Friday, March 13, 2009

Started Ketoconozole last night

After talking to Dr. F. last, I decided to try to get just a bit more testing in, in hopes of catching a few more highs before starting the Keto. I don't have all of the results back yet. It will be a while on that.

I was nervous about starting the Keto. I cycle so rapidly with Cushing's, that I've worried about how the Keto might work for me. As it is, when I dip low, it's really low for me, then add in the Keto,.... it makes me worry about AI. Aside from all of that, I've been anxious to get it started. This last week has been a doozy for me. I went from sleeping most of a 24 hr. period for several days, to being awake for most of a 24 hr. period. Whatever it was (I've never figured out my highs and lows), I tested through all of it! I did midnight serums and 24 hr. UFC's. I'm hoping to at least get some high 17-Hydroxycorticosteroids out of it! I do know that one of my midnight serums was 5 something. Not high enough, but it's still in the elevated range. I finished collecting my last UFC yesterday morning, which was Thursday.

So, last night, I started my Keto. Being the chicken that I am (about this), I decided to ease myself into it. I am suppose to take 200 mg. at bedtime. (On my bottle, it says to take at 9 PM. I'm glad they defined "bed time" for me! LOL! Since mine is so sporatic, I don't know what "bed time" is.) I decided to start out with 100 mg., and see how I do on that, before going to the 200 mg. So far, I like it! Within 15 min. of taking it, I was getting tired! I also started getting colder. I wasn't chilling, just cooling down. With Cushing's, I tend to run on the hot side. I went to bed around 1:30 AM. That's pretty good for me! I did wake up early this morning, though. I decided to get up, since I was awake and feeling pretty good, and take my medicine. I took 15 mg. of hydrocortisone, my thyroid medicine (I'll talk about that later) and my GH shot.

The only side effect I had from the Keto, so far, was diarrhea. Not bad, not the stomach killing you type of stuff, or being married to the toilet for the night. I can deal with this! I took my bp last night too, and it was down from what it had been running. I hope the Keto and I keep getting along like this! I feel more calm, and like I have more energy. I think the reason I started getting tired was because of it calming everything down. I have felt like my body and brain have a lot of commotion going on lately. I told my husband I wish someone would just unplug me! It's hard to explain. When I would try to go to sleep, in the last several days, I would lay there, tired, but wide awake. I told one of my friends that I might be able to sleep if the voices in my head would shut up long enough! LOL! I don't really hear voices, but what I mean is, it's like my brain is on fast forward. I have everything running through my head, and all at once. I have to wonder if that is what it feels like to have ADHD, or ADD. I never use to be like this. I mean, before Cushing's. After surgery, it went away. I felt nice and calm again. This was another sign for me that Cushing's was back.

I believe in my last post, or maybe before that, I mentioned that my local endo was afraid to give me a higher dose of thyroid meds. She was worried that my adrenals might not be able to handle it, and that it would throw me into an adrenal crisis. She had reasons for feeling that way, and she's not totally off the mark. My AM cortisol numbers are low, so with just looking at those, it looks like I am adrenally insufficient. The problem is, that I still have Cushing's. This means I have higher cortisol at night, or at different times throughout the day, but she is not seeing that from a morning level. My levels are flipped from a normal person's, because of the Cushing's. So, I talked to my CA Cushing's specialist about this. He told me to start on 100 mcg. of Levoxyl. He is not concerned with the possibility of AI. Besides, if it were to happen, I have the hydrocortisone pills, plus my emergency injectible if I need it. I started on the Levoxyl and I've had no problems from that either. Now that I'm adding in Keto, it does concern me. I worry that if the Keto drops my levels too far, that the higher dose of thyroid medicine will make me go AI. That's another reason I'm easing myself into this. So far, everything is getting along! It's too soon to tell for sure, since I've only taken the Keto once, but so far, so good!


4 comments:

judycolby said...

Gracie,
I hope the good signs you've seen with just one (small) dose are indications of good things to come. And with any luck you'll have gotten some highs before you started on the keto.

Gracie said...

Thanks Judy! I hope Jess and Justin do well with it too!

Hugs,
Gracie

Hi, I'm Rene said...

So far so good Gracie! I hope the keto continues to work out for you!

Anonymous said...

Gracie
I just wanted to say HI!
I also live in Ohio and was wondering what city you are in?
I am a Cushings Vet and I am in remission for the 3rd time.
I have had 3 pit tumours, 2 transpho surguries, and on April 3 will be my one year Aniversary of Gamma Knife radiation, and I have been on Keto.
I would love to talk to you.
Email me !!!! :)