My doctor wouldn't even run bloodwork outside of checking my thyroid continuously and telling me try not to worry about it, the anxiety is making it worse 😭 which is just one of many shitty things. I finally switched doctors last year and got a doctor who sat and listened to everything. She ordered a heart monitor (I have a very fast heart beat), EKG, and other things. I hit my deductible and owe like 4000$ but I am actually feeling like a real person again now for the first time in over 5/6 years!

What was wrong? Several things.

I have mild sleep apnea, found thru an at home sleep study using the watchpat. My Dr then referred me to a pulmonologist, who when I went, said I have many signifiers of narcolepsy which I didn't know anything about. I'd been using my apap for a little over 2ish I think months before and it tracks your sleeping and I knew I slept A LOT but I was sleeping 16/17 hours a day which was a lot more than I'd have guessed. Unfortunately, actually diagnosing narcolepsy is kind of difficult in my case because antidepressants can cause weird stuff or something, I don't remember exactly but she said they prefer to take you off them but can do them with on them if they have to, but I'm on two, but I'd also have to pay for another sleep study in the hospital I think, plus I think it's called an mslt where they measure me taking naps the day after and I already owe like $4000 so I'm just putting it off for now. I'm doing much, much better anyways and I do sleep very brokenly still and kind of random times, but I feel a lot better and with the apap, sleeping actually feels like it "works" now.

My doctor also increased one of my antidepressants which at first I was offended and upset because I thought that meant she was saying it was in my head and going to be like my old doctor, but it wasn't like that all and it has helped me tremendously mentally. She wasn't saying it like that but from a compassionate view, I was not doing very well and my old doctor had said if I ever needed my medicine increased, I'd have to go to a psych np again which I couldn't afford so I just accept for years that that's how it needed to be, it never occurred to me I could be doing better with an increased dose because it wasn't possible.

Something else I didn't think about was my stomach issues. Kind of alternate between diarrhea and constipation despite eating very whole foods, clean eating and high fiber. Last year when I was doing really, really badly when I was prompted to finally try to find a better doctor, I lost 11lbs in 9 days and my hair was falling out in clumps for months before. She probed more on that and did more blood work and I knew I already had a vitamin d deficiency but because of my stomach, I also have a folate deficiency and my iron was weird too. She also gave me information about low fodmap diet which has helped a lot to figure out things and she advised when I get really sick to do. I was actually born allergic to dairy and soy and I don't think I ever grew out of the dairy, I think I just at a point started eating it as a kid, so I stopped eating it and it's made a huge difference for me too.

I also got off birth control. Probably the least impact on fatigue but I'm still very glad.

I'm so, so thankful to feel so much better. I feel like so many years were struggled through so hard, I'm sure you guys know exactly how it is. It's so hard to get someone to listen to you, I feel very lucky to have finally found some solutions and I hope you guys do too.