Monday, May 24, 2010

Mentally Preparing Myself for Cleveland Clinic

I called CC today to just get some more information on what I'll need to do. It looks like I might be needed more than 1 day, so we are going to have to make some arrangements.

I know that my adrenal insufficiency diagnosis is going to be a problem with this doctor. I told the assistant on the phone, that I wanted it noted on my chart that I have this so it's not a surprise/problem when I come in next week! It is with every single doctor I see.

"Yeah...I never had a stim test." As soon as those words come out of my mouth, the doctor will probably go into the "well it's not good to be on steroids if you don't need them and they'll make your bones crumble". I can already hear it now. So I'm wondering if this doctor is going to poo-poo it or want me to see one of their endos. HAHA If they are willing to put me on Dex and then do a stim test, I say bring it on! There's no way I can come off the HC as I'll likely go into crisis. I couldn't even lower down to 15mg! And...there's no way my adrenals haven't atrophied over the past year on HC. They won't likely stim whatsoever and then I'll have my nice Addison's diagnosis. I still have to wonder about my mildly elevated 17-OH progesterone. My hormone doctor immediately dismissed it, saying it wasn't "high enough". I'll never know. I've seen some info that late-onset CAH usually doesn't present itself with the crazy high levels until stimmed with synthetic ACTH.

Since it's warm out, I really need to be on florinef. It's killing me. My sodium is dropping (new blood work) and I just feel terrible as soon as the room heats up. Gotta love those salt cravings, which are nearly impossible for me to cure since I've stopped eating vinegars (olives, pickles) and all wheat (crackers, pretzels). I had one of those awful headaches yesterday and since I wasn't on any florinef, I'm thinking the headaches might actually be low aldosterone or low cortisol!!! I'm realizing that lowering my dose hasn't been so good (took a few weeks!), so I'm taking 20mg at the moment dosed 10, 5, 5 So..I'm going to try taking florinef again. Tomorrow I'm trying 1/4 tab of florinef and going from there. I'm not worried about it messing with my tilt test because it didn't before.

All I hope is that CC takes me seriously and runs tests. That's all. I don't need to walk out of there with a solution or even any new meds in my hand. I just want to get enough testing done to determine the type of POTS I have. Is this a mitochondrial disorder? Genetic disorder? Blood pooling in my limbs? High catecholamine levels? If I can get some answers to those questions, then I'll be satisfied. I truly think I have something WRONG with my body. I've been trying to do some leg exercises lately. Oh my gosh, it's soo awful for me. Today I woke up feeling pretty damn good with no headache. Then I did a bunch of leg raises (while LYING DOWN) and my heart was likely 150+. Leg exercises are worse than arm exercises for me, which isn't supposed to happen...I don't get it anymore and I don't even try to get it.

No comments: