I realize this is an aside while we await the results of my anticipated less than stellar recent bloodwork… however, in the market that I live in (CT) we only have 2 primary “exchange” insurances. Connecticare and Anthem.
I don’t have an exchange policy (though, they do sell an exchange policy similar in name)… I have uber deductibles and caps that are amazing. However, I had an incredible policy from Anthem and they terminated that offering… hence they were supposed to put me into something comparable and well I got this crap HMO. It will not happen next year, however, I don’t “have” to have referals, but I use UCONN (the medical school and their affiliate doctors) a lot for upstate care in CT for ordinary and mundane coughs and colds… its easier to get a referal to another tier 1 value provider for things like scoping my stomach etc… (at the hospital here) where the contract rate is cheapest.
But you get the good with the bad.
Thats why I have private med TRT and private med 2nd opinions on some other issues-- when I lived in Greenwich, we had pretty damn good doctors there. (100 miles away now)
Well got some data in… and I’m done with this MD – BTW. I asked him specifically to order certain tests and he “disregarded” my requests despite the fact of full disclosure and I consider it medically necessary (since I’m on hormone replacement).
I have 0 tolerance for this sort of crap from these clowns. I will have to schedule an consult with my Private Med guys for TRT and chat with them about this. Anyhow, I’m still awaiting my Free T and SHBG test results.
Apparently he ignored me and didn’t order E2 or any of the others requested. He did a standard CBC/Metabolic and TSH which are all fairly normal and consistent with the other report-- so I won’t bore you with them. He did order some ultra basic T tests as described above.
I just noticed… 175-800 ng/dl “standard range” is insane. I think they spend way too much time working FOR insurance companies, not the patients-- I never really thought much about it before.
I’ll update with the remainder of the Free T and SHBG when it comes in. I think this guy fired himself so far as I’m concerned. I don’t like Professionals who disregard their Client’s instructions or blow them off not knowing anything about the patient.
It really pisses me off. (As a professional) So I just spoke to him and he’s never treated anyone on hormone replacement. Wow…
Oh and BTW I did find out that my Total Cholesterol (which I did not ask to run) was 160… like really, so there’s that… and my sugars were a tad on the high side so automatically I’m now a diabetic. Unbelievable… 3 days of BBQ and Beer lol… (family, friends and more friends). Can’t handle everyone in 1 day. I have a feeling when I repeat some testing in a month or so it will be a lot lower. So the goal was metformin + statins = kill me off eh? And no, I’m not diabetic, I am porky but not diabetic.
UPDATE #1 7/24 @ 1034 EDT:
Sex Hormone Binding 14 (11 - 80) nmol/L
And the jenga puzzle gets weirder by the minute… I hope he remembered to order Free T. (And apologies for the prior Rant tone of the message)
There is only one type of protocol that can work, a daily protocol, maybe an EOD protocol but wouldn’t be my first recommendation. If you have to ask your doctors for proper testing, this is an indication this doctor is the wrong choice to manage you while on TRT.
You will not need very high Total T, probably closer to 450-500.
Thanks for the reply Systemlord. As I indicated above, the PCP doc, which is the one I got to do my yearly “physical…” basically fessed up this morning that he has never treated a person on hormone replacement… . And in the future I should “write-down” the tests to pull. Even though I did, I guess he read his doctor manual for dealing with TRT and realized he did not pull the tests correctly as I told him to do.
Yeah, right, erhm… anyhow… I spoke to my TRT Doctor and he is of the opinion that until 6-8 weeks goes by at a minimum – really 8 weeks, he does not expect any blood chemistry to be “stable.”
He wants to review the #'s after the [recent PCP ordered] blood work is finalized. (Not all of it is done yet) He also indicated he did not have an opinion at this time on the SHBG other than is better to be low than high. They also indicated my Glucose could be all kinds of crazy for a little bit as well as A1C depending on other factors. They said to retest it in about 6-8 weeks if I’m not symptomatic and see if it changes. He said he expects it will change considerably.
We’ll see where this goes so far. I’m feeling mood wise much better, perkier on getting out of bed. Nowhere near “WOW” I’m 17 again! Not even close, but definitely perkier.
