Latest Am Cortisol Results & Other Things

Am cortisol drawn earlier this week was 11. I was told anything over 10 is considered normal. However, there are, as usual, 50 different ways to interpret the results.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Just to name a few. There are many, many more. Both for and against.

My take? Remains the same. I am okay to be off steroids, but not quite up to full production capacity and the HPA axis is still somewhat unresponsive to demand. The endo obliquely alluded to that in our short phone conversation.

I am realizing though, if my take is accurate, this may be SAI or a recovery. It could go either way. I hadn't thought of it that way before. I just assumed the HPAA would ramp up, but I guess it may not.

I am also underwhelmed that the am cortisol level isn't higher than it was in December when we did the first ACTH test. It's actually a bit lower, although probably still within the realm of normal fluctuation. I was hoping for a 15 (I've heard of endos that say you'll feel like crap at anything below 15 and I believe it!).

Nothing changes. I push myself to live as fully as I can so that, if I tank, it will show up on the ACTH test. The endo says from here it depends on how I feel. I didn't pursue that statement, but I infer that it means I could take steroids if I needed them? Or maybe if I still feel slow and sluggish they would do more testing? Wish I had thought to ask for an elaboration.

As for the gut, it has finally calmed down. My gallbladder ( I assume) is still bouncing around in there, causing a lot of sensation on the right upper and lower quadrants of my abdomen (it often mimics appendicitis and/or being skewered for shish kabob for some reason) but the heartburn seems to be under control. 40mg of Nexium seemed to do the trick. There's a lot less bloating and inflammation in the GI system than there was...so progress.

With regards to the writing, for those of you who asked to read...ummm. That's a hard one. It's kind of like asking to see me naked. Also it is very cheesy smut because that's what sells. Plus, it was what I had in my backlist to develop.

I am working on a project that will probably intersect with anything of mine that is published, so if you follow that when it's up, you'll likely encounter any books I have out.