Oh yay, another “what’s wrong with Emily today?” post. I’m sure you’re all excited to read this! Now might be the time to click away from here and google “cute kitten pictures” or something, because this is bound to be a bunch of nonsense.
Anyway. I am so frustrated and need to get this out!
Last week I wrote about how I’d been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, and how glad I was to finally know what’s been going on with me for the past eight months.
I am glad and I am feeling better, but I am incredibly frustrated because it seems like everything I’ve been doing to try to make myself feel better has actually contributed to the problem.
For example – training for a 60 mile walk. Sounds like an awesome way to get in shape, right??
Wrong.
“Most people think of exercise as jogging or muscle building. While these are beneficial to general good health and promotes circulation and muscle strength, it is not the best solution when it comes to Adrenal Fatigue. In fact, wrong exercises may make Adrenal Fatigue worse and can trigger adrenal crashes easily.” From Dr. Lam Adrenal Fatigue Center
I wanted to stop using hormonal birth control, so I got a copper IUD in October (three days after walking 60 miles, I might add). Awesome!
Not so much.
First, I had a vasovagal response to the procedure itself. Here’s my favorite quote from the Wikipedia definition – Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary[3] describes this as the “feeling of impending death.” Two weeks later I had my first migraine ever, and for about two months I had extremely horrible digestive issues.
As it turns out…
There’s a possibility copper IUDs can cause elevated copper levels (or copper toxicity) in some people. What does copper toxicity do? I’m so glad you asked.
“Elevated copper and low zinc related to adrenal burnout impair the immune system… Often secondary to adrenal exhaustion are other glandular imbalances such as hypothyroidism… Several researchers postulate an association between migraine headaches and excessive tissue copper… One may also feel nausea, impaired appetite, and possibly some other digestive disturbances.”
From DrLWilson.com
FISH!!!!
And finally – Jenny’s going to love this one – you know what else contributes to high levels of copper in the blood?
Shoot me.
Oh, honey. That sucks. It sounds like you need to do some serious couch-potatoing, stat. It’s for your health! Seriously though, I hope you find some things that help soon.
OMG…you couldn’t make this shit up, Burns. The good news up is you can give up exercise and healthy food. Seems like the dream diagnosis to me. And that pesky IUD. Perhaps it is time for a 3rd kid?
I KNEW green smoothies were the devil! And walking 60 miles is worse than running a half-marathon. And you know I am very against running. Why don’t you ever listen to me?
Seriously, you need a spa vacation, and I need to be your chaperone to make sure you don’t do anything crazy!
Good grief,Charlie Brown!!
Fish! HAHA!
Copper is very valuable now, your worth is rising, and you might be stolen in the night!
UP
Wow, this is beyond ridiculous. As frustrated as you rightly are, do you feel somewhat vindicated? I feel like this clearly connects all the pieces of the puzzle for you. Maybe you can do Pilates with Jenny! What’s Dr. Lam think of that kind of exercise? And here’s a reason to make those smoothies out of all fruit from now on… yum! Maybe you can work on making them high protein, with some vanilla protein powder or something. Good and good for you… and avoid the additional “leafy greens.” Hope you figure this out!
I feel your frustrations! Feel free to share and hopefully others will have helpful suggestions. It will work itself out, but I know nothing helps when you’re in the depths of one hit after another. I recently finally found the root of most of my digestive issues (gluten–probably celiac, but haven’t been willing to undergo traditional testing to say for sure), but I’ve still found some recent new food allergies (peanuts, lunchmeat, and lactose intolerance) and I’ve been frustrated being stuck with hormonal birth control, because of problems with cysts and other methods not working.