Missy’s Story
Her headaches went away on Armour!
I had the most amazing realization today! I live in SW Missouri and we had storms and a cold front blow through today. The temps dropped from 60 degrees to 30 in a matter of a few hours. Before Armour I have always had terrible sinus headaches with a weather change or storms. Like the gray skies were reflected in my head and mood.
Well today I just realized that I have no headache! And I really can’t remember having one during the last month or so either! I have now been on Armour for 2 1/2 months and currently at 3 grains. YAY for Armour!! This has been like a gift to me! I just can’t believe that I hadn’t noticed before. I just know that little gifts will just keep on coming.
UPDATE!
The following story traces Missy’s Armour and sluggish adrenal story in detail, from August of 2005 to her successful completion off cortisol and beyond to Fall of 2006.
I started on Armour in August of 2005. I did not tolerate stress well at all before starting Armour and this got worse once Armour was added. Bright lights would feel like they were blinding me and the sunlight was miserable without sunglasses. When I was under stress, I would shake like a leaf. When my husband would drive, I would startle and panic, thinking he was going to hit something–drove him nuts. I felt like hiding at home all the time because I could not stand any kind of confrontation.
Adding Armour made all of the above worse and I started having bouts of anxiety as well. I felt extremely fragile and unable to cope with daily life. I had always, since I was a kid, gotten very lightheaded when I would stand up from a laying down position and at times, I came close to blacking out completely. At night when I would get up to go to the bathroom, I would have to sit on the side of the bed for a couple of minutes or I would not be able to see: blackness would come over my eyes as I would stand up. Salty foods were something I had always craved. I had terrible bouts of hypoglycemia, to the point where I would get very sweaty and dizzy if I didn’t eat. At the checkout counter at Walmart, I would always start sweating and shaking after unloading my big cart of groceries. Shopping was something I dreaded terribly because of reactions like this. I did a temperature chart and found that my temperatures fluctuated widely during the day, from 96.1-98.2 I had problems with going to sleep very early, getting wired and wide awake at bedtime. I would fall asleep only to awake between 2 and 4 am, staying awake for 1-2 hours.
I kept feeling like something just wasn’t quite right, but I stuck with the Armour until I was at approximately 2 grains. I began to take an adrenal supplement called “Enzymatic Therapies Adrenal Stress-End” in October of 2005. This didn’t do a thing for me, but I took it for 2 or 3 weeks. I switched to “Enzymatic Therapies Adrenal Cortex Complex” and it seemed to help just a little more, but not enough to make much of a difference.
The second week in November 2005, I started taking Isocort, an adrenal glandular that has a more measured amount of cortisol. This began to make a difference for me. I played around with the dose and was afraid to take much of it because of fear of cortisol dependency. I found I felt best if I took at least 7-8 pellets. I developed a rash in either side of my ribcage and this remained the entire 2 months I took Isocort.
In December 2005 I had saliva testing done through the Canary Club and found that I rated in stage 4 adrenal fatigue with my cortisol labs low at every stage except midnight, where it was at the top of the range. So this higher cortisol was what was keeping me awake at night. I began to consider taking hydrocortisone (Cortef) after reading more about this from Dr. Peatfield, Dr. Derry, Dr. Jeffries and from the experience of patients on this forum. I ordered the hydrocortisone (HC) and switched over from Isocort to 15 mg of HC in January 2006.
I noticed a definite improvement on this dose with hypoglycema symptoms becoming lesser right away. I was taking 5 mg first thing in the morning, 5 mg around noon and 5 mg around 4pm. I found I had to stress dose quite often. There was not enough improvement, so I increased to 20 mg of HC after 2 weeks, adding the extra 5 mg in the morning. I held this dose for nearly 3 months, being afraid to take more, and wanting all the time to wean off the HC out of fear. My temperatures continued to fluctuate widely and I still had to stress dose for many situations. I increased Armour during this time from 3 grains to 4 ¼ grains. But I wasn’t seeing relief of symptoms like I should. I was extremely fatigued in the afternoon and it could come on me around 3 pm so severely that I would leave work to go home and lie down.
Near the end of April 2006, I squelched the fear and increased the HC to 25 mg. In 2 days, I experienced what we call a thyroid dump. I had been way too low on cortisol this whole time, so my Armour was just building up in my blood and not getting into the cells. When the thyroid was suddenly taken up into the cells, it was too much and I experienced sudden hyperthyroid symptoms. My temperature soared from the usual 97.5 to 99.1! I was hot and sweaty, achy, nauseous and could not sleep at all. I had to stop taking Armour for 2 days .
Once the thyroid dump passed, I was suddenly feeling better. My afternoon fatigue left completely. I was no longer having fluctuating temperatures. Stress dosing became almost non existent. I started back on the Armour at 3 ¼ grains (1 grain lower than it was before). I increased my Armour back up by ¼ grain every week until I was back at 4 ¼ grains. This was truly a turning point in my journey.
I continued to take the 25 mg of HC until July of 2005, 3 months total. I was at my optimal dose of Armour and began to forget to take my last dose of HC..with no consequences. Then I dropped another 2.5 mg; I kept on dropping 2.5 mg every week or two. I had to stress dose when we had a lot of company and when my son got married, but slowly but surely, taking 3 months, I weaned off HC completely, noticing no weakness or problems at all. I did pick days that were very low-stressl to make my reductions and this worked very well.
Now that I am off the HC, I am feeling really good. I am sleeping well and going off the HC has not caused me to be weaker in any way. I feel much stronger than I was before starting HC. I’m not fragile anymore. Stress is easier to take and I don’t have to carry food with me everywhere I go because of hypoglycemia. That seems to be gone completely. I can take walks without getting overtired or shaky. My adrenals seem to be reset to a normal daily pattern, allowing me to sleep at night. I could not have tolerated the Armour, nor could I have ever found my optimal dose, if I hadn’t taken the hydrocortisone for those 10 months. Life is good today! I don’t regret for a minute taking this journey.
Missy
