Adrenal failure and dhea | Arthritis Information

The new pain doctor I have starting seeing ran a boat load of tests and one things she is saying is that I am in complete adrenal failure. From my understanding, the adrenal glads are little walnut size glands by your kidneys. They are used to invoke our flight or fight response. Apparently after long periods of overuse, due to stress, pain, sickness, etc, they can sort of shrivel up and stop working.

This is supposedly attributing ti my absolute exhaustion, inability to "deal" with anything, irritability, no sex drive, muscle aches and joint pain, mental fog, the list goes on.

My dhea levels are also just about non existent. Low levels of dhea have the same effects as above. My cortisol levels are very low as in my iron.

I go in today for an iv infusion of vitamins and trace minerals which is supposed to help get the adrenal going gain. I have also started taking an adrenal supplement and I am going to get a dhea supplement today.

All of this is very new to me so I don't really have a great understanding of it, just from what I can find on google. If anyone knows anything else, I would love to hear it!

Also, my cholesterol has gone up from the 230 range to 301!!! The doctors just seem to ignore it though. Not sure if I am just too sick and that's the least of the worries or just what.

I go in May 9th for some trigger point injections in my back as well. Anyone had those? I had spinal injections when I had a nasty case of rsd, I wonder if they are similar?

I hope this stuff works. I am also doing massage therapy and acupuncture. I still spent the entire weekend in bed, never even got dressed!

Oh, Michele! I am so sorry to hear about all the troubles you are having. But, the fact that the doctor seems to know what is causing all the fatigue and such is good news. I sure hope the vitamin/mineral infusion helps you perk up.

Take care. I am praying for you.

I don't know anything about adrenal failure but I sure hope this works for you.

Be sure that they do a MRI BEFORE doing trigger point injections and are very specific about knowing ahead of time where they intend to make the injections. They should also go over the potential problems. My pain specialist said that although the risk is low, a misplaced injection can collapse a lung. This involves taking a trip to the ER if it happens so do be prepared for that. It also adds to the overall amount of predisone in your body.

On the good side, it can be very effective for pain. I hate giving you the down sides but I'd feel awful bad if you had problems and no one mentioned the possibility and you were sitting at home trying to figure out what to do.

Adrenal failure would cause the system wide problems that you have been having. Good luck.
Thanks girls. No one has mentioned an MRI yet. I know when I had the spinal blocks for the rsd, they used some sort of x-ray type machine right there to guide the needle into my spine. However, I do not believe these injections she is talking about doing go right into my spine.

I am getting frustrated because I have only seen the doctor there one time and everything else is relayed through the front desk girl who is CLUELESS. I don't want to delay the injections as I am in so much pain. My hubby has agreed to go with me that day and he will ask questions for me as I am usually to unfocused.

I know before they made me sign a consent saying it could paralyze me or cause nerve damage and a whole list of pretty crappy things but honestly at this point, I just need it to stop hurting.I am down to 4mg of prednisone and plan to try and drop another .5mg next week although I know its going to send me into another flare, I just need off the stuff!

Michele, I got trigger-point injections in my back for about 3 years. These are not the same as the epidural steroid injections.

For the epidural inj. they do use CT guidance or something to that effect. That is because the injections in your spine must be given so precisely, so that the right nerve gets it. I had those done, and the nerve root injections.

The trigger points are given into the back, not the spine. The doctor will push in the places where you are hurting until he finds the place or places that are the worst. Then he will inject the medicine. This is a cortisone-type of med. I think my doctor used Kenolog for me. He was out of it once and used something else, which didn't work at all. But our bodies are all different.

I had the trigger point injections in 3 places in my back, every 3-4 months for at least 3 years. They helped, and I tried to time them to when we were going on a trip or had something special to do.

