Tag Archives: tremors

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Best Endocrinologist Ever.

Every time I have an appointment with my endocrinologist, I hem and haw about whether I should cancel it. It’s on the other side of town, $50 round-trip in an Uber, it only ever lasts about 20 minutes and couldn’t she just look at my thyroid lab results and email me about whether to stick with my current hormone dosages? Well, each time I go, I am so grateful for this doctor (last week I told her nurse I would walk on hot coals for Dr. B) and I vow to come straight home and write an update so I can remember everything she said. I never have managed to do this and the visit summaries hardly mention anything at all, so today I’m going to write a general update of her treatment.

I’ve seen a lot of endocrinologists in the last six years and they have all, without exception, been kind of odd, stoic and monosyllabic. Until Dr. B. She’s vibrant and engaged (after seeing her, I always mourn my lack of brain energy a little more), listens closely, talks about her ideas out loud, thinks outside of the box and is interested in conditions not typically related to the endocrine system. Imagine that: a big hospital allopathic endocrinologist taking the whole body into account!

The first time I saw her a year ago, I told her my basic story (anaphylaxis 2001-2002, vasovagal collapse 2005-2011, thyroid goiters 2009, radioiodine ablation 2010, SICK 2011), assuming she’d check my thyroid and update my prescription as per usual — and she did, but she also ordered pituitary blood tests, a Cortrosyn stimulation test (CST) (otherwise known as an ACTH stimulation test — it measures how well the adrenal glands respond to ACTH), referred me to two neurologists — one that specialises in headaches and one that specialises in dysautonomia — and said we would consider placing a continuous glucose monitoring device to assess the drops in my blood sugar (good news is, my blood sugar crashes got much better, possibly because I am eating all foods again and have put on weight). No other endocrinologist had ever suggested any of these things.

I was dreading the CST because of my reactivity and intravenous injections of anything don’t allow me to start low and slow, but it was fine. I did my research beforehand (yes, they were they only using 1mcg of Cortrosyn; no, I didn’t need to fast; no, it didn’t need to be timed according to the follicular phase of my menstrual cycle; no, I didn’t need to be off bioidentical hormones; and, yes, my husband could be with me), so I felt comfortable about the procedure and the results were normal.

The pituitary testing showed low LH (luteinizing hormone), DHEA and IGF-1. Because of the latter, at our next appointment Dr. B ordered a pituitary MRI to “leave no stone unturned” (LOVE her). The MRI was normal, but she emphasised that it was less reliable because of my unwillingness to use contrast (I didn’t think the risks of a reaction outweighed the benefits of a better MRI — and she was ok with that). She also gave me a prescription for Florinef to see if it would help with my hypotension (blood pressure was 80/60 at this appointment). I trialed it for a month (starting at 0.0125mg (!!), working up to 0.1mg) and thought it might be increasing my headaches (but not my blood pressure, of course), so I stopped, but it’s still on my list to retry.

My thyroid levels have consistently been tanked for the last 6 years and at every appointment Dr. B would tweak my meds. I’ve gone from 50mcg/day of levothyroxine to 100 to 125 and from 5mcg/liothyronine to 10 and — this is exciting — when I told her my naturopath suggested much higher T3 and lower T4, Dr. B said, “I’m totally open to that, let’s try it.” 😮 Typically allopathic endocrinologists and NDs do not see eye to eye on treatment and optimal thyroid levels and often one doctor will be resistant to another doctor’s suggestions, especially when the suggestion comes from someone who isn’t a specialist. Dr. B has no ego getting in the way. So, we increased my T3 to 15mcg twice/day and lowered T4 to 100mcg. I really don’t know if it has helped, but she seems more satisfied with my thyroid levels. She told me to watch out for tremors, heart palpitations and insomnia, but they are all within my normal constellation of symptoms, so who knows (although, as I’m typing this, I realise that my quite-vicious nightly palpitations haven’t happened in a while– maybe weeks). She diagnosed me with “euthyroid sick syndrome” which essentially means your thyroid will stay sick until the underlying chronic illness gets better.

I saw a headache neurologist and a dysautonomia specialist (more on both of those in separate posts), but neither of them were the ones to which Dr. B referred me. And — another reason to love her — she had no problem with that and was still interested in what they had to say. Even better, when I told her the dysautonomia specialist didn’t have much to offer and essentially told me just to make sure I don’t decondition any further, Dr. B raised her eyebrows in surprise and kind of dismissed this, still interested in helping me fix this piece of the puzzle (those of you that haven’t done the doctor rounds might not realise that almost all of them tell you to simply exercise more (or gain/lose weight) (or take antidepressants), so I expected Dr. B to take the specialist’s assessment as bible and agree that I was just deconditioned). She suggested I do a growth hormone challenge (it involves a 17-hour fast, an 8am check-in and a 5-hour test where they give intravenous glucagon and then measure human growth hormone (HGH) response through blood draws) and said the worst side effect she’d seen was vomiting. I wanted to vomit at the thought of getting to a hospital at 8 in the morning. I went home to do some research; that was in July of last year.

