July 2013 - booked me an important test!

So I had a telephone appointment with the Endocrine Nurse Specialist (Jean) today to catch up on my progress, I last saw her 2 weeks ago when I was still really not well. Luckily today, having made some progress in recent days, I was able to report several positive things and she has booked me a 'Short Synacthen Test'. That said, she was still cautious about my progress, making sure that I am not overdoing it in my quest to get back to fitness, she reiterated her belief that 6 months is a reasonable length of time to get me all sorted out.....still seems too long to me :-) (but I was grateful for the honesty, it is what I needed and Jean seemed to know what she was talking about)

The key thing I knew she would want, and I made sure I had achieved, was getting my Hydrocortisone dosage down to the 'normal' dose, unless I did this then the Synacthen test could not happen. So my target for the last 2 weeks since I saw the nurse has been get these tablets sorted. It worked, and I got my test booked - back of the net.....

This test is my kick off for the hormone balancing act that needs to happen to get me on the road to full health. To fully understand the delay my 2nd trip to hospital had on this process, my original Synacthen test was booked on June 24th, but I was in the QA Hospital in no fit state to attend the test. The new test is Tuesday 20th August, so my unexpected illness has put a TWO MONTH delay on my getting this test, what a disaster. No wonder I am getting impatient! 

So I will be counting down the days until I can get this test, and more importantly the results. Not that I am exactly looking forward to the test itself, canula inserted, drug injections and numerous blood tests, hrmph. But, until the results are known none of the other hormone balancing can take place. My production (or indeed non-production) of Cortisol is the key measure the 'Endo' team need to set my base Cortisol levels. Once that is done, some real progress can be made, or lets hope so. They won't even consider looking at my other hormone levels until this test is done, which is a shame.

What I really need to ensure is that I do not under any circumstances get anything else wrong with me between now and that test, because I really cannot stomach another delay to this process. I still cannot believe that it will be a 2 month delay to take the test, just a testament to how hard the infections hit me I suppose, but it is very hard to accept.

So, today was a good day, I've got my Synacthen Test booked!! Whatever you achieved today, it was not as epic as this, I guarantee it.