3 from exposure to sunlight, but a combination of factors (genes, childhood health, current lifestyle) means that I haven't been able to for several years.
Even though I had blood tests done before my CFS/ME diagnosis in 2010, my D3 levels weren't once measured. Apparently the NHS has only started to test for D3 deficiency alongside anaemia in the last few years. It's possible (and my nurse was almost entirely certain, given my critical levels) that I was D3 deficient at the time of my blood test in 2010 and for years before that. This is nuts because Vitamin D3 deficiency symptoms are almost identical to CFS/ME symptoms: fatigue and musculoskeletal pain among them. It would also explain my blood pressure, which is consistently bordering the high end of acceptable (average ~136/86). Nausea and brain fog that is consistent with CFS/ME isn't a D3 thang, however, and Vitamin D3 deficiency has been known to cause CFS/ME to develop.
So it's possible I have both Vitamin D3 deficiency and CFS/ME (and as far as my doctors are concerned, that is the case), but it's also possible that this entire time I have only been D3 deficient and this CFS/ME diagnosis is bull. I go to see my GP on Monday with regard to treating the D3 deficiency: money permitting, I should be getting a shot of the stuff that will give me a six-month boost and get my levels back to normal. Irrespective of whether I have CFS/ME or not, I can expect to see a massive change once that happens in terms of fatigue and pain and general happiness.
As a sidenote, an NHS-employed friend of a friend accessed the results of my 2010 blood test for me out of curiosity, as I had never bothered to formally request them. Though I wasn't told this at the time, my results essentially showed that I was anaemic without the anaemia: my red blood cells were (and still are) teeny-tiny, which is completely abnormal and usually indicative of anaemia, but both my iron and B12 levels were normal and so I couldn't possibly have been anaemic. According to said FOAF, the only situation in which one has such small red blood cells without anaemia is in the case of a minor asymptomatic/harmless form of Thalassemia... Which would be crazy rare to the point of impossibility, as I'm only Mediterranean in descent on my mother's side of the family and my Dad is of Northern European heritage entirely.
TL;DR: too much is wrong/weird about my body.
My blood test results came back negative for all forms of anaemia, but positive for Vitamin D3 deficiency at 13nmol/L (anything less than 50nmol/L is regarded as insufficient). Vitamin D3 is needed for the body to absorb calcium from your diet; without it, your body takes the calcium it needs from your muscles and bones. Most people's bodies are able to produce enough D3 from exposure to sunlight, but a combination of factors (genes, childhood health, current lifestyle) means that I haven't been able to for several years.
Even though I had blood tests done before my CFS/ME diagnosis in 2010, my D3 levels weren't once measured. Apparently the NHS has only started to test for D3 deficiency alongside anaemia in the last few years. It's possible (and my nurse was almost entirely certain, given my critical levels) that I was D3 deficient at the time of my blood test in 2010 and for years before that. This is nuts because Vitamin D3 deficiency symptoms are almost identical to CFS/ME symptoms: fatigue and musculoskeletal pain among them. It would also explain my blood pressure, which is consistently bordering the high end of acceptable (average ~136/86). Nausea and brain fog that is consistent with CFS/ME isn't a D3 thang, however, and Vitamin D3 deficiency has been known to cause CFS/ME to develop.
So it's possible I have both Vitamin D3 deficiency and CFS/ME (and as far as my doctors are concerned, that is the case), but it's also possible that this entire time I have only been D3 deficient and this CFS/ME diagnosis is bull. I go to see my GP on Monday with regard to treating the D3 deficiency: money permitting, I should be getting a shot of the stuff that will give me a six-month boost and get my levels back to normal. Irrespective of whether I have CFS/ME or not, I can expect to see a massive change once that happens in terms of fatigue and pain and general happiness.
As a sidenote, an NHS-employed friend of a friend accessed the results of my 2010 blood test for me out of curiosity, as I had never bothered to formally request them. Though I wasn't told this at the time, my results essentially showed that I was anaemic without the anaemia: my red blood cells were (and still are) teeny-tiny, which is completely abnormal and usually indicative of anaemia, but both my iron and B12 levels were normal and so I couldn't possibly have been anaemic. According to said FOAF, the only situation in which one has such small red blood cells without anaemia is in the case of a minor asymptomatic/harmless form of Thalassemia... Which would be crazy rare to the point of impossibility, as I'm only Mediterranean in descent on my mother's side of the family and my Dad is of Northern European heritage entirely.
TL;DR: too much is wrong/weird about my body.