Continuing adventures; Nizoral, Cortisol, and me

So it's been a while since I updated the blog.

Since that time:

1) Discovered that I can't take Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALC) at any decent dose, because it dropped my blood sugar like a rock.
2) found a powdered version of ALC, so I can take a tiny dose a few times a day.

So far it has NOT cured my addiction to steak, but I'm still trying. I figure I need much larger doses, but I'm getting there.

3) begun to take decent doses of L-Lysine as well. I didn't know whether that was working, until this weekend. This weekend, in Flu season, I went to Cleveland to do a public event. I didn't sleep well the night before, then had to drive in the dark, in stressful conditions (darned google maps), in a hurry because I was going to be late, went to a dinner that lasted too long, to go to bed too late, to be unable to sleep, to get up too early, to not eat enough for breakfast, to teach sessions that didn't go as planned, to have to eat late, skipping some meds, then late dinner, and later to bed.... and also didn't take my lysine either the day before or the day of the event. And that night I got the biggest fever blister on my lip, evah. It could have been caused by the stress on my immune system, eating something I'm allergic to, sunlight (drove into the sun on the way home), or whatever. Regardless, blisters that I thought I was done with came back as soon as I stopped taking the Lysine.

Lesson learned. Today I doubled my dose, but I think it's too late. The damage is done. We'll see.

4) Went to see the fibro doctor since the last post. She agreed that the Diflucan didn't sound like it was working. She didn't know that Berberine worked synergistically with Diflucan (figures I had to teach her that), and agreed that the 2 berberine tablets that I was taking with Diflucan were good, but that the Diflucan probably were not quite effective. She said that I could change to a different drug, or up the dose. She wasn't keen on upping the dose because of possible liver issues, and she felt that it was possible that my infection might be Diflucan resistant.

Also, she felt that my adrenals weren't entirely up to snuff. However, my blood tests seemed to indicate that I practically at the point of Cushings (caused by the over production of cortisol from your adrenal glands), even though I had none of the physical symptoms of Cushings (no moon face, no hump on back, etc.), and showed every other sign of having adrenal fatigue and too little Cortisol.

She felt that I might be overproducing Cortisol in the morning, then sputtering out and not producing enough throughout the day. That it was possible that I truly needed more Cortisol, and that it would help with my energy issues. Further, you should never really treat the thyroid without also being sure the adrenals are okay.

--So, now I am on 20mg of Cortisol (once for breakfast, once for lunch), and she upped my T3 to 50mcg (25mcg in the AM, 25mcg around dinner).

--And she changed my antifungals to Nizoral, 200mg (supposedly for breakfast).

On the first day, I took the T3 around 7am, by 8:30a felt a little heart poundy. Then took Cortisol for breakfast, and a Nizoral-- and had the worst migraine. It lasted all day. Then I took the second Cortisol, no change whatsoever. The T3 around 7p made me feel slightly less fatigued, but otherwise no change.

I felt horrible; disconnected, exhausted, weak and shaky, light sensitive, terrible headache. Bad. So I did a lot of research on Cortisol and Nizoral.

-- If you have too much Cortisol you can get bad headaches, muscle weakness (even muscle loss eventually). That is what I felt that first day, so I am figuring that AM Cortisol is bad.

--But (and this was a surprise to me, why would a doctor prescribe something like this to a hypoadrenal patient?), Nizoral is used to treat Cushings by suppressing the Adrenal Glands and blocking the production of Cortisol.

Keep in mind though, that first day, there wasn't enough in my blood to help counteract the first Cortisol dose.

Worried, and not having time to play-- this is what I did:

- Kept the thyroid meds, T3, just as they were. They seemed fine.
- Stopped taking the morning Cortisol.
-Kept taking the afternoon Cortisol. It seemed that the afternoon one did seem to keep me going better in the afternoon. No afternoon nap required anymore. Yay!

and the biggy:
- Changed my Nizoral schedule to taking it at night. It seemed to take about nine to eleven hours to completely clear the Nizoral side effects, so I figured if I took it at dinner (must have food), that would give me about three hours before bed, then eight hours in bed. That would give me eleven hours to clear.

Further, I read that your body produced Cortisol in a diurnal pattern. In the morning it produces a lot, to get you up and ready for the day. Then it increases again in the afternoon to give you a boost at the end of the day. Then, at night it stops altogether, so you can sleep. So if I take a Nizoral at night, and is suppresses my adrenals, it's okay. They're off anyway.

And it WORKS. I feel pretty darn good. I have energy, I don't need so many naps, and even my stomach doesn't hurt that much.

Another unexpected bonus-- my hypoglycemia seems less extreme. Cortisol helps keep your blood sugars up and even, and apparently the Diflucan was really making my hypoglycemia much worse (who knew?). I am optimistic that I might be able to tolerate higher doses of ACL, Co-Q10, etc., soon.

Now, I may have stressed my immune system, which is why I've got the lip thing going on, but at least I can easily take the Nizoral (which has some nasty side effects) without too much trouble.

My current regime:

-T3, early AM (then usually back to bed)
-Maitake, one to two pills, just before breakfast
Breakfast
-vitamin D/Multivitamin (DHEA every other day-- too much estrogen if you don't, bad lesson there)
-two tablets Berberine
- Between Breakfast and Lunch- L-Lysine
Lunch (around 3pm)
-Cortisol
(sometimes an Adrenal Stress vitamin C formula)
-2 berberine
Dinner
-Nizoral

In between, whenever I need it I also eat heaping teaspoons of Coconut Oil, about five drops of Oil of Oregano at a time (sublingual, and expensive), and use tea tree oil for my sinuses (it opens them up and is supposed to be antibacterial, antifungal, and even a little antiviral).

So far, it seems to be working. I have been around people coming down with or getting over swine flu/normal flu/strep and haven't gotten it yet-- which gives me tentative hope.

I spent the last weekend out of town, and I am prepping to fly (eek) to another event this weekend that will be a test of my endurance- four hours of teaching (with a break for food). On my feet, talking non-stop. Here's hoping I'll be okay. : )

After that I have to prep for another four hour event in December, work on a new beta of the product I write about, then prep to write another 1100 page book. During that, I will also have to deal with IV antiviral treatments, hardcore antibiotic treatments, and probably another course of antifungals because of the antivirals before I'm done. Each of these courses has their own side effects and problems to deal with on top of trying to write a book.

Wish me luck. : ) I'll keep you posted.