This is right on the money and the opinion of the more experience doctors, 8 weeks is when I start noticing the benefits of each new protocol. At 6 weeks I still feel minor fluctuations even though levels are more or less where they are going to stabilize.
Well, I began my trek to the local Gym… I thought I would maybe be able to do about 15-20 minutes of cardio…
Did 1 hour total on a combination of Scifit (15m), Handbike (15m, to help heal a damaged tendon in my right arm), and 30 min on a seated bike.
What was truly bizzare:
I ALWAYS GET WINDED BADLY AND HAVE LIGHT AFIB. EVERYTIME. I’m about 50 lbs overweight in my opinion… (I’m 6’2" 334 lbs.)
Even when i was 21 yo and in ROTC… I was in amazing physical shape-- really crazy… still got AFIB and severe winding when we ran… yeah it got better… I could do 1.5 miles, even 3… no problem. Took a year to get there. But I’d stop, puke in a sewer etc… and think I was going to die. It never stopped. It’s one of the reasons I don’t go to the gym hardly ever… (I ski 35-40 days a year – downhill) that and dealing with our hobby farm. That was my sole exercise.
Well, testimonial aside, I did an hour of solid cardio-- my legs were like squishy and awkward when done… and there was NO AFIB.
Heartrate was 108 average and 117 at peak. I NEVER experienced such a feeling. I was mildly winded but not panting. My chest was not tight until I got mildly winded and I had no AFIB. Fcking incredible. It was such a foreign feeling. This is what honestly keeps me away from the gym. The feelings of AFIB and severe winding. FCKN GONE!!! AWESOME!!!
Is this a T thing??? It’s the only thing different about me??? Has anyone else experienced this?
I honestly felt like I could have gone probably about 2 hours but my legs would prob have punished me severely.
BTW: My plan is cardio 2-3x per week for 1 hour each. The rest of the time is major muscle groups.
Has anyone else experienced this??? I mean if you never had this problem you may not think its a big deal. It is a huge deal for me. Is this the Test???
I can confirm this with my own experience of switching protocols. At Week 6 it was leveling out but still fluctuating. At eight weeks, I could really feel the benefits and it has continued through Week 9.
A lot of people I deal with daily really noticed a massive “attitude” shift on Friday. It actually got kind of annoying with the “wow, you did something, your not the same… you sound so different” it was awkward but I felt a lot better as well. I can’t wait to see how I feel in another couple weeks. I just told everyone I’m spending more time at the gym. I really look forward to seeing how this is when its stable.
That is so funny. That’s exactly what my Wife said. She is of the opinion that nobody needs to know etc. I settled for the “going to the gym story…” seems to have worked for now.
Update on things: I was feeling “off” a week ago. Seemed to be getting a bit of edema in legs/feet (not horrible but noticeable). Wasn’t as “awesome” feeling as I was the week before.
Dr. ordered bloods, seems that my T level is awesome (1450 on 4/7) however, my Estrogen creeped up to 48. Seems my body doesn’t like this so we are upping the AI a bit.
I have to say being a month in, I really do feel awesome though. I have energy and motivation to actually do things. And the arthritis pain in my body (where I broke my back) is totally gone as is the AFIB I used to get during cardio. Poof as if it never happened.
Is everyone different? Are some people just super sensitive to E?
And BTW, my sugars have now dropped from the crazy #'s earlier in my bloodwork to 120. I figure in another 2 weeks they will be lower.
Yeah, the first 2-3 weeks was amazing then the bloat and end of 3rd week about the time estros went higher and libidio/sex was bad. Also felt “off”.
I’m also about 40-50 lbs overweight. So … yeah, I make lot of estros without any help. I am losing like crazy atm, but not enough yet. Actually its strange, I lose, I gain, I lose I gain. Lots of pockets of empty skin now though, but still a lot more to lose. I’m guessing its water, muscle, rinse and repeat. +/- 4-5 lbs any given day of the week. I do the gym about 5-6 times a week on a pretty strict protocol 3xintense interval cardio and weight lifting supersets the rest of the time to deplete.
