What It's Like to Be On 60mg of Pred... High Cortisol Hell

I think everyone (even some of those crazy hormone replacement doctors) would agree that 60mg of Prednisone is over replacement and is a pharmacological dose. 60mg of Prednisone is the equivalent of about 240mg of HC. I have never been on this much steroid before in my entire life. Add in that 10mg Decadron injection (about 600mg HC equivalent) and I am swimming in cortisol right now. This post is meant for those who are having trouble figuring out their current HC dose. However do not take anything I say as medical advice and before making any changes to your current medicines, be sure to bring it up with your doctor. Dosage changes in those with adrenal insufficiency is serious business and you should not be making changes based upon what someone says on a blog or forum.

Rant About Hydrocortisone Use in Adrenal Fatigue Patients

Hydrocortisone Use in Adrenal Fatigue: Is it really as good as "they" say?

Today I have decided to rant about using hydrocortisone in those with adrenal fatigue, CFS and any of those non-descriptive syndromes or illnesses.

I have finally had enough of the nonsense and need to speak my mind.

When I started this blog, I was very naive and had no idea what I was getting myself into. When I did research about adrenal fatigue, all of the websites made it seem so easy. Just take some "adrenal support" and you'll be bouncing back like new in no time. Yippee!  I can tell you first hand, they were quite WRONG. Over the years I have realized that these websites paint a very happy, cheerful journey, but in reality it is a long painful journey. They may not willingly know, but they have started a very scary movement of people, telling most to skip going to endos and simply seek a natural doctor who is willing to prescribe HC. Some of them even suggest self-treatment, which is a whole other topic.

Some Answers for the Labs

Well I had 2 of the most knowledgeable people online that I know give me their opinions on my lab results.

First off, the lab ranges Quest Diagnostics use are pathetic. The one lady suggest I get everything retested on Day 3 of my cycle at Labcorp or some other lab. I'm still thinking about what I will do. If I had known that Quest's lab ranges were so terrible, I would have gone to labcorp for these. Ugh...I feel like all the effort I put into this was for nothing. I don't want to pester Dr. Goldstein again AND my biggest fear is that the insurance company will deny it the 2nd time around! The blood work would have cost about $2500 out of pocket!

The lab ranges specifically for cortisol, ACTH, IGF-1 were awful. The one lady said that the IGF-1 result looks terrible, but with the really weird lab range she has no idea how to interpret it! My growth hormone is very low too, but I know some people say this isn't accurate because it goes out in pulses. Who knows. Considering I'm only 24 years old, it should be pretty high IMO.

Secondly, they both say that my results clearly indicated secondary adrenal insufficiency because of the low potassium, low sodium and low renin. My low aldosterone goes along with all of this.

Thirdly, serum cortisol is both free and bound so I can't compare saliva results to blood results. For some reason I have a lot of bound cortisol (which can't be used by the body) and a very small amount of free cortisol (that can be used by the body). One lady suggested testing Total & Free cortisol and CBG in the blood, but only Quest Diagnostics can do this! haha

The one lady asked me a bunch of questions, but I have yet to hear back from her. She was wondering why my saliva progesterone was so high and thought I was taking HRT for it! I had to set her straight on that.

Fourthly, regardless whether it is primary or secondary, I am definitely hypothyroid according to both women. No surprise there either, but I wish I understood why I go through weird cycles.

In addition to the lab results, today I went up 5 pounds now 130#. I couldn't even make this up! I ate about 800 calories, went for a short walk and yet up and up I go. At around 7:30PM I just about collapsed from fatigue. Obviously caloric intake has nothing to do with this weight gain, so I'm just going to eat whatever I want. Since my fasting glucose was kind of high, I didn't buy any sweets this week. I want to see how I feel without the chocolate! heh

I am itchy tonight and definitely didn't have any wheat, so I don't know what in the hell is going on. I might have to take a benadryl at this point so I can sleep. Zyrtec tends to keep me up for some reason.

Saliva Test Results Back

Yesterday the saliva test results came back and it is pretty interesting. Click on any picture to see it larger.

Feb '09 (new test)









Saliva Cortisol Chart--This shows that my noon is the highest throughout the day, which is not normal. The morning value is supposed to be the highest, near the top of the range at 23. Then fall throughout the day. I was wondering if the blood draw from that morning made my cortisol higher at noon. I was turned away at the outpatient lab and had to go to the hospital. The lady there wasn't that good at finding my small veins. I definitely think it's a possibility, but why would it affect my result 3 1/2 hours later?


















Sex Hormone Results--Some people say saliva isn't a good indicator, but the crazy high progesterone is interesting considering I don't supplement with it. We'll have to see what the serum levels show. Look at the Luteal lab ranges.

Getting Through the Mid-Day Slump

MMMmmmmmMMMMmmmm...
Image Courtesy of: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I know a lot of you out there self-medicate like me with chocolate, sweets, coffee, tea or even cigarettes to get you through the mid-day slump. Thankfully I don't smoke!

Today I can't have any caffeine, so I'm going crazy. I'll be the first one to admit that I have a caffeine problem. It's how I live my life and without it I feel completely lost. I'm really having a hard time keeping my eye balls open! haha But I must persevere. Normally at this time, depending upon what time I woke up, I would have a small cup of tea or coffee. Then at around 4PM, I lay down for about 45 minutes and then force myself to get up.

I thought well I could make something tasty to eat, but there is nothing exciting in our house at the moment. With both of us being sick for a week with the flu, a lot of our produce went bad! Our refrigerator was soo stinky once my sense of smell came back. I had to throw out a lot of food, so now we are really really low.

The place where I normally have my blood work done at, were unable to draw the IGF-1. So...I had to go to the hospital to get it done. /sigh They are doing a lot of construction up there, so the lab has been "closed". I showed up there and saw a lot of people considering it was "closed". The lady there, although she was very very nice, she obviously doesn't deal with many patients with small veins. I told her you have to tighten the band as tight as possible making it pinch my skin. She just kept telling me that that's not how they are trained and that she is not allowed to keep the band on longer than 1 minute. She kept saying the words patient comfort blah blah blah. I just kept telling her it won't work because my veins are small and in the end you'll make me uncomfortable with all the jabs.

Well after 2 jabs she tells me that they are trained not to jab more than twice and to make the 2nd one work. After 2 jabs patient comfort goes way down...No crap! During all of this, she randomly says to me, "How are you doing?" and in a tiny, high pitched voice, I let out a "OK".

To get all 4 vials, I was squeezing my fist as tight as possible and I convinced her to leave the band on. Thank goodness. The last vial took a long time to fill and we only needed 4. I've gone in to those places needing 9 vials with no problems at all. Obviously her following the rules didn't work out too well with me. It took her breaking them to get the blood out of me.

Sadly, I'm probably going to have to see her to get the renin and ACTH drawn. I still have to call the lab to see if they can do those in the outpatient center. My God, I hope so. I can't stand going to the hospital and that lady really was not that good. The women at the outpatient center are incredible. I haven't had a bad experience yet...Though I shouldn't speak too soon.

Preparing For Labs/Saliva Test

Well here we are at day 21 of my cycle. I have finally recovered from the flu too.

I started fasting at 8PM tonight for the blood work tomorrow! Tomorrow is a big day for blood work. I am having the following drawn as close to 8AM as possible.

DHEA-Sulfate
Free & Total Testosterone
Progesterone
Estradiol
LH
FSH
Prolactin
IGF-1
GH

I've never had a lot of these things tested, so I'm very curious.

Before I go, I need to fill the first vial with saliva for the cortisol test. This is a lot harder than it sounds. I'll have to dig in the refrigerator for something I can sniff to produce saliva. Another way to make saliva is just to try yawning over and over again. It's funny how many times you'll actually yawn and produce a TON of saliva.

I took another week off of violin/voice because of the saliva test. The one for 3-4PM would have been a problem since it is during my lessons and the drive back home. I wasn't about to collect saliva in their bathroom...

I am unable to eat chocolate, onions, garlic, cabbage, and cauliflower/broccoli and unable to drink coffee, tea, and other caffeinated drinks tomorrow. I'll have to constantly remind myself of this tomorrow.

These were the results of my first saliva test I had done through this company during the summer of '07.
07:00 - 08:00AM 6 Depressed (13-24 nM)
11:00 - Noon 5 Normal (5-10 nM)
04:00 - 05:00PM 2 Depressed (3-8 nM)
11:00 - Midnight 2 Normal (1-4 nM)

Cortisol Burden: 15 (23 - 42)

DHEA Dehydroepiandrosterone 4 Normal Adults (M/F):3-10 ng/ml

It's was pretty terrible...We'll see how things look now.

My Saturday

Yesterday we visited with some family. Once again, I felt like I was painting makeup on a dead person. Since I don't interact with a lot of people on a daily basis, when I tried talking with family, I realized how much I'm out of it. I can't seem to look people in the eye and I just can't keep my thoughts straight. My mind wanders, jumps and goes off on tangents when just trying to talk about a simple topic. To remember information, I catch myself staring off into the distance.

Afterward we went food shopping and on the way home, I crashed and had a horrific headache. I didn't drive, but just having to look out for people crossing the center line, swerving into our lane and cutting us off was enough for me! We've had so many close calls recently because of idiot drivers not paying attention to what they are doing. There have been numerous occasions where we should have been in an accident, but I had a feeling and decided to turn my head, only to see a guy passing us illegally on the right or left side of our car. I'm sure it would have been our fault some how! It's such a nightmare driving in this area. I feel like I live in a 3rd world country.

We came home, unpacked the groceries and felt a little better. I was still very tired, but then got a "second wind". However, I was able to sleep pretty well throughout the night.

Tomorrow I get to see my 3 year old nephew, so I need to be ready for a crazy day. It's supposed to be really nice, so we may go to the park. :-)

The Cortef Saved Me

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.

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.

• 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

I HAVE to get through this week in 1 piece and taking cortef is the ONLY way it's going to happen. Then once this is done, I have another deadline I need to meet. It's long overdue too.

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

Continuing With This Blog

I've decided that I will continue to update this blog with information as I go. The focus of this blog has shifted away from what it's main purpose was in the beginning. However, it may be a good thing to interject the idea that some adrenal fatigue is caused by toxins in our bodies. It may not simply be from what we all think is "stress". We have to remember that "stress" to our bodies includes caffeine, heavy metals, skipping meals, certain medications, life events and exercise. Our bodies cannot distinguish good stress from bad stress.

When I thought I had adrenal fatigue I really wasn't stressed out. There was no reason to be stressed because I work from home with my husband. I had a few stressful periods in my life from family deaths, but day-to-day stress was at a minimum.

Those of you reading this, I just ask you to be open minded when looking for treatment options. A pill isn't always the way to go unless you have no other options. If there are no other options, then you must make sure you are treating the actual problem and not a symptom of another problem--like heavy metal poisoning.

When you think you know everything there is to know about adrenal fatigue, you really don't know much at all..

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.

It's Not Adrenal Fatigue After All...

Yeah that's right. I don't have adrenal fatigue. haha! What I have is even more bizarre and it's called Diabetes Insipidus. No, this isn't the Diabetes where you eat too many sweets. This isn't the one that the news talks about all the time or the one your doctor warns about.

Diabetes Insipidus is when your body doesn't properly retain water balance in the body. The typical signs are being thirsty constantly and urinating frequently. The exact reason why I have this my doctor and I are unsure of, but it has something to do with my pituitary gland or hypothalamus in my brain.

I am starting a new blog about Diabetes Insipidus and will likely abandon this one for good. However I am not deleting it because I think keeping information like this up on the web is good. Someone in 3 years might come across this somehow the search engines and learn more information.

I should also add that I did have my aldosterone tested and it was terribly low. However, that points towards a pituitary problem, which we know I have.

Caught A Nasty Cold

I caught some nasty cold and it is kicking my butt. It kept me up almost all night. My ears are clogged and my nose is so clogged I can barely get any air through it. This is the first sinus infection I have had in years. I can't remember the last time I had one, but what's interesting about this is adrenals have been known to become more fatigue after respiratory illnesses. I really hope I am not putting more strain on them because I just can't handle anymore.

Does anyone out there have any home remedies they can offer to help get this congestion out of my sinuses? Thanks.

All Worked Up Today

With all this Ron Paul stuff going on, I am really worked up today. I found myself biting my nails today, which I haven't done for a while. That was a really bad habit I broke myself of just recently.

I feel like pacing around the room...

Be back later. :-)

My Teeth Are All Better

I went to the dentist yesterday and he drilled down a few of the points on my teeth and it fixed my grinding problem for now. My one tooth was hitting another and that is what was causing the pain.

I survived my days of no caffeine, sweets, or packaged foods. The worse part was that I had a withdrawal headache. I am going to try to continue the no caffeine or sweets thing for as long as possible. Honestly, I can't say that I feel any better. I think I feel worse, but that would make sense.

These past few days haven't been too stressful for me either which helps quite a bit. We also invested in 2 window air conditioners, so my symptoms at home are not so bad day to day.

My doctor's appointment is on Monday...I am not looking forward to it.

No quick fixing: Feel horrible

Yet another day without any sweets, caffeine or packaged foods. I have had to take 2 naps today because I simply could not keep my eyes open any longer.

I so desperately wanted some coffee, but I did not give in. The 2 naps today are very weird even for me and I wonder if I am catching some type of virus because my neck is hurting and my throat feels a little scratchy. If it's not one thing it's always another. That's life, right?

I have started to chart my temperature averages and it's been 98.2 for 4 days now. Now looking at what Dr. Rind says that means I have a thyroid problem and not an adrenal problem, but clearly my saliva tests shows that my adrenals are not working properly. I don't have any symptoms of thyroid problems and have almost all the symptoms of Addison's Disease.



I am holding off on trying any type of herbal formulas until I can get my aldosterone and renin tested. Those 2 are very important in order to find out where the problem lies. Those tests will help to pinpoint whether this is an actual adrenal gland problem or a pituitary gland problem.

Grinding My Teeth Away

A few nights ago I noticed that I had bit the side of my cheek on the right side. I knew what that meant, I am grinding my teeth again while sleeping. My dentist gave me a night guard a few months ago and it has helped me during times when I shift my jaw at night. To add to my other problems, I now have really painful teeth in the back. I am shifting my lower jaw, which is making my bite crooked. Biting down right now is really painful, so I am off to the dentist tomorrow morning to see what is going on here. Perhaps, I need to go on a vacation or something because I think the amount of stress I am feeling (elevated but it should not be) is really hurting me.

This is day 1 with no caffeine, sweets, or packaged foods!

My Vicious Cycle

There is one thing that I really hate about having adrenal fatigue and it's the vicious cycle I find myself in every day. I feel horrible and my body craves something with caffeine or sweet. When I eat it, I actually feel better for 3-4 hours to only crash the next day even worse. Without that quick fix though, I usually have to take 2-3 hour naps a day and even after the nap I feel just about as tired as I did when I went to sleep. BLAH. It makes me so frustrated with myself that I think it's causing its own stress and emotional problems. As a result, for 3 days I am vowing to not eat any packaged foods, no caffeine, and no sweets. It's not going to be too tough because my husband is with me on this one.

For the next 3 days, I will be feeling like crap. I can't wait!

My Story: Why Do I Feel So Awful?

This is my story. It is still ongoing because I am NOT better. I have only recently gained the knowledge I need to begin to explore treatment options.

It has been a few months since I began to feel like total garbage. Unfortunately, I think I have been damaging my adrenals since I was 10 years old. The foods that I ate were not healthy and started me down a path of destruction.

I used to be a huge drinker of diet sodas and have found out that they cause so many problems. Dare I say, I think it is a huge contributor to obesity and chronic diseases in this country! If you drink that stuff, which used to be classified as a chemical warfare weapon, please visit this website for more information.

Everything started rather slow for me. It wasn't like all of these symptoms started overnight, which is what made this difficult to pinpoint. It was right after a few extremely stressful times in my life. My husband's grandfather died early in 2006, my grandfather had died in December 2006 and my sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor in February 2007. You can imagine how stressful these past months were for me. I am the type of person that swallows their stress and hides it very well from people. However in reality I was tearing myself apart inside!

I think the reasons why I didn't feel the effects of all this stress right away was because I had drastically changed my diet just prior to my grandfather's death. It was a blessing in disguise when I look back at it. I stopped eating all packaged and processed foods. Anything that went in my mouth was in it's natural, whole state. The week I found out about my sister was probably the worst week of my life. A dark depression kicked in and the lack of appetite was so very strong. I didn't want to talk to anyone and could barely even think clearly.

Eventually my feelings of helplessness faded and my sister's surgery was a success. 6-8 weeks later is when things really started to get bad for me though.

Now you may think that I would have gone to the doctor's before this, but I have a severe distrust in doctors and health care in America. I REFUSE to take their pharmaceutical drugs and add to their profit margins. Keep in mind that these symptoms would come and go and started slowly. I just thought I was feeling ill because I had drifted slightly away from my "diet" plan.

This is when it got bad. I lost 8 lbs in one week and I felt like I was dying. My primary care doctor yelled at me for my weight (I am very thin as it is) and did not even listen to my concerns (You wonder why I HATE doctors). She told me that I was too skinny and that she basically would not hear my concerns until I gained 30 lbs, which is total insanity! The weight she said I needed to be, I have NEVER weighed in my entire 6 years I had seen her. Obviously she was PMSing that day and took it out on me. She ordered blood tests just to get me out the door. A few days later a visit to the ER revealed more of nothing. Absolutely nothing. The doctor was so rude by accusing me of being a heroine addict and coming in for drugs. He asked me if my husband beats me and whether or not he "treats me like a queen". Did I already say I strongly dislike doctors? The visit was a waste of 6 hours of my life and $200.

The blood tests came back and I started to vigorously research the results. My doctor said that everything was "normal", but when I got the results in the mail they were NOT normal. ALWAYS get a copy of your lab results from your doctor, ESPECIALLY if they say they were normal! I swear these doctors do not look at the results! There were specific things that were high or low that concerned me. My white blood cell count was slightly low, my eosinophils were very high, and my sodium was low. Looking into all of these things, I kept coming back to Addison's Disease. The website wrongdiagnosis.com is fabulous. You can put in your symptoms and it will tell you what it may be! This is what I did to first find out that I could have an adrenal problem. However, it was not clear cut at this point. I checked the symptoms and mine didn't match to adrenal insufficiency. I was having night sweats, weight loss, and fatigue, but some of the typical adrenal symptoms were not present.

To make a long story a tad bit shorter, I left that doctor to go to another. My symptoms started to change at this point, which is why I decided to go to a new doctor! I was becoming very lightheaded, dizzy and my heart would race when I stood up. It was hard catching my breath when this happened and I felt like I was carrying around a 100lb pound on my back. Every little thing was 1000 times harder to do than it used to be. Walking down the stairs to let a dog outside was so difficult or bending down to fold clothes or put away dishes became a workout. It was like I had run a marathon and I could not figure it out!

This new doctor was no help either. At least she was willing to listen to me unlike the other one. A person I met over the internet told me about a website called www.stopthethyroidmadness.com . It was a miracle that I met this person because I don't think I would be where I am right now without this information. I was able to order a saliva test and found out it appears I am in Stage 5 Adrenal Fatigue.

My story ends here because I am exploring my treatment options. I basically refuse to take any type of hormones that will cause my adrenals to quit working. There is a doctor in this area that I just found out about, that I will give a try. But with my luck in the past few months I really don't have much hope.

Here's to more tests, wasted dollars, and more adrenal fatigue...
I get more adrenal fatigue from trying to figure out what is causing my adrenal fatigue. Talk about irony.

READ: PART 2 of my story here!