Val -Mercury exposure and adrenal crash - help!

[Guest guest]

Hi Val

I've been meaning to ask for your advice for days on my recent

adrenal crash and mercury exposure but I'm only just feeling strong

enough to get posting again!

First of all - happy belated birthday! - you are a treasure and your

dedication to helping us all is hugely appreciated.

OK, I seem to have crashed my adrenals with 3 (yes 3!) mercury

exposures within a month. All whilst carefully ramping up my Cytomel.

Not a good combination... I dropped 2 mercury thermometers in late

October (unprecedented - and stupid) and doubtless inhaled a good

dose of mercury vapour each time whilst cleaning up (when hypo I

really seem to get clumsy). But the real culprit I believe was a

tooth and its 35 year old amalgam filling breaking and crumbling in

the middle of the night of November 10th. I felt BAD the next day and

have been poorly ever since. I couldn't work out why for a while,

until the penny dropped. I had a filling break 5 years ago and I was

ill for months then.

This is what happened. Under Dr Peatfield's care I was doing well on

the Cytomel, temps were stabilised at 15mg HC (plus 5 adrenal

glandulars). I had reached a dose of 87.25 mcg Cytomel and was really

beginning to feel AMAZING. All the life-long CFS/FMS symptoms

disappearing... I was so excited.

But, I had been fighting a nasty virus when the amalgam broke and so

the next day I put my exacerbation down to that. I stress dosed 20mg

HC that day, but noticed my basal temperatures were beginning to drop

rapidly. They went from a very steady 98.3 the day before the mercury

exposure to 98.1, 98.0, 97.8, 97.7. My daily average temperatures

fell too, from 98.6 to 98.4, 98.3, 98.2. My pulse rate was also

dropping. Everything seemed to indicate I was going hypo fast. So I

thought I needed MORE T3 and upped my Cytomel to 90, and then 100mcg

in the next 8 days. But my temps remained lower and I was feeling

ILL. Especially lots of awful muscle pain in my head and neck.

Because I came down with another virus on 15 Nov, I was stress dosing

such that my effective HC maintenance dose became 20mg daily.

Eventually on 18 Nov I reached 117.5 mcg Cytomel (in retrospect I can

see this last raise was FAR too high at once)and had an appalling day

of obvious thyrotoxicity. I had a resting pulse of 120 with tremor. I

was stress dosing before I realised I was thyrotoxic, which in

hindsight probably made things a whole lot worse!

This was a Sunday, so first thing Monday morning 19th Nov I rang Dr

Peatfield who got back to me immediately. He said that he could see

why I'd thought I needed to raise T3 from 11 Nov, but in fact the

mercury had stressed my adrenals such that thyroid hormone uptake was

affected and I'd been going hypo - hence the rapidly dropping temps.

The dead giveaway to Dr P however that all of this was due to my

adrenals was that my evening BP had started to drop again to the 80's

over 40's (I used to have BP this low before adrenal support). He

said to stop the T3 completely until my resting pulse was 70-80, and

then go back to the last effective Cytomel dose. He agreed with me

that on the Sunday I'd had a pretty severe thyroid dump (and taken

too high a dose too soon). He said that I clearly needed at least 15

to 20mg HC daily, perhaps more. But to try that for now, average

temps, pulse etc.

So, I took no Cytomel on the Monday 19th - pulse dropped but I felt

SO hypo! On Tues 20th I tried 50mcg Cytomel, temps averaged 98.4 and

I still had major hypo symptoms and when I went to the local shops

(as in round the corner) in the afternoon I felt woozy and my BP

after I came back home (all shaky and sweaty) at 1.40 pm was 87/56

with pulse at 101. Not right!

On Wed 21 I tried 60mcg T3 because I'd felt so hypo the previous day.

I was really good until mid afternoon, then brief trembles, heart

pounding etc. Av temps 37, HC 20mg. But I had definitely felt

overstimulated,and after the Sunday that scared me (I have mitral

valve prolapse and family history of very weak hearts) so taking no

chances on Thursday 22nd I reduced T3 to 37.5mcg - a dose I'd felt

great on previously. And I had no overstimulation that day. However

yesterday, Fri 23 Nove, I took the same 37.5 mcg Cytomel, the same

20mg HC and got what felt like low cortisol symptoms in the

afternoon - muscles wobbly and weak, bit shaky and sweaty when I

walked to local shops. I stress dosed 5mg and had big glass of Celtic

sea salt when got home (as convinced aldosterone too low) and shaking

stopped, though temp soared to 99.2 at 3.40 pm after doing

so. Then temp dropped to 97.4 half an hour later. That must be

adrenal! Average temp for day was 98.2.

So, today I'm on 37.5mcg Cytomel and 20mg HC as I figure I should

focus first on making sure my temps are stable before I up the

Cytomel dose again. It seems my adrenals are no longer coping

at 20mg? (Temps last few days, with varying Cytomel doses, mind: Mon

19 98.8 (no T3), Tues 20 Nov 98.4 (T3 50mcg), Wed 21 Nov 98.6 (T3

60mcg), Thur 22 Nov 98.2(37.5mcg T3), Fri 23 98.2 (T3 40mcg). My

temps were previously doing fine at 15mg before the mercury exposure,

but now it seems they need more HC??? But I think I need to hold the

T3 at 37.5 for 5 days in order to get an accurate average temp - is

that right?

If I do ramp the HC up further in response to this crash (ie above

20mg), I'm worried that the need for extra HC will only be temporary

and that I'll have put myself on an unnecessarily high HC dose - not

a good thing.

So, Val, I would REALLY appreciate your opinion on all this.

Phew! SO sorry this is so long and detailed. But I am worried about

the dose of Cytomel I should take at the moment, as the last thing I

want to do is to make my adrenals any worse than they already are!

Thanks!

Louise