One of the dirty little secrets is that most severe stress and anxiety levels HAS A PHYSICAL cause if the docs will take the time to find it. You are correct connecting the dots seems beyond too many. For my own curiosity did they slap you into the lab or did they take a deep breath and think about it?
Have you had a repeat of the enzymes? Those same enzymes if elevated can point towards some Autoimmune causes as well
Ok--CT scan showed left adrenal gland enlargement and the cardiologist said to go back to my PCP and he will probably send me to an endocrinologist. Can psoriatic arthritis cause one adrenal gland to be enlarged and the other normal size? I would think not. In the mean time I have told my rheumatologist that I don't want to start the methotrexate until I know what is going on with the adrenal gland. Cortisol level was 4 in the afternoon. Pretty sure I will have to do a 24 hour urine;too. Its getting really crazy! OH and I am still so short of breath I can barely do daily ADLs but the cardiologist said its not from my heart as my heart is good!
Each adrenal gland is on a different side of the body on top of a kidney. So the answer is yes
Doubled my coreg today and shortness of breath seems a little better. I got the official CT report of the adrenal glands it reads as:
Adrenals: The left adrenal gland is mildly thickened. However, there is no discrete
mass identified. This may relate to hyperplasia or mild adenomatous change. The
right adrenal is normal
Should I be concerned about taking the methotrexate? I hate to keep putting it off but going to an endocrinologist is going to take time too. tnlamb you seem very knowledgeable about all this. Im glad you are here!
Just talked with the Rheumatologist and she is leaving it totally up to me as to when I want to start the methotrexate. Now waiting on an appointment with the endocrinologist. I have no idea what to do other than wait and suffer. Maybe I will just shove all this under the rug--go get some medical pot and sit and chuckle about it all!!! Kidding guys hahaha
What do you mean, “kidding guys”? Sounds like a plan to me. LOL
I have no idea what I’d do.
The MTX has nothing to do with your adrenals. They just happen to live on you kidneys. A benign epithelial tumor is what becomes of a mild adenomatous change if it changes. Hyperplasia is just a lot of normal cells growing in one area. Its sometimes pre-cancerous. Either way I wouldn't loose any sleep.
What I would say is to do anything and everything to get your PsA under control. If you were to avoid anything it should be a flare of your disease, or allowing it to get out of control requiring some Prednisone. THAT medication directly effects your adrenals. Its critical to keepup or increase your activity levels and start you meds as soon as you can. BTW ingested is much healthier than "vaping". Try organic brownies or suckers
I know very little about MTX so I don't know how I will tolerate it and with so many doctors knowing nothing about the adrenal glands I worry about starting a new medication which could make me sicker. I'm waiting for my PCP to call me back and will see what he says too. I will probably start the medication because the pain is still intolerable at times with me crying and screaming out in pain throughout the night. No thanks on the vaping, brownies or suckers....the last time I had something like that was 1982 and I freaked out big time! --That's a whole diff story tho.
Seenie--your funny----thanks I did need the laugh. :)
1982???? You are all just kids. 1972, that was the year I was avoiding the draft by pretending to be a gung ho ROTC cadet. One of my roomates had decided to entertain the Professsor of Military Science and some of the rest of the Cadre in his campaign to be company commander. Sadly one of my other roomates made a pan of "brownies" earlier in the day. I have a weakness for brownies.I guess I made an impression on the Old boy. Everybody else in the cadet Company went to Seattle, pike street market etc etc for Summer camp. Me I didn't go to Seattle. I started the Summer jumping out of airplanes at Airborne School and finished it eating snakes at Ranger school having been Nominated by the kind Col Joe Boyle for special training. Haven't touched the stuff since. I'm a quick learner......Especially when everybody else further dodged the draft by going to grad school and I because of my advanced training got a regular commission and spent 13 months jumping out of "aircraft" with people shooting at me
Well, I wasn't there.....that would have been 1969 for me, because I'm old. And, Moxie, same thing happened to me--I'm ashamed to say I was a bit of a wild child. Sybil, you too? Pretty sure the second and last time I smoked that stuff nearly killed me--it was definitely laced with something poison! I sure will use the medical stuff if I ever need and can get it.
Moxie, I didn't read through the whole discussion, so IDK, are you on a biologic, or can't you take one? If you don't answer I'll take it this is a dumb question and I should read the whole thread.
Was I there??? Sounds sort of familiar .....
