I survived a stressful Thursday. This is the first time in a long while, that I had an elevated stress level. When I woke up, I immediately took 10mg of Cortef. Then right before leaving I took another 10mg of Cortef.
That's quite a bit of Cortef to take within 2 hours, but I needed it. I came home and literally crashed. Yesterday was a terrible day. I was irritable, ready to cry and could barely move. I was so tired that at one point just fell asleep on the couch. I attempted to bake something and couldn't even finish it out of frustration. Why didn't I take more cortef when I got home? I didn't have any left. YIKES! The day prior to this, I attempted to fill it. That way I'd have a full bottle for Thursday. Well the pharmacy had to order it in. I thought this was a standard in-stock medication, so when she told me they didn't have it I actually got a little sick to my stomach. "It will be ready after 1PM" Oh goodness!
We waited until 1pm and picked up the cortef. This time I was given the generic type, called Hydrocort5. I wasn't familiar with this, so I didn't take one until I got home just to make sure it was the right medicine. Of course I didn't notice this until I got in the car! haha
I checked it online and it was the same as cortef and I took another 10mg. It calmed my nerves and the irritability subsided. However, I was still very fatigued. I just think that I had crashed, so there was no coming back.
My head is not very clear today. Just writing this blog entry has been difficult. I'm using the wrong words, typing things that make no sense. I keep deleting and re-typing my thoughts.
Now I must wean myself down off of such a high dose. You are only supposed to lower HC by 2.5mg every week until you are off of it completely. We'll see how lowering it goes. I really want to get these labs done.
Showing posts with label Cortef. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cortef. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Adrenals (& Pituitary) Aren't Doing Their Job
This week I have some stressful things going on. I have to meet with some attorneys. YUCK. Anyway, I decided it was more important to feel better for these events than to get my blood work done, so I started on some cortef yesterday. You have to be off of cortef for 2 weeks prior to testing, so that pushes things back.
Yesterday, I took 10mg in the morning. Didn't really feel much of anything. Then at noon, I took another 5mg. Eh, it was Ok. Nothing spectacular. Then another 5mg at 4pm. That is when I finally felt it working. We went to the mall to find an outfit for these meetings. By the time we got out of the mall, I felt like I was dying. I drank a 20 ounce bottle of water in 5 minutes because I was DYING of thirst. The woman checking us out looked at me really strange as I was trying to drink the water as fast as possible! I could tell she was thinking...wtf is wrong with this girl. My mind was not in a right state either.
My mouth was making that tacky sound. Felt like I had eaten 2 jars of peanut butter! haha Now since I have DI, I know what thirsty can feel like, but this was on a completely different level. In addition to that, I felt like I wanted to just cry and fall down. I was so irritated and angry, but I had no idea why. I assume that the cortef completely wore off and I was experience low cortisol. It appears my suspicions were correct!
Here's a list of symptoms found on the website, stopthethyroidmadness.com This website talks about adrenal and thyroid problems.
Items in bold, I am currently experiencing.
Here's something you didn't know about me. Driving is so stressful for me that I don't even like to do it anymore. My husband practically drives me everywhere and I know it annoys him. Last week I drove myself to voice lessons and the whole time I was a complete wreck (shhhh don't tell my husband this--I told him I was OK). My hands were shaking and my thirst was OUT of control. Nothing would quench my thirst (even though I took my DDAVP). Today, I drove myself to one of the attorney meetings and I was actually calm. I took 10mg cortef in the morning and then right before I left another 5mg. That last me half way through the meeting. Popped another 2.5mg when she went to make a phone call and I needed more when I got out.
Now I still feel really wiped out from the meeting, but I noticed considerable difference in my driving. I was more focused and wasn't scared. Normally I am literally scared to death driving...This only happened about a year ago! I used to drive all over the place. I drove myself to New York 6 years ago to see a friend.
What the hell has happened to me in this time frame?
I'm telling you now, Thursday I'm going to be a wreck. I'm already a wreck. My body isn't working right. Sometimes I think since I don't work out of the house anymore (I quit because of my health) that I forget how bad I am. I go out on my own so infrequently, that I don't put my body in a stressful environment. On a normal day for me, stress is at a minimum.
