what is happening?

[kevieb]

I'm on 20 mgs of cortisol and my thyroid has been raised from 1 grain to 2 grains.  I do fine in the morning once my pain killers have kicked in--my brain actually functions.   I am taking 10 mgs cortef when I get up and 10 mgs around noon.  since we are kind of lazy during the summer, sometimes I don't get that first dose of cortisol until 9 or 10 in the morning--if i take it that late, i try not to take the second dose until somewhere between 1 and 2 in the afternoon.

I reach a point, usually mid-afternoon, where I can no longer deal with stress very well---and my brain function and reasoning go out the window. When I first started the thyroid and cortisol,  I didn't noticea big difference in energy levels--but I did notice a little less leg pain and we had a couple of storm systems move in on us that i hardly even noticed---usually i feel a weather change several days before they hit.

After the raise in my thyroid meds---about 3 weeks now, I am back to more leg pain and I can feel the weather change coming again. I have also been having a lot of problems with low blood sugar. I have taken to drinking a couple of TBS of cornstarch at night in milk to keep my blood sugar from dropping on me during the night.

Does this sound like my cortef probably needs to be raised to meet the rising metabolism in my body from the increased thyroid?

If cortisol is too low, what causes the extreme reaction to stress--and I'm not even talking major stress--I'm talking just trying to get my kids to do what they are supposed to, trying to figure out what to cook for dinner, etc.  My body will get feeling so stressed mentally and physically---and it can take me quite a while before i am able to calm down.

Is adrenaline kicking in to make up for the low cortisol, or is my adrenalin likely to not work as well either, since both come from the adrenal glands?

The other day i could feel my pain meds wearing off, but I was busy and tried to ignore it---then my blood sugar started to drop-----and I just kind of freaked out.  My daughter had my meds on my key chain, so I couldn't do anything for the pain.  My niece had a pain killer for me--but then we found my keys, I took my meds and ate some sugar and some protein.   within a fairly short period of time, I was able to calm down and was fine.

I know cortef is not that long acting----when school starts, we'll be getting up around 6 to 6:30.  I should be able to take my cortef around 8 and noon easier---but it seems like it will be running out on me about the time the kids are getting home and dinner needs to be cooked and everyone will be needing me---I'm not sure I will be able to handle all of that hitting me at once on the amount and dosing schedule I am on with my cortef.

Also, I am suppoased to be raising my cortef in about another week and a half--but only by 1/2 grain this time.

what do you think?

[kevieb]

The hypoglycemia did show up on a blood work several years ago when I was seeing the first endo.  I've had the low blood sugar problems for almost 25 years.

I wasn't thinking that going off the DHEA affected my cortisol, i was thinking that low cortisol was making it so that my body can't maintain a normal level of DHEA.    My line of thinking is more that if my cortisol and thyroid are low---my body is going to have a hard time maintaining a number of different things.  That's a bit simplified, but I think they are the main components.

I have considered experimenting and splitting my thyroid during the day and see if it gives me a little more energy in the afternoon.   If I did that, when would i want to take the second half during the day?

The doc did raise my cortisol to 30 mgs---can't remember if I told you that.
He said to take it with breakfast, with lunch, and then around 3-4---basically about the time I start to not handle things very well anymore for the day.

[rumpled]

I get the same confused, sweating high heart rate thing with low sodium - so just wondering if you have your source right. The doc should do sugar testing- can your PCP do it?

DHEA effects only androgens - so it would not effect cortisol at all. So it is not a treatment for cortisol. Cortisol can impact it (like cortisol can wreck a lot of stuff) but you cannot just replace the low stuff and think cortisol is fixed as far as I know.

Pancytopenia is the same thing - and mine was fixed by steroid too - mine was caused by meninigitis caused by a reaction to the medications.

I take my T3 3x a day - it is strange to take it all at once as it has a very short half life. So that would leave you with basically no thyroid support for most of the time - I would feel like poo too. I also take T4. So I always have some thyroid on board.  So just keep an eye on it and think about splitting.

[kevieb]

I have no idea what testing the endo did for the low blood sugar--but ikept telling her I had problems with it.  her reports always said: hypoglycemia per patient.  Then finally one report said that a blood work-up showed mild hypoglycemia.  I never saw any lab report that showed glucose 70 or below.  i did see one that showed a fasting level of about 82---but i don't know if that wa what she was looking at, or if there was a blood test that did not get included when they sent my records down.

The lady was REALLY unorganized and the medical records that got sent were in such a jumble---and she didn't keep a running report like alot of doctors do.  There were also multiple repeats of the same things---i had a heck of a time sorting through the records so i could take them to another doctor.

However, I know what the symptoms are, and I get them when it drops.  I get shaky, my brain doesn't work very well, almost a confused feeling, sometimes i will break out in a really bad sweat until I am drenched.   I usually feel it coming on and can stop it from getting very bad---but I've had it come on really fast before.   There have been a few times I have woken up during the night with it dropped---that is a really yucky feeling.

Whe3n it happens, I want to eat and eat and eat until the feeling goes away.  My diabetic brother says that you can actually eat a yogurt and lie down and it should go away in about 15 minutes----it just feels so awful that i keep eating----i guess thinking it will make it go away faster.

Once, I had no symptoms it was about to drop.  i made a sandwich and had already started eating--and all of a sudden my blood sugar plummeted---that was really weird for it to drop after I started eating, with no warning beforehand.

When I was first diagnosed with low cortisol there were a number of other hormones that were low, too.  I can't seem to maintain a normal DHEA level when i don't have enough cortisol----yet my family doctor told me he had never heard of anyone being treated with DHEA.   My DHEA had been low when this started, but after i was taken off of cortisol, my DHEA levels dropped to about 10---they are supposed to be about 280.

Pancytopenic-----is that similar to pancytopenia---is it basically the same thing?  My niece had that as a little girl.  She was put on steroids and it went away--and she was aable to go off steroids.

I just talked to my doc.  He told me to raise my cortef to 30 mgs---at breakfast, at lunch and around 3-4.  right now I'm taking it at breakfast and around noon---i start to fall apart around 3.  i can't believe that a woman who used to be able to get 6 young children to church, on time, at 9am, cannot even figure out what to do or where to start when she only has 4 kids at home and the youngest is 8.

I was more on top of things when i had 3 children 2 years old and under.  i did have a 14 year old to help me, but I also had a 6 yr old and an 8 year old.  I don't know how I did it.

I've got to figure out what is causing my shakes pretty quick because I don't want to confuse it with thyroid---i had the shakes when I was not on any thyroid.

My heart rate is one of the things the doc wants me to keep track of as my thyroid is raised.  i am only on NP thyroid, and i take it all in the morning.

I have seen different theories about it.  i have heard it should be divided and taken twice a day, I have heard that it has too much T3 for some people, and I have heard that the T3 kicks in right away and the T4 is stored to be released when your body needs it.

I need to look back at my info, but I think my NP thyroid is not mostly T3--I think it is a small percentage of the medication.

[rumpled]

Low cortisol impacts sodium. People differ - but when you get low - you can get low in other things when cortisol gets really low (I know from a crisis in a hospital that I got pancytopenic - pretty much everything on my dropped from WBC to RBC to sodium to potassium to calcium to magnesium to whatever). I know I get confused easily and can get off if I don't eat or don't eat well.

Armour is mostly T3 which is short acting - it is also a high amount of T3 which can raise your heart rate... I hope you are getting some T4 as well to balance it out.

Adrenaline is totally another issue/hormone - it should be just fine. Plus nerve endings have it as well.

Not sure about the low blood sugar - what testing was done?