Post Adrenalectomy symptoms

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I have been an observer of this group for a little while now trying to

understand as much as I can about hyperaldosteronism because my wife was

diagnosed with it. We came a long way, but let me sum up our experience so far.

My wife had hypertension for 13 years and until April this year, it was

marginally managed by a cocktail of drugs (3 of them). Pardon me on my lack of

medical vocabulary and terms as you read through my post. Just before April, her

primary doctor introduced a new drug to try to lower her BP even more. A side

effect of this new drug opened the door to the culpit of her high BP all of

these years. She experienced anxiety and weak muscle symptoms, in fact her legs

gave up a couple of time and she ended up falling. Blood test and urine test

concluded that her potassium level is extremely low (2.3). Based on my

recollection, she received a call some 5 years ago from her backup doctor

warning her of low potassium through a physical and told her to eat some bananas

right away. I now realized that no follow up was performed and it was one of

those cases where the warning fell through the crack.

Forward to April this year, her primary doctor referred her to an endo and a CT

scan was performed. A small nodule 2cm was found to be the culpit of her

hyperaldo case. Excessive aldosterone was being produced by the right adrenal

gland due to this benign tumor. Her endo recommended Mayo clinic and we made

the appt 2 weeks ago.

We were seen by Dr. Young, Dr. s (radiologist for AVS) and Dr. Farley

(surgeon). Dr. Young recommended an AVS to be performed to ensure that the

right gland is what is causing the high aldo (a reading of 63?). After the

successful AVS, it appeared that my wife is the second case of more than 500+ at

Mayo clinic where the reading of the AVS was inconclusive. Right and left

adrenals reading were very close around 120. However, with the xrays raken

during the AVS procedure, it was found that she has another large veins coming

out of the gland and it appeared to go through the tumor. The doctors were

extremely confident that the excess aldo was draining from the tumor through

this addition vein into her system. Another hypothesis is a tumor in the

ovaries, but the odds are very low since it appeared that only a handful of such

cases exist around the world.

We opted for adrenalectomy and was scheduled the next day. Laparoscopic surgery

was successful and a blood test was performed thereafter showing an undetectable

aldosterone reading vs. 63 before the surgery.

It should be noted that we were very impressed with the doctors, the facilities

(Mayo clinic and St hospital) and the entire process from start to end.

Today, after a little more than a week since the surgery, my wife is

experiencing numerous unpleasant symptoms as followed:

1) Extreme fatigue. She does not have energy for anything, almost bedridden

most of the time. When she tries to perform some basic functions such as making

coffee or clean some dishes, they don't last long until she feels the need to go

rest.

2) Feverish symptoms: if she is out and about for a few hours, she experiences

weaknesses with hot/cold sensations that seem to resemble a fever. She also

describes them as hot flashes. Needless to say, fatigue overwhelms her at that

time.

3) Loss of appetite.

4) Depression

5) Slight diarrhea

Are these symptoms common after adrenalectomy? What do you recommend that we do

to remedy these symptoms as they are debilitating her daily life? Have any

members of this group experienced similar symptoms and what and how did you deal

with the symptoms?

Thank you for reading my post and we hope to find some answers.