Dana
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Posts: 85
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Post by Dana on Feb 27, 2009 10:45:58 GMT -5
Thanks Laurie! I just wanted to say thank you (and to all of the moderators) for the time you take out of your day to help us. Without this board, I'm not sure what I would be doing. Likely setting myself up for disaster seeing that stupid pituitary endo. I am sure you get burned out with answering questions, but I think I speak for everyone on here that we are extremely grateful/thankful. I've learned so much from this board and I try to use that knowledge to help others too. I had a surprise appearance by my period the other day. It was only day 26 of my cycle which is a lot earlier than it has been these past 3-4 months (~33-35 day cycles). The good news with it is that I got the rest of the blood work done (cortisol, acth, new thyroid labs, aldosterone, renin, bmp). Salt fasting for 24 hours was a lot harder than I thought. I was craving salt so bad and it definitely affected my sleep too. I woke up a few times sweating and dying of thirst. Even my husband asked me this morning what I was doing in the middle of the night. I was literally drinking OUT of the sink... Chris is right when he said my fluid retention and night sweats are likely related to low aldosterone/electrolyte imbalance. The first thing I did after I came home from the lab was have some sea salt... The next few weeks will be like Christmas with a ton of results to go over and ponder about endlessly. I'll be sure to post them as soon as they come in. Then we'll be heading to the doc in PA!
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Post by justaustin on Feb 27, 2009 19:24:27 GMT -5
You are welcome. Glad you were able to get your labs drawn. Restricting sodium is hard. I thought I was going to DIE. I was working and was so dizzy. The only thing I ate was bagels with jelly. It's worse with onset of menses. Day 3 is usually the worst for me. Progesterone drops--thus the onset of mense---further drop in cortisol and aldosterone (as progesterone converts to both. Night time can be bad as aldosterone drops at night! Could explain why I've been "jonesing" for those lime tostitos. Just give me a saltlick. Do post your results. Again, you are welcome. Laurie
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Dana
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Posts: 85
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Post by Dana on Mar 2, 2009 17:42:50 GMT -5
Well the saliva test results are in and it's a little shocking. I'll post both the old and new results.
Both of these tests were done on day 21 of my cycle. For the new test, my cycle actually came early on day 26. Hopefully that didn't mess anything up.
July '07 (old test) 07:00- 8:00 AM----- 6 Depressed (13-24 nM) 11:00- NOON---------5 Normal (5-10 nM) 04:00- 5:00-----------2 Depressed (3-8 nM) 11:00-Midnight-------2 Normal (1-4 nM) Cortisol Burden-------15 (23-42)
DHEA-------------------4 Normal (3-10 ng/ml)
Estradiol---------------12 Luteal 7-20 pg/ml Progesterone---------626 Luteal 65-500 pg/ml HIGH Free Testosterone---7 Borderline 5-6 Normal 8-20 BORDERLINE LOW
Feb '09 (new test) 07:00- 8:00 AM------- 5 Depressed (13-24 nM) 11:00- NOON----------9 Normal (5-10 nM) 04:00- 5:00------------2 Depressed (3-8 nM) 11:00-Midnight--------2 Normal (1-4 nM) Cortisol Burden--------18 (23-42)
DHEA---------------------4 Normal (3-10 ng/ml)
Estradiol-----------------10 Luteal 7-20 pg/ml Progesterone--------->1000 Luteal 65-500 pg/ml REALLY HIGH Free Testosterone-----11 Borderline 5-6 Normal 8-20 Normal
The noon cortisol was very surprising to me. I can't believe it jumped that much. I must have gotten a second wind from feeling like hell that morning. The high progesterone I have no idea what is causing that. I'm not taking anything for it. I was so tired the day I did this test and was having a hard time staying awake.
I also had my serum progesterone checked on the same day, so we can see how that compares to the saliva test. I'm going to call the docs tomorrow to see if they have the results yet.
Edit: High progesterone with low cortisol doesn't even make sense right? If my adrenals were overactive, then my cortisol should be high. Maybe I'm not fully understanding how progesterone is created in the body. I am definitely looking forward to your analysis of all this.
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Post by justaustin on Mar 2, 2009 19:54:57 GMT -5
Ignore the saliva sex hormones!! They usually do not correlate with serum. Don't stress yourself in the meantime.
