Weird Health Stuff
A few years ago, I noticed that I had developed odd bumps on my shins. Not gooseflesh bumps: ovoid, smooth ones, one to a shin, near the ankle, and off to one side. They didn't hurt, and they didn't seem cancerous (as if I could tell by looking), so I decided to ignore them.
On Saturday, I went to a medical exam set up by Social Security Disability Determination. The doc, in testing my fitness, discovered another one of these lumps at the base of my neck, right where the shoulders start. He told me that it's a "buffalo hump" and that it, along with the shin bumps (which I showed him straightaway), were a symptom of overactive adrenal glands. You can find the term "buffalo hump" in descriptions of Cushing's Disease, which results from out-of-control corticosteroid production.
I don't have Cushing's. I also don't have Addison's (adrenal deficiency). But I do have chronic low-level anxiety, which has kept my adrenals churning out their goods at slightly higher-than-normal levels. It would appear that part of my current fatigue is the result of my adrenals becoming exhausted and ceasing production. Some of that over-production is probably also a result of my thyroid insufficiency, which developed when my immune system acquired a taste for thyroid tissue.
Which led to the anemia and apnea, which led to weight gain, which worsened the apnea, which eventually shut off my brain, forcing me to quit work but not stop being anxious. My poor adrenal glands: how I've abused them!
I went to Doc Potter today to start a maintenance-level prednisone regimen. I was skittish about prednisone because it's a scary piece of medicine (lots of ugly side effects), and as Doc Potter pointed out, I'm on a cocktail of medication that is unique to me, so there's no telling what kinds of drug interactions I'm going to get. At the very least, the Geodon will offset prednisone's tendency to cause hallucinations.
The prednisone will induce insomnia, so I'll abandon the effort to get in lots and lots of good CPAP hours; instead, I'll use the extra energy (which won't come at the expense of my poor endocrine system) to take off some of this blasted weight - 60 lbs in 8 years. (I'd be happy to take off half that.) Less fat might make my CPAP unnecessary, and wouldn't that be a blessing?
And then my brain will stop functioning at early-onset Alzheimer's levels, and maybe I can begin to earn a real living.
In other news, I'm having a hard time meshing my teeth again. Last time that happened, it was because the Mother Of All Ear-Canal Infections caused my jaw joint to swell, pushing the jaw forward a few millimeters. Indeed, my ears had begun to itch (it's eczema!) and the evil left ear canal was beginning to swell. I went to the walk-in clinic on Tuesday to see if I couln't nip this thing in the bud. They gave me a script for Cipro otic ($90!), so I can have it on hand, and told me that the 2.5% hydrocortisol cream will help stop the swelling and itch. That and ibuprofin.