Dear Butterfly11
 

HOw are you butterfly? have not seen you in a while. I hope you are doing alright and that your weekend was as relaxing as possible. Tomorrow is a holiday any special plans?
(((((HUGS)))))
bizi

I haven't seen her in here in a few days either.

Hoping she stops by.

Donna:grouphug::hug:

hey there... would like to hear from you
 

Dear Butterfly:hug::hug::hug:

I have been wondering about you too. I hope you are ok. I've checked for you on SOS too. you have a couple new posts there btw.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you... please post when you can. :) :circlelove:

~ waves ~ with thanks to Bizi :hug: for starting this thread :)

Hi everyone. Thank you all for caring.

I haven't had as much online time lately. My daughter that I homeschool has been struggling with phonics and reading. She is in 1st grade but we have had to go back to a kindergarten level and are doing some remediation. She is on track with all other subjects though and especially does well in math. School is just taking longer these days.

I have been meaning to come here just haven't been myself. Haven't felt much like typing. I went back to the internist, my thyroid is worse. TSH 6.9 and reverse T3 30.0. She started me on the synthroid .025mgs

Just found out this morning my thyroid ultrasound is scheduled for Wed morning. She also wants me to see a general surgeon about my hernia, just to get a C/T scan done so it can be assessed. I don't have cancer and nothing major is wrong but for some reason this is overwhelming me.

I am having coffee tonight with that lady from church who messaged me on facebook. Our children are the same ages and she seems nice. It will be good to get out of the house.

I guess something also that is bothering me is that the internist told me I have adrenal fatigue. She is diagnosing this because my cortisol was 4.6. On my bloodwork papers it says the range is 1.7-3.1. She wants me to take Vitamin C 1,000mgs day which she said Vitamin C feeds the adrenals. She also wants me to take vitamin B-5 and B-6, although I don't remember why. She also wants me to take a supplement called "Adrenal Cortex". I guess I am a pessimistic skeptic but I don't know if I buy into this whole adrenal fatigue thing.

My Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, Magnesium, Iron, were all good on the bloodwork.

I am hoping the synthroid will give me some energy back. I thought for sure my answer would lie in some B12 shots but I was wrong on that.

Thank you for reminding me about the SOS forum. I don't know why, I just never can get in the habit of checking in over there. I will try to go later. Got a message a few minutes ago my laptop battery is low. Don't want to lose this post so I'm posting it now. :Heart:

Forgot to say internist said I don't have Hashimoto's. There was a test for it in the bloodwork.

Also I never knew I had high cholesterol. Luckily they are not *that* far out of norms.

Cholesterol 216 (Range 100-199)
Triglycerides 224 (Range 0-149)
VLDL Cholesterol 45 (Range 5-40)
LDL Cholesterol 109 (Range 109)

:Heart:

Do you know how much the b12 is?
How about the Vit D?

Hi Butterfly!


There you are! good to see you. :)

Sorry you are feeling overwhelmed... it is perfectly understandable though. :(

It sounds to me like your internist is thorough and knows what she's doing. If you have adrenal fatigue that could be a big cause of not having energy! I would trust her, especially since she did test your cortisol level.

I really hope you feel better soon! And I hope your daughter makes good progress with the phonics issues.

Take care, and pop in when you can.

:hug::hug::hug:

~ waves ~

Let's see...
My Vitamin B12 is 886 (the reference range is 211-946)
My Vitamin D is 43.4 (the reference range is 30-100)

At least I passed the vitamins part of the test. ha! I did find out that I have Epstein Barr virus which means that I have had mono in the past. I never knew that. Eeeeeww! :Heart:

It's good to be here. I've missed you all. Even on days when I can't come to Neurotalk I'm thinking of ya'll and hoping you are well! :Heart:

your d level is low they want it between 50-80. that is what my doctor told me.

I take 5,000 units daily....to get mine to 58 last time.
I would supplement your vit d with 2,000 units daily, small little gel capsule easy to swallow.

Vitamin D levels
 

Butterfly ......

according to the studies on disease prevention (various cancers, heart disease, etc, not just bone health) your vit D status would be fine. :hug:


To ALL..........

Grassroots Health (where Mrs D originally got the chart showing disease prevention) recommends between 40 and 60 ng/mL of vitamin D. This level is significantly higher than one would have, with the daily intake suggested by the Institute of Medicine. It is based on evidence for prevention of a variety of diseases.

http://www.grassrootshealth.net/

I tried to open the chart but my version acro reader is puking at it (even though it was fine a couple weeks ago!) Here is the link, some of you may not have the problem i'm having.

Vitamin D Levels /Disease Incidence Prevention Chart

For information on specific diseases you may also check

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

~ waves ~

special case?
 

Bizi,

i thought you were being treated for osteomalacia? Is that not correct? Therapeutic goals may be different in that case - your doc may feel a high degree of repletion is necessary, once you have osteomalacia one is no longer looking at a case of prevention.

