I was diagnosed with CFS/ME in 2009. At the time, I had been hypothyroid for a little over 13 years and they had been forcing me to take Synthroid, despite me spending years and years going from one doctor to another and begging them to switch me to a different medicine because my body doesn't process Synthroid, so I might as well have been taking a sugar pill or nothing because my thyroid was basically dying.
I finally had so much difficulty getting out of bed and functioning that I decided to go to an alternative medical clinic.
The way it was explained to me was that my untreated thyroid put extra stress on my adrenals, which then made me ill and caused me to become immuno compromised to the point where I contracted a virus or a group of viruses, which at the time is what they thought might be the cause or one of the causes of CFS. They listed a whole bunch of viruses that I tested positive for, including Epstein Barr.
I also have pain throughout my body, particularly in my knees, and I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia by one doctor. But when that doctor moved and was replaced with a new doctor, the new doctor told me that I did not have fibromyalgia. But she never gave me a new diagnosis. Instead she told me that my pain was all in my head and I was just seeking attention.
I also don't just have hypothyroidism, but actually I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis which mean my thyroid gland is being attacked by my own body. I know this plays into all the other stuff somehow, but I'm not sure how it all fits together because no doctor has ever bothered to explain it to me. My thyroid problem has always been treated like it's easily solved with the lowest possible dose of medicine, so that even when I finally found a doctor who switched me over to a more natural thyroid drug (Armour Thyroid) after being forced to take Synthroid for about 15 years, even he kept me on the lowest possible dose of the drug to the point where my thyroid function continued to deteriorate, only more slowly.
I now treat myself over the counter with large doses of ibuprofen (2400-3000mg) for the pain in my knees and throughout my body. They keep me on the lowest possible dose of thyroid medicine (Armour Thyroid) that they can so that I barely function. I am constantly exhausted no matter how much I sleep. I have severe brain fog to the point where I sometimes can't do anything but sit in a chair because I can't think clearly enough to do anything else. I also have a constant low-grade dizziness that gets so severe several times a day that I have to lie down and I have to hold onto things in order to move around, and sometimes it gets so severe that it causes me to black out.
But, you know, there's really nothing wrong with me. It's all in my head. I apparently love doctors so much and think they're so great that I just want their attention all the time. Barf!
I've been dealing with this crap now for 25 years and I'm pretty much done at this point. I'm just ready to die and get it over with.