When I saw her again at the end of September, I hadn’t done the HGH challenge and she didn’t give me a hard time at all. Three months after that appointment I still hadn’t found the nerve, so I emailed her a long message about my glucagon fears (those of you with mast cell/anaphylaxis/medication sensitivity issues can read my email* below for the reasons it gave me pause) which any other specialist would either not answer or reply that I should come in for an appointment to discuss. Instead, she sent me a very thoughtful, validating reply (not “For fuck sake, stop being such a scaredy-cat and do the bloody test since I’m the one doctor who is investigating all these things!”) and offered an alternative to glucagon — an insulin challenge test — which I agreed to … and then never did. They give you intravenous insulin, drop your blood sugar to 40 and then test HGH. I told her I was more comfortable with the devil I knew (hypoglycemia) then the one I didn’t. But, it turns out I’m not really comfortable with voluntarily meeting any devil. I’ve had my blood sugar drop into the 40s. It was absolutely horrific — one of the worst feelings I’ve ever felt. And, although they give you intravenous glucose right afterwards, I still couldn’t bring myself to do this test and subject myself to the crash when I thought they probably wouldn’t find anything.

So, I waited until my appointment this month — 8 months after she first wanted to investigate this avenue — and told her of my fears about the insulin challenge test as well. I expected her to just give up, to say there’s probably nothing wrong there, anyway, but she didn’t. She said there was an additional reason to do the insulin challenge (other than for HGH output) and that was that it can pick up a hypothalamus issue that the glucagon stimulation test can’t. Ok, I can get on board since it’s a two-fer. However, in another display of out-of-the-box-ness and medical generosity, she suggested I just try HGH injections without doing the challenge test. She said she had two other patients with the dyautonomia-mast cell-EDS trifecta (more on my EDS diagnosis at another time) and, even though neither one flunked the stimulation test, they tried HGH and had really good results. A friend of my sister-in-law’s had a lot of success with HGH and it has always been in the back of my head as something to try when I win the lotto. I read it cost thousands of dollars, but Dr. B’s prescription is “only” $138/month, so I’m on board. If/when I get the nerve, I can stop the HGH for a week and do the challenge test and, if I fail, insurance will pay for my prescription. An added bonus is my nurse who comes to my home every week (to give me intravenous fluids with my immunoglobulin infusions) can show me how to subcutaneously inject the HGH and I don’t need to go across town for a tutorial appointment.

Gratitude for good doctors! Wish me luck with the HGH.

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Another Day in the Life.

Last weekend an old friend called to catch up after a few years. We had planned the day and time of the call, so I made sure I had the energy for it and didn’t have anything else scheduled that day besides a massage. After half an hour of talking to him (he is as energetic and animated and happy as I used to be), my voice began to get hoarse and the shakes started. I was lying down while talking to him ~ this is always easier ~ but I was outside in the sun, so I moved in to the blow-up mattress that is now in our living room, trying to quiet my system. We talked for another half hour and I wanted to keep going ~ we still had more to cover ~ but I could hear myself slurring and now my head was hurting and my ears were ringing and the internal tremors were so pronounced I think the phone was twitching against my ear. It was wonderful to talk to him. Catching up with family and friends is always good for my mood and fans the flames of life force… but, I knew it had taken too much out of me.

I spent the next few hours resting and then left for my massage. I was driving myself because the place is very close to our house and the last time I was there it wasn’t a problem as long as they put me in the ground floor room and I didn’t have to climb up the steep stairs to the second floor. I don’t get massages very often, but, when I do, I really love them. I ask her to “make my muscles feel like I went running without any of the energy expenditure or lactic acid build up” and somehow she does. It really helps my neck pain and headaches, too.

So, I arrive and realise I have to park across the street instead of directly outside the door because my appointment is later in the afternoon than usual and there is no parking between 4pm and 6pm. I am already running a little late because, after the talk with my friend, every little thing I did caused my heart rate to go too high and I had to move very slowly to keep it under 105 bpms. The chair in my car has a manual lever that you crank to raise it up. My husband is 6’2″; he has it at the lowest setting. I am 5’0″; I have it at the highest. Never before did I realise how many times you have to crank it to raise the seat up. Crank, crank…rest, breathe…crank, crank…rest, breathe…. The things I never knew about aging and injury and illness: I need an automatic car! I need automatic seat movers! I need a bathroom that doesn’t involve going up and down stairs!

