I mentioned in the different post. My son was very ill with extreme fatigue. He seems improving but still feeling very tired. Now I can wake him up in the morning, but he is tired. He describes this fatigue seems he never slept. He has headache all the time. If you have any ideas and any information, please let me know. Thank you a lot!
I know you are looking into a number of possibilities. Maybe a sleep.study can help with this particular problem.
Thank you and I will work on it to get a sleep study for him.
I hope it helps!
Many years ago the primary care physician’s (PCP’s) office I was going to, added concierge service to their practice: for an annual fee you had greater access to your physician, and they spent more time with you than we’re typically accustomed to - although not without limits, I’m sure.
Although your son sees a specialist for his diabetes, a concierge doctor might be able to dedicate more time to studying what is going on in order to determine what else may be helpful - from there you would select a physician in your insurance plan to see your son.
I’ve attached an article about it that gives a much better explanation.
Hi Chongbo @Glucosebee,
Is your son having large swings in his blood sugar overnight? I always feel lethargic/exhausted with a headache when my blood sugar dips low overnight and I over correct and have higher blood sugar than normal. The fast change in my blood sugar always gives me a headache and makes me tired.
I’ve got multiple sleeping disorders in addition to the T1D. Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, hypothyroidism, and sleep apnea can all cause extreme daytime fatigue by reducing the quality of sleep you get. There are plenty of other disorders that can have similar effects. The time you spend in deeper sleep phases, like when you’re dreaming, is where most of the restorative processes happen. If something is interfering with your ability to get to that deeper sleep, you can end up sleeping longer but getting less actual benefit from it.
Unfortunately, fatigue is a very general symptom. But Dorie is right as usual. A sleep study is probably the first step. For that, you’ll need an appointment with a sleep specialist. (Depending on insurance, you may need a referral. You may also need to fight insurance to get them to approve the study.)
It’s a long process. You have to see a new doctor, get the test scheduled, wait for the report to be written up, go over the results with the doctor at a follow up appointment, and then take it from there. You may need to try multiple treatment options to see what helps. You may also need to get blood work and other tests to check for a myriad of other potential causes.
Hang in there. Medical science can do a lot these days. Hopefully they’ll be able to diagnose the problem and find a treatment that helps. Apnea is a common problem that causes just what you’re describing, it can be easy to diagnose with a sleep study, and it is usually treatable. Hopefully it’s something relatively straightforward like that. But you’re already used to T1D, so you know how it goes with chronic illness.
Support him as best you can. Believe him when he tells you how tired he is. Support him, not just with encouragement but by doing what you can to give him room to rest, help with tasks he might be too exhausted to do himself, and giving him what slack you can arrange. You may want to read up on the Spoon Theory and start looking around Spoonie and chronic fatigue communities. (Although beware of quack medicine, both from people looking to profit off difficult to treat conditions and from long haul patients who have become burnt out and distrustful of medical science.)
I spent half of my high school years too exhausted to get out of bed by myself. Some days I couldn’t do it even with help. The private school I’d been attending couldn’t handle that, but the public school took it in stride. I had doctors to back up the reality of my condition, and that was enough. They sent teachers to my house and let me complete my classes remotely. (This was in the 90s, before online schooling.) I graduated with straight A’s and got into MIT.
Since I couldn’t get around much, I turned to early online communities for fun and socialization, and made important and lasting friendships with people hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
So…
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Hopefully he just needs a CPAP or a dental appliance or something, and he’ll feel much better.
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That said, it may take a while to get diagnosis and treatment, and may take a lot of searching and trial and error. Just keep at it, and support him. Don’t get discouraged.
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It may end up being a chronic condition. But it’s still possible to have a good life with disabilities, if you can work within the boundaries of what your body can handle, and if you take advantage of the things that make life easier.
Also: You can push him a little to make sure he’s doing as much as he can. When you’re constantly exhausted, it’s easy to get in the habit of letting things slide. But don’t push him too much. He’s got new limits. That’s not his fault. It’s not just laziness or lack of motivation. And trying to do too much (however little it may seem) can do more harm than good. Doing too much today can require recovery for days to come.
I hope some of this helps.
Tag me or DM me if you want to talk more.
I just DM you and it it my first time to know this function. If you didn’t receive it, please let me know and thanks a lot!