What's wrong with me?

I've had 3 episodes in the last 4 months. I have chills so bad I can't hold a glass to my lips. It lasts about a day. I don't eat or drink anything and sleep most of the day. The next day I'm totally exhausted. No energy. I start eating and drinking water again and by the end of the second day I'm completely normal. I'm 7 years out from surgery and feel fine otherwise. Anyone have these symptoms or experiences? My doctor says I must be low on iron but my blood test doesn't show it. Any ideas?

Thanks very much,

Sharon

What is your ferritin? B12? B1, copper? TSH? T3? T4?

And pleas don't tell me "normal" . come of those low normal may be too low...I was told over and over than my iron was "normal"  with my ferritin at 10... When the range was 10-256.. Same with B12...when my B12 drops bellow 600 I feel really bad...I like mine at least 800..if not 1500. Iron - specially ferritin - my doc orders infusion when that drops below 30...though I start feeling badly with ferritin under 50... 

And so on...

Or simply you are dealing with some infection - and your body just needs to deal with it. 

thanks so much for your reply. I had my blood work done the end of June. Here are the results.

Ferritin - 21   Norm 5-204

Iron - 41                30-160

%Sat 11%              12-57

TSH    3.130             0.360-3.740

Protein level 6.2         6.4-8.4

He didn't do a B12, B1 or Copper. I'm due another blood work up this week and I will as for the B's again.

I don't think it's an infection. I have no fever or other illness to go with the chills and coldness - I cover with a couple of blankets and just wait it out. Normally I wouldn't worry but since this is the third episode in the last 3 months I'm beginning to think something is wrong and my PCP doesn't since I have no nausea or fever and it only lasts 2 days. I think it might be time to change doctors too.

thanks again for your help.

Your iron numbers may be in range, but they are too low.

You absolutely need B12 and D3 tested. And as far out from surgery as you are, you should have ALL vitamins and minerals checked. That would be 14 or 15 vials of blood. You really, really should insist on it.

I actually have a question about this. I got lab work done a few months ago - I would have to check my file to see again exactly what they checked but they didn't take 14 or 15 vials of blood because that is literally impossible with me. I have next to impossible veins to get, it is a huge pain to get bloodwork done for both myself and the phlebotomist.

Of course I still get it done because I need to know what's going on with my health. I try to ask for an oncology nurse because they're amazing at getting a vein but even once they get the vein they cannot get that much blood. I was just wondering if my smart board people had suggestions to still get the testing needed.

Maybe you could break it up into several batches? Have some tests done on one visit, different tests done at 3 or 6 month intervals?

They can do a lot of tests with just 4 vials or so. After that, each vial is for just one or 2 tests. Some have to be sent out. I was told that no lab in the Boston area does copper (I think it was copper??), and those vials get sent to the Mayo clinic. Some vials need refrigeration, some need to be kept from light, etc.

Most docs skip a lot of tests. Many don't do vitamin K, E, A, or copper, selenium, etc. Their reasoning is, people are very rarely deficient in those things. Well, we aren't most people, after WLS. And they THINK that those deficiencies are rare, but if they never check for them, they never really know.

Docs used to think vitamin D deficiency was rare, and never tested for it. Once they started, they estimated that half of the general population was deficient. Now vitamin D tests are routine.

The longer we are out from surgery, especially RNY and DS, the more important complete testing becomes.

Thanks for the info - I didn't know if it was important to do all at once. I can do multiple batches I would imagine. I need to keep on top of this and I figure the best way is to ask you guys these questions when they occur to me.

Your ferritin is very low.  When mine falls below 35, I feel cold, exhausted and even dizzy.

TSH at 3.1 - this is high..ask him to run full thyroid panel..(T4, T3, rT3, etc) . it is justified especially when you feeling really bad..

also - what was the hemoglobin? and RBC count ? 

Hemoglobin A1C is 5.2% I don't see a RBC count anywhere - could it be called something else?