[That last comment was off-topic because, the day after the massage, having made it to the garden but needing to drink a lot of water to continue to flush toxins and keep my BP up, I squatted in a corner of the shrubs to pee. You never heard that. Don’t tell anyone. But it saved me about 200 steps]

So, I parked across the street and it was another of those oh-shit-I-never-realised-the-gradient-was-so-steep-here moments. I walked very slowly and carefully ~ carrying my far-too-heavy purse ~ the few steps that brought me directly across from the door to the massage place. My heart was hammering, so I stopped there and waited. And waited and waited. Another bad thing about a later Friday appointment: there was WAY more traffic than usual.

Now, back in Ireland, there are crosswalks, but you certainly don’t need one to cross the road. It was like a game of Frogger: cars didn’t slow down and you bounced your way through lanes of traffic, working diagonally towards the place you were going so as not to waste precious time with right angles. We were quite skilled at it. I would get annoyed if a car slowed down when I was in the street because he/she was just messing with my timing and rhythm. I would wave them on: go, go, go… I have other lanes of traffic to sync my gait with… But here in Seattle? People are aghast if you don’t use a proper crosswalk with a proper green man telling you to properly proceed. Within a few years of being here, I had been given THREE jaywalking tickets ~ and the fines were hefty!

[Another quick aside: I was given the first ticket when I was 23 or 24. I had been heckled by someone outside a bar after closing and was walking home alone when I saw he was following me. I made a bee-line diagonally across the street to get to my apartment as fast as possible and, in the middle of the road, I felt a hand on my shoulder and wheeled around to hit it off of me, thinking it was the guy from outside the bar. It was a cop. He said, “You’re jaywalking. Don’t you answer when someone calls you?” I said, “No, it’s 2 in the morning, some creepster was following me, I was just trying to get home. I didn’t hear you.” He said, “Come with me” and motioned to the footpath back the way I had come. And then slooowly, smirkily and assholey, wrote me a ticket. I had been drinking and I was scared and I was pissed off. I said, “Jaywalking? Can’t you go catch some rapists or something?” And, I swear to god, his answer was: “Actually, there aren’t very many rapes around here.” I still get fired up thinking about it!]

SO, after waiting long minutes for the traffic to be clear in both directions, so I could slowly make my way across the street to the massage place, knowing I was now about 5 minutes late, I decided it wasn’t going to happen and I would have to cross the first side when it was clear and then weave through the cars stopped at the traffic light on the far side. But, when you have this illness, you can’t hop or skip or hurry your steps… you can’t really lift an arm to wave thank you. And the people in the cars looked at me like I was SO rude and one person raised their palms up as if to say “What the fuck?” and I realised the light had turned green and I was still doing my sloth-walk to the curb. I tried to look remorseful, I mouthed “I have this mitochondrial dysfunction and dysautonomia issues and weak muscles. I know I look able-bodied, but I’m not, please be patient” “sorry” to the driver. It was the longest walk across a road in my life.

Then I had to tackle the 5 steps up to the door (oh no, this is too much) and, when I walked in, the owner and my massage therapist were sitting in the waiting room – waiting. For me. I sat down. The owner (whom I know from my old life) said, “I was starting to get worried. You’re always early.” I burst into tears. I still hadn’t caught my breath and time was ticking away and I was embarrassed that parking across the street had caused me such problems.
“My heart rate… It took me longer than I anticipated to get across the street,” I said.
My massage therapist (who knows all about my illness) said, “To get to the crosswalk?”
I thought about the crosswalk 100 miles half a block away. “God no. I could never make it to the crosswalk.”
The owner said, “Next time you should park on the next street over.”
I said, “But that’s a lot more steps to walk.”
He halfway joked, “You need a Segway.”
I said, “I wouldn’t be able to stand.” Because, believe me, I have considered every option out there.

The three of us just sat there for a minute and I felt the panicky, trapped feeling I get every time I realise just how difficult every inch of the world can be and how ill-equipped society is to help. Every moment takes energy and every day needs to be so carefully thought out in advance. Nobody can understand this unless they live it.

Afterwards, my massage therapist surprised me by running out to get her car so she could DRIVE ME ACROSS THE STREET. I wish I had taken a photo ~ it was literally across the street and down a few car lengths. The gesture was so kind and generous after I had her now running about 15 minutes behind, that I didn’t bother telling her that walking uphill to her car idling in the alley and clambering into her tall SUV was as difficult as walking unaided back to my car on the downhill slope.

Gratitude for the day: for all the healthy people that go above and beyond to understand and accommodate and have compassion for people with disabilities.