Fatigue and Weather

Monday March 31st

I have been feeling really tired. Physically sleepy, comfortably numb like I’m in a cloud. I don’t know if it’s related to the weather or what. Colorado doesn’t get a lot of rain but the past few days it’s been rainy, cloudy and foggy. I absolutely love that weather, partially because we don’t get a lot of grey days. I didn’t work a lot last week, I’m sure that contributes. Sometimes not being busy enough causes fatigue, an object in motion stays in motion kind of thing. My job is very physical and that wakes me up and gets the blood pumping.

Hormones

Last week my doctor had me get my hormones tested, I got the results for 2 of them. My FSH is really low, and Prolactin is okay.

According to what I’ve read, that could have something to do with the pituitary gland or the hypothalamus. This fatigue has caused me to fall asleep much earlier than usual. That leads me to believe that it’s something physical because I usually never fall asleep early…

Abnormal Blood Test Results

Since we’re talking about blood tests I am working on organizing my health info and here are other things that are flagged as abnormal in my account:

Alkalkine Phosphatase – Low

Anion Gap – Low

AST-SGOT – Low

Creatine Kinase – High

MPV – Low

I Might Have Found the Culprit Affecting My Hormones…

Wednesday April 2nd

Well well well I just found out something I suspected was affecting my menstrual cycle, despite all doctors saying there was no correlation – correlates.

At least that’s what “Doctor Google” says. As being the expert of my own body and in some ways my own doctor, I would have to agree. The culprit is most likely Gabapentin! I assumed this could be the case because when I first started Gabapentin some 3 years ago, it caused me to have multiple periods in just 2 months. This was extremely abnormal for me. Back then, I thought it could be from Gabapentin so I asked the prescribers about that and they said they had never heard of that happening and that it was likely not the cause. Fast forward to now, I have been extremely healthy with my eating and exercising habits. The only thing I have changed is that I lowered my Gabapentin dosage a couple months ago. I recently quit marijuana gummies but that was further back than the Gaba and I was on such a crazy low dose of THC that I doubt it was from that.

I went to my PCP last Thursday because I haven’t had a period since January. My cycle is always on the longer end around 40 days, most females it’s 28 days. But besides that it’s very regular and doesn’t cause me any issues. She asked me twice if I could be pregnant and the answer to that is a resounding no. I told her that the only change I’ve made recently is I started to take less Gabapentin, and when I first got on Gaba, my period happened way too much for around 2 months. She said she didn’t think they were related…

Low FSH

Since we tested my hormones last week, I have gotten some more results. They all look normal except for that pesky FSH. I did some googling about whether THC affects the menstrual cycle and I didn’t really find anything. I just now googled Gabapentin and menstrual cycle and guess what! It’s a thing. Gabapentin seems to directly effect the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal Axis as stated by Dr. Google, “Gabapentin, an antiepileptic drug, can affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, potentially leading to reproductive dysfunction and altered hormonal levels, particularly in rats.” From this link here.

Here’s another related study.

With medications, we all can have different side effects and I guess every healthcare professional can’t know the possibilities of them all. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Smoothie Fest USA

This is how I would describe my diet the past 3-7 days…Since I developed kind of an allergic reaction to fruit, it has only increased my desire for fruit. Ya know, we want what we can’t have! I have been tolerating it just fine the past week or so. I’ve been enjoying to the fullest my mostly banana spinach etc. smoothies in the mornings and I started sneaking in chocolate banana “nice” cream in the evenings (the main ingredient being bananas). I have been tolerating it just fine! I love these foods so much I find myself looking forward to it during the day. The addiction is real folks… But hey, it could be worse.

As of this evening on Wednesday, I just had some banana ice cream and my tongue seems a little perturbed… I am not surprised, my fruit intake today was off the chain. I gargled some salt water and it feels pretty much all better now. I will take that as a hint that I need to lay off a little bit.