Sick and Tired of Feeling Sick and Tired

[bhcishere]

Hi Guys,

I had a thread going a couple of months ago https://www.peaktestosterone.com/forum/index.php?topic=367.msg3265#msg3265 but things have changed a bit since then.

The Clomid was not effective.  I fired my Endocrinologist since he feels if you need to shave every couple of days and are anywhere near 300 total T, then you are fine.

Anyway, on to the subject of this post.

I had decided I wanted to feel better and work on getting my health back in order.  So I quit smoking, changed some of the things I eat and started getting some exercise.  I thought all this would be a good thing.

Since I made these changes everything seems to be going downhill.

At the beginning of August I was hospitalized for two days for rectal bleeding bad enough that I nearly needed a blood transfusion.

It was a couple weeks after my hospital stay I decided to fire my Endo and get a new referral.  My PCP decided to treat me himself and asked what method of HRT I would prefer.  Since my insurance didn't want to cover it, the lowest cost option seemed to be injections.  My doctor said he would start with 200mg/ml once per month and test after three weeks.  Just got the results back after three weeks and it was an astonishing 192 ng/dl.

Shortly before my first injection I had noticed some swelling in my feet and lower calves.  This progressed (after the first T injection) into heavier swelling, fatigue and bouts of shortness of breath along with several instances of dizziness leaving me in a position that I have now been out of work for nearly a month.

My wife has made me go to the ER twice where they sent me back home saying nothing is wrong.  One overnight hospital stay where they did a chest CT, Echo-cardiogram, abdominal ultrasound and lower extremity ultrasound, then sent me home saying they can't find a problem.  I just had cardiac nuclear imaging stress test yesterday (no result yet).

Now my doctor feels this may all be something that was not found during my fist hospital stay two months ago so now have to go see a GI specialist.

And to top it all off I am anemic and may be diabetic.

So to sum it all up.........LIFE SUCKS!!!!! (for now)

Bryan

[PeakT]

Sorry to hear about all that.  Yeah, something seems to be going on besides simple hormones obviously.

Well, I certainly don't know what to tell you about whether or not to go on HRT based on all your symptoms and possible other underlying issues, but I do have one comment:

Whenever you go on HRT, four weeks is incredibly long to go on std testosterone injections.  Most of the docs now are doing weekly with, at most, two week injections.  So you really need to ask your doctor about that, because you said he was a newbie.  Those last two weeks you will be very hypogonadal and, based on other guys, actually feel worse. 

Now there is a new 6 week injectible called Nebido, but that's obviously not what your doctor is giving you.  So pin him down on that one.  Also, type in things like "weekly" into the forum and you'll see many examples as to what I am talking about.

[bubba29]

Hi Guys,

I had a thread going a couple of months ago https://www.peaktestosterone.com/forum/index.php?topic=367.msg3265#msg3265 but things have changed a bit since then.

The Clomid was not effective.  I fired my Endocrinologist since he feels if you need to shave every couple of days and are anywhere near 300 total T, then you are fine.

Anyway, on to the subject of this post.

I had decided I wanted to feel better and work on getting my health back in order.  So I quit smoking, changed some of the things I eat and started getting some exercise.  I thought all this would be a good thing.

Since I made these changes everything seems to be going downhill.

At the beginning of August I was hospitalized for two days for rectal bleeding bad enough that I nearly needed a blood transfusion.

It was a couple weeks after my hospital stay I decided to fire my Endo and get a new referral.  My PCP decided to treat me himself and asked what method of HRT I would prefer.  Since my insurance didn't want to cover it, the lowest cost option seemed to be injections.  My doctor said he would start with 200mg/ml once per month and test after three weeks.  Just got the results back after three weeks and it was an astonishing 192 ng/dl.

Shortly before my first injection I had noticed some swelling in my feet and lower calves.  This progressed (after the first T injection) into heavier swelling, fatigue and bouts of shortness of breath along with several instances of dizziness leaving me in a position that I have now been out of work for nearly a month.

