I guess I hoped that I would be one of those people who bounced back from adrenal fatigue over night. Nope. Have I had some good days? Yes. So, I guess that’s progress. And yesterday I had student orientation at our co-op (usually very energy draining), and while I did crash when I got home (migraine), I am up and about this morning with only a mild headache. Yes, I could probably go back to sleep, but at least I don’t feel wiped out. After registration a couple weeks ago, I was useless for two days. Ok, that’s definitely progress. I guess what I’m most frustrated about is that I hoped to be feeling amazing, and I’m not. I suppose I’m being rather impatient.

I recently read Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome, and I was really disappointed to read that it could take 3 months before you notice any difference (6 months – 2 years to fully recover). Since I’m noticing something, I’m going to hope this means things are working. After reading the book, I did alter some of my daily vitamin regimen. I now have a few things I take at 2pm too. I’ve also added vitamin E. I haven’t been able to sleep the number of hours the book suggests. I’m not sure I could even stay asleep for 11 hours if I wanted to. I am trying (rather unsuccessfully most days) to be in bed by 10 though.

I’ve held my thyroid dose since the last increase 10 days ago. I’ve been waiting to compare temps from last month’s cycle. Remember, there was a break in my temps while we were out of town on vacation. Well, today I have something to compare again. It’s definitely higher (1.1 degrees higher). I haven’t had a morning temp below 96 since 4 days into adrenal support (vitamins/rest). It appears that overall I’m on an upward trend (slowly). I’ll have to wait a few days to see if the trend continues. I plan to hold this dose for the remainder of the cycle since I’ve added a couple of vitamins and will be adding progesterone next week. I don’t want to change more than one thing at a time so I can better chart the results. If my metabolic rate continues to improve without adding more thyroid, I would prefer that.

Also, I’ve had some blood sugar crashes. This is new. I haven’t had hypoglycemic symptoms since we eliminated animal products over three years ago. I don’t know if this is due to the thyroid meds, the adrenal fatigue (which can cause it), or the chocolate cake (non-vegan) and root beer (high fructose corn syrup) I was hooked on for a few weeks. I haven’t had cake or root beer since January 31st, and aside from the seemingly constant headache, I’m not having those nauseous bouts of hypoglycemia like I was. I don’t have any crashes listed on my chart since the 31st, so it’s highly likely it was the chocolate cake and root beer. It’s not like I haven’t had any sugar since though. I have had fruit, skittles, bagels, strawberry jam, and oreos… oh and the caramel syrup I put in my morning decaf coffee (Yes, I know I’m not supposed to have coffee of any kind with adrenal fatigue. One thing at a time.). None of these items have animal products in them. I don’t know if there is a link, but that’s what I’m seeing.

Progress is slow, but I have felt ok enough to go for a 30 minute walk the last 4 days. I have more I’d like to say about the cake and skittles and such, but I’ll save that post for another day. I think right now I’m going to go rub some PanAway on my scalp and neck. That seemed to help my headache last night.