Please Help! Desperate, docs clueless. Chronic fainting plus inability to gain weight, blood pressure and sugar issues..
I am a 31 yr old female. Been through rounds of tests for diagnosis since infancy to no avail. Desperate, I am reaching out online in a last ditch effort for help. Tests for thyroid, celiac, liver, anemia, diabetes, all clear, except for Gilbert's in the Liver, where I have elevated bilirubin, but that does not account (they say) for my symptoms. Abdomen CT clear.
At 5'3 and 88lbs (for the past 15+ yrs), I am chronically underweight, the only skinny one in my family. As a child and young adult I had frequent fainting episodes - a couple of times a month on average until mid-twenties, akin to a hypoglycemic episode. Sometimes I would faint, stand up, pass out again, repeat, until someone could get me some juice. Worse when pregnant for sure. Ridiculously low blood pressure, always, around 90/40 on a good day. I have carried three children, gaining only baby weight, and losing it immediately. Once at 17 I gained 30 lbs in 6 mths and reached my ideal weight at 115-120 or so. This was in a completely stress free environment with 6hrs daily average of decent exercise. I became pregnant after these 6 mos with my first son, was convinced I had the stomach flu the nausea was so bad. I lost that 30lbs. in my first trimester. Morning sickness with all my kids was all day, 5x day, until I gave birth. Nothing helped.
I eat a lot. More than my 200lb husband. Healthy food, occasional meat, lots of fish, eggs. Huge
Sugar cravings, I get that "light" feeling if I don't eat frequently, and I mean frequently. Fainting much less common than it used to be, and my larger concern is the weight. I feel like I have no reserves, my body is not getting the nutrients from my food or at least does not store them properly. I feel like something is broken in the chain of events that leads to stored glucose, but docs disagree.
Fatigue, irritability,mood swings, variable energy levels. Bathroom activities seem to be normal. No sex drive, but that could be relationship related rather than digestive. Docs want to focus on chronic fainting, but I feel like that is separate from digestive issue, or caused by digestive issue. I never fainted or felt light at 115 lbs.
As I get older, I seem less able to cope with the lack of weight. I work HARD to pound calories and gain a few lbs - a huge accomplishment for me - then get hit with a UTI from the hot springs that reached my kidneys and put me out a few days - AND there goes the few lbs I spent weeks trying to pack on. OR gain it back, then pop a cyst that feels like appendix bursting, get laid out a few days, AND there goes my weight gain again. Weeks to put on a couple of lbs that FALLS OFF literally within couple of bad days.
WHAT THE HECK AM I MISSING HERE?!? I am slender, with strong arms but toothpick and skinny the rest of it. My family is the only ones who know I don't have an eating disorder - no one else believes it. Even then, a lot of my family has evidently whispered thoughts that I must be on some kind of meth to be this small...EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE KNOWN ME THIS WAY FOREVER, smh. But I never "grew out" of it like everyone expected.
I feel like my body is eating itself just to stay alive and I can't keep living like this. It is destroying my relationships along with my health. I need HELP to know where to start. MD's and ND's have been no help. I have tried a few supplements but had terrible pain in my kidneys. I tried going very high fat low carb, and felt like I was dying even faster after a month or so of that. Tried 80/20 raw/cooked, that was an evem faster decline. Body falls apart without carbs, like it doesnt even use the fat. Went gluten free once for 6 mos or so, didnt make a difference. Chemically sensitive (or just aware?), feel dry inside, poor vision, poor vision, thin skin.
Please, anyone! Help with diagnosis? Things to try? Directions to pursue? I am desperate, at a loss ired of the allopathic runaround for 30 years, and feel like if I don't get another 30 lbs or so, (at least 20!) I might not make it through the next 30 years. I want to live. I need help but cant find any answers. It's like that, and I am begging for aomething, anything, that will help. Please! AMD thank you!!!!