You can take my word for it. You aren't going to get much out of going to a doctor and telling him you are always tired. Even if it were CFS, there is no cure for it. He or she will just tell you to buy NSAIDS for aches, prescribe some sertraline, tell you to lose weight and then be on your way. CFS is a diagnosis of exlcusion (as no tests confirm it) and is a rather worthless label for you to have to live with. Your problem probably has to do with sleep issues and your habits -- like continuing to use caffeine.
True, but some of us are trained to know about the etiology of these illnesses, the treatment for them, and to educate people about it.
Possibly someone has already said this, but if you go to the doctor with this complaint he may write on his notepad TATT. Tired all the time. It's one of the commonest complaints. And no, it is not imaginary. It's caused by working too hard. In your case Kittamaru, you are doing it deliberately, for a purpose. That's a lot different from the poor drudges, already burned out, who drag themselves into work each day, exhausted, trying to meet slavedriver's targets.
Sprinkle some amphetamines in with your coffee and then brew it. You'll forget what it feels like to be tired.
Oh yeah - the apnea will actually not just make you tired all of the time, it will kill you eventually. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I got that a few years back, had to go and get my tonsils and adenoids cut out (again!). Tonsils had been removed when I was 6 years old, they grew back. I got them cut out again when I was 57, along with the adenoids, due to sleep apnea. I was lucky, that fixed it and I got my life back. Get a c - pap or loose the weight or get the surgery or...suffer a lot until you do one of those things. Sorry.
*nods* My tonsils are pretty boned to begin with I think (I get these little white clumps of... something... on the back of my throat up near my tonsils/on my tonsils). I thought it may have been Eosinophilic Esophagitis, because my allergies are so weird and I have been having issues with a few esophageal issues (a stricture, the white clumps of stuff, sore throats, etc), all of which seem to be allergy aggravated.
Are you sure you aren't suffering from Cyberchondria?Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Bingo. "...full time student + full time worker...", plus, on the computer past 11pm. Easy call doc.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Heh, atm I'm off school and the last few days have been a lot of "rush around and do x", so I spend time at night doing whatever on my laptop before I fall asleep The Eosinophilic Esophagitis is actually something that was suggested to me - the main reason for it was the white clumps on the tonsils + chronic sore throats that mostly pop up when my allergies go crazy. Factor in the esophageal stricture (which I've had to go to the hospital for twice already... once I get insurance I'll be able to get it taken care of once and for all) and it sort of made sense, at least from what I've read up on it. Now, a lot of my information has come from my grandmother (an RN and ex-army nurse) so I realize some of it may be... ahem... dated information Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Truth be told, at this point I wouldn't care if I was diagnosed with something stupid like intestinal parasites or what have you - I just want to know why I've been so tired and screwed up in terms of sleep schedule. I even used to do 'sleep hygiene therapy' or whatever the hell they called it - white noise machine, dark room kept at a constant 68 degrees Fahrenheit, no Computer/TV/electronics for 2 hours before bedtime, no caffeine/sugar/etc for 4 hours before bedtime, no exercise 2 hours before bedtime, etc etc etc. Tried that for a year and all it did was make me bored and cranky. I don't think it's a "quantity of sleep" issue... I think it's just I don't sleep well, combined with poor diet. The other stuff is just random background information that I was kind of hoping might be useful *shrugs* Never know what stupid little thing may prompt the "eureka" moment. It's just that... atm... I can't really do a whole lot about my diet (especially with a very constrained income on top of the time issues). I've started supplementing my nutrition with a multivitamin but I dont' know how much those actually help (I've been told that they don't absorb nearly as well as natural sources, is this true?) The other reason I thought about the Eosinophilic Esophagitis is that I have been diagnosed with/treated for tonsillitis in the past, via antibiotics and such ... ... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Now that I read everything put out here... I mean, the white clump things show up only in the tonsillar crypts... but I can usually pull them out (I use a dentists explorer and just rub the side of the clump to push it free, then spit it out - they rub against my throat and feel really, really funky). I thought with tonsillitis the spots were actually on the tonsils themselves, and not a separate "thing" unto themselves? The reason I went with Eosinophilic Esophagitis is that foul smelling, malleable white clumps that originate on the tonsils was my initial symptom I went off of - I then looked for sore throat symptoms, and then looked for things that tend to occur more when allergies are worse. Nothing really stood out until my wife factored in the issues I've had swallowing (the swallowing issues and accompanying muscle spasms, or at least that's what the hospital told me it was). EDIT - now that I have my hospital papers in front of me - they are calling it an Esophageal stricture with impaction... this is some of the information they gave me (linked from GERD.net) They said that I would need to have my throat stretched at some point to prevent further impaction (since last time they had to use an endoscope to remove the blockage). Like I said, I REALLY don't know if any of this has anything to do with the tired feeling... just throwing it out there in case someone may have "been there done that", ya know? :shrug:
The vitamins sound like a good idea. Try to get eight hours sleep every night. Some can cheat by lying still (TV, or Computer) and count that as equivalent sleep time. But you must lie still.
