Hi Firegirl, You must very concerned. I looked up Cortisol and found above each kidney are the adrenal glands-one above each kidney. They actually produce hormones that benefit us. They produce hormones that cause food to become fuel. They produce hormones that help with the anti-inflammatory system. And I think they help with the immune system the counteracts stress.
When the cortisol is low- a person is very tired. causes nauses, vomiting,
Addisons disease is a result of the adrenal glands not properly producing the right hormones in correct amount.
That is what I got out of the article anyway. Go to Mayoclinic.com and then go to Addisons Disease and it breaks down the purpose of the adrenal glands and how cortisol plays an important part in our health. Glad your doctors are taking this seriously.
One of the polls that was taken on NT was : were you under extreme stress when you had the accident or surgery? Years of stress deplete the preformace of the adrenal glands-immune system, and we can understand why many of us get RSD after surgery and others don't. I'm sure there are a lot of different opinions about that, but to me it makes sense extreme stress lowers our bodies ability to function as it should-therefore many auto-immune disorders abound.
Firegirl, please let us know how you are. We all care about you and hope for the best in your tests. That stomach sickness was mentioned on the mayo site where I found this information. I initially went to low cortisol and ended up reading about addisons. Am sure there are many others things that are behind low cortisol readings.
Take care of yourself, and feel better, one of your friends, loretta with big and soft hugs