I've Given Up

Well today I'm raising my HC dose again. My skin is tanning around my eyes, so that's enough for me. It looks like I got punched in the face. I guess it's HC for life at this point.

Ugh HC Weaning Isn't Going Well

It's been another 10 days or so and my body cannot adjust to this lower dose of HC. Even my husband is seeing it. He's now remembering all of these weird symptoms I had that disappeared on HC. Now they are coming back and we aren't forgetting any longer.

The past few weeks I've constantly had that "I'm just feeling weird" feeling. The ringing in my ears is getting worse. I have moments of complete hearing loss in my ears for a few minutes at a time. I've been feeling sick to my stomach, almost flu-like without actually vomiting though and I've been having crazy hot flashes and chills. I'm way more thirsty and my pee is clear. This is all from lowering my HC dose, which makes no sense to me. I am getting up in the middle of the night to pee too.

Yesterday and the day before I had to take more HC. I was sort of afraid that if I didn't I'd start going down the adrenal crisis path. Ugh. I just hate to admit defeat on this because I really don't want to have to take HC for the rest of my life. It's pretty frustrating.

Weaning Down HC: How it's Going

I can never remember what I even put on my blog these days. haha Well after a lot of pondering, I have decided to start weaning off the hydrocortisone. Yep...It's going to be bad. I know.

I've been dosing 15mg of HC at 7.5, 5, 2.5 for probably about 2-3 weeks now. It's odd because now I am noticing symptoms. I am feeling dehydrated for the first time in a year. Every once in a while if I am busy doing something I forget to drink, but I almost always have a drink of some type in my hand. I particularly like orange juice with a sprinkle of salt in it.

Well for the past 2-3 nights, I've been needing my water bottle next to the bed. Bad sign. I am also having night sweats and my fingers are swelling up like a balloon at night. I've noticed my face is looking puffier too. Last night at Wal-mart I was totally regretting not having a drink in the car with me. I used to be like that a long time ago...

Typically puffiness most would associate with over replacement. I can assure you that 15mg is no where near over replacement. I am struggling with nausea on a daily basis on this dose, but I am trying to see if I can even go any low. If I can't go any lower, then I think I can confirm true adrenal insufficiency rather than just fatigue.

I'm rather shocked at the weird symptoms I am getting. I never thought the thirstiness was fixed with the HC!

I'm giving this dose another 2-3 weeks and then I'll be going down to 12.5mg.