cortisol resistance?
It's a possibility anyway. So the main mystery now is why, if my endogenous cortisol levels haven't really gone up, amd I doing better? And why have I had low-cortisol effects on 40mg of exogenous cortisol, then later high-cortisol effects on 17.5mp of exogenous cortisol?
Before I thought the question was, why am I not doing better than I am. ( Read more... )
Before I thought the question was, why am I not doing better than I am. ( Read more... )
I'm not leaving the NHS. Plan is to get one, poss. two, private consultations, and maybe some tests that the NHS doctors aren't doing yet. And to try and get that information back into the NHS system. And *meanwhile* poke and try to be seen by an actual consultant rather than a registrar within NHS, so that I can at least try to see the same one twice.
(Family friends who are doctors and have been in NHS for decades are dubious about whether I can actually get to see the same doctor twice, anyway; but they may be underestimating spoonie persistence on these matters.)
But, yeah, I can't even theoretically see the same doctor twice if the doctor I see is a registrar, because they've gone and circulated elsewhere by the time I get to see them again. The one I saw was actually pretty good, and I was hoping to see him again; but I asked during phone consultation (in which he told me test results), and he said he wouldn't be there.
So right now, plan is to do a private consultation, and simultaneously stick to NHS-doctor's plan which is to taper and re-do the stim test in 8 weeks; and then to pester the hell out of them to let me see the consultant & not the registrar. So, basically, let the NHS wheels grind slowly & meanwhile try and get more data & questions answered much faster, privately.
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I think you're absolutely right about the value of spoonie persistence...and maybe even the value of having an outsider's attitude, too? There may have been times when secretaries at a doctor's surgery sounded startled or doubtful when I asked for a particular doctor, which may have signaled, looking back on it, that the more expected or polite thing may have brrn just to ask for an appointment without being fussy about who it was with...but since I wasn't raised British, I have an easier time persisting even when I'm faced with polite startlement from the person I'm talking to. (And that's part of why I'm the one, rather than Patrick, who handles all of our business that has to be done on the phone - being American actually gives a slight advantage there!)
And like I said, no one has EVER said no, even if they sounded surprised or doubtful about the request...so it can't actually be against the rules, even if it might not be traditional.
Good luck!!! *hugs*
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For clarification: the talk of registrars and consultations here is all in the context of endocrine specialists. So far as I know there's no problem with seeing the same GP repeatedly. The problem is that now that things are mostly diagnosed and all it looks like... the underlying problem is does not quite fall into any of the categories described in the textbooks, so... it is tricky to find someone with the right combination of detailed specialist knowledge, willingness/ability to work things out from first principles, and actual clinical skills.
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