This is all making sense to me now. I never thought I had a stressful life. In fact, I need to be more grateful for how easy I have it. If my pituitary isn't telling my body to make cortisol at an appropriate level, that's why my adrenal fatigue isn't necessarily related to bad stress. Any stress--whether good or bad--will cause my body to immediately fail. This week is certainly putting things into perspective. I'll need to talk about these symptoms and problems when coping with stress to the endo.
If it weren't for the cortef, I probably would have collapsed today. Once I figure out all of my problems, I'm going to be a large medical alert bracelet put all of my problems on it. haha
Yesterday, I took 10mg in the morning. Didn't really feel much of anything. Then at noon, I took another 5mg. Eh, it was Ok. Nothing spectacular. Then another 5mg at 4pm. That is when I finally felt it working. We went to the mall to find an outfit for these meetings. By the time we got out of the mall, I felt like I was dying. I drank a 20 ounce bottle of water in 5 minutes because I was DYING of thirst. The woman checking us out looked at me really strange as I was trying to drink the water as fast as possible! I could tell she was thinking...wtf is wrong with this girl. My mind was not in a right state either.
My mouth was making that tacky sound. Felt like I had eaten 2 jars of peanut butter! haha Now since I have DI, I know what thirsty can feel like, but this was on a completely different level. In addition to that, I felt like I wanted to just cry and fall down. I was so irritated and angry, but I had no idea why. I assume that the cortef completely wore off and I was experience low cortisol. It appears my suspicions were correct!
Here's a list of symptoms found on the website, stopthethyroidmadness.com This website talks about adrenal and thyroid problems.
Items in bold, I am currently experiencing.
- continuing hypo symptoms with a high free T3, or high amount of Armour
- shaky hands; shakiness
- diarrhea
- bad palps
- feeling of panic
- weakness
- inability to handle stress
- inability to handle interactions with others
- inability to focus
- rage or sudden angry outbursts
- emotionally hyper sensitive
- overreacting
- highly defensive
- feeling paranoid
- exacerbated reactions to daily stress
- no patience
- easily irritated
- mild to severe hypoglycemic episodes
- taking days to recover from even minor stress
- taking days to recover from a dental visit
- clumsy (drop things, bump into things)
- suddenly feel extremely hungry
- dull cloud-filled head (happens when this patient is due for a next cortisol dose)
- light headedness
- dizziness
- coffee putting patient to sleep
- almost passing out every time patient gets up
- dark circles under my eyes
- waking up in the middle of the night for several hours
- frequent urination
- difficulty falling asleep
- extreme fatigue
Here's something you didn't know about me. Driving is so stressful for me that I don't even like to do it anymore. My husband practically drives me everywhere and I know it annoys him. Last week I drove myself to voice lessons and the whole time I was a complete wreck (shhhh don't tell my husband this--I told him I was OK). My hands were shaking and my thirst was OUT of control. Nothing would quench my thirst (even though I took my DDAVP). Today, I drove myself to one of the attorney meetings and I was actually calm. I took 10mg cortef in the morning and then right before I left another 5mg. That last me half way through the meeting. Popped another 2.5mg when she went to make a phone call and I needed more when I got out.
Now I still feel really wiped out from the meeting, but I noticed considerable difference in my driving. I was more focused and wasn't scared. Normally I am literally scared to death driving...This only happened about a year ago! I used to drive all over the place. I drove myself to New York 6 years ago to see a friend.
What the hell has happened to me in this time frame?
I'm telling you now, Thursday I'm going to be a wreck. I'm already a wreck. My body isn't working right. Sometimes I think since I don't work out of the house anymore (I quit because of my health) that I forget how bad I am. I go out on my own so infrequently, that I don't put my body in a stressful environment. On a normal day for me, stress is at a minimum.
