Jump to content

Lily Pearl

Members
  • Posts

    13
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Lily Pearl's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

0

Reputation

  1. The flushing may be partly due to Florinef if you are taking it. I experienced flushing before I started taking it but even more so afterward. If you take Florinef it tends to flush the potassium out of your body and so it helps to take potassium supplements - eating bananas or oranges won't adequately meet your need. When I began to take potassium I found that the flushing diminished substantially though I still experience the heat and sweating from time to time and for no reason that I can figure - but there has been a great improvement. The doctor has also told me that it is important to take additional vitamin D when on this medication. Lily
  2. I'm on Pantoloc and it seems to do the trick most of the time, though very expensive. I'm in Canada and so Pharmacare pays for it for about 3/4s of the year for me. Our insurance picks up the rest. Try to sleep with the head of your bed elevated or get a wedge. I made my own by covering a piece of plywood with carpet underpadding and putting that into a king sized pillow case. I then prop that on two pillows. It's a little hard to get used to but it does work. I have to also sleep with two pillows under my knees to keep from slipping off this contraption. If I wear wrist braces for carpal tunnel, my husband says I'm quite a sight! If I don't use it though my lungs are very congested in the mornings. My respirologist says that reflux is one of the things that triggers asthma like symptoms. Also try sleeping on your left side if you are sleeping flat. It somehow puts the esophagus at the high end of your stomach so that the acid can't leak out if there is a hiatal hernia problem. I would also recommend not eating near bed time. I have to because otherwise I wake up during the night. Hope things look up for you.... Lily
  3. Are you taking potassium with your Florinef? I was told that it was important for me to do this. When I neglected to listen to the doctor's instructions I began to have a lot of hot flashes and to sweat a great deal. I began to take the potassium tablets and within a week the sweating and hot flashes were under control. I still have them but on a less regular basis. Also, I'm told that it is important to take extra vitamin D and calcium as Florinef can deplete the bones of calcium - not good for those of us who are getting older and subject to getting osteoporosis.... Lily
  4. Severe hunger can be as a result of hypoglycemia. It can also be a symptom of other diseases and also different medications. Try doing some research on insulin resistance. If I'm not mistaken this has to do with our cells not being able to absorb glucose very readily. We have to combat this by eating less or no sugar and fewer simple carbs (if a person eats most vegetables they are getting more than enough glucose to power the brain) I read that 75% of people who are over weight are insulin resistant. When I went off the simple carbs I lost ten pounds without really trying. I never let myself get hungry but just ate high fiber foods. One of the signs of insulin resistance is the tendency to put weight on very easily. My weight is quite steady now though not exactly what I would like it to be. When your body is at its ideal weight it metabolizes glucose more readily as well so it is a bit of a catch twenty-two, trying to lose weight but not really being able to. Also, there is a web site that has the glycemic index on it. This will tell you how quickly certains foods are metabolized. What is needed is to find those that are metabolized very slowly. Glucose is absorbed more readily if it is consumed with protein. Dry cereals have a lot of sugar in them even the ones that are not considered to be sweet cereals. It's best to check the grams of carbohydrate and sugar in the processed food you buy - there are so many things that are just loaded with sugar. If you are plagued with anxiety as I am it is certainly worth trying to cut out the sugar and simple carbs for awhile to see if you do feel better. You may feel worse in the beginning but hold out and you'll find that you crave these foods less and feel better in the long run. There is a web site that I found by doing a search on 'Diets for Hypoglycemia' They have a strict diet to start out with and a liberal diet with a few more foods added after your body has adjusted to the strict diet. For those who have anxiety or depression, it is certainly something to consider. http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/h/hypoglycemia/symptoms.htm Lily
  5. I get nausea only very occassionally upon waking, mostly when I'm undergoing some stress. I find that if I can get my husband to bring me some water, at least two tall glasses, drink them, and then wait for awhile before getting out of bed, my nausea decreases. I've gotten this nausea before when my BP has dipped severely. I was told that I was hypovolemic and so I figured that a lot of additional fluid might help. It gets so that when I feel sick my first reaction is to drink water. If it comes back up then I know that my nausea is not POTS related I was also told to do a number of stretches before I got out of bed in order to prevent nausea if I didn't have it already. I don't know if this would help if the nausea was severe, but who knows? Lily
