THE RESULTS ARE NOT IN

I had my long-awaited appointment with Dr. Ross today to discuss my low hormone levels. He consulted with other doctors and decided he needed to run more tests. There is a possibility I have gone into early menopause. There is a possibility my pituitary gland is not working, therefore creating problems with my adrenal and thyroid function.

There is also the possibility that these problems have been caused by all the medicine and supplements I was on. Which means there is the possibility that a few weeks from now my pituitary gland will start to work as it should.

I have now cut out almost everything I was taking, with the exception of anti-yeast supplements (Candex), probiotics, the anti-inflammatory quercetin, and my adrenal/cortisol supplement (isocort). This last I have cut in half.

This week I put more pills back in bottles than I took out!

I stopped using my two biggest pill boxes, and later in the week I eliminated one more box. Plus, no injections, powders, drops or liquid medicines!

I wish I could say stopping everything else as of a week ago made me instantly feel better. It has not. It has, however, given me more time and way, way less hassle throughout the day. I am still dealing with quite a bit of fatigue. Not the crippling fatigue that had me in bed for years, but my legs feel heavy and my brain lethargic. I'm still going dancing and for long walks, as usual. I run sometimes, but for two miles instead of the four I used to do regularly. I concentrate in spurts, but I'm not exactly in the zone for writing these days, either.

And it's all OK, given there are still issues to work out and still things the tests are picking up.

Dr. Ross also told me today I also have high viral markers: CMV, EBV and HHR6. This in itself could cause the fatigue.

But the hormonal mystery comes first. I need to deal with viruses from a place of strength. I will wait a few weeks to give my body a chance to recalibrate after all the medicine, and then I'll get the tests for my pituitary, thyroid, adrenals, and cholesterol.

Thankfully, I'm still sleeping plenty these days, and now it's time to go to bed.

PATIENCE, PLEASE!

Fourth in the "Getting Off" series

On Friday I stopped taking my antibiotics and the Samento-Banderol-Teasel combination I'd been on to kill Lyme. Dr. Ross even convinced me to put away the home-made nasal spray I've using to treat my sinus symptoms. (see two posts ago.)

I also cut my supplements down to just my multi-vitamin, some anti-yeast pills, and probiotics. Since then I've slept more than I expected (seven and a half to eight and a half hours each night, plus naps) but my energy during the day has been all over the place. Swimming almost always makes me feel better, so I went Sunday. After I was so fatigued that I broke down and took some glutathione and B vitamins. They helped pretty much immediately, but Monday morning I was lethargic again.

This morning (Tuesday) was my appointment with Dr. Ross to discuss the issue of my low hormone levels and borderline low thyroid function. (My mom said she'd sit in on it, and I'd reminded her about it five times.) When the phone rang at 11:30, it wasn't Dr. Ross but his receptionist telling me Dr. Ross hadn't been able to consult with other doctors about my case yet. My appointment is postponed four more days.

Last Friday, I told myself to be prepared for a rocky transition, so why is this so hard? After all, I'm sleeping enough. Some lethargy during the day shouldn't be so bad, but I seem to have run out of patience with having low energy and no answers about it. Is it because I've dropped my anti-inflammatories? Is it yeast? Is it the adrenal support (Isocort) that I've kept taking? It is just my body going through some metamorphosis while it balances my hormones?

Not having a story to tell yourself about what you're feeling is hard. It's now Tuesday afternoon, seventy-two hours to go until my appointment with Dr. Ross.

GETTING OFF LYME MEDS

Third in the "Getting Off" series

I had a phone appointment with Dr. Marty Ross two hours ago. I told him how much I'd cut down on my supplements and other detox activities, and that it hadn't effected my sleeping at all. Then I asked about stopping the Lyme treatment itself.

For the past several weeks, each time I counted out my thirty drops each of Samento and Banderol, and my twenty-five drops of Teasel, and every time I got ready to swallow my giant Biaxin tablet, one thought popped into my head:

"I don't want to take this anymore. It's making me feel bad and I don't need it."

And today when I asked Marty what he thought of stopping these things, he was all for it.

I'm still feeling some fatigue, at this point it's not clear what's causing it. It could be that all the stuff I'm on is putting my body into a tail spin. The best way to figure it out is to just stop.

The Lyme might be gone. If it isn't, symptoms will come back six to eight weeks from now.

There is also the issue of my low hormone levels, which I mentioned two posts ago. Marty said he will consult with doctors who have more expertise than he does on these issues, and he'll tell me what he finds out in an appointment next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to eat well, meditate, exercise, and just not worry too much about anything. (Let's see if I can manage that last one!)