Chronic Fatigue or something else?

Hello. 27 Yr old male from Sydney, Australia.

Note sure whats wrong with me but any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Would also like to know if anyone has a similar symptoms and onset.

Ill try to keep this as short as possible:

Backstory: Got married Jan 2012 and started working two jobs(plan was to get a head start on our future). Because of the hours I would frequently get very little sleep.

April 2012: Got the flu and towards the end of the flu developed a persistent headache which ranged between mild and moderate and sometimes very intense. Sometimes I would wake up with it and sometimes I would go to sleep with it. It felt completely unpredictable. The only thing I noticed was(I was bodybuilding and would go through cycles of cutting up and gaining weight) whenever I lost weight the headaches intensity would be pretty low and whenever i started putting on weight it would be really intense, sometimes making me incapable of doing anything other than staying in a dark room till it subsides.

Did feel quite fatigued at times throughout this year, but put it down to working so much and not sleeping enough. I started developing this heavy feeling in my feet which progressed to a pins and needles type feeling and strongly correlated to feeling fatigued.

January 2013: Fatigue progressed to the point where it felt hard to do things with my wife. But oddly enough even staying at home resting/sleeping didnt seem to resolve it at all. Sometimes I would get up and feel refreshed and after being up for 10 minutes completely feel drained. I realised later I was in full blown crash but didnt understand it at the time.

During the rest of 2013, along with working two jobs I had a few stressful family situations and I noticed i started not being able to sleep through the night without waking up. It started of as once or twice a night and at its worst I was waking up every hour. I feel like I have some hidden anxiety that I dont really realise. However Ive always known I tend to over think every situation but never felt it was affecting my health.

Towards the middle of 2013 I reduced my hours of work a bit and the fatigue improved a whole lot for a few months. But then I had two major crashes in November and December. I noticed at this time that when im going through a crash, and I eat a big meal(such as my lunch at work), my fatigue skyrockets by a factor of 10. It would start with the pins and needles in my feet and progress to feeling like there was a vortex on the soles of my feet sucking all the energy out of my body and I was slowly falling into a coma. And for about 20 minutes after I ate i could literally not do anything until it subsided.

At the end of December 2013 I developed different symptoms. Developed IBS like symptoms where my bowels changed and also developed Chronic Heartburn and a problem with my urination where there is now one spot in my urethra that always hurts/burns after I urinate. I also developed a tender spot right in my umbilical area. Feels the way a bruise would feel but it feels like its inside/underneath my belly button.

I finally realised I need to do something at this point and quit my full time job. I still work my part time job of 20 hours a week. This was in February of this year.

My fatigue levels have improved dramatically, and I can easily get through my days. Sometimes I have had some small crashes lasting a couple of days but generally ok. But the pins and needles in my feet are still there, the headaches come and go and all digestive problems and tender umbilical area are still there. I also developed a hand wart(something which I havent had since i was 12).

I will add, the way my crashes work seems to be a delayed effect of about 3-4 days. Meaning even if i ran a marathon today, the crash would most likely happen in a few days or even a week later.

Also, as a side note, when i was 19, i lost some fine motor skills in my writing hand(left hand) and couldnt write anymore and had to learn with my right hand. Although I was still able to do everything else just fine. I also noticed my memory was never the same again. I would sometimes struggle to remember names of peoples and things. Even simple things like a fork and spoon. The memory troubles seem to come and go and havent really progressed. I only have stated this just in case it connects in some way to what I am experiencing now.

I have visited on natural medicine doctor and he ordered a blood test. The only thing that really stood out as abnormal was my iodine levels were low. He just tells me I have leaky gut and need to fix it. My GP doesnt even think I have anything and tells me its all down to my anxious nature.

Has anyone experience similar symptoms? Does anyone have any ideas? Because of the pins and needles and previous neurological problems stated I have started leaning towards MS.

Thank you in advance.

Have you had FULL endocrinology work-ups? Not CBC - that's very superficial and shows very little. You have to have full profiles (called panels) done to see the source of some of these types of problems. They will read normal sometimes on a CBC and way out of wack on a panel - but that's much more expensive testing. I would insist on it, if I were you. Sounds to me it COULD BE thyroid or diabetes related. Neuropathy often diabetes related, rest of stuff often thyroid. I would be seeing specialists at this point. I would think you want to see a neurologist too for the foot sensation to make sure it's not a nerve conduction problem. Maybe they are unrelated symptoms, but are both sparked by over stimulation. All of my brothers have diabetes Types 1 or 2 and I have severe thyroid probs (Hashimoto's) Lots of other autoimmune diseases often develop if you have one - you have a higher probably of another.

Unless you think you are anxious or depressed, I would definitely do what I could to rule out anything physical, before I would accept a psychological diagnosis. If it is psychological, I would get treatment for the anxiety and/or depression (which I had once 30 years ago) and treatment was extremely effective (an anti depressant for about 6 months) some people aren't as lucky or responsive, but it can work this way.

The lesson I have learned is keep up your search. It took me 18 months once to confirm an ovarian tumor, for which my med notes said neurotic patient thinks she has an ovarian tumor, which was much worse by the time it was removed. It took me about 2 years to confirm a very rare cancer, which had to be double biopsied and sent to NIH for confirmation, which went undiagnosed by at least 15 doctors and then accidentally discovered through a biopsy looking for something else (22 docs in all to complete the process). My doc, who was excellent, said he didn't know what was wrong by he had never seen me so anxious in 20 years, thought it was work (overwork and stress) causing the problem, the cancer was diagnosed about 4 months later. --- All are being managed. I'm not tip-top - but feel a whole lot better.

I was never diagnosed as suffering from CFS about thirteen years ago. However, I found on the web at that time that loads of folk do suffer from the same symptoms as I did.
My daytime tiredness was dreadful and I found myself spending most of my life awake.
I had loss of balance, eyesight deterioration, loss of appetite, inner-ear infections and high blood pressure.
My GP recommended some tablets for my blood pressure but he said nothing about my unusual tiredness. In any event, I had been 57-years-old thirteen-years ago so I expected to become tired.
I went out for long walks to keep fit and used deep breathing to replenish my blood with oxygen insofar as I could.
My tiredness is now a thing of the past but I have had eight heart attacks and am now taking loads of tablets.