My wife has made me go to the ER twice where they sent me back home saying nothing is wrong.  One overnight hospital stay where they did a chest CT, Echo-cardiogram, abdominal ultrasound and lower extremity ultrasound, then sent me home saying they can't find a problem.  I just had cardiac nuclear imaging stress test yesterday (no result yet).

Now my doctor feels this may all be something that was not found during my fist hospital stay two months ago so now have to go see a GI specialist.

And to top it all off I am anemic and may be diabetic.

So to sum it all up.........LIFE SUCKS!!!!! (for now)

Bryan

rectal bleeding?  you mentioned that and just moved on.  what was the cause of that?

[PeakT]

bubba:  They're worried about GI issues and are going to test him more.

[bhcishere]

Bubba,

At the time they did a colonoscopy and said it was just hemorrhoids.  I never did believe that was the only cause.  Plus they kept me in the hospital a second night due to the extreme abdominal pain caused by the procedure.  They took x-rays and said all was good.

On my way out the door to see the GI guy now.

I just hope one of the doctors gets things figured out soon.  It's a little hard to figure out if HRT is doing any good when I feel like crap anyway.

Thanks for the input guys,

Bryan

[bhcishere]

I should spend more time on the forum especially since I have been out of work on disability all this time but I just find myself sitting in my chair feeling like crap with no desire to do anything.

I just got back from my Primary care doctor (the whole GI thing went nowhere).  Got the results back from my second "T" injection of 1cc (200mg).  Had it pulled 2 weeks after the injection and came up with a result of:

126 Total
3.9 Free

No wonder I feel like crap!!!

Doctor now wants to try 2cc every 2 weeks.  Also running another group of lab work to check other Endocrine functions.

[PeakT]

Sorry to hear it. 

Again, two weeks is a very long time.  I would discuss with your doctor why he doesn't have a weekly protocol.  After about a week your testosterone will be down tremendously - that's about the half life of most of these injectibles - and half ain't gonna make you feel better.  Now imagine how you are after 10 days and then 14...

[Quincy]

I totally agree with PeakT. Don't waste your time going 2 weeks... it just doesn't last that long and too many of the doctors don't seem to understand this. Of course what they are reading is the pharmaceutical's recommended dosage amounts and intervals. It is amazing how something like that could happen. Surely you would think Pharma would have tested how levels drop day by day with a decent size sample of patients. It just isn't that hard to do.

[bhcishere]

Thanks for the quick replies guys!!!

I am still trying to work with my doctor on so many things right now that this low T issue has been very low priority for him.  That is until he saw 126 total and now he is looking at it much more.  I will speak to him about the frequency of injections after the next lab result.

Thanks again.

[PeakT]

Two weeks is just the old school protocal.  Back in the day, they were very cautious about HRT and so two weeks seemed like a good blend of cost, time commitment, convenience, etc.  Many docs are going away from this now though, because what's the point of going on HRT if have the time you feel crappy?

[bhcishere]

I just found out the results for total T taken 1 week after 2 ml injection:

Total T = 670

Now I need to go back to my doctor and work on getting him to change to weekly injections.

Any recommendations for weekly dosage to try if the doctor does not know?

[Quincy]

Based on that sample, I would say 200mg/wk. After doing that 2-3 times you should get another T test along with estradiol.

Just have to keep dialing in. Sounds like you have a doc that may work with you... Hopefully.

[PeakT]

I was going to say 150mg/week.  But it definitely depends on where you are starting out.  Your doc will have a "zone" that he'll try to get you into and tweak accordingly.

[bhcishere]

Just got back from a visit with the doc.  He does not want to do weekly injections as he thinks I will want to kill him after several months.  He is staying with 400mg every two weeks for now.

[PeakT]

Just got back from a visit with the doc.  He does not want to do weekly injections as he thinks I will want to kill him after several months.  He is staying with 400mg every two weeks for now.

Did he really say that?  What does he mean by that?  Weekly injections are extremely common now.