I started taking the dexamethasone this morning. I'm supposed to take 1 pill every 6 hours for 2 days. That oughta be a blast.
I've gotten some test results back, though only one of those is one I've been dying for. So far this is what I have:
Metanephrine, U: 80 (normal 30-180)
Normetanephrine, U: 1082 (normal 111-419)
Total Metanephrines, U: 1162 (normal 145-535)
Corticotropin(P): 22 (normal 10-60)
AM Cortisol (from bloodwork): 13 (normal 7-25)
PM Cortisol (from bloodwork): 5.1 (normal 2-14)
17-OH Progesterone: 91 (normal < 80)
Aldosterone(S): 15 (normal <= 21)
Cortisol (from bloodwork): 4.8 (normal 7-25)
DHEA Sulfate(S): 92.3 (normal 31-228)
Estradiol, S: 87 (normal 15-350)
Prolactin(S): 6 (normal 3-27)
Testosterone, Free, S: 2.4 (normal 0.3-1.9)
Testosterone, Total, S: 86 (normal 8-60)
Cortisol Free (U): 27 (normal 3.5-45)
I'm not surprised by the prolactin being normal since it's previously been normal. Same for the DHEA Sulfate. I've not really had much experience with blood cortisol tests, but I was surprised at it being low at all. I would have figured normal if not high. I'm also not surprised by the high testosterone since that's what they used to diagnose the PCOS.
I'm not surprised by the cortisol urine test being normal. They've been normal before. They've also been high before. So wtf-ever on that. I haven't heard anything yet on either cortisol saliva test yet (which is what I'm really wanting to see because I've never done those before). I'm also really interested in the tests involving the dexamethasone since that's been extremely high in the past. It's also been normal, too, though, so who the fuck knows.
The other things I don't have a lot of experience with, so I'm going off of my best guesses based on what I've looked up. Apparently elevated Normetanephrine can be caused by adrenal tumors (if I'm understanding this right), but anything less than 1300 can be a false positive. So in spite of mine being more than twice as high as it should be, it could still not be that. I believe that's going to be tested again with the second urine test, though, so I'll be curious to see if it's still elevated.
I'm confused by the Corticotropin. My understanding was it wasn't quite the same thing as ACTH (but that they were connected), but they listed my previous ACTH test on the graph showing the history of the corticotropin. So it might be the same thing? If so, then my first test on that was really low, and this one was high. But I have no clue on that and am not even going to try to guess on that one. Looks like it is the same thing. Could it not just be consistent one way or the other? Ugh.
The progesterone is apparently released by the adrenals. Apparently high levels of that can be from adrenal tumors or congenital adrenal hyperplasia (that I know nothing about). I think I also read that PCOS could cause that to be elevated. So currently I don't know what to think. We'll see as more things come in. I wish everything would be either normal or elevated. That would make things so much easier. ._.
Edit: Got 2 more test results in (because I've totally not been refreshing like a mofo), and now I'm extremely confused. My ACTH this time was low again (which backs up the initial one from several months ago), and my cortisol this morning was low again. I do not understand how it went from normal to high to normal to low. Like seriously wtf. All I can say is my doctor has his work cut out for him.
Current results:
AM Cortisol: 4.1 (normal 7-25)
Corticotropin(P): 6.8 (normal 10-60)
