Unless it is included in the CBC, I don’t think it was drawn this time.
My last lab pre-TRT (in October) was glucose: 90 (ref 65-99 mg/dL)
Again, I dont get any tingling or anything like that.
As of right now, the sweating is so random that I am not even worried about it. just thought it was worth commenting on
Follow up labs. I swear to god, the only time labs ever come back correct is when I go to out of pocket facilities otherwise something always gets jacked up. I like my doc b/c he is an actual friend but his associates are beyond inept. The lady couldn’t even say testosterone. It was “tetastone.” Nothing aggravates me more than mispronouncing common medical words when it is in your field!!!
4/13/13 100 mg Test Cyp M/F, 1/2 anastrozole M/W/F, 500iu hCG M/F. Labs taken on Saturday morning
Total T 1122 ng/dL (348-1197)
Free T 23 pg/mL (9.3-26.5)
DHEA-S 331.4 ug/dL (160-449)
E2 Roche 40.7 pg/mL (7.6-42.6)
SHBG 37.4 nmol/L (16.5-55.9)
Prolactin 6.3 ng/mL (4.0-15.2)
IGF-1 247 ng/mL (75-275)
Commentary: I am entirely perplexed by the E2 values barely budging and my SHBG coming up 9 points. Does SHBG fluctuate that easily? Glad to see my IGF-1 came down as that was a concern at one point and my DHEA-S is higher than I’ve ever seen it. I will try and drive that even higher if I can.
For E2, using the basic calculation of new dose = old dose x (current E2/22)= 1 pill x (40.7/22)= 1.85 pills/week. I’m about out of my anastrozole so I will be picking up some compounded liquidex and using this as a baseline.
KSman or anyone else- anything stand out here? In about a month I am going to use LEF or some other company to acquire new labs. Trying to keep out of pocket costs down, what is advisable? Total and Free T4/T3/rT3, E2, DHEA-S.
Current plan will be to push AI to closer to 1:1 ratio and bump hCG to 600iu M/F to try and minimize stabbing myself to 2 days.
Why hCG 500–>600? Cannot see any reason, was two days before and after.
Getting E2 down may be a breath of fresh air. SHBG may take time to follow. FT should increase.
More DHEA? Suggest that you get E2 right and worry about DHEA later, then if you increase DHEA and E2 increases, you know what happened.
LEF has lab work on sale this month. It is a really good panel and great value.
When you change labs, numbers will change. LEF uses Labcorp.
[quote]KSman wrote:
Why hCG 500–>600? Cannot see any reason, was two days before and after.
Getting E2 down may be a breath of fresh air. SHBG may take time to follow. FT should increase.
More DHEA? Suggest that you get E2 right and worry about DHEA later, then if you increase DHEA and E2 increases, you know what happened.
LEF has lab work on sale this month. It is a really good panel and great value.
When you change labs, numbers will change. LEF uses Labcorp.
[/quote]
I’m trying to minimize my hCG dose but I am experiencing shrinkage and it makes me nervous. I just want to make sure I’m keeping the boys alive and also plump for cosmetic reasons. I may very well be imagining shrinkage but its making me paramour.
I will hold the course on DHEA. Should I come off it completely? The less things I’m on the happier id be but I was under the impression it was worth getting to top of range. Its only come up about 50-75pts since no DHEA managagement.
Your optimism of when I get E2 under control is refreshing.
We see some adverse E2 issues with DHEA with some guys, good to keep that out of the equation for now. I understand the benefits of higher DHEA, but I do not understand need for high levels. You can stay with your current DHEA.
Temperature tracker (I will EDIT this post as to not create more) @ 50mg iodine every night
4/25/13
4/26/13
-missed wake up temp
4/29/13
-missed wake up temp
4/30/13
-14:02 97.7, 97.6, 97.4
5/1/13
-11:40 98.0, 97.8, 98.0
5/7/13
-08:40 98.1, 98.3, 98.1
-16:00 98.6, 98.6, 98.3
-19:00 98.6, 98.8, 98.3
Morning wood has definitely improved. I never seem to have nocturnal wood and the morning wood takes a few minutes upon waking to be there. Definitely strong erections when I have needed them and my desire is increased a bit.
