h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

- So said one of my main endocrine specialist nurses who's been seeing me know, since.... oo late 2015 I think... regularly...

I've not, lost weight, that is; I've put on 9 Lb (about 4 KG I think), since my lowest weight recently; but, evidentily as I thought it is all muscle... - she, like the barmaid a few nights back, insisted on 'feeling' my leg and was shocked by its err, solidness - maybe I am doing too many squats, or leg machine press reps... etc

Popped in to pick up a blood glucose monitor I wanted to test a theory (I was going to buy it myself, but when I asked the nurse for advice on which to get, she just said she had one for me, )

Got the blood results from err, about two weeks ago, too, which was the other main reason for the trip in...

TSH up into normal range (thats the hormone produced by my pituitary gland, that doesn't work, and which stimulates the thyroid gland, so I can't make it. but, am; not just* in range, well up into normal range).
the two measured thyroid hormones are below range, but rising (the thyroid gland must have atrophied after a year of suppression on exoginious levothyroxin), still below range, but higher than a month or so earlier; I predict these numbers will rise, as the thyroid re-activitates and gets working again after its quiesence.

Still no symptoms of low thyroid... no lack of energy, less brain fog/cognative problems than when on levothyroxine, and mentally/mood amazingly better which is nice
Drs still saying and doing absolutely all, nothing. At least the nurses are helpful and seem to understand why a patient feeling better, and feeling like they arn't a corpse or a member of the living dead, is a good thing.

Growth hormone measure, - Insulin like growth factor-1 is th emeasure, is still raised (they wanted to repeat the test, after the last raised value, to ensure it wasn't a lab error, as I've not altered my 'intake' of growth hormone (I.E., I inject the exact same dose, every day at the exact same time, within a couple minutes of midnight each day)).

Due to the raised IGF-1 I'm to slightly lower the GH dose; which is impossible as the dose can't be reduced in the injection pens, as they're set, so I'll just skip one or two nights injections a week; skipping two doses a week, will lower the average daily dose, to about 0.15 from 0.2, - we didn't want to do a big sudden drop.

will re-measure the IGF-1 level, in one month....

At that point, I expect that the IGF-1 value will not have dropped much; unless I've grown a GH-secreting tumour in a couple of months, the only really obvious reason for the GH being high, is I'm making it; its produced by the pituitary and therefore I can't produce it. unless... I'm producing it... - so I assume a drop in exoginous GH administration will cause an indoginious rise in production.
whatever happens with the value, I think after the next blood test, i'll suggest dropping the dose I inject further, and then re-measure again in a month... etc., etc., until we reach the point I'm basically injecting none, then re-measure to see what is being made indoginously

Then I'll request a GH stim test, and if they say no, I'll just pop up the road and book in for a private test, and probably get ACTH and cortisol measured as part of the same test (glucogon stimulation test, err, I think, been a long while since I looked at the stim tests).

I'm not going to say I told them. but. well. I did. they just didn't/don't listen

no gym today, but we had a good hour and a half walking; we walked all the way home from hospital, as the were playing games with big holes in the road (water or sewage works), so it made more sense to walk home - popped in and got lentils on the way home, and more pink salt didn't need any more gherkins today.

I've a strange fasination with eating gherkins ATM. just weird... maybe I'm defecient in something... they're ment to be good for electrolytes... - since the hospitalisation for low sodium in September, the Drs and nurses have forgoten about my almost going into a coma due to low sodium; so they've stopped monitoring it
Still not got any results from the Brain MRI I had back err, some time after that hospitalisation so I guess they've forgotten about that too

Must figure out how to use this blood glucose monitor, so I can do some middle of the night blood glucose tests, to see if hypoglycemia is the cause of the internal tremmors I've had for the last four years that the Drs won't treat/investigate.

Still waiting for cardiac appointment, the app we had for this week, was canciled ages ago... so still don't know the results of the recent heart scans, or the nearly a year ago blood tests, and heart MRI Maybe need to go bother PALS again to force movement from Dr Death (cardiologist who looks ill all the time)

Gym tomorrow. so far this week was mainly cardio, 30 mins Sunday, 35 minutes Monday and Tuesday, plus did upper body weights Monday and tuesday, with legs on Sunday... so probably cardio plus legs again tomorrow.

Did a bit of upper body lifting today, at home on the bar we've got and a couple squats since I was holding the thing .

Need looser fitting jeans, to fit my quads again
Oh, and did laundry today too, and dismantled a busted book shelf, to give to the neighbour, for her fire

That is some good news for you indeed - salute to the s...

Glad the not taking of levothyroxine is much better for you than taking it to deal with whatever the symptoms were that it was supposed to be treating

Fascinating about the Growth Hormone, too - it was interesting that you felt some benefit from taking it, but that is impressive that your levels are now increased from the same dose. That sounds very hopeful that reducing the dose will do you good.

I hope all goes well with the blood glucose monitor - that will be interesting for you to find out what's going on in your body glucose-wise in the middle of the night.

still not got round to getting the glucose monitor up and running... just been busy, and its not the easiest thing in the world to use, looking at the instructions with it anyhow - we've calbrated it, but I still need to figure out the lances, and how to coordinate getting the test strip in it, activating it, and then lancing myself, and bleeding on the right* bit of the thing, before the device powers back off seems a cumbersome design, but all seem the same (I saw a couple of the glucose monitors my PT has (he's diabetic))

Was busy day today at gym... and tiring and another probably busy day tomorrow and probably equally tiring

BoB knows what is going on with my thyroid... - I oughta be non functional with low thyroid lab results... - and I'm not at all just wish I could get someone senior at the hospital like my consultant interested enough to actually pretend she was a scientist, and do some testing, on me, to figure it once and for all will be even more interesting to see how my thyroid levels change with time now; as from now on, with no medication, its just what the pituitary and thyroid glands are doing, contributing to the blood levels