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!

OMG!!! I can't believe it! I have always had Stein Leventhal (polycystic ovaries, excess testosterone) and my last period was in May. It seems my life went into a tailspin from that minute forward! The tiredness began then and got progressively worse until I had the stroke sometime before August. I told the endocrinologist about the periods, sweats, weakness, cystic ovaries, etc, and he seemed to feel it wasn't important, that all of my problems were from diabetes. But my diabetes is under control, my bp is normal, I'm on nothing but aspirin and insulin, even my insulin as been reduced, but I am more fatigued than ever. I went to the grocery tonight with my husband, and I was so tired I had to lean on the cart for support. I can barely lift my upper body. I just lurch and stagger around, its like walking with those sand weights on my whole body. I'm too young for this, I move like I'm 90. Joint pain, muscles ache, my eyesight is getting worse (was always 20-20) now getting blurry. What in the world can be done at this point? The doctor I go to now is extremely conservative, and also didn't feel these symptoms meant anything, that I just needed more time to recover from the stroke. Having had a stroke, would some kind of hormone treatment be feasible for me?? I feel like I am going to die if something isn't done soon. I'm serious about that, I nearly always feel like I'm on the verge of passing out. I have to sit down after walking a few minutes. I too was a very busy person, scouring auctions, tag sales, garage sales, thrifts, estate sales for things to put on Ebay, I LOVED it, but not since this all happened. I am still listing some stuff I have at home, but I am too weak to go to sales or stores now, after a few minutes, I have to sit down. I can only list one or two items before I have to lay down. I think you are all right on about the hormones. I can't thank you enough for putting this into focus for me. I'm just not sure how to go from here. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Cherie