I've been a casual observer for many months now - my PMR was 'gone' (ie in remission/on holiday/not troubling me) and I had adjusted to Adrenal Insufficiency and a likely permanent dose of Hydrocortisone and Vitamin D.
I recovered from a dose of covid about 3 weeks ago.
On Saturday afternoon I was walking my dogs when I suddenly felt light headed, started sweating, especially sweaty legs for some reason, and started to have heart palpitations. It was cold and raining but I felt feverish and had to take my coat off and lie down on a bench in the park - the dogs jumped on me, licked me and generally barked until I sat up.
I walked home in a bit of a daze with a few stops to sit on a wall on the way. As soon as I got in I was craving orange juice/something sweet and also something salty, then gave myself an emergency injection and fell asleep for 3 hours....
Have been very drowsy all yesterday and today and now feeling much better. Haven't contacted a medic/Dr, so not sure of this was a flare, a crisis or linked to getting over covid. Interested to know if others have had the above symptoms and how they dealt with it.
Thank You :-)👍😀
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Cyclo5
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Gosh, does sound like a mini crisis/flare, must have been unsettling. I would say COVID almost certainly is part of it - it can really mess things around for some time, both thyroid and adrenals, partly just because of the stress of the infection but also because it just seems to particularly affect hormone levels. So your need for hydrocortisone and other meds may temporarily increase. I found I had to increase my T3 by a lot when I had COVID and also raise HC a bit (need to stress I'm non-Addison's/confirmed AI though). Felt out of sorts for about a month afterwards, with a flare of POTs symptoms (really shaky, tachycardia, huge adrenaline surges).
Do you have any issues with blood sugar regulation? When I've not eaten regularly enough or missed a meal I get symptoms similar to what you describe, very shaky, light headed with profuse sweating that comes through my clothes. Generally feel rather unwell and it takes some time to recover. I am prediabetic but trying to avoid diabetes.
It also happens if I drink caffeine on an empty stomach as I'm very sensitive to caffeine. I rarely drink coffee anyway but if I do I make sure I eat something substantial beforehand.
As seveneleven says getting Covid can really mess with your thyroid levels. The endo surgeon I was under said she was finding that some patients thyroid levels struggle to recover after having Covid.
I'm hoping/assuming that your endocrinologist has given you information on what symptoms could be indicative of adrenal crisis (also known as Addisonian Crisis). If you have no such lists you should become familiar with the symptoms and print some symptom lists out for others to check as well as for yourself...
Wikipedia has some useful info including a symptoms list :
I hope you have (and remember to wear) the necessary medical alert bracelets or necklaces.
...
The NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS) are something you should definitely read all the way through, including the section on complications. If you have family members or a partner or children you would need to rely on to recognise adrenal/addisonian crisis, they really need to be aware of what your condition entails and how it can be extremely dangerous, even fatal, if you run out of cortisol.
I should point out that I haven't researched what might happen to someone with Adrenal Insufficiency if they accidentally take too much of whatever they are treated with.
This is really useful, I'm going to print some of these items for my wife to read. She thinks it would be a waste of time to see a Dr, let alone dial 999.......
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Adrenal or Thyroid?
adrenal cortex or adrenal extract?
Adrenal deficiency?
