And now for a story. (always try to start a sentence with "and", it drives English teachers nuts. Think of it as revenge from that red pen that's always appearing on stuff you have written. Oh yes, found the spell check too, thank goodness. You always look like a goose with spelling mistakes all over the place. Personally I'm sick of geese.)
Right then, my former endo (he's not old either) gave me the usual blood tests to do. I accidentally thought of something, I took them to my GP! He put his stamp on it for a copy of the results to go to him and I took a copy of it for myself. I then was referred to another endo and I showed him these blood tests I was to do. He said they're wrong, I'm doing tests I shouldn't be doing and he's left off test I should. Caught! How lucky was that. It was only b/c new endo had a cancellation and was a friend of my GP that I went to see new endo in less than a week. I had already done the tests so he rang up the labs and ordered more tests.
I wasn't given fludrocortisone, only dex and this amazed the new endo. He gave me a show bag full of drugs (complete with fairy floss) and off I went. Old endo said to take salt instead of fludro.
Over time I lost my taste for salt. It was slow, say over 2 years I reduced my salt intake. I forgot to tell anyone abt it. Who sits around a dinner table and discusses their favourite salt? Well me and I guess other CAH ppl. Then something started to happen, I became dizzy. Dizzy in that I lost my balance, the room seemed to spin too. I went to see my GP straight away when it became that bad. (I might mention here that my husband was no help - he saw me doing this spin to the left and then down to the ground in the backyard and yelled out "Get a grip, it's too early to be drunk" Yes, a big help...sheez he annoys me!) If this happens to you, sit on the ground.
I think I must have booked this appointment in advance for the MD or had some contact with new endo. He said to take my BP lying, standing and sitting. The nurse and GP took my BP 8 times before they could find it. I'm told this is not unusual. I could lie down but not stand without falling forwards as the whole room was spinning. I said to my GP I should be in hospital, who knew why, but he agreed.
Then GP phoned endo and after a long chat (probably abt the cricket and the tennis), GP says take a sports drink and gives me a script for Stemetil and says take that too. The surgery rang up my husband to collect me, lucky the car had been cleaned really, it's not a good look to depart in a filthy car (today's tip).
So my husband drops me home and collects things I need. He accidentally brought home a bottle of Gatorade which said "with extra sodium". After settling, I read the bottle. It's to top up your electrolytes if they are unbalanced. ELECTROLYTES!!! Wot's that all abt? Then I remembered SALT!! It worked too. Then I looked up the medical dictionary to find out what these creatures called electrolytes were on abt. Have a look, chook:)
So I worked out that I had an electrolyte imbalance, I guessed it, no-one told me. The Stemetil is for nausea and I guessed they were taking a two-way bet. Dehydration or electrolyte imbalance? Well it worked and, as usual, when went to the endo he said, yes I'd worked it out. Well tks for not telling me, you idiot! When you see in those medical texts side-effects of drugs, they show "dizziness" but no mention abt electrolytes.
Since taking new meds, hysone and fludro these side-effects are disappearing, although from time to time I'd like to do a cartwheel. I was good at that a long time ago, when Moses first learnt to part the Red Sea. Wouldn't that be a good party trick?
Well if anyone else out there knows what to do re this problem, I'd like to know, please? Or has enyone else had this problem? Tks v much
Love
