Have you got this weird disease?
Did you know that doctors use four letters to sum up the symptoms of many middle-aged women who come to see them? TATT stands for Tired All The Time. For a long time I suffered from being TATT and it would lead me to discover not only that I have a weird thing going on in my body that leads to cancers, but that 1 in 100 people also have that same weird thing happening – and it’s worth being checked for it.
Two years ago, my usual tiredness had turned to hard core fatigue. The desire for a nap, and my family comparing me to a cat, had become a tiredness where I couldn’t keep my eyes open past 4pm. With no sleepless nights to blame, my kids were big, I went to the doctor. She ran blood tests, I had some serious anemia going on.
Put on iron tablets (the stuff from the chemist is too low grade to help anemia) I found my memory returned and I felt better, but as soon as I came off them my iron levels would plummet and I’d be back in bed at any opportunity looking for sleep rather than lurve. Then, I broke a finger while shutting a door. I went back to the GP but nobody felt I was ill – just a bit worried and TATT.
Should you get tested?
Eventually, they tested me for coeliacs or celiacs disease. The call from the doctors to say this is what a test had picked up sent me straight to Doctor Google. It transpires that this disease that’s past down families, causes your body to mistake the protein in wheat, barley and rye, gluten, for a foreign invader. Without any of the usual symptoms – dodgy stomach, thinness – a biopsy showed that it had destroyed the villi that absorb nutrients in my small intestine. For years if not decades, I had been deficient in iron, Vitamin D, calcium, Vitamin B and all the other good stuff I needed to be healthy. A bone scan revealed that I also had osteoporosis-lite or osteopenia (very glamorous!)
Unchecked, coeliacs disease leads to T-Cell lymphoma and bowel cancer. The only cure is not to eat gluten, which finds its way into everything from soya sauce to salt and vinegar crisps. But it does work, and I feel wonderful after many years of feeling low. Luckily, more companies than ever serve gluten free food. Thank you Pizza Express, Carluccios, Ask, M&S, Leon and all the big supermarkets.
I’d recommend that anyone feeling tired all the time should ask to be tested for coeliacs, diabetes or thyroid function. Don’t be fobbed off with anti-depressants or iron pills. Your doctor might say that you should be thin and have IBS-like symptoms, but I had none. I was a bit of a porker. My brain fog has now lifted and my energy levels have gone through the proverbial roof. The moral of this story is to look after yourself and insist that your doctor does too. You might be TATT, but it’s his or her duty to rule out anything really weird like your gut mistaking a piece of toast for a foreign invader.