~ waves ~

I think I originally got those numbers from mrs d. and my pdoc is the one who ordered my vit d level my gp looked at my 30 level and thought that was fine. (within the normal level on her sheet.)my pdoc order the 5,000 units which brought my levels up to 58 after 6 months. I know someones doctor said that they stopped testing women for vit d because they were all low they just started out everyone on 2,000 units.
bizi

??? ok whatever. The references I cited were those Mrs D has posted multiple times, so there must be some confusion. If she said something different than what is on these references, i don't remember, but i would find it strange.

personally, i would not want a level of 80 ng/mL no matter what any doctor says. as you you get close to 100 (and that's just statistically - it can of course vary between individuals) there is a risk of hypercalcemia.... :(

58 is a decent level - and.... it just happens to be between 40 and 60. :D

~ waves ~

Great chart, Waves
 

Waves,

My computer got that pdf open after a long ten seconds.
I found the same chart on an UK site:

http://www.nleducation.co.uk/wp-cont..._chart_uk1.pdf

This is really useful information about Vitamin D. Thank you.

M

Thanks Mari for finding that! :Tip-Hat:

I'd like to point out 2 things here...

1. the UK web site has the older version (2008)of the chart, while the GrassRoots chart is updated (2010). i had downloaded the GrassRoots chart back when MrsD originally showed it to us, and again a couple weeks ago, so I had both versions and was able to compare them to the chart on the UK web site. (It seems only my reader/plugin is messed up!)

2. The only difference between the new and old charts is on the line showing "all cancers combined." The vit D level is the same, but
the old version indicates a 35% incidence prevention, while the new version indicates "77% with calcium."

I find the older presentation more useful than the new! because i do not take calcium! Besides, some of us cannot take calcium, and for those who can, caution (regular testing for BOTH) is required because supplementing both increases the risk of hypercalcemia. I wish they had kept the "without calcium" number in the "updated" chart, and simply added the "with calcium" number! :rolleyes: it's not like there wasn't space!


CONCLUSION: If you, like me, like to download these things - don't discard the "older" chart! It has information not present on the newer one!

~ waves ~

Thank you everyone for the information! Our bodies are so complex. :Heart:

H, Butterfly,

The synthroid will help a lot.

Good luck with the test tomorrow.

Is is o.k. to be overwhelmed by medical stuff.
I am not at a good place at the moment, but sometimes it helps me to embrace the fact that I am overwhelmed. I tell myself that I have a whole lot going on and it stinks and it is mostly temporary. You can find a way to talk to yourself. The synthroid might change your life. You will be able to deal with things better.
Right now I am at a place where I can only have two appointments on my calendar at a time. I complete one and then make the next appointment. ( . . . more or less . . . . I realized when I was typing it that I realized I constantly change my "system." )

I hope that coffee with the facebook friend went well. Even if it was not fantastic, it was a start.

You could call and ask her about the "why." One guess is that she wants to try the vitamin approach before she does anything else.
Here are two links about B5 and B6.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/c...l-14668?page=2
http://www.livestrong.com/article/241483-vitamin-b5-b6/ (do you eat egg yolks? :) )

Perhaps you and she are going to get more used to each other.

M

It is my understanding that the best cortisol levels test is done with a saliva test taken 4 times in one day. cortisol levels increase with stress and contribute to weight gain.
professional arts pharmacy can do this test for you.
bizi

confused about saliva vs. bloodwork accuracy for hormone testing
 

Interesting.

I really don't know one way or the other, but if I were to hypothesize, i'd expect the blood to be more stable and more reliable than the saliva, due to oral hydration conditions, even if the test were repeated. But as I said, I really don't know.

However, I did remember MrsD posting something about this so I looked up her post...:

Quote:

Originally Posted by bizi (Post 816679) I had the saliva hormone test done and my progesterone is low and my cortisol was high

and in reply:

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsD (Post 817394) The saliva tests are not as accurate as the blood work IMO.

Bizi, I also don't know whether, that time, you had a single saliva sample or if it was repeated 4 times. And perhaps your doctor informed you that the 4 times a day test is as good or better than blood work? I am confused because MrsD usually posts reliable information, so i thought i'd toss this out here. Please would you indicate your source (your doctor, other)? Thanks very much. :)

And MrsD, if you are reading, perhaps you could provide clarifications/insight on your position also? Thanks. :)

:grouphug:

~ waves ~

my pdoc ordered my saliva test for my hormones, estrogen progesterone and then the cortisol one came with it. This was just the one time level. The professional pharmacy had a test that was for 4 saliva specimans one before each meal and at bed time I think....
I think I remember reading somewhere that our cortisal levels change under stress which also leads to weight gain.
sorry no sources....
bizi

Hi bizi! The internist said that I can't do the saliva test because I am on birth control pills. Somehow that renders the saliva cortisol test inaccurate. So that's why she ordered it in the bloodwork. :Heart: