Hello there, readers!
Please accept my apologies for not getting my next chapter of Debriefings on time. I was rushed to the ER with severe hyperkalemia brought on by renal failure due to dehydration from preparation for a colonoscopy interacting with my medications for hypertension.
In short, I almost didn't make it. My potassium was at 11.0 mg/dL. Most of the medical team there later told me that they hadn't seen anyone survive so high a K-level before. So, I spent 4 1/2 days in the hospital after emergency dialysis, letting my potassium return to normal levels again.
Anyway, I'm back home working on the next chapter of Debriefings now. I hope to post it in a few days.
Peace & blessings!
Comments
Glad...
You are still with us. You would be missed, and we have already lost too many members here.
Love the story
But I love you more in good health, take your time for your body, don't rush it.
Peace, Love, Health and Happiness
tmf
Refuah Shelema
A perfect healing to you my friend
rami
RAMI
I've had..
I've had docs watching my potassium level before (trying to make sure I didn't get hyperkalemia, I understand)...
That said, I was rushed to the emergency room once, and potassium was the problem... Mine dropped through the basement... They did two IV runs with potassium there in the ER, admitted me, and did two more in the room before my levels returned to "normal" enough... The first few didn't hurt, but that last one was painful... Potassium's a large molecule, and it can be painful when they're shoving it into your blood...
Glad you're back home and things are returning to what passed for normal for you.
Annette
Spironolactone & potassium
Many of you here take spironolactone as an anti-androgen to promote breast growth, but that's not the only indication for the drug. I take it to control my hypertension.
I suffer from primary hyperaldosteronism (PH). In addition to other hormones, the adrenal glands produce aldosterone, a steroid. With PH, my baseline aldosterone is too high. This in turn caused persistently high blood pressure. And it was not easily diagnosed. I was fortunate that my physician at the time was a bright, young researcher who thought outside the box and went looking for it.
Spironolactone works by reducing the effects of aldosterone as a hormone, but it's also a potassium-conserving diuretic (or "water pill"). This was highly effective in reducing my hypertension. However, it also has had the side effect of me growing a pair (I'm about at a B-cup now.) I know that's the main reason most of you take it who do, but for me it's been a problem. Still, so long as my blood pressure remains normal, my "girls" can stay. After all, some 50% of the world have breasts so I'll deal with it. Besides, I regard myself as more androgynous than TGed (unless you include androgyny in the TG spectrum), and my feminine self likes them, although they don't quite look right with the beard. :-)
Anyway, it was the potassium-sparing properties of spironolactone and hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), another diuretic I was taking along with it, that fed the feedback loop of hyperkalemia. This is why you should not be on spironolactone without supervision. Your potassium quite simply must be monitored while on this drug .
Anam Chara
Agreed...
I had a history of hypertension that wasn't well controlled by medication... Eventually they traced SOME of it to a hyperactive thyroid... The rest went away two weeks after I came out to my wife... My doc was convinced it was my Spiro that was controlling my blood pressure... Until I spent six months without (No HRT either)... And my BP didn't go back up. (Amazing what stress will do to you...)
Annette
I'm working
On a more radical solution to eliminate the spiro myself. Can you say orchiectomy?
Between the estradiol and progesterone the breasts are taking care of themselves, B cup and growing.
Progesterone...
My doc won't prescribe progesterone as part of HRT... The added risk of cancer, she says isn't worth the extra cup size it MIGHT provide...
Something else to keep in mind. She said that the Orchi does not necessarily eliminate the factors that make Spiro (& Things like Avodart or finasteride, which also block some testoserone pathways)... She said quite a number of her patients have needed to continue spiro after surgery. (On the other side of the coin, she said about 1/3 of her patients have gained a cup size in the year post surgery... Even those who'd been on HRT for years and whose breasts had stabilized years earlier.)
Food for thought.
Annette
Progesterone, or...
Progestins?
Actual USP progesterone can be taken as micronized tablets or as a skin cream and has very little to no additional risks, especially if taken responsibly. (Honestly the tablets don't seem very responsible to me. That's an awful lot of mg's on those things. Makes me wonder just how bad the liver damage is with those things.)
Progestins, however, which are far too often prescribed for far too many things, are absolutely horrid for their massive lists of side effects. Each different progestin having their own different list. And most of those include increased risks of varied cancers.
Worst of all, progestins really don't add much benefit at all. Especially compared to progesterone.
Of course... In most states you don't even NEED to be prescribed progesterone. Only in California. Anywhere else USP progesterone is considered so safe that you can just buy it OTC. And even in Cali they don't generally stop packages from online pharmacies from other parts of the US to inspect them, so just buy it OTC somewhere else and have it shipped to Cali.
With cycling doses of a plant-based estrogen source and usp progesterone I've been able to reach a very happy balance. The estrogen alone at the doses I'm using would've driven me crazy and they aren't even that high... But it's high enough to cause serious problems sleeping without cycling and balancing it with progesterone. As it is I still often end up with a day or two of no sleep mid-cycle when my estrogen doses are highest.
Abigail Drew.
Interesting...
I've never had any sleep issues with my estradiol HRT. *shrugs* (alternate week injections).
Annette
Probably...
At least partly a difference in people.
For me, estrogen dominance seemingly presents itself primarily as insomnia. If it's bad enough. MASSIVE insomnia.
Fun thing though is that a regular doctor would never suspect it to be from too much E with me. Because the primary estrogenic constituents of the plant I'm using, despite being EXTREMELY similar to estradiol and binding with basically identical properties... Doesn't show up as estradiol on hormone panels. It's the "invisible estradiol" lol.
Seriously though... Everyone's bound to be different and their natural hormones might do things in strange ways such that they wouldn't need the progesterone... I definitely need it though. And I'd probably still need it even if I were taking pharmaceutical usp estradiol instead of a plant.
How much difference it'd make would probably also vary...
I suppose I may just have very low natural progesterone.
Abigail Drew.
Take all the time you need
Glad to see you're on the mend. Take all the time you need your health is more important than whether folks here get to read the next part of your story.
Have delightfully devious day,
If I had sooner known, I'd have sooner written...
You know I'm praying for you, I hope. I think God still hears this old reprobate It sounds as though god is watching all the sparrows.
Bless you my friend,
Ole
We are each exactly as God made us. God does not make mistakes!
Gender rights are the new civil rights!
Take care of yourself
Your health is much more important than a story. Get healthy, Arecee
glad we didnt lose you, hon
praying for your full recovery
Simply Amazing
Your stories are so amazing and touching. I cry on nearly every one of them, your characters are so real, so true to life. If I had read you in High School (35+ years ago) it might have made such a difference! I just discovered your stories, i wish everyone could write about CDers like this - not the abusive, humiliating, sissy versions on other sites. Hope you are well now!
Sincerely;
M