  6. Diana, My blood sugar is not generally low either. I managed to get an appointment with an endo a few years ago and when I mentioned my symptoms she suggested that I probably had reactive hypoglycemia. She wouldn't give me a glucose tolerance test though because my fasting blood sugar was normal. A doctor friend told me that it can sometimes be almost impossible to diagnose hypoglycemia unless you have a five hour test rather than the two hour one. I know that my blood sugar starts off in the normal range in the morning, jumps quite a bit after ingesting sugar and then drops to below the normal range after three or four hours causing me to be very tired and in need of sleep. I find that diet is the only thing that really helps - meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds and vegetables that don't contain a lot of sugar (peas, corn and root vegetables eaten in smaller quantities) No bread, rice, pasta, potatoes or sugar. Eat small meals but more often. Also, I believe that Florinef helps because before I started taking it, even a diet drink would cause that hunger knot in my stomach. I read that even though your body isn't getting sugar, when you drink a diet soda, your body 'thinks' it is getting sugar and responds as though it was. It can take a few months before a person adjusts to a new way of eating and in fact I felt worse before I began to feel better. My anxiety level is tolerable and I don't have that unbearable hunger knot in my stomach nearly as often and then only for a short time. It's not easy to give up some of the stuff we love to eat and I confess that occassionally I'll eat something that I shouldn't. It sometimes takes awhile before it catches up with me but it always does. I guess it's a matter of knowing what you want more - the stuff you shouldn't eat or to feel better. Lily
  7. I felt somewhat like this before I went on Florinef. It would happen when I would like down in bed. I'd feel this vibrating, buzzing, crawling, electric feeling all over my body. Sometimes it would be accomanied by anxiety attack feelings. I think it has something to do with adrenalin. I also have tingling in my feet constantly and often in my hands and around my mouth. When I am alarmed suddenly, the backs of my hands burn with a lot of heat. I think that the vibrating feeling is an extension of those other feelings. Before I went on the Florinef and the Celexa, I also had a lot of stabbing pain in my feet. I still occassionally feel this vibrating but it is not to the point that it is as distressing as it was. I've never had a migraine with this feeling though. I imagine there are as many symptoms as there are people with POTS. Lily
  8. It's interesting to note that there are other people out there with the same problems that I have. When i go to different functions, it seems that I am the only one refusing to eat certain foods. I've found that my acid reflux is greatly decreased when I eat proplerly. Also, my anxiety and lack of concentration are reduced when I stay off the sugar and simple carbs. I do eat oats though but in home made granola (1/2 oats, 1/2 almonds, walnuts, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds, peanut butter, oil, Splenda) Because the oats are not cooked in water they take longer to digest than porridge made with oats does. The longer it takes something to digest, the better. I also can eat whole rye crackers though some would argue that they taste a lot like cardboard. Often the reason people feel crummy on things made with flour is because they are beginning to experience something called 'insulin resistance' or reactive hypoglycemia (I have both). Before I began to eat properly, I had this severe hunger, knot in my stomach, kind of feeling. It was debilitating because I could concentrate on nothing else. Thinking I was hungry, I ate more and the worse it got. Once I started to watch what I ate, the feeling eventually went away after about three or four months. In fact, that feeling, or the anxiety is what warns me that I need to shape up when it comes to diet and exercise. For some reason taking Florinef also reduces that severe hunger feeling. It would be good to know more about diet and POTS. Lily
  9. Julie, I can't tell you about test results but from experience I can say a little about acid reflux. I found that if I eliminated bread from my diet, that it reduced the amount of acid reflux I was experiencing. I still take Pantaloc for it and that helps a great deal. The trick might be to eliminate some of the well known triggers (I'm sure that others might help with this) for awhile and then reintroduce them to your husband's diet. For some, spicy food is the culprit, for others acid foods like tomato sauce. My mother has the same problem with bread but she finds that if she only has it first thing in the morning it doesn't bother her as much. Acid reflux is not as benign as some might think as it does cause cancers of the esophagus - it is important to control it. I sleep on a elevated board covered with sponge and an extra large pillow case. This contraption is propped up on two pillows. Two other pillows under my knees keep me from sliding off it. I also find that if I don't sleep propped up, my asthma is more likely to bother me. My respirologist says that acid reflux is a trigger for asthma. Sleeping on your left side is also recommended for people with acid reflux or GERD. Hope this helps, Lily
