It's New Year's Eve. I'm not staying up to ring in the New Year because I'm supposed to be in bed, lights out by 10pm. Thankfully I've never been one to party on New Year's Eve! A quiet evening at home, maybe doing some crocheting, knitting, watching a movie or blogging is more my speed.

So what's next? Well, Dr. Kruse outlines where to go after completing the leptin reset in this blog post here: How To Eat Post Leptin Rx for an Optimal Life. This blog post of his is fascinating reading, and I need to print it out so I can study it!

I haven't followed the leptin reset perfectly, so part of me feels like I should just continue on as I have been, since Dr. Kruse says you set yourself back by 10-12 days when you screw up on anything, and he says you should see all the signs of leptin sensitivity. But I think I have seen enough improvement that I am ready to add back in a few more carbohydrates – maybe as many as 60 in a day, which I believe is still rather low carb. Dr. Kruse also says to cut down the protein at breakfast to 25 grams, so I will see how that goes. If I'm unable to make it for five hours, then I will probably increase the amount again.

I had to work two Fridays in a row at my job and had some additional stress and that really did a number on my adrenals. When I first began using the hydrocortisone cream I started at 25mg, then for a period went up to 27mg (added in a nighttime dose). After a few weeks I was able to eliminate the late afternoon dose and went down to 24.5mg. Then my doctor was fussing at me and wanted me to try and get down to 20, so I tried, and decreased down to 22mg. I thought it would be okay at first but after a few days I could tell my adrenals just weren't ready. I started to have trouble sleeping again, and I can't cope with anything when I don't get enough sleep, then I'm crying and a basket case at work. While my boss is understanding, it's not helping my adrenals to have them constantly stressed, so I increased back to 24.5mg. I was doing fine there, but about ten days ago after going through another patch of stress at work (and working two Fridays in a row) I started waking every night with adrenaline rushes, hunger and staying awake for 2-3 hours, eventually feeling forced to get up and eat in order to get back to sleep. This went on for several nights.

Finally I learned that this indicates low cortisol and the solution is to up the daytime hydrocortisone. I reluctantly did so and for two nights in a row did not have to eat. On the leptin reset, you aren't supposed to eat after dinner but I felt I had no other choice because of the reaction my body was having.

Today will be the third day I've increased my hydrocortisone back up to 27mg. I do still wake 2-3 times a night to get up and pee but at least I'm able to get back to sleep within a few minutes.

Tomorrow I step on the scale, and will see if I've lost any weight during the month of December. My clothes are looser, so I suspect I have lost weight, but Dr. Kruse says women might not see weight loss but will see their clothes fitting differently. I'll let you know.

I've had a tooth bothering me… this could be part of the reason why my adrenals have been struggling. It's not yet painful, but it just nags at me, enough to scare me. I have a deep seated fear of teeth going bad and it happening on the weekend and no way to get help from a dentist.

On the recommendation of a local GAPS friend I am seeing a holistic dentist this coming Wednesday. The tooth I suspect is giving me trouble is in an area with teeth that are filled with amalgams. This holistic dentist is very careful and concerned about removing amalgams, while the dentist I normally see does not think they any problem at all. This was giving me a great deal of anxiety, not knowing what to do and finally in talking to my husband he told me to just make the appointment with the holistic dentist. Just going to see a dentist in itself is stressful, but I feel comfortable with this guy and believe that he will do his best to protect me if I do have to have amalgams removed. I suspect they will want to remove all my amalgams as soon as possible, but I'm going to have to go slowly, not only for my health, but financially because this dentist is not covered on my dental insurance.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm also going to request that the doctor order some more blood work. I want to see if my reverse T3 changed at all (I would love to see that it has gone down) and I would like to see if my Vitamin D levels have risen. I'm still on the fence about doing the T3 protocol, and need to know how my sodium and potassium levels are anyway before I can get started.

My doctor left the practice, so I will be seeing her partner in February for a followup to the labwork. I have talked to him once, we had quite a lengthy conversation while my doctor was on vacation, and he thinks my thyroid is fine – he thinks my adrenals are the problem, and he actually suggested that I go up on my dose. So maybe he will be more open to my taking the hydrocortisone as needed, instead of stressing out my adrenals by trying to lower myself before I'm ready.

I don't agree with him. Just for the simple fact that I have Hashimoto's Disease. This I understand indicates my thyroid has been under attack, if not now then in the past. Also, I seem to have some swelling on the left side of my throat, so I don't know if that is a goiter or what but I'm pretty sure it's my thyroid.

I can say that I feel like I'm doing better this weekend. That is a relief.

It is such a mystery how this all works, but I think I am starting to see a pattern. When I get stressed out, my adrenals try their best to cope. If I don't support them with additional hydrocortisone during stressful events, I start to feel more anxiety and depression. It's becoming a noticeable pattern.

This past week I had an incredibly stressful event at work. I literally felt that I was to be tied to a stake and set on fire. Seriously, that is how bad the situation felt to me. I was not comfortable following through with a task I had been asked to complete, so I stood up for myself and said I could not do it. That took a lot of guts on my part as I am pretty much a wimp and scaredy cat and crybaby. After I blurted out my statement, I was made to feel as if I was in the wrong for saying anything. I had to leave the building for about a half an hour to compose myself. I knew it was going to be difficult, so I stress dosed several times. I actually ended up getting only 29mg hydrocortisone that day, about 5 more than I had been getting. But that was all my adrenals needed to keep up with the stressful event. I slept without having to get up and eat, and the next day I started my new higher amount of 27.

I wish I would just get better steadily day after day. But Dr. Natasha tells us that healing is often two steps forward, one step backwards. I have to remember that.

I am grateful that I know about GAPS, and that I've learned about the leptin reset. So far, my thyroid symptoms are not as bad as they could be, and I am sure that I will continue to heal as each day goes by. I may need to begin some type of thyroid medication, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

I am looking forward to 2012 being the best year of my life. I am sure that more energy is in my future.

Thank you for following me on this journey. I appreciate you and am grateful to have this blog to be able to bounce ideas and share what I've learned.

Happy New Year!