Posted by bozeman on February 6, 2003, at 0:52:59
In reply to adrenal problemsBozeman, posted by JaneB on February 4, 2003, at 9:06:57
Hi Jane
This is the same doctor as prescribed Lexapro, yes. We did something called (I think) a cortrisyn stimulation test??? They draw your blood, give you a shot, then draw blood again exactly 30 minutes later to test your response to the shot. Sorry, I don't remember more details about the test, it was several years ago, and I was really brain-foggy in those days, just stumbling through life on autopilot 'cause I was so burned out, and I can't find my notes from that period. She said they could give cortisol or (some other drug, don't remember the name of it) but that since I was under 40 (barely!) that a good pharmaceutical-grade DHEA would accomplish same result with fewer side effects, though it would likely take longer. (most drug and discount-store DHEA caps are worthless, she said -- it is sold OTC but there are only a couple of brands that are pharmaceutical grade.) I felt human again within a couple of weeks. Not good, but human again.
I still felt so crappy that she tested my thyroid (low normal result) then did additional testing (symptom assessment plus basal temperature charting taken 4 times a day for 30 days -- what a pain!) and said based on those results I had something called Wilson's syndrome, where after a stressful or traumatic event of some kind (in my case, a bad car wreck) your body goes into overload and doesn't recognize and properly assimilate the hormones it makes. So even though my thyroid levels were "normal" I wasn't using it, so I was effectively low thyroid. Put me on T3 thyroid replacement and WOW, for the first time in many years I felt like a person again. But I was still WAAAAAY too tired, so we kept going, looking for other causes, yada yada yada, treated several other things, felt even better, but I still couldn't lose weight to save my life, though I was doing absolutely everything right. We finally discoverred that pretty much my entire endocrine system was in that "overload" state where it wasn't recognizing its own hormones -- the balance between them all was shot, I was in chronic adrenal exhaustion, so the DHEA was just helping me hold my own, not really get better.
Luckily for me this doctor (an MD GP no less) is a very broad-minded, brilliant, forward-thinking and lovely soul who keeps up with advances in the field, and understands that some patients are more sensitive than others PHYSICALLY and respond to stress in wacky unpredictable ways, and if someone *can* respond physically to it, then I *will*. (and she doesn't think I'm crazy. :-)
She insists on natural remedies where possible, hence the DHEA instead of cortisol replacement, natural T3 instead of synthroid (or some other synthetic like thyroxin or whatever it's called), and natural estrogen instead of Premarin, etc. Of course it ends up costing me a lot more because the HMO just laughs at some of it, but I don't care, I pay what they don't because nothing else has worked for me. We actually had me feeling "pretty good", but something was still amiss, I was still more tired than I should have been, not physically resilient like I should have been (I am a health freak, work out, eat organic, etc.) was obsessing over things, like the expiring biological clock, feeling stress in my entire body instead of being able to compartmentalize it to my mind, and I was complaining about that fact, when she told me that there was a brand new SSRI on the market, she'd just been to a long workshop about it, and that it had (compared to most of the others) a very low side-effect profile, that it was useful for both compulsion and depression, and even anxiety in some, and since I have borderline (or not so borderline, sometimes) symptoms of all three, did I want to try it? She didn't pressure me, just gently tried to help me feel better, and since she's never steered me wrong in all these years, I agreed to try it. She knows I'm burned out on therapy (my last therapist finally told my doc that if he had my life, he'd be stressed out too, and that actually considering everything going on in my life I was probably the best-adjusted person he'd ever met) so I really am done with therapy for a while since it's not cheap either. :-)
I tried the Lexapro, and wow, it was the piece I was missing. The only way I can think of to describe it is, all the cells in my body compose an army, and different organs and systems are units and regiments, but there was no general giving orders to tell them what to do so they were all struggling to do their jobs, doing their own thing, and often fighting against each other inadvertently. It did not happen overnight, it took *several* weeks, but one day I realized that I could think straighter than I had since before the accident -- that I hadn't had a migraine since before starting the Lex -- that I had more energy than I'd had since before the accident -- that I was *finally* losing weight, and without even trying -- that I heal very fast again, not the "weeks and weeks" that have been the norm since the accident -- that I have my sense of humor, my steel-trap memory, my negotiation skills, my "don't take it personally" resilience back, and that things don't throw me for a loop when they don't go right -- I could go on and on. There is a "general" directing the "troops" now and the difference is amazing. I had to cut back on the DHEA dosage (2 instead of 3) because it was too much -- my doc expected me to only need 3 for a few weeks, but it's been several years. I'm down to 2 a day, and some days wonder if even that's too much. May have to take the thyroid forever, but maybe not, now that everything's working better. Take it a week at a time, do a mini-med-check once a week and a full check once a month.
I know some people would think I am out of my mind for letting a GP prescribe an AD, and in any other circumstance that might be true. But as I said, I've been in and out of therapy, I've had AD's offered more than once and have never thought I needed them, and no doctor ever mentioned it more than once with me so apparently they weren't so sure I needed them either. But apparently I needed something, and the way I look at it, in whose better hands could I be than this doctor, the only person who's ever taken the time or interest to figure out my admittedly wacky physiology and chemistry, and to really help me?
Hope that helps in your quest. In my case, endocrine/adrenal/thyroid/pituitary/pineal were all affecting each other and creating something that sure looked like depression (in retrospect., sometimes I kick myself for insisting to the therapists for all those years that I wasn't depressed, but the past is the past and I can't change it by wishin'.)
In my case it was DEFINITELY a medical/purely chemical situation, triggered by the accident. I was always (before) a happy, resilient person with a bottomless reserve of energy. After the accident I felt completely robbed, of my self, my mind, my life. Lexapro gave me all that back. Now I just have to rebuild what I lost, because I'm "out of the habit" of being myself, if that makes any sense, and I'm older and weaker now, so it will take me longer, I suppose, to rebuild. But at least now I can.
Best of luck, Jane --
bozeman
___________> Bozeman,
>
> How did your doctor test for adrenal problems and what was prescribed as treatment. Was it the same dr. that gave you lexapro? I'm really interested in your response as this is a topic I am pursuing.
> Thanks for all your posts and help.
> JaneB
poster:bozeman
thread:139302
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030204/msgs/139734.html