  10. I, too, have hypoglycemia - the reactive kind. My blood sugar is not low but when I eat sugar or starch, it climbs and then dips to a level that is below the one I started with. A doctor friend who has hypoglycemia himself, told me that it is not always easy to diagnose hypoglycemia when you only have the two hour glucose tolerance test. He told me that it is important to have a five hour test in order to see whether your glucose levels dip or not. My hypoglycemia results in severe anxiety. It took about three or four months of no sugar, bread, pasta, rice or potatoes etc. in order for me to feel half decent. If I eat improperly, I begin to feel anxiety within a week and it takes a good week or two of proper eating to get me on track again. Proper diet has also reduced the nerve damage in my wrists and arms. Apparently high carb diets cause inflammation - this from my heart specialist. In order to control hypoglycemia, you need to eat meat, eggs, fish, cheese, nuts and seeds and all vegetables. Be careful about eating too many root vegetables and peas and corn as they are full of sugar. Eat six to eight small meals a day and exercise to burn up any extra sugar in your blood. Be sure to have a snack of nuts or seeds at night before you go to sleep to prevent yourself from waking during the night. No caffeine whatsoever. You might also prevent yourself from developing Type II diabetes by adhering to this regimen as hypoglycemia is a stepping stone to this disease. Take care, Lily
  11. Hi Kim, I used to (and still do) wake up at four AM. I find that what helps me is eating a low carb diet (meat, fish, cheese, eggs, nuts, seeds and vegetables - no potatoes, rice, bread, sugar or pasta) I eat very small bowl of home made granola every night and it seems to help me to get about five or six hours of sleep every night. I suspect that waking in the middle of the night is caused by adrenalin and blood sugar fluctuations and by watching what you eat, those things can be controlled. Also, stay away from the caffeine, period, not only at night. It might take awhile before you notice that you are sleeping through the night, but it is definitely worth it! Oh, and eat at least six small meals a day instead of three larger ones... By the way, I'm on Celexa and Florinef and these medications don't seem to bother me. Hope things work out well for you. Lily
  12. Hello UnicornIsis, My POTS symptoms began with menopause also. Terrible, terrible anxiety to the point that all I could do was manage to make a meal and do a bit of laundry, if that. My emotions go the other way though in that they have become very flat. I find that I am unable to cry though I can now shed a tear or two when I am sad which isn't very often. What helped me first of all was going on a low carb diet to prevent blood sugar fluctuations. It took about three months of no sugar, pasta, bread, rice or potatoes to come to the point where I began to feel half decent. This means a diet of meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds and vegetables. The vegetables provide enough carbohydrates for good nutrition. I also had to give up fruit though now I can tolerate it now and again. Because I have reactive hypoglycemia, this diet really helped me. It is a bit spartan but I had to ask myself what I wanted more - the food or my sanity. The anxiety is still there but to a lesser degree. When I began to take Celexa which is an SSRI, it helped even more. Many, many women who are going through the change have to completely alter their diets in order to cope with menopause. Also, I found that taking extra calcium/magnesium helped. B12 and B6, the 'nerve' vitamins help as well. The anxiety is still there but to a much lesser degree. It increases when I am under stress which I really try to protect myself from. Hopefully your Mom will find some relief from these symptoms. It came to mind when I was experiencing the worst of it, that I now knew what **** must feel like. It's one of the most awful experiences I've ever endured. Hope this helps, Lily
  13. Hi Dayna, I'm new to the site but I've been reading the posts for a little over a year now. It's really helped me to understand what's been going on. I, too, have had what I call, 'stabbing pains' in my feet. They don't happen nearly as often now that I am on both Celexa and Florinef. The Celexa, in particular, has taken them down a notch to where my feet just continually tingle (the backs of my hands also tingle and burn and the area around my mouth also tingles). Also, before I started taking these two medications, I felt that buzzing, vibrating, electric feeling all through my body and in my chest, especially when I would lie down at night. Occassionally it would reach the point where I thought I might be having a panic attack. I'm not sure whether the two feelings are related but the same medication has helped both. I've also had problems with nerve pain in my wrists, elbows and shoulders. That too, was helped by the medication. Apparently, SSRIs block pain. Like you I would notice this pain mostly at night when I would put my feet up. MY nerve pain has diminished. Hope yours will too. Lily
×
×
  • Create New...