This is all making sense to me now. I never thought I had a stressful life. In fact, I need to be more grateful for how easy I have it. If my pituitary isn't telling my body to make cortisol at an appropriate level, that's why my adrenal fatigue isn't necessarily related to bad stress. Any stress--whether good or bad--will cause my body to immediately fail. This week is certainly putting things into perspective. I'll need to talk about these symptoms and problems when coping with stress to the endo.
If it weren't for the cortef, I probably would have collapsed today. Once I figure out all of my problems, I'm going to be a large medical alert bracelet put all of my problems on it. haha
Monday, July 14, 2008
The Journey to Finding Answers
It's been a long time since I posted on this blog. I have learned so much more information since August '07. I wanted to add the new revelations here in case someone finds this blog in the future.
Here is my long journey:
I started to go to a doctor by the name of Dr. David Goldstein located in Wexford, PA. This is his website for those interested. He is a very good doctor and will tell you to lose weight or change your diet in order to get better. I really appreciate doctors who are bold enough to say this to people. There aren't many out there that will do this.
His receptionists could be a whole hell of a lot nicer, but he makes up for them. haha
It took several visits to really start figuring out what was going on. I admit that I got really frustrated during this "finding out" period. He ordered a crap-ton of blood tests, so he could see what was going on with me considering I am so young. I think I might be one of his youngest patient, but I can't be completely sure about that.
He agreed with me that it looked like I had adrenal fatigue. I went ahead and started a very low dose of Cortef. For those of you who don't know what Cortef is, it is a synthetic form of hydrocortisone. This really didn't help me at all. I had one of the worst days of my life while on the medication and immediately stopped taking it. I literally could not stand up for an entire day. I was so fatigue and lightheaded with "white vision".
About a month after taking the Cortef and many supplements, I begin to get a lot of pimples. This really puzzled me because you can ask anyone I went to school with or worked with, I had perfect skin. I truly mean perfect skin. Doctors, friends, random people would tell me how amazing my skin was, so when I started getting pimples I knew something was totally off.
Then my hair started to fall out. When most people think of hair loss, they think of a few hairs in the brush. Nope, I had large chunks of hair falling out. The hair loss literally started OVER NIGHT. My hair was fine and then the next day, I had a coin size chunk of hair missing just above the left ear. Being a woman I am very self-conscious about my appearance and I felt like everything was falling apart all at once.
Here is a picture from December when it first started to fall out.
Here is a picture from a few days ago. You can see a huge difference. The increase in acne too.
Then my left leg went numb from my knee all the way up to my hip. It was the scariest feeling ever. I could not shave that part of my leg because it was painful, but at the same time numb.
Then I begin to get severe bladder pain. Oh my goodness it was terrible. I soaked in the bathtub for hours when these came on. (This part is very important in just a moment).
I called the doctor and told him I was completely eliminating the supplements and cortef because of all the symptoms I started to have. He was completely dumbfounded. I did start back on the supplements a week later.
I went in for my next appointment and showed him my hair. He didn't even know what to say, which at least he told me that. Once again, I appreciate a doctor who can tell me when he has absolutely no idea what is wrong. There are too many doctors out there who will simply give you a pill just to shut you up. He agreed that it was definitely an autoimmune response and he said it might be a good idea to see a dermatologist, but that it was completely up to me. He diagnosed the leg numbness as paresthesia. I had already looked into this before I went to the office, so wasn't too surprised when he said this to me. My sister had this condition too, but it was caused by her brain tumor...naturally I was scared to death.
We both decided that something else was the problem and completely abandoned the idea of adrenal fatigue. This is about the time when I shut down the blog. I figured there was no reason to update something I no longer thought I had.
I begin to get Vitamin b-12 shots in the hip every week for a month. This "cured" my leg numbness. The pills and patches would do absolutely nothing for me. The shots were the only thing that did the trick. However the leg numbness comes and goes. I get a shot anytime I begin to feel tingling in my fingers or legs, which always goes away in a day or two.
