3 months later
It's that time again for another update. Shout out to whoever actually reads these things.
There's not a whole lot to say in this one, I don't think. It's been almost 4 months since I got the new diagnosis of PCOS instead of Cushing's, so 4 months off of Korlym and on birth control and spironolactone. I feel a good 1000x better than I have in probably 2 years.
Originally, I was prescribed 50mg of Spiro 3 times a day with the option of dropping down to twice a day if I didn't like the way the 3 made me feel. Currently, I'm doing the twice a day along with my birth control and I think it's been a really good combination for me so far. My periods that had disappeared while on Korlym have come back and regulated after almost killing me the first two times. But hey that's what happens when you lose it for 9 months apparently. I go back and forth with fighting acne, but it has definitely decreased and comes mostly the week before my cycle now. I'm still losing a bit of hair, but don't come out of the shower with an entire fistful anymore and my doctor said it could take anything to do with the hair about a year to balance out. That includes seeing a difference in the extra body hair that comes with PCOS. The biggest improvement has definitely been the mood swings. I don't feel so pointlessly hopeless and sad all the time anymore. I haven't cried without knowing the reason why in months or feel so out of control of my emotions. Everything surrounding my mood and my mental health is feeling a lot more stable and I'm really grateful for that.
My fatigue and exhaustion also has improved. While I still don't typically sleep through the night, I don't spend the entire day in a zombie state of being completely empty. My body doesn't tend to feel like a drained battery always just a step away from running out anymore. I'm able to enjoy more events with my friends without immediately crashing as soon as I sit down. I also don't find myself spacing out as much. My focus and clarity are returning and with that my memory. We think that being on the medication for Cushing's created symptoms itself since I didn't need it at all, which is partly what made me feel so sick all the time. The other part was that focusing on this illness I didn't actually have allowed what I did have to worsen because it was going completely untreated. I had been on birth control off and on from the time I was 15 until my Freshmen year of college. That could have been keeping the more severe symptoms like the depression and mood swings at bay without me knowing. Then going off that and treating something else all together let it get to the point it was.
My blood sugar levels have also balanced back out. They had gotten abnormally high for me while on Korlym-130's compared to 90's-but have come back on the low side. I still try to cut out most obvious sugar because insulin resistance/reactive hypoglycemia is still and will always be a part of my life, but that helps me keep from feeling like I'm bottoming out. Let me tell you, I can definitely tell when I don't follow this and get lazy because I'll feel like utter crap for the next couple of days. If I eat more sweets and junk I tend to have a spell of feeling like my sugar drops. What really happens is my body doesn't know what to do with its insulin and freaks out, but for me that results in blacking out and that's just not a fun time. So, I try to watch that and it's not too terribly hard.
But yeah, I think that was basically it. This is a really short update because there's not much to say other than I feel really, really well for the first time in a long time and I'm so happy for that. It's really nice to not feel like my entire day is shrouded in a fog. No crazy side effects to report, no rashes or shots in the butt this time. I go back to my Endocrinologist in July to check that my blood work is all good and make sure everything is actually working and I haven't just placeboed myself.
That's all for now!
-Shelby
There's not a whole lot to say in this one, I don't think. It's been almost 4 months since I got the new diagnosis of PCOS instead of Cushing's, so 4 months off of Korlym and on birth control and spironolactone. I feel a good 1000x better than I have in probably 2 years.
Originally, I was prescribed 50mg of Spiro 3 times a day with the option of dropping down to twice a day if I didn't like the way the 3 made me feel. Currently, I'm doing the twice a day along with my birth control and I think it's been a really good combination for me so far. My periods that had disappeared while on Korlym have come back and regulated after almost killing me the first two times. But hey that's what happens when you lose it for 9 months apparently. I go back and forth with fighting acne, but it has definitely decreased and comes mostly the week before my cycle now. I'm still losing a bit of hair, but don't come out of the shower with an entire fistful anymore and my doctor said it could take anything to do with the hair about a year to balance out. That includes seeing a difference in the extra body hair that comes with PCOS. The biggest improvement has definitely been the mood swings. I don't feel so pointlessly hopeless and sad all the time anymore. I haven't cried without knowing the reason why in months or feel so out of control of my emotions. Everything surrounding my mood and my mental health is feeling a lot more stable and I'm really grateful for that.
My fatigue and exhaustion also has improved. While I still don't typically sleep through the night, I don't spend the entire day in a zombie state of being completely empty. My body doesn't tend to feel like a drained battery always just a step away from running out anymore. I'm able to enjoy more events with my friends without immediately crashing as soon as I sit down. I also don't find myself spacing out as much. My focus and clarity are returning and with that my memory. We think that being on the medication for Cushing's created symptoms itself since I didn't need it at all, which is partly what made me feel so sick all the time. The other part was that focusing on this illness I didn't actually have allowed what I did have to worsen because it was going completely untreated. I had been on birth control off and on from the time I was 15 until my Freshmen year of college. That could have been keeping the more severe symptoms like the depression and mood swings at bay without me knowing. Then going off that and treating something else all together let it get to the point it was.
My blood sugar levels have also balanced back out. They had gotten abnormally high for me while on Korlym-130's compared to 90's-but have come back on the low side. I still try to cut out most obvious sugar because insulin resistance/reactive hypoglycemia is still and will always be a part of my life, but that helps me keep from feeling like I'm bottoming out. Let me tell you, I can definitely tell when I don't follow this and get lazy because I'll feel like utter crap for the next couple of days. If I eat more sweets and junk I tend to have a spell of feeling like my sugar drops. What really happens is my body doesn't know what to do with its insulin and freaks out, but for me that results in blacking out and that's just not a fun time. So, I try to watch that and it's not too terribly hard.
But yeah, I think that was basically it. This is a really short update because there's not much to say other than I feel really, really well for the first time in a long time and I'm so happy for that. It's really nice to not feel like my entire day is shrouded in a fog. No crazy side effects to report, no rashes or shots in the butt this time. I go back to my Endocrinologist in July to check that my blood work is all good and make sure everything is actually working and I haven't just placeboed myself.
That's all for now!
-Shelby
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