Moxie said:No thanks on the vaping, brownies or suckers....the last time I had something like that was 1982 and I freaked out big time! --That's a whole diff story tho.
Seenie--your funny----thanks I did need the laugh. :)
Sybil--if you were a cop or an under taker you might have been there cause I was sure seeing a lot of them LOL. And wildchild Grandma J---the big thing back then was lacing it with something else. I never thought of myself as a wild child but most everyone else thought that. I still have my motorcycle license too! The harley is long gone though lol. Uuugh I didn't jump out of planesso I guess I wasn't wild!! hahaha
No, I am, on Celebrex and tylenol until I start the methotrexate later this week. It's raining today and I am pretty miserable today. Glad everyone has a good sense of humor.
Ooooh I am so chicken to take the methotrexate. Do most people get sick with the first dose? Im suppose to take 10mg and have put it off out of fear. I hope it can help the constant tingling and numbness to my hands too.
no most people don't take but it Sat night a couple hours before bed and sleep in Sun. tkake a dose of folic acid when you get up Sun and drink a lt of water sunday ( like a bout an ounce per pound of body weight total) and it will be a non event.
I go back to work this week end so it will probably be Monday night and sleep in Tuesday. I was told the insurance companies make us try this first--before they will pay for any other meds. What does everyone take then?
The next step will be one of the biologicals. Many of us stay on the MTX though. it really helps with the peripheral symptoms and extends the life of the biolgicals. Its all a time conssuming process we call the "gap"
http://discussion.livingwithpsoriaticarthritis.org/forum/topics/welcome-to-the-gapI don't take methotrexate. So, does that mean my biological won't work as long? Or are you saying, tntlamb, that methotrexate just helps each individual dose of biological work until the next dose. Because I am finding, now that I only take one shot of Enbrel a week, I'm having more pain in my feet and some stiffness I wasn't experiencing when I took two shots a week. It just seems like mtx causes SEs, and sometimes really bad ones, for a lot of ppl, whereas I hear very few complaints about biologicals. Do DMARDS actually slow the progression of the disease, or do they just relieve pain?
tntlamb said:
The next step will be one of the biologicals. Many of us stay on the MTX though. it really helps with the peripheral symptoms and extends the life of the biolgicals. Its all a time conssuming process we call the "gap"
http://discussion.livingwithpsoriaticarthritis.org/forum/topics/welcome-to...
Haha, Sybil, sounds like you have no problems with it! I guess we all have our different reactions, and things we'll tolerate in order to feel well. My mom's experience with mtx was that her hair broke off and fell out. At that time her Dr said that wasn't a SE and she was never told about folic acid. She stopped taking the mtx and has been on constant low fluctuating doses of prednisone ever since (about 15 years) which hasn't seemed to have an adverse effect on her. In fact, I'm wondering if the prednisone is what gives that 89 yr-old woman so much energy--she seems downright hyper sometimes.
To me, just that mtx can be hard on the liver is scary. That's why I refused Sulfasalazine. I don't want liver problems on top of PsA.
But, you're right, Sybil, most people probably don't come on here much if they're doing well. It's too bad, because it would help others in their decision-making about mtx and other meds. You must be The Methotrexate Advocate!
sybil said:
I'm sure if everyone who's been fine on Mtx posted at once the site would collapse under the weight. Every inflammatory arthritis forum sees loads and loads of people who are scared stiff of it. I just do not know where that fear comes from although I suspect it's the internet feeding on itself.
Mtx helped me hugely for over a year. Maybe I felt a bit tired after the first few doses - or maybe I just expected that because of everything I'd read. Thereafter: no nausea, nothing, just normal. This year it has made my liver enzymes rise - a blood test picked it up straight away, I came off it, levels zoomed back down after a few weeks.
It's a very helpful drug, regular blood tests quickly pick up any intolerance and if it doesn't suit you, you can simply stop taking it. I'm going to start up a Methotrexate Defence Society.
Do I need to cut my rings off? Or will my fingers ever go back to normal? I took MTX Sunday night and have just felt blah since then. I am glad this is an active site!
I want to caution you about prescription sleeping pills. I too needed help sleeping and my doctor hesitantly prescribed Ambien. I didn't know any better then but now I know Ambien can be very hard to wean off of. The longer you take it the harder it is to wean off of it.
Hi, moxie. There’s no telling what those fingers of yours are going to do! The wait and see game is so frustrating, but you can always hope. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you ’