A few visits later he begins to ask me about my thirst. Whether or not I was thirsty a lot or if I had to use the restroom frequently. Remember my main symptoms were fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness and heart palpitations. All of these could be dehydration symptoms! I sat in his office and really had to think about this one. As he asked me this, I realized that I am constantly thirsty. As I was talking to him, I wanted a drink of water so darn bad. As I type this, I am looking for some water. He ordered even more blood work, but this time specific hormones and a whole urinalysis with culture. I also had to restrict all water intake for 12 hours. I thought to myself...huh 12 hours. That's easy. NOPE! lol
In the time before I got the blood work done, I begin to do research on hair loss. There are a lot of things that can cause diffuse hair loss, but alopecia type is very specific. Most websites just say "autoimmune response", but I don't buy the load of bull that your body begins to attack itself for NO reason. This is not normal. Something has happened to cause your body to begin to do this. My husband's searches began to lead back to heavy metals. Lead and mercury being at the top of the list. I knew that I had mercury exposure because I was vaccinated as a child and I have a lot of amalgam fillings in my mouth currently and as a child. My teeth have always been really really bad.
So I went to a natural pharmacist in Wildwood, PA by the name of Dr. Dan Wagner. His website can be found here. I had him cut some of my hair and he ordered a full hair analysis. Hair analysis aren't always that accurate especially with mercury. They will only show high levels of organic-mercury, which is found in fish. These won't show inorganic or elemental mercury from amalgam fillings or mercury vapor exposure.
When the results of the hair analysis came back even I was a little shocked. The test showed that I had elevated levels of lead in my hair. Lead? I thought to myself, where the heck did I pick up lead from? My husband and I knew there had to be lead somewhere in the house. After testing all of our dishes, cups, mugs and everything else we could think of, we tested the bathtub. There it was, the bathtub I used to lay in for hours at a time when I was in pain was leaching high amounts of lead into my body. It was quite surreal seeing the test kit turn bright pink on your own bathtub...wow. So we took care of that as fast as possible. I didn't bath for 2 days because I didn't want anymore exposure. haha
Back to the blood work...
The 12 hours of water deprivation were pretty hellish. My heart was racing and I was very dizzy and faint. I found out that I did have a terrible UTI which was causing me the bladder pain. The antiduretic hormone came back very low and my urine's specific gravity, Goldstein felt was too low for how high my blood volume was. So this when I was diagnosed with Diabetes Insipidus.
I am now on a nasal spray, desmopressin, which has made my life so much better. This summer I have been able to plant flowers, work in the yard and take walks at the park! The story does not end here though. Why do I have Diabetes Insipidus? See most people get the diagnosis from a doctor, fill their prescription each month and never think about the why. Not me. That is what my whole life revolves around. Finding out the why.
Goldstein and I both think it is heavy metals. He wants to get me off of this medication because it should not be necessary. I had an MRI done and there is no damage to the pituitary gland, no tumors. If the gland is there with no damage or tumors then it should be working. Goldstein offers a DMPS urine challenge test.
Since writing this, I no longer recommend having a challenge test preformed. They are far too dangerous and have been known to cause permanent damage in certain people.
See this website for more information
http://www.dmpsbackfire.com/default.shtml
You are injected slowly with DMPS which is a provocative agent. It pulls the heavy metals out of your body and you are then required to collect urine for 6 hours. The urine is sent to a lab to be analyzed for heavy metal content. I was REALLY scared getting this injected in me because there are a lot of horrible stories online. I can honestly say that I had no ill effects from this injection, but I also eat very well and have been taking Vitamin C, Chlorella and Cilantro since. Since writing this, I no longer recommend taking Chlorella or Cilantro with amalgams present in the mouth.
My results were incredible. The amount of mercury in the urine was 29.68mc/g creatinine. Looking online, the FDA says anything above 25 could mean you are showing symptoms of mercury poisoning. The FDA is full of shit too, so I know this is an unbelievable amount. They still say vaccines are safe, so I take their info with a grain of salt. As a tidbit of information, a single flu-shot has 25ug/g of mercury in it...
