My spiro story

[Guest guest]

Hi & Dr. Grim and all: I've been following up on your emails. I am also on Spiro since last April, 100mg/once a day until Dec. Here is what was happening to my body: Keep in mind I am also dashing, no other meds.my creatine before spiro was .6 Previous history: no sugar problems(my base glucose testing was around 72) I dont take any sugar, no fatty foods, very rarely red meats,I try to avoid eating breads and follow only low glycemic foods, no coffee, no smoking, no alcohol, I rarely eat out and only try to eat organic foods and make sure no saturated fats are in any foods, and I exercised a lot as I was a fitness trainer, teaching at least 1-3 hours of classes/day 6 days a week, a total of 20 hrs of teaching advanced classes in weight training, kick boxing, yoga, aerobics, etc and running 3-5 miles 3 days a week. My resting heart

rate was in the low 50's. In general I am a calm person. Not easily getting depressed. At time of diagnosis, my endo wanted to monitor me closely to see whats happening since I was her only PA patient( or perhaps to learn more herself as well) My Aldosteron=43, Renin< .2, cat scan revealed an adenoma on the left gland, no renal problems, 1. Creatine started to climb. (from .6 last April to 1.35 in Oct),, with every month's testing this amount consistently went up. 2. My sugar level started climing. from 70's to 135 being the highest reading(2hrg test shows no diabetes, it was quite low I dont rememer the number). Despite my very strict diet.(I even cut down the fruits to one to two apples a day), absolutely nothing with sugar, no bananas to reduce the sugar though this was hard with my potassium no help there. 3. My Triglycerides went up from 189(high to begin with) to 450 within two months on spiro, she put me on Lipitor a month after taking lipitor(5mg) I was so sick with muscle aches and severe exhaustion, my color even looked different and even my friends and family were concerned the way I looked, constant numbing in my legs. I just had to stop taking it and my doctor suggested lots of fish oil which helped to bring the triglycerides down to 150 within few weeks. 4. Extreme numbing in my hands and feet. Sometimes my feet felt like they are falling sleep while walking. 5. All my potassium tests have been 4.1-4.5 while on spiro. 6. My fingers started swelling at the joints, my rings no longer would fit in my fingers and painful. 7. I felt emotional and somewhat depressed 8. My weight dropped from 115 to 110 but it took a good 7-8 months 9. Had a tough time waking up in the mornings, joints were

hurting. 10. Aldosterone kept rising to 68, renins kept rising to 3.2 11. The neph. suggested that I take 50 mg twice a day and lots of water to help with the creatine. In December I stopped all meds including fish oil(basically all I was taking was spiro and fish oil at this time anyway) to prepare for another AVS(the first one was not done right, the doctor did not go in either gland) All the symptoms above disappeared. My Glucose was back to 78 No more problems with swelling in my fingers but my belly started to gain water by the 6th week I felt pressure under my ribs from the water. I gained about 8 lbs.(water I assume) potassium dropped within 3 weeks to 3.6 though I increased my food intake of potassium rich foods. The feeling of exhaustion went away and I was much more energetic actually really feeling good, almost back to normal

with my energy. I could exercise and not feel fatiqued.I actually feel I had muscles. My heart rate dropped to mid 60's, creatine around 1. My bp started to rise from 100/60 to 170/110(it took a good 6 weeks to get that high with a 10 point avg climb in both sys/dias a week) CAT scan revealed No adenoma, aldos=13, renin< .65, some calcification of the right renal AVS showed I have hyperplacia, so I was put on spiro again immediately following AVS. But was advised that 100 mg is too much and I should only take 25 no more than 25/twice/day. On Spiro again!! on 25 mgs: My bp remains low in the mornings at 90/50 by evenings it is at high as 180/120 I decided to take the 25 closer to evenings instead of mornings, bp lowered to 160/110 at nights, mornings avg was 130/90 still not good increased the dose to 25 twice a day, still some days are very high in the

evenings. Fingers are swelling again and hurting and feel like ice cubes. When I shake someone's hands, they immediately pull their hand back and make a comment on the temperature of my hands. numbness of the hands and feet are again there. Belly swelling is reduced. My hr is up and just jumps high as I start walking, climing the stairs, etc. each time I go up the stairs at our home, by the time I am up, my heart is ready to jump out. my weight is about 115 lbs. My right foot swells as I walk. Though not noticable to the eyes but I feel it in my shoes. So I lie down often lift my legs up on the wall to release circulation. These days when I exercise regardless of what I do, my bp remains high for one full day with thumping pressure in my head(as if my heart is beating in my head) my hr remains high for one day(hr goes from 80 to 170-180 in seconds during exercise) I

become emotional, ready to cry at any moment. I try to force myself to exercise hoping that my body will eventually get used to spiro. I am swimming, yoga, walking, very light weights these days every other day or even sometimes every two or three days because even as low impact as these exercises are I have to wait a day to lower the bp and the HR. All of my heart exams have revealed no problems with my heart-Thank God for that despite all the horrific hospital mistakes. Well I hope my Spiro story will help someone who may be wondering of whats going on with them or wondering if its spiro or not. FYI, my endo who keeps saying she does not like spiro's effects on me, put me on Inspra for a month. started with 25mg up to 100/day. my bp constantly went up to 200's, severe flushing, sweating, headaches, heart palpitations and many more. so back to spiro it is for

now for me. Take care all and wishing you all best of health, Farah