Still pushing the KI. While I still seem to get warm quickly I seem to sweat less now. Normally a walk around outside in 70+ deg weather will get my shirt damp. I was walking around in 80s with no issue this weekend. I very much enjoy that aspect of whatever is going on inside my body. I haven’t been tracking my body temps very well so I’ll get back on that.
If temps don’t seem to be rising, is that an indication that I need a different iodine source? Or maybe a better thermometer? I’ll try using my son’s tonight which is vicks thermometer and probably one of the nicer ones in the store.
Observations: So far, with the new E2 dosing, I have definitely noticed an increase in morning erections but have not noticed (maybe I sleep to hard) any nocturnal erections. I am groggy upon waking but within 10 minutes I am not even remotely tired and I seem to have an increased desire for my woman which is always good. Also, I think 600iu 2x/week is a pretty good point for hCG for me- things are nice and plump and not tight.
Last few days (4 or so) the benefits I was noticing lately (in terms of not sweating or feeling overheated) seem to have vanished. I’ve been sweating more, having night sweats, and now I’ve got a swollen lymph node at the base of my skull that is killing me. I did switch iodine supplement but that was only 2 days ago.
I’ve never had one of these lymph nodes in that area swollen before. I’m gonna give it a few days to clear and if not I’ll head to the docs.
I would say that the area of the lymph node is roughly where I was having neck pain (although at that time it was both sides) when I was like 3-4 days into IR. Is this some sort of bromine or other heavy metal die off? Perhaps as my temps are getting a little higher I’m burning more stuff off? I haven’t made any other changes and literally my body feels run down and not functioning as it was.
Dude I told you me and my friend had a reaction to that iodine… it was pure and simple from vit shoppe… stop taking it and if you want to continue get idorals as it has the proper iodide/iodine combination…
My temps have for the last few days been at good levels. I am continually hitting above 97.7 in the AM and I am reaching 98.6 throughout the day. At this point I am looking to taper down to a maintenance dose as I seem to be experiencing side effects now. I will do 5-7 days at 25mg and then another 5-7 at 12.5mg and then…
I need to research what to do then
I’ve had a few weird smells that I’ve noticed the last few days and at first I thought maybe my clothes didn’t get washed right or something but now I am thinking it may be detox which, along with my other symptoms, make sense. Rather than come completely off iodine or even really lowering the dose, I am going to try pulse-dosing, so basically take 48 hours off iodine and then jump back on to allow my kidneys to clear the contaminants. I definitely think some good is happening but since I was feeling great and then hit a wall without changing anything at all, I have to imagine there was a detox issue.
I will also be adding in betaine-HCL to see if I can get my digestion to improve. I’ve had really poor digestion for a while now and after reading some about it I think it may help me out where digestive enzymes and probiotics haven’t been able to. Anyone have any recommendations here? Thoughts on using TMG (just betaine) over betaine-HCL? The HCL attachment seems to be the quick fix but some argue it shuts down natural HCL production whereas TMG will aid production. On the contrary, some say the just boosting HCL tells the body to boost its HCL as well. Not sure who is right… Ironically, low iodine affects HCL production so I should be getting a boost of it with IR anyway.
I also made yesterday my last screw around day with diet (bad foods, alcohol, etc) and will focus on just better food choices consistently as opposed to eating great for a few days and then having a couple bad days. I imagine that will only help my situation.
Ok. I really need some guidance as I’m over-analyzing again. I felt good when I got about a week into IR. Like energy 1st thing in the AM, digestion felt better, libido was nice, testes were plump, and I was sweating like a normal person does not like a pig like is usual for me. Then, without changing anything, I reverted back to where I was prior.
Is this a sign that my thyroid was getting back on point but my adrenals couldn’t hold? I read a little last night about how the potassium in potassium iodide can really jack up your adrenals if they are already weak as the potassium/sodium ratio is unbalanced. The only time I’ve ever had aldosterone levels checked it came back under lab reference ranges (I believe it was 0 or <4) which indicates an issue with salts. At one time in my life, for a few months, whenever I would sweat I would get salt rings on my shirts, shorts, through my shoes, etc.
Now the question is- what is the way to go about this? I figure, at least for my current well being, fixing the gut is #1 priority b/c I am extremely uncomfortable when it’s off. I’m going to try the betaine-HCL, probiotics, and a super enzyme to get that back on track with a better/cleaner diet. Where do I go from there? Focus on the adrenals, thyroid, or elsewhere I am not thinking of? I would assume fixing the gut may help the adrenals and may be what caused all my issues in the first place. Maybe if I can repair my GI tract, the adrenals with recover if I supplement to assist them, and then if that isn’t enough, I can focus again on IR for thyroid.
