Seeing a Dr Who is Not a Runner!

For the past few weeks I have been feeling completely rubbish - tired ALL the time, totally lacking in energy, tearful, moody, unable to get warm and a whole myriad of other symptoms which were beginning to drive me  nuts.   There is a family history of Pernicious Anaemia and Underactive Thyroid and I have been tested previously for both.   With all this going on in my head I decided enough was enough and made an appointment to see my GP.

The initial appointment went well, I listed all my symptoms and told her about the family history and she immediately agreed that a blood test would be a good idea to eliminate them.  We also talked about stress and the "D" word was touched upon but first she wanted to get the results back before we took things further.

Appointment for a non fasting blood test was made and completed and a return appointment to the GP for today (25th March) to get the results.

I hate going to the Doctors - you make an appointment and then you have to wait until they're ready to see you - 40 minutes later I was sitting in front of the GP looking forward to finding out what was wrong with me.   No such luck - blood tests were all normal (B12 normal; thyroid normal; liver normal; kidney function normal - not even a little bit of iron deficiency).    OK so yes that's good news but doesn't exactly help me find the reason for why I feel completely rubbish!

The conversation turned to stress - have I got anything stressful going on in my life?  Where do we start?  Ageing parents (one of which is awaiting a diagnosis for dementia/Alzheimer's), a teenage daughter who is studying AS/A Levels and thinking about University and of course there's hubby who is waiting for his referral for bone/knee replacement surgery.   Oh and then there's work, not particularly stressful but not particularly enjoyable.  I don't feel stressed, I feel quite chilled about the whole lot but the Dr did explain that our bodies deal with stress in different ways - in my case it could be that stress is manifesting itself with all these symptoms.

She then went on to say that I needed to take some exercise and do something that I enjoy.  I explained to her that my symptoms had started whilst I was training for and after the Half Marathon.  I had been running quite a few miles and also walking the dog every day for at least 1 1/2 hours, some days twice.  She then went on to explain that we put our bodies through a lot of stress when training for long distance runs and that it could be my body telling me it's all too much.  She then made comments about running being really bad for us, puts a lot of strain on the heart, lungs and joints and we weren't designed to run long distances.   OMG I really had to bite my tongue.  She agreed that we need to take exercise and eat a balanced and healthy diet but exercise should be gentle and enjoyable, not hard slog!

She then said that my SAD was also probably worse this winter because of the continual rain and cold we've been experiencing.  The only thing she could suggest was taking some Vitamin D supplements - after all I was already doing as much to help myself through SAD as I could.

So that's where we are.  Jogging, walking, gentle exercise, as much daylight as I can get, Vitamin D tablets and eat a balanced, healthy diet!  Back to the GP in 3 weeks time to review how I'm feeling!   I feel like a bit of a time waster now !