I had to quit getting them at least 2 years ago,maybe more. I built up too much steroid in my system that I developed Cushings symptoms. These are much the same as the side effects for prednisone. Moon face, Hump on my upper back, thin skin and thin bones, etc. It didn't take long for the visible things to go away when I stopped getting the injections.

I don't want you to worry about Cushings syptoms, though. I got an awful lot of steroids, for it to cause that. And weird effects always happen to me

The trigger point injections are completely different from epidural steroid injections.

Hope you feel better very soon.

Gentle hugs,

Nini

Michele I don't know anything about what you are dealing with but you are in my thoughts.

Michele,

I had some saliva testing done once. I didn't have complete adrenal failure, but I had adrenal fatigue, and extremely low dhea, testosterone, and progesterone.

Apparently progesterone is a precursor to these, so the compounding pharmacy made some cream in just the right strength for me. It was wonderful. I use it every month.

Do you know what type of vitamins they are going to give you for your adrenal failure? Isn't that Addison's? I thought the treatment for Addison's was steroids?

Sorry, Michele. I hope all these treatments you are going to get soon will help you on your way to feeling better.

Huggs

Thanks everyone. I am still confused on the addison's/cushions thing. I will have to google it again, I just can't remember what I read for more than 30 seconds! They are trying to get me off the steroids, I am down to 4 mg at the moment.

They know my progesterone is low from my fertility days. I was using progesterone vaginal suppositories every month from ovulation on. My blood work did just recently did show all my hormones are low, including the cortisol, estrogen, dhea and progesterone but since I am on bc pills continuously to prevent myself from having periods and migraines, I don't know how they can tell whats normal or not since I have no idea where in my cycle I am.

They have me taking a supplement that they sell, its just called adrenal. I also picked up a dhea supplement yesterday. The iv infusions are supposed to help a lot but they can't get an iv in me.

Nini, thanks for the info on the injections. When you had them, did they help your hands and feet? My back hurts less than other places so I hope the injections in my back will help with the stuff that really hurts.
Nini, that was a really good explanation about the injections. I appreciate it too.

Michele can they do the infusion if they use an ultrasound machine to get an IV started. My daughter has had to have that done at the hospital because she is such a hard stick.

Michele, Sorry I didn't see this earlier.

No, the injections in my back were strictly for my back. They might be able to give them to you wherever the pain is the worst. Mine just happened to be my back, neck, l. shoulder.

They actually try to find the place that is the "trigger" for your pain. Sometimes they work and sometimes, not.

Now that I can't get those as frequently as I used to, my pain management specialist tries to control my pain with meds. Currently on Methadone 4 times a day and morphine sulfate IR for breakthrough pain. However about a month ago I did get trigger point injections in my lower back, trying to help the muscle spasm. It did absolutely nothing for that pain.

But, I have so many other things wrong with me that all my pain is not from RA. My rheumy is not even sure what is from RA and what is from OA or scoliosis, or DDD or one of my other problems. She's still working on pinning it down. My lower back has had spasms almost constantly since I had to have my spine fused at L4-S1.

I wonder, now, if your trigger point injections are the same thing I had. Do you have pain in your back, too? Did they say that the injections in your back might help your hands & feet? If that is the case, it sounds like epidural injections would be used for that. But you said you have had those before. I just don't want to give you any bad information. I'm sorry if I'm sounding like I've lost my mind

When you mentioned hands and feet, that just really threw me. I just can't imagine why they would do "trigger point" injections in your back to help your hands & feet. However, if they are FOR your BACK, hopefully you will get some pretty good pain relief for a while.

Hope I haven't completely confused you

Please let me know how it goes. I'll be thinking about you.

Hugs,

Nini

Michelle-Wow-just read your post. I went to a new dr. yesterday and she did all the same tests and told me I am in adreanal failure too!! i too, spend lots of time in bed. Last weekend I was so exhausted I couldn't think straight.

Blessings to you and good luck!! I' really looking forward to seeing my doctor again and learning more and starting treatment.

Tara