This journey has lead me to believe that I have mercury poisoning from years of vaccinations and dental amalgams. I am no different than anyone else in this country and I suspect there are MANY others out there with weird symptoms and illnesses that could be linked back to heavy metals. Currently I am in the process of getting my amalgams out and I am taking EDTA. My hair has not begun to grow back yet, but it's only been a week. It will likely take months before I start to see results. I hope this blog entry inspires people to begin asking why and to do their own research into their health. It's been an incredible journey for me and I know in 6 more months I will have gained twice as much knowledge as I did in the past 6 months.
Here is my long journey:
I started to go to a doctor by the name of Dr. David Goldstein located in Wexford, PA. This is his website for those interested. He is a very good doctor and will tell you to lose weight or change your diet in order to get better. I really appreciate doctors who are bold enough to say this to people. There aren't many out there that will do this.
His receptionists could be a whole hell of a lot nicer, but he makes up for them. haha
It took several visits to really start figuring out what was going on. I admit that I got really frustrated during this "finding out" period. He ordered a crap-ton of blood tests, so he could see what was going on with me considering I am so young. I think I might be one of his youngest patient, but I can't be completely sure about that.
He agreed with me that it looked like I had adrenal fatigue. I went ahead and started a very low dose of Cortef. For those of you who don't know what Cortef is, it is a synthetic form of hydrocortisone. This really didn't help me at all. I had one of the worst days of my life while on the medication and immediately stopped taking it. I literally could not stand up for an entire day. I was so fatigue and lightheaded with "white vision".
About a month after taking the Cortef and many supplements, I begin to get a lot of pimples. This really puzzled me because you can ask anyone I went to school with or worked with, I had perfect skin. I truly mean perfect skin. Doctors, friends, random people would tell me how amazing my skin was, so when I started getting pimples I knew something was totally off.
Then my hair started to fall out. When most people think of hair loss, they think of a few hairs in the brush. Nope, I had large chunks of hair falling out. The hair loss literally started OVER NIGHT. My hair was fine and then the next day, I had a coin size chunk of hair missing just above the left ear. Being a woman I am very self-conscious about my appearance and I felt like everything was falling apart all at once.
Here is a picture from December when it first started to fall out.
Here is a picture from a few days ago. You can see a huge difference. The increase in acne too.
Then my left leg went numb from my knee all the way up to my hip. It was the scariest feeling ever. I could not shave that part of my leg because it was painful, but at the same time numb.
Then I begin to get severe bladder pain. Oh my goodness it was terrible. I soaked in the bathtub for hours when these came on. (This part is very important in just a moment).
I called the doctor and told him I was completely eliminating the supplements and cortef because of all the symptoms I started to have. He was completely dumbfounded. I did start back on the supplements a week later.
I went in for my next appointment and showed him my hair. He didn't even know what to say, which at least he told me that. Once again, I appreciate a doctor who can tell me when he has absolutely no idea what is wrong. There are too many doctors out there who will simply give you a pill just to shut you up. He agreed that it was definitely an autoimmune response and he said it might be a good idea to see a dermatologist, but that it was completely up to me. He diagnosed the leg numbness as paresthesia. I had already looked into this before I went to the office, so wasn't too surprised when he said this to me. My sister had this condition too, but it was caused by her brain tumor...naturally I was scared to death.
We both decided that something else was the problem and completely abandoned the idea of adrenal fatigue. This is about the time when I shut down the blog. I figured there was no reason to update something I no longer thought I had.
I begin to get Vitamin b-12 shots in the hip every week for a month. This "cured" my leg numbness. The pills and patches would do absolutely nothing for me. The shots were the only thing that did the trick. However the leg numbness comes and goes. I get a shot anytime I begin to feel tingling in my fingers or legs, which always goes away in a day or two.
A few visits later he begins to ask me about my thirst. Whether or not I was thirsty a lot or if I had to use the restroom frequently. Remember my main symptoms were fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness and heart palpitations. All of these could be dehydration symptoms! I sat in his office and really had to think about this one. As he asked me this, I realized that I am constantly thirsty. As I was talking to him, I wanted a drink of water so darn bad. As I type this, I am looking for some water. He ordered even more blood work, but this time specific hormones and a whole urinalysis with culture. I also had to restrict all water intake for 12 hours. I thought to myself...huh 12 hours. That's easy. NOPE! lol
In the time before I got the blood work done, I begin to do research on hair loss. There are a lot of things that can cause diffuse hair loss, but alopecia type is very specific. Most websites just say "autoimmune response", but I don't buy the load of bull that your body begins to attack itself for NO reason. This is not normal. Something has happened to cause your body to begin to do this. My husband's searches began to lead back to heavy metals. Lead and mercury being at the top of the list. I knew that I had mercury exposure because I was vaccinated as a child and I have a lot of amalgam fillings in my mouth currently and as a child. My teeth have always been really really bad.
