More data

[kickaha]

Well, apparently that 'little head cold' last week either wasn't, or it kicked off another episode. Friday night, started getting a fever. Spent most of the weekend in bed with said fever (except for when ginkgo suggested we go see a movie to relax a bit and get out of the house - good suggestion - wiped me out though.)

So: fever chills/aches/sweats, lack of appetite, nausea, GI 'issues' again, and inability to sleep. I think I've had 7 hrs of sleep since Friday morning.

If ginkgo took any better care of me, I'd have to pay her for nursing duties.

Back at work today for a 1pm meeting, then heading home. But in the meantime, ginkgo brought me some Gatorade (I had to get *something* fluid in me, and salt water and plain water both were just making me more nauseated), some Ensure, and Gerber's Zwieback Toast. Whee! Maybe one of these days I can graduate to solid foods again. :P

Comments

[tealynx.livejournal.com]

And you haven't gone to the ER why?

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Because this has been a lot lower severity than the last one? Honestly, it wasn't until it lasted more than a day that I realized it wasn't just a fever from the cold. (Heck, I didn't shake the cough until today.)

Good experience for calibration though - "oh, *this* is what an onset feels like."

[franktheavenger.livejournal.com]

So that means you're going to the doctor now? :p

When's your next visit, anyway? Your next 'official,' 'goddamit-doc-tell-me-what's-wrong-and-don't-make-me-hurt-you-for-the-information' visit?

[badger.livejournal.com]

Wish you well, dude. I've been sick, although not so badly, since Friday myself, so I can sympathize to a lesser degree. And M's put up with me for the weekend, too. I keep wondering why.

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

Not to bash on somebody who's already feeling crappy (and I am truly sorry that you're ill), but what's up with this salt water business? It seems like if your electrolytes are off, that you'd be better off with Gatorade in general.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

If it is what we suspect it is, then potassium and other electrolytes are retained by the body fine, but sodium is not. One of the dangers of the (assumed) disease is that the body can retain too much potassium in an attempt to 'fill the gap' of the sodium, and you end up having heart trauma - which would explain the intense chest pains I had last time. (Didn't get them this time, thankfully.) In such situations, adding more K to the system doesn't help - it gets latched on to by the body and retained too much.

Given a body in working order, drinking salted water will just cause the body to flush the excess by dumping water - that doesn't happen with me until I pass the mark of about 32oz of water with a full teaspoon of table salt dissolved in it. To get that much sodium from Gatorade I'd have to drink a few gallons. I've been experimenting a lot with the amount of salt intake, and between 1 and 1 1/4 tsp of extra salt a day is about right for me to feel 'normal'. Less than that, I start dehydrating. More than that, I start flushing. As long as I that sweet spot, I can switch to plain water and do fine.

The endocrinologist said he didn't see any problem with continuing that, since I didn't have the signs of someone with an *overactive* adrenal, in which case salt is retained too much. He said that my body should take of any excess in exactly the manner I described to him, and it sounded like I had a handle on it.

So to summarize: Sports drinks don't have enough sodium, they have potassium, and doc said it should be fine. *shrug*

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see! I didn't realize you had a disease-candidate, or that it had those characteristics. (Kinda figured it was exhaustion from several years in grad school.)

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

*grin* Yeah, it seems to fit adrenal gland shutdown (or at least massive slowdown). Endocrinologist is looking at thyroid first it seems (which is fine - it mimics much of hypothyroidism due to lack of cortisol from the adrenals being available to convert T4 form thyroid hormone to T3 for use by the tissues, and hypothyroidism is much more common), but there are a number of other symptoms (like salt helping) that point at the adrenals.