Update on visit with endocrinologist, things looking better

Jul 25, 2009

If you've been keeping up with my story at all, you know that this has been a strange winter for me.  For no reason whatsoever, I dropped to an all time low weight of 116 pounds.  I stopped having periods for months, became very weak, I was even lethargic at times, was having heart palpitations, swollen feet, ankles and legs, and had to start on heavy medication for intestinal issues.  (Too many frequent BM's, Gastro doc put me on Opium and Dicyclomine, worked like a charm, btw).  After seeing my PCP, and my GYN, my DS surgeon referred me onto an endocrinologist when we discovered that my thyroid levels came back low, in range, but very low.  All of my symptoms were pointing to hypothyroidism.  I have waited now for two months to get in with this endocrinologist and yesterday was finally the day.

In the 2 months leading up to the visit yesterday, I also had my 2 year labs drawn which showed my albumin and protein were both below the range.  I never in a million years thought my protein was going to be an issues as I was getting 100+ grams of protein a day from food.  Please notice that food is in bold because this was the first time since getting my DS that I wasn't having protein shakes on a daily basis.  My numbers tanked without the protein shakes. Once my protein numbers dropped, all of my vitamin levels followed suit.   The same symptoms that made my surgeon refer me onto the endocrinologist, COULD have been from protein malnutrition.  On the advice of Vitalady, I started back on 4-6 protein shakes a day immediately, and have been doing so for 6 weeks now.  I have not changed any of my vitamins, Michelle felt that as my protein numbers increased that the other numbers would follow right behind.  I get my labs retested tomorrow.  I don't need to see them to know that things are going MUCH, MUCH better! 

The first thing that changed when going back to having protein shakes was the swelling in my feet, ankles, and legs almost went away immediately.  (Still comes back when I'm doing way too much).  My energy has begun to return as the weeks have passed, daytime naps are no longer necessary for me to get through a day, I've even been doing some walking in the evenings!  I had gotten to a point in the winter when being awake longer than 8pm was a struggle!  My weight is back up in the 135 range, it's a perfect weight for me!  I've stopped taking the digestive enzymes and my weight has stayed up even without them.  The heart palpitations are gone, muscle weakness has disappeared and my period returned on July 12!!  I didn't even have to go to the endocrinologist to know that protein was the problem all along.  I have even weaned completely off of the Opium (just 2 days now) and I'm doing a round of Flagyl to get my guts back in line. 

So, back to the endo doc yesterday.  (I weighed in at 138 pounds  at her office!  Yay!)  She walks in the room perplexed as to why I'm even there.  I told her the above story and said I was still exploring the possibility of a revision to my common channel.  (Of course I had to show her a diagram of the DS and explain what a common channel was).  I told her Dr. Inman wanted reassurance that my low thyroid levels weren't the real problem before continuing with the idea of a revision.  So, the endo drew some blood to retest my thyroid, free T4 and T3 and she did one other test too that I can't remember what it's called.  She said she also suspects that I have solved the problem on my own, and didn't feel I'd need to have a follow-up visit. 

So, the moral of this story is, I will never stop drinking protein shakes again.  My anatomy is altered and with my short 70cm common channel, it's become apparent that this is what I'll have to do to live my healthiest life.  When I was losing weight, protein shakes helped me to curb my appetite for carbs so I would lose weight  and now when I needed to gain, protein shakes helped me build a foundation of protein to allow my body to reach a normal weight again.  I cannot say enough how different my life is now.  I still have to work the intestinal thing out, so I think it's time to meet with a new gastro doc and see what they can do for me.  I have no intention of living my life on a medication that the pharmacist has to get out of the vault to dispense for me if I can avoid it. 

So, all in all, things are looking up and if I can solve the intestinal thing, I'll be avoiding a revision all together.  I can't tell you guys what a relief all of this has been.  I'll be back to update with lab numbers when I do the re-draw tomorrow morning. (Should have results late next week).   PLEASE don't let yourself get protein malnutrition, it sucks big hairy balls, believe me!!! 

Lori

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