So I went to a natural pharmacist in Wildwood, PA by the name of Dr. Dan Wagner. His website can be found here. I had him cut some of my hair and he ordered a full hair analysis. Hair analysis aren't always that accurate especially with mercury. They will only show high levels of organic-mercury, which is found in fish. These won't show inorganic or elemental mercury from amalgam fillings or mercury vapor exposure.
When the results of the hair analysis came back even I was a little shocked. The test showed that I had elevated levels of lead in my hair. Lead? I thought to myself, where the heck did I pick up lead from? My husband and I knew there had to be lead somewhere in the house. After testing all of our dishes, cups, mugs and everything else we could think of, we tested the bathtub. There it was, the bathtub I used to lay in for hours at a time when I was in pain was leaching high amounts of lead into my body. It was quite surreal seeing the test kit turn bright pink on your own bathtub...wow. So we took care of that as fast as possible. I didn't bath for 2 days because I didn't want anymore exposure. haha
Back to the blood work...
The 12 hours of water deprivation were pretty hellish. My heart was racing and I was very dizzy and faint. I found out that I did have a terrible UTI which was causing me the bladder pain. The antiduretic hormone came back very low and my urine's specific gravity, Goldstein felt was too low for how high my blood volume was. So this when I was diagnosed with Diabetes Insipidus.
I am now on a nasal spray, desmopressin, which has made my life so much better. This summer I have been able to plant flowers, work in the yard and take walks at the park! The story does not end here though. Why do I have Diabetes Insipidus? See most people get the diagnosis from a doctor, fill their prescription each month and never think about the why. Not me. That is what my whole life revolves around. Finding out the why.
Goldstein and I both think it is heavy metals. He wants to get me off of this medication because it should not be necessary. I had an MRI done and there is no damage to the pituitary gland, no tumors. If the gland is there with no damage or tumors then it should be working. Goldstein offers a DMPS urine challenge test.
Since writing this, I no longer recommend having a challenge test preformed. They are far too dangerous and have been known to cause permanent damage in certain people.
See this website for more information
http://www.dmpsbackfire.com/default.shtml
You are injected slowly with DMPS which is a provocative agent. It pulls the heavy metals out of your body and you are then required to collect urine for 6 hours. The urine is sent to a lab to be analyzed for heavy metal content. I was REALLY scared getting this injected in me because there are a lot of horrible stories online. I can honestly say that I had no ill effects from this injection, but I also eat very well and have been taking Vitamin C, Chlorella and Cilantro since. Since writing this, I no longer recommend taking Chlorella or Cilantro with amalgams present in the mouth.
My results were incredible. The amount of mercury in the urine was 29.68mc/g creatinine. Looking online, the FDA says anything above 25 could mean you are showing symptoms of mercury poisoning. The FDA is full of shit too, so I know this is an unbelievable amount. They still say vaccines are safe, so I take their info with a grain of salt. As a tidbit of information, a single flu-shot has 25ug/g of mercury in it...
This journey has lead me to believe that I have mercury poisoning from years of vaccinations and dental amalgams. I am no different than anyone else in this country and I suspect there are MANY others out there with weird symptoms and illnesses that could be linked back to heavy metals. Currently I am in the process of getting my amalgams out and I am taking EDTA. My hair has not begun to grow back yet, but it's only been a week. It will likely take months before I start to see results. I hope this blog entry inspires people to begin asking why and to do their own research into their health. It's been an incredible journey for me and I know in 6 more months I will have gained twice as much knowledge as I did in the past 6 months.
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