Could this sound like hormones

99atlantic

New Member
My life has been a real medical mess the last few years.....thanks to canada's "Great" medical system, most of the time i'm left in sickness (took me 8months (originally was supposed to be almost 2yrs) to see a gastroenterologist in the first place). Anyways Swale, let me give you a brief rundown to get your thoughts.

Starting ever since I was about 10, every 2yrs in the summer i would get horribly sick (nauseau, vomitting, etc..) for 10-14days. I would be horribly sick in the morning, better at noon, fine at night, and then the cycle would repeat again. THen bang, all of a sudden better.

When I became 20, in the summer I got sick. So nothing unusual, but after 10-14days it didn't pass. Basically what would happen is that I would wakeup and be horribly nauseaus. A good day would be if i didn't throw up. It would gradually get better, and around noonish I would be at like 90% (as opposed to like 10% before), and would stay like that most of the day (better, but still slightly quesy). Also my appetite was seriously fvcked (i had to force myself to eat most of the time...i'm a bodybuilder for 10yrs now so this put a horrible strain on me).

I saw a gastroenterologist and went through every test under the roof (upper/lower gi, endoscopy, etc...), foudn absolutely nothing. THen I went to the hemotologist for cancer testing...again, nothign. Gave me some drugs like metoclopromid, nexium and others to take. They helped a bit, but problem still there.

Anyways, about a year past and I got better, to the point where I could wakeup and feel like i was at 98% and stay like that throughout the day. However, every so often I would all of a sudden wake up sick for a while for no particular reason.

So anyways, a year past, and then all of a sudden one day I started noticing a lot of changes. All of a sudden I was having:

- trouble focusing (i'm in a mental fog, can't make simple connections anymore)
- trouble w/ memory (forgetting stuff and trouble memorizing...i had a near-photographic memory, now it's crap)
- literally no sex drive. (why i broke up with my gf....i'd only want to do it like once/month, and even then sometimes never)
- phsyically drained all the time. felt like i'd never slept
- anything arobic (e.g., golf, cardio) kills me after 2-3minutes.
-anything anabolic (e.g., squatting) that encourages test/gh levels makes me feel normal for a few hours. The best way to show this is one week I had 2 finals- final 1 i didn't lift before (figured i'd give my body a break). I did shit on it and my mind was in a fog writting it. final 2 i lifted 2hrs before, wrote it, and damn, everything was crystal clear like it used to be.
- loss of strength (initially i convinced myself overtrained CNS, but i've seen now it isn't...i'm a lot weaker than i was 2yrs for no reason)
- muscle stability (ever since the above started i've made 0 progress in terms of muscle growth...heck, i've added more fat than muscle...and when i've taken an extended break from lifting, i seem to shrink really (and i mean really, based on the results from the last 10yrs) fast, so i can't afford to be out for long )



So I finally got a doctor to test my test. levels, and i'll hear back next week (she's away this week, but secretary told me to come in.....so i'm hopefuly she found something there because i've never been called in for a negative test before).

But anyways, from the above, if it isn't my test. should I push to see an endochronologist? I'm no hormone specialist, but it would seem to me that (going just from the initial problem), if I goto bed relatively fine, and then wakeup horribly sick, and given there's nothing physically wrong with me, my endochrine system is fvcked up at night? maybe producing too much estrogen*??

*reason i say that is because somebody once said i have the same symptoms of a pregnant woman, and i thought about it, and i honest of god do!


Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read that. My life has been a living hell the last 2yrs, so who knows, maybe you've had a patient like me and can offer something :)

-AJ
 
Well that sucks- i got my results back and my test levels were borderline normal (something like 460).....test was done about an hour after i wokeup, so my thoughts are that it would dorp throughout the day?

I got a referral to an endochronologist, see where that goes. Oh yea, one weird thing- on days when i'm fine, i have no problems doing leg work. However, on days when i'm not (which is the majority of the time...bad in the mornings, better at noon, near perfect at night), if I do leg work, even 1 set of squatting, with either light or heavy weights, i become horribly nauseaus afterwards for about an hour. This is something i've noticed over the course of time, so i rarely, if ever, do leg work anymore. Figured i'd put that in because of the impact stuff like squatitng and deadlifting has on hormone levels (however, anything else- bicep, tri, back, chest, etc.. - i have no problems, irregardless of my health)
 
I'm very, very sorry to hear of the suffering you have endured. That is no way to go through life. Having said that, I'm sorry to say that I am impotent to offer any diagnosis.

Just a thought, though: have a 24-hour urinary cortisol run. Low cortisol levels would result in swelling of the GI tract. This could account for all of your symptoms.
 
<~ writes down suggestion :)

Thanks, i'll ask about that next time i'm in.

edit: btw, quick question. i've had cortisol levels tested w/ the standard blood tests and nothing came back abnormal, but because free cortisol is the active form of the hormone, could it come back with something contradicting what the blood test revealed?
 
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Cortisol is what is known as an "acute phase reactant". That means an assay must be considered from the perspective that levels may change one second to the next.

That is why you would need a 24-hour urine collection to get an accurate picture of adrenal function and production.
 
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Hey bro, sorry to bug ya again, but I had 1 more itsy bitsy question that I'd completely forgotten about :D

About 3-4months before I started noticing the signs of fatigue(phsyical/mental) one of my blood tests came back showing that I had a weak positive for mono (exposed to it, but don't have it). had a re-test, same reading. Doctor said not to worry about it since lots of people will show a weak positive since it's very common to be exposed to it.

A few months after I had all of the fatigue symptoms I was re-tested for mono and same thing- weak positive (so the intial reading of weak positive was about 7-8months old). Was told that it's normal and a weak positive reading may take a year or more to fade away, and that it was of no concern.

So anyways, I was just wondering if in all your work or readings you've ever come across something where a weak positive for mono may is a weak positive, but later mutates and becomes something of concern because of a weakened immune system (since i'd already been sick for a year prior) and more stress place on the body (from powerlifitng/bodybuilding)?

Thanks :D
 
I'm no Infectious Disease expert, but I can tell you that we figure these things out by (1) measuring the concentration of antibodies against a particular disease in the bloodstream (2) the type of antibodies present and (3) knowing the etiology of the disease.

With Infectious Mononucleosis (IM), the particular antibody we look for when testing will remain positive for several months, but the antibodies themselves can persist for a year.

We are always concerned about diseases which are usually self-limiting in immunocompromised individuals. However, my undertsanding is that it IM will not "mutate" and suddenly make you sick.
 
Swale, Do you think he could be mildly diabetic and his blood sugar may be dropping very low throughout the night?
 
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