Thank you all so much for your suggestions!

[Guest guest]

My auto immune disease is specific to my glandular system, leading to

the diagnosis of poly-glandular auto-immune disease. My glands

involved are the pituitary, hypothylmus, thyroid and adrenal glands.

My first symptom was an ian Crisis, which is total adrenal

failure...most people have no symptoms of adrenal insufficiency until

you have lost 90% or more of your adrenal functioning.

Tracing back what caused this cascading of failures is this: my

pituitary stopped sending hormone messages to my adrenals and ovaries

at the same time. As the pituitary gland got more dysfunctional and

didn't send messages to the other glands, the other glands stopped

working permanently. It is confirmed that I am in menopause (age 37)

and have not only no adrenal function, but also thyroid dysfunction.

How does this all make me feel? TIRED! I have absolutely no energy

to do much of anything I enjoy doing. Cooking is exhausting. I have

to sleep practically all weekend to have the energy to homes school

during the week. I have hot sweats back to back like a faucet most of

the day, I'm nauseous and easily vomit. In short...I'm a mess. I

feel very much like I did when I was pregnant (with soreness other

places that only mothers would know about), and now feeling FAT. My

usual weight is 115. Today I'm 168. I told my husband I'm fat and

faucety. And he told me I'm brave, beautiful and will be myself again.

To get back to " normal " I am starting with adrenal hormone replacement

therapy. This is essentially cortisone for life. Your adrenals make

a hormone called cortisol that regulates your ability to handle

stress. With replacement levels only at that which my body would

usually make, I am not at risk for side effects of long term cortisone

use. If I bring my dose higher than what my adrenals used to make, I

have to worry about several different potential problems.

Next is estrogen replacement to compensate for ovaries that are

dormant. I'm praying that the estrogen stops the maddening sweating.

Every night I drench my side of the bed and have to change the

sheets. It's maddening!

Then to regulate the thyroid dysfunction would be a RX for something

like Synthroid. It can take months to get your thyroid balanced, so

patience is a must.

When all of that is in balance I should feel like my old self...I

parsnickity GFer with a healthy body and energy to take me where I

want to go.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I have written them all down and

will bring them to my Endocrinologist's attention when I see her next

week. If I didn't say before, I was diagnosed by a brilliant

Hospitalist at Stanford named Kathleen . I am followed at Palo

Alto Medical Foundation with Dr. Tara Seneveratni. They are both

fabulous and brilliant.

Hope you all enjoy the dry and pleasant weather today!