General fatigue

[lph]

I'm asking this for a friend, not me... no really, I AM asking this for a friend!

He's one of these "aah, I'll tough this out"-kind of guys, but now I'm getting a bit worried about him. I finally bullied him into seeing his dr, but he hasn't got any conclusive results yet. I see many of you have experience with thyroid issues so I wanted to just throw this out and see if anybody has any ideas.

Normally he's a fit, slightly obsessive about training, guy in his early fifties. A bit heavy but in good shape. About 6 weeks ago he was biking home and "bonked", said he just ran flat out of energy. The next week or so it felt like a cold or the flu. Then he started saying that his throat was still swollen, and suspected it was his thyroid, he's had problems with it before. For the past few weeks he's been so tired and weak that he's barely managed to drag himself to work, and has called in sick several days.

Last time he had thyroid problems he had a zillion tests, most of which didn't show anything, but he took tyroksin (?) for a while anyway which helped a bit. Now he has high cholesterol and the dr wanted him to try taking nitroglyserine. His family has a history of heart disease. My own father had fatigue as almost his only symptom before needing a five-double bypass.

He's scheduled for x-rays, CT and ultrasound. Any of you have any other ideas on what this could be?

[Blueberry]

Almost sounds like Mono with the sore throat - massively swollen glands...

Hope your friend gets to the bottom of this...

[caribou]

It DOES sound like mono.

I've always thought of mono as a young adult's illness, but my 48-year old sister was just diagnosed with it. (And she didn't even have the fun of getting it by kissing somebody. ) She had same symptoms as your friend.

I would assume they'd rule mono out before all those expensive tests he's scheduled for, though.

Best wishes and get well soon to him.

[Zen]

X-rays, CT scan and ultrasound of what body part?
I'm no doctor but I've had way too much experience as a patient. It seems more reasonable to me to start with a full blood panel and an EKG/EEG and stress test.

[lph]

He's had blood tests and an EKG, not a stress-EKG yet. The scheduled scans are of his thyroid, since that's the prime suspect.

I'll ask about the mono, good tip. It's a bit hard to get details since he still likes to think "he's not really sick" even though he's a walking shadow of his former self.

Men.

[Mr. Bloom]

I would think issues with his heart would be much more obvious (affecting his skin pallor, etc...), but the glands make me think mono as well.

It could be that it's more than one problem.

Given his weight, is it possible that he has anemia brought on by something as simple as bleeding hemorroids?

Men.

Yep...can't live with 'em...can't live without 'em!