I used to get those exuviates - white spots - in my tonsils too. I believe that those are clumps of dead bacteria that have been engulfed by white blood cells which have then been removed from your blood stream by your tonsils. Could also be tonsillitis - an actual infection in the tonsils proper. My son recently got them, along with a lot of sinus congestion. I took him to the doc who said he had an infection going in there and took a swab for a quick check. It came back positive for strep throat and he got a bunch of antibiotics to take for that. You may consider a quick trip to the urgent care clinic, just to make sure you don't have an infection going again. It appears that you have a chronic situation that will need to be dealt with when you are able. Establishing a baseline healthy lifestyle would help you, for sure. I suffered for quite a while before I got myself fixed up, am sure glad I took care of it though. I feel much better since. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Now my wife is my only sleep problem. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Those white things you can push out are called tonsil stones and are a normal finding in most people.
See, my doctor said they weren't tonsil stones (granted, that was a few years ago now since I last was able to go)... is it possible he was just wrong? He said that he didn't think they were anything to worry about... but then again, he's nearly 80 years old and has been doing this since before my parents were around...
It's only abnormal if there is white exudate on surface instead of in the crypts, which would signify acute tonillitis. If they were infected, you would know it because it's fairly painful.
I can't see your image well but they look enlarged and with white exudate on the surface. You probably have or are getting tonsillitis again. If this is something that's recurring for you, you might want to see about getting a tonsillectomy.
Oh, that picture isn't from my throat - it was one I found online to show what looks similar to what I get - it's always in the crypts (most often the upper crypt on the left tonsil, often on both tonsils upper crypt, and occasionally in the lower crypt further back in my throat). They are, however, rather larger than what images I've seen indicate they should be (though normally not painful, as the pain occurs at the back of my mouth - probably because when I sleep I breath through my mouth?) and are bright reddish/pinkish most of the time, so I thought that was normal? Why is it I get them most often when my allergies are acting up then?
Because tonsils have immune function. A hypersensitivity reaction makes them more active. +1 and +2 can both be normal sized.
Since I have chronic sinusitis, this may or may not help the fatigue, but it may help your allergies. At any rate, unless you have an allergic reaction it won't hurt you. I found that megadoses of quercetin helped my condition and energy level. I started to see effects at 3.2 grams twice daily. Yep, giant bart-simpson yellow pills. Or you can open the caps and mix in water-it's not a bad taste. You may find either Zyrtec or Claritin helpful...although usually one or the other work for most people. Sinus irrigation is likely going to be your friend-I liked my sinus bottle until I started irrigating my nose with a dental pressure irrigator... Do note I say *may* in front of everything. I'm not a medical pro, just a person with spectacular allergies. I can tell you what has worked for ME...and may or may not work for you, as well as what my allergist taught me to manage my condition-I can pass along. But you should maybe go have a white blood cell count done (check to see if infection's present somewhere). I also highly recommend going to an ENT...where they can stick a long fiber-optic tube up your nose and look at your sinus structure. If you have allergies dairy is absolutely not your friend. It causes the mucus to become thicker. This gives bacteria an even happier place to land in, which you already have due to the allergies. But I'm afraid with the full-time work and school, you're just going to be dragging butt until graduation. Caffeine pills are evil, but they've gotten me through many nights at work when sick, kept me from plowing into guardrails, and got me through classes at gawdawful in the morning... Look out for those pesky chest pains if you use a LOT of caffeine pills...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (Oh-speedy dinner idea:bag of mixed frozen veggies, instant rice, 2 tbsp natural creamy peanut butter mixed in 1/4 cup water with hotsauce to taste. Nuke rice and veg in separate bowls, dump together, pour in sauce, eat.) Hmm...I'm glad I'm old enough that I was around for the era of the liberally-yanked tonsils. They took the adenoids too, and I've probably done a lot better because of that combined removal than otherwise.
I would consider that more than "slightly" if you aren't all that muscular. Hell, 190 lbs of lean mass would be impressive, but you'd still be above 22% body fat. You are clearly overweight. This is probably half your problem because you're wasting energy just to carry all that useless fat around. I'm sure that you have 1 day where you can prepare all the food that you'll eat that week. Make it all then and freeze it. The night before, move that next day's food into the refrigerator. A few things. One, your hormones must be all out of wack. Idealy, you should have a fairly consistent level of energy.... not alternating between exhausted and hyper. Second, fix your damned sleeping patterns. Regardless of when you go to sleep, always wake up at the same time everyday. I bet that your body doesn't even know what year you are in, not to mention what fucking time it is during the day. Well, you are likely confusing two things. Fatigue and sleepiness are not the same thing. My suggestions? Figure out a set schedule during which you can sleep. Say 12 AM to 8 AM or so. At the same time every night, take some melatonin and it should make you sleepy enough to actually go to sleep and stay that way. Wake up every morning at the same time. During the rest of the day... fight the urge to nap because you need to get your body back on a natural rhythm. Work on your diet. The easiest thing to start with is breakfast. In fact, when trying to build any new habit in your life, it is always easiest to start them first thing when you wake up because you haven't yet spent the any other part of the day distracting yourself with meaningless things and getting stuck in procrastination mode. As for your diet, increase your fiber and protein intake. Fiber is easy... eat Fiber One or something. Read a book titled "Body Rx." It has a great foundation on diet that you can follow and it's pretty easy to do for even a busy guy like yourself. Also, force yourself to exercise. In fact, the moment you even think about working out, just go do it. You need discipline. What's that? It's doing something regardless of your emotional state. Thinking to yourself "I don't feel like it" or "I'm too tired" are just emotional responses. Unless you are physically incapable of doing anything, you are more than capable of doing something. My bet is that if you "didn't feel like" getting off the couch because you've been there all day and a tiger ran into your living room, you'd fucking get up and run like there was no tomorrow.
