I've been writing since early May that something has been "off" with my health. I've been tired a lot, needed more rest days, had no "pop" with either strength-based or endurance-based work at CrossFit, and I've been sleeping a lot. No, really a lot.
I don' think that a Saturday or Sunday has passed without me taking a 2-3 hour nap in the past 6 weeks. Last night, I fell asleep on the couch at 8:07 p.m., went to bed about 90 minutes later, and slept until 6:17 this morning - 10+ hours. This was after skipping the workout at the gym because I was too tired.
Saturday morning, I went to the farmer's market with my wife, we went to the supermarket, and I then came home and took a nap. After my nap, I got up and mowed the lawn. And, took another nap.
Sunday, I got up a little bit late - maybe 9:30. It was a cold, rainy day and I planned on doing nothing. By 1:00, I turned on the Red Sox game, and I fell asleep, waking up in the 7th inning.
Last Monday, I was too tired to go to the gym. Tuesday and Wednesday, I got to the gym, scaled the workouts, but by the end of Wednesday, I was exhausted. I had Thursday off work to go fly fishing, and I struggled that day. I fished from about 5:45 a.m. until 9:00, when I realized I was exhausted. I went to my car and napped for 45 minutes. I then resumed fishing, but I was still exhausted. About 12:30, I sat down on a rock in the middle of the river, and I just sat there for half an hour. After that rest, I walked to my car and headed home.
At that point, I knew I was going to try to rest through the weekend. And, I did. But, I felt terrible all weekend - lethargic, sleepy, and no appetite. There are very few foods that are even appealing to me right now, and even they taste funny at times. Some of the limited foods I've been able to eat include Raisin Bran, ice cream, pretzels, potato or tortilla chips, and strawberries. That's a lot of high fat and salty foods. The idea of a veggie or a salad is just repulsive right now, and that's not normally the case for me.
I've now lost 20 pounds since early May, simply by eating based on appetite. I've made no special efforts to lose weight. Despite resting a lot, I have no energy or desire to train. Even going for a basic walk seems like too much right now.
Luckily, I see my doctor again next Friday, the 10th. But, my wife is so alarmed by how I've felt that she demanded I see someone else earlier. She even suggested a non-mainstream provider as an option.
After talking to someone in my gym, a chiropractor who works with lots of other local non-mainstream providers, she recommended a local naturopath who deals in issues like these. I've suspected this might be an adrenal fatigue or thyroid issue. My primary care doc laughed out loud at those suggestions, but then did no testing and told me to just rest and I'd be fine.
Well, I'm not fine. I have to say I don't mind the weight I've lost. If I could lose another 15 pounds and then get healthy overnight, I'd be pretty thrilled. I'm at my lowest weight in 5+ years right now, but I'm sure I'm losing muscle mass as well as fat.
I want to train. I want to walk my dogs. I want to feel strong while I'm out fly fishing. I've spent the last 30 years of my life exercising regularly, so I can do these other things easily. And now, it feels like I'm losing some of that. This is way more than just getting old. People don't age 20 years in 2 months. At least, I'm assuming that is true.
I have had huge amounts of stress in the past few years - prostate cancer for me, multiple surgeries, ED visits, and and radiation for my wife, work stress, financial stress, kid stress, long commute, long work hours, multiple jobs, etc. Maybe it's all been too much and my body is rebelling. But, I need to find some answer to this before I'm a full-time couch potato who is too tired to do anything than control the TV channels.
Hopefully, between the two docs in the next week, we can find some answers.
6 comments:
I am glad that you are getting it checked out; something is off.
I hit a really rough stretch like this in 1996, training for the 100th Boston. I was lethargic in training, I was sick and out of shape at the race and DNF'd (I had no business even starting), and after I got home, I was even worse. I went to see my asthma doctor for a routine appointment and he couldn't get a BP reading at all. He sent to the oncology unit at the clinic and told them to pump saline into me until I had a decent blood pressure. I think it was 3 liters. Then, he wrote a note to my boss telling him I wasn't allowed to work for a week. The only exercise I was allowed to do for a month was walk. And, it worked. Whatever had me worn down let go as I let my body rest. Now, I'm older, apparently stupider, do more high intensity stuff with CrossFit, plus skiing in the winter, and I wonder why my body can't keep up.
You've probably already been tested, but could it be Lyme?
My primary care doc declined to do any blood work at all when I last saw him. I see him again a week from today, and we will be doing blood work this time. I think I'd be surprised by Lyme, but the symptoms match up somewhat. I don't remember any tick bites or the accompanying marks, but they can be missed. I don't really have any joint pain. Whatever it is, it's pissing me off. I haven't done a workout of any sort for a week and things haven't improved at all. During that week, my resting heart rate has been climbing rather than falling, which makes no sense at all to me.
I felt like shit 2+ weeks ago, went to Urgent Care, they suspected Lyme, did the blood test and it came pack positive for Lyme (actually anaplasmosis, a Lyme-related tick-borne disease). I hadn't had a tick on me that I was aware of, and I had no bulls-eye rash. My symptoms were severe fatigue, chills, soreness (all over, not just joints). Felt like I had a fever, but was 98.6. I had symptoms for 3+ days before going to the Urgent Care - usually if I'm sick I get better in 24ish hours. They started me on a 20-day course of anti-biotics, felt better right away once I started taking them.
I guess the thing with Lyme is there can be a range of symptoms, you kind of match the pattern somewhat. Might be worth checking out. Doc told me that with flu-like symptoms at this time of year Lyme is the first thing they suspect.
Hope you get some answers and get better asap...
Thanks Jeff. Regretfully, my doc didn't bother to do a single blood test when I saw him a month ago. He told me to just trust him, get some extra sleep, maybe skip a few workouts, and I'd be fine.
All that's happened is that I've gotten worse and I simply can't work out at all. If it turns out to be Lyme, I should sue his ass for at least not checking last time.
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