Second day on HC, adrenaline surges? Should I be worried?

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NB - really sorry for cross posting but I just posted this on the Adrenals group

and for some reason I got the message that the post was in moderation. As I am

slightly scared here (see below) I am posting it here too in case my other post

is held up by much. Thanks.

OK this may read a little confusedly because it's 1am and I'm slightly freaking

out here but I will try to make it as simple as I can.

Basically I began HC yesterday. I took 15mg (5mg at 8.30am and 2.5mg at 11.30,

2.30, 5.30 and bedtime). I felt ok on this, no bad reactions though my temps

were just slightly low. Today I took 20mg (2.5mg, 5mg, 5mg, 2.5mg, 2.5mg, with

an extra 2.5 about 1pm because my temps were lower than normal (I had planned to

take 17.5 today).

About 5 in the afternoon I had a sudden kind of emotional, panicky feeling. My

heart rate was not elevated, going between the high 70s to the low 80s which is

about where it is when I'm feeling ok. I didn't know if it was from too much HC

or not enough. I did take my 5.30pm dose and it didn't make me any worse and by

7pm I was feeling a lot better. I figured eventually that it could be an

adrenaline surge, maybe from caffeine as I had just drunk two cups of tea before

it started (though I am not very caffeine sensitive as a rule).

So I was ok the rest of the evening, went to bed around 11 (taking the last

2.5mg HC) and then started feeling anxious again, and my heart was racing and

also now and then something maybe like a-fib, a sort of vibrating feeling in my

chest for a few seconds. Needless to say I hadn't had any more caffeine since

this afternoon. The anxious feeling and the heart racing thing would kind of

come and go every few minutes, I would calm down and feel sleepy and then it

would come back.

Basically at this point I'm kind of afraid to go to sleep in case my cortisol

dips dangerously low in the night or something, whatever is causing these

symptoms. It does sound from reading other messages that it's an adrenaline

surge but should it happen this soon in the process? And does it mean I need a

lot more HC? Am I metabolising it too fast or something?

I have taken 1.25mg HC and some salted water. My heart is still fast, around 100

and I feel a little nauseous.

At this point I am feeling like I was doing a lot better without HC, ok I was

tired and my temps were low but at least I didn't have this anxiety! And for

this reason I am sort of reluctant to stress dose too much in case I decide it

would be better to come off it again, though I feel like if I'm already getting

these awful adrenaline surges from not enough cortisol it's already going to be

difficult to come off it.

I know it's late (well it is here in the UK!) but please, please, if anyone has

any input it would be really reassuring. Thank you.

Lucy

My background is that I'm from the RT3 group, cleared my Rt3 last december, had

no history of adrenal problems other than mildly elevated cortisol which I put

down to the stress of continuing hypo and my RT3 issue. Then I caught the flu a

couple of weeks later and developed what with hindsight I realised were low

cortisol symptoms - temps all over the place and severe fatigue and intolerance

to exercise or stress. After a couple of weeks things stabilised but my temps

remained steady but low. At this point I was on a combination of cynomel and

natural and thought my Rt3 issue had returned because of the stress of the

illness, so I dropped the natural altogether.

A few weeks ago on Val's advice I did an adrenal test and it showed something

very like a normal rhythm but very depressed, cortisol well below the range at

every point in the day. This would have been enough to make me to start on HC,

but about the day after doing the test I suddenly felt a lot better, my temps

were great and I felt normal.

At about the same time I developed a bit of a sore throat which over the course

of a couple of weeks turned into a cold. After I was getting over the cold my

temps started going down again. I figured that my HPA axis had got stuck at a

low set point after the flu and maybe this new cold infection could have jerked

it out of the rut, but then being sick with the cold had caused fresh stress to

my adrenals and I would benefit from resting them with a few weeks on HC.