Although your Noon cortisol is higher than previous, your cortisol burden is still pretty much the same...poor. I have secondary AI and my burden was 16 and our son is secondary also with a burden of 17.
Did you do the testing on a "calm" day or did you do it on a day that you had to work? Did you drink caffeine,smoke or get into an augument? All factors which could have impacted that result...albeit slightly.
Did you have your LH/FSH with the other sex hormones on day 21? How about morning cortisol with ACTH?
Pardon any lapses of my memory. Been working alot and have some family distractions.
Laurie
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Dana
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Posts: 85
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Post by Dana on Mar 2, 2009 20:39:32 GMT -5
The day I did the saliva test was just a typical day for me. I work out of home, so my stress level is pretty low normally. Unless I have a deadline to meet and I did not have one that day. I made sure not to drink anything with caffeine. No chocolate, no tea!. It was rather hellish to say the least! I didn't realize how much I depend on caffeine to get through the day.
Yeah all those other sex hormones were checked on the same day I did the saliva test. I have to call the docs tomorrow to see if they are in and have them mail me the results. The cortisol/acth set was done just a few days ago. Those results will probably be another week.
Maybe the noon was slightly higher because we had to get to the lab and found out that I had to go the hospital to get the IGF-1 drawn. That definitely made me mad. At the hospital the women jabbed me twice to get blood. Although I went to the lab at ~8AM (I did the first saliva sample before I went), so I'm not sure if the response from that would last 3 hours! haha I guess it's worth mentioning though.
I hear that saliva sex hormones are more accurate, but then I've read the opposite. If you say not to worry about it, then I definitely won't!
Thanks!
P.S. Is it normal to begin to shake when having to call the docs or a store for their hours? Whenever I have to talk to people on the phone, I am a mess. Usually start to stutter weird and can't keep my thoughts in order. I wasn't always like this.
Edit: My heart rate is unbelievable today. I could barely get out of bed today. I walked down stairs to call the doc and felt my heart go crazy. I put the bp monitor on me and my HR was 143! BP was 79/62 I am so sick of this.
By the way, not all of the results are back so I don't have anything to add to my results today. They will be mailing them to me when they are back.
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Dana
New Member
Posts: 85
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Post by Dana on Mar 3, 2009 15:39:14 GMT -5
I actually have a question about my sister. Would any of these meds affect the results of a thyroid panel or aldosterone test. I assume there is no point in checking saliva cortisol or serum cortisol because of the asthma inhalers.
Advair Ventolin Inhaler Neurontin Topamax
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Post by justaustin on Mar 3, 2009 18:22:13 GMT -5
I'm sorry you had a crummy day today. Is your BP and pulse any better? Did you drink salt water? If not, please do. REcheck your BP in 10min intervals to evaluate the effectiveness.
"P.S. Is it normal to begin to shake when having to call the docs or a store for their hours? Whenever I have to talk to people on the phone, I am a mess. Usually start to stutter weird and can't keep my thoughts in order. I wasn't always like this."
This is typical low cortisol. Low cortisol folks tend to produce too much adrenalin. I get like that when my HC dose is due/late and I'm at work.
Have you sister call the pharmacist and have them do an advanced search of her meds...to see if they impact thyroid function. The meds I do know that impact thyroid function are beta blockers and fluoroquinolone antibiotics (levaquin,cipro for example).
You are welcome, Laurie
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Dana
New Member
Posts: 85
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Post by Dana on Mar 4, 2009 13:13:46 GMT -5
Today my BP is much better. Yeah salt water usually helps a little, but not completely. When I feel like this, I keep my activities and movement around the house to a minimum. The scary thing is, is that the high yesterday was 15 or something. Meaning these symptoms weren't caused by hot weather. This just scares me because spring is on its way and I know what that means for me.
Thanks for the info about the meds. I didn't know if you'd know, but figured I'd ask. TY!
Another completely random question....Have you ever had water taste sweet with nothing added in it? Recently (at random times) water will taste like sugar to me. This one time, I had my husband taste it and he said it taste like normal water. A few more times I noticed it while in a filtered water bottle, so there was NO WAY it could taste sweet.
It's so sweet that it is actually sickening where I can't even drink it. I was just wondering if anyone else has ever said this or reported this here. Googling this didn't yield me any answers.
Thanks and sorry for you bothering you again.
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