I have Wilson’s Adrenal book (I think- it’s in kindle format so I haven’t tried it) so I will have to crack that open soon.
Does anyone have any ideas to assist? Thoughts?
Hey cooldawg, Is the smell you are noticing a fishy smell? My wife asked me if I had been eating the fish food. I did the same thing on IR. Once my temps got up to normal I had 2 or 3 days where I felt almost flu like. My stomach was upset and the gas was wretched smelling. I had a metallic taste in my mouth also.
All of the symptoms were indicative of a bromide cleanse taking place. I stayed on the IR and once the cleanse was complete I felt great…like cleansed. It just took a few days and I haven’t had any problems since. I did go to just a maintenance dose after the cleanse.
I wouldn’t say it was fishy. I don’t really know how to describe it. Almost like a musty smell? And it wasn’t happening all the time- like I said I sweat profusely and I haven’t smelled it at the gym or anything like that.
I’m split on if it is really just the cleanse getting under way from the IR or if it is something deeper. The pulse loading I was planning on doing anyway would kick start IR again tomorrow. This damn lymph node is still swollen and tender although it has come down in size the last 2-3 days.
Lymph node is gone although the area is still tender. When it was swollen it either pinched a nerve or cut off blood flow to the area causing that part of my head to become numb. It’s coming down on the pain and the feeling is back so I just have to wait out the full healing. No biggie
I’ve been getting a lot of headaches/fog and things throughout the day which tells me I crashed my adrenals with the IR. A quick salt load clears it right up. I think I had good results on the IR as my temps started to come up, potassium was increased and I was not sweating, had energy, felt great! But then it went overboard with electrolyte imbalance, my adrenals couldn’t hold, and I crashed. I had a few days basically where I felt better than I had in YEARS.
I am going to forego the IR as I work on improving my digestion which is a big problem for me and probably a source for my issues (nutritional stress) and work on adrenal recovery. I will monitor my temps more closely to see how they rise and also how stable they are. Once they become stable, I will add IR back in to start to trend my temps up.
If anyone has ANY ideas on how to get myself back to that state I was in before the crash that would be much appreciated. My concern is that I was using iodized salt while doing KI, so I’m not sure what was fixed that made me feel so well? Was it potassium being on point? Was it just the boost in iodine? What’s the next step?
The amount if iodine in salt is insignificant compared to your IR.
The amount of potassium in your IR dose is probably not an issue compared to sodium intake.
Define digestive problems and ping me.
In regards to the iodine salt while taking IR, I was referencing that I was still taking sodium in during IR. I was trying to determine WHY I had this great feeling that dissipated- possible potassium to sodium ratio imbalance? I am now taking 1/4-1/2tsp grey celtic sea salt 3-4x daily to see if this can help. It does help with the headaches and intense headfog but so far no relief like I had for the few days during IR and the short term memory/light fog issue is still present.
Digestive problems: lots of bloating and stinky gas, reflux, constipation, occasional (pretty rare) diarrhea, pain, malabsorption. Doesn’t seem to be any blood in the stool. Was told I had Celiac based on blood tests but GI doc did endoscopy and said I didn’t have it. Said I had gastritis and threw me on a PPI and another drug for a little bit. I still try and avoid glutens as much as possible and find I feel better when I do but I still run into issues so I know it’s not gluten only or maybe not gluten at all and rather something else that gets me.
My current regime to fix this is to avoid glutens as much as I can, stay away from coffee/soda/etc (hasn’t ever really been a problem tho), taking betaine-HCL (currently 3000mg per meal as I did the HCL test and 3600mg was uncomfortable), use PB8 probiotic at night time (refrigerated), and have started to utilize raw milk for probiotic effects.
Check this out: Renew Life | Probiotics, Herbal Cleanses, and Digestive Enzymes
and Renew Life | Probiotics, Herbal Cleanses, and Digestive Enzymes
You may be over run with with bad things in your gut. Antibiotics are some times used for a “reset” which should be followed with a good probiotic. But antibiotics some times lead to a problem where the antibiotic resistant strains take over and things can get worse.