Hello, I am a 57 year old female, was very active until about last spring, when I started getting really tired all the time. I was rushing through a store and something happened, I was stopped in my tracks. I had to hold onto a shelf until I could walk again. I don't know what it was. (About 2 years earlier I had ruptured two disks, and a year later ruptured 2 more. They finally eventually healed after suffering severe sciatic pain for many months. I have a degenerative spine. I mention that in case it has a bearing.) I got progressively more tired over the next several months until I began slurring my words and became unsteady. I went to the doctor who sent me to the hospital, where they found I had had a stroke sometime earlier, prior to August. I was hospitalized and they found I had an ap1 of 12.5, was diabetic and had high blood pressure. I was devastated and terrified. They put me on insulin, Lipitor, aggrenox (blood thinner), and Lisinopril. They also suggested the South Beach Diet. (I am not massively obese, but I was overweight.) I buckled down, have lost over 16 lbs so far, my latest ap1 is 5.6, my blood pressure averages 120/70, and my insulin dosages have been greatly reduced. I am off of the blood thinner, take an aspirin a day, and vitamin supplements only. The problem is extreme fatigue, I don't mean just tired, I mean barely being able to get from room to room, sort of lurching along, a feeling like a huge fist is pressing into my stomach (not chest). I can barely hold my body upright, and I feel like I am walking through deep sand. No chest pain, no arm pain, but my hands and feet are becoming increasingly numb, cold, tingly with knifelike pains. I had an ekg, slightly enlarged heart, an echo bubble test, normal; a tilt table (blood pressure dropped on rising), but otherwise normal. I am too weak and unsteady to take a stress test (treadmill). I have muscle and joint pain, am terribly unsteady, and my eyesight is becoming affected. Nobody seems to know what is going on. I just want to be normal again, as much as possible. Does anybody recognize any of this stuff? I am doing all I can to get better, but it has been months now. I can't exercise because of the extreme weakness, which makes losing weight slow. I am eating VERY little. Mostly meat and salads, very little carbs.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this. I know its too long but I am so scared that I didn't want to leave anything out that might be important. Help!