Low calcium ???

It is very quiet on here, where is everybody ?

Anyway in case anybody drops by I'll ask my question, latest calcium is 2.26 exactly the same as it was immediately after my op. Without digging through all my results I can't remember past numbers except that 6 months ago it was 2.38 and I'm pretty sure that was lower than the one before which was possibly 2.4?. Having PTH done tomorrow as my appt last week was too early in the morning to do it.
Is calcium at 2.26 looking dodgy ? post op I was having to take lots of calcium supplements. I'm guessing if PTH is OK then its not a problem.

Hope you are all ok,

Nelly

Hi Nelly - sorry to have been away so long myself, but am hoping to have some news by the end of next week.

A serum calcium of 2.26 sounds just fine to me. Mine was about that immediately after surgery, with a PTH of around 4, which I also felt was very good - for me!!

I always go by my serum Ca and not the adjusted one. I'm one of those people whose serum calcium is always adjusted downwards, because of high albumin, and it has been too easy for so-called experts to say to me, well your serum calcium is rather high at 2.73 (with a PTH of 13 ...), but when it is adjusted it comes back into the top of the range for adjusted Ca - nothing wrong with you at all - the high PTH was due to Vit D deficiency - ta da!

I would say 2.38 is good, too, Nelly. 2.4 is creeping up a bit and anything over 2.5 needs watching carefully in my view - depending of course how the associated PTH looks.

Off on a road trip up North tomorrow to see my cousin, Liz. She has had all her stem cells replaced recently for late stage multiple myeloma, but is in remission now and doing well. We think we have a window in the weather to slide up there on our own little sunbeam tomorrow - here's hoping.

Look after yourselves, both of you - and the lovely animals.

Love to you both, and anyone else listening in - from Tigerlily xxxx

I have been summoned to the surgery, receptionist said regarding my vitd result so it must be on the floor again and presumably the reason for drop in calcium. I have been using vitd patches which I had hoped would be good, maybe not. My latest bloods have so many red flags so roll on next Thurs appt to see what she makes of it all.

Have a good trip Tigerlily, at least it's looking a bit warmer. ☺

Love
Nelly x

Thanks, Nelly - back next weekend.

I get the feeling the Vit D situation is similar to that with thyroid hormones - sometimes we are taking them but they are not getting "through". My Vit D level is at about 79 UK units, but it would just fall away again (lowest when first tested was 16) if I were not taking a hefty supplemental dose of Vit D3. I take 2000 iu in the summer and 3000 iu in the winter. Maybe the patches are not the same as taking it by mouth?

Good luck on Thursday, Nelly.

Love from Tigerlily xx

How did you get on, Nelly?

Love from Tigerlily xx

Hi Tigerlily

Sorry for not replying sooner, I did one post which disappeared and didn't get round to redoing it.
So yes anyway, bit of a waste of time as predicted, Vitd is 38 which is good for me but obviously deficient, she offered supps or wait for the sun, I opted to wait for the sun as supps and me don't get on, I will however stick with my Better You Vitd spray as and when I remember.

Pth is fine, can't remember what exactly but low enough to be ok, I will keep a watch on it anyway. Just checked and it was 3.5

Various other things still out of whack but as they have been for years nobody is interested

So there we go, nothing exciting to report, which is good I guess.

Hope all is well with you.

Love
Nelly x

Sorry I have not been here to add my 2-cent's worth here, but, Nelly, I think your calcium looks GREAT!    Very happy for you!     

I haven't had my vitamin D checked for a while and, as a matter of fact, I think I'm going to go call my endo right now to see if she will add that to my list of tests to be done in about a month or so.

Audrey

Cheers, Nelly - bring on the sun, I say!

Sorry to have been absent lately, but I'm having surgery this week to remove a large ovarian cyst. Not looking forward to the experience but it's time for it to go. As women with low thyroid function often end up with ovarian cysts, I'll be interested to see what my post-op levels for everything are.

I'll report in when up and running again - hope all's well with you and Edwin and the pets.

Love from Tigerlily xxxx

Good to see you back Tigerlily, I hope the surgery goes well, I had it done many years ago in my teens, it was the size of a rugby ball so I lost the ovary as well but didn't cause any problems. Wish I could get the latest one removed but they won't play ball.

Edwin is now on dialysis, 3 days a week which is time consuming but has to be done, of course its not straight forward as nothing is with him ! the hospital are paying for a private taxi to do all the transporting so I'm now redundant, saves my diesel anyway !

Have you had any contact with Amanda ? I keep wondering how she is doing, I'm guessing not so good as we haven't had an update.

Anyway lots of luck with the op, pop back when you feel up to it.

Love Nelly x

Thanks, Nelly - so glad to hear your ov op was straightforward. Needless to say, at 63 they will be taking both ovaries this time. Not sure I'm keen on that either!

Great news about Edwin and the private taxi. It will give you some time for yourself and the animals - and to get some sun/Vit D when it comes through!

No, I haven't heard from Amanda - I do hope she is OK. It's funny with the forum, isn't it? When people have had the PTH surgery, sometimes they feel they don't want to come back because they are better and others are still struggling, and sometimes they don't come back because they have lingering problems. I've heard from Jasmine though, and she is skipping off into the sunset, she feels so well and improved! I daresay she doesn't post here too often because she uses Facebook a lot more, but it's good to know that she is well at last.

Off I go to quake on the sofa until Wednesday! Thanks for your good wishes.

Love from Tigerlily xxxx

Hi Tigerlily,   I was just wondering how your surgery went.   Sorry you have to go through that.   I had a partial hysterectomy at the age of 42.   I needed it due to very large fibroids.      The doctor said the normal uterus weighs about 8 ounces.  Mine was just barely under 3-1/2 pounds from the fibroids.    He did leave my ovaries intact.   I hope you are doing well with the recovery!!

Nelly, I'm so sorry to hear about Edwin's dialysis.   I'm sure that is a pain for him to deal with.   What a shame.    Hopefully, he is still getting on here to oversee things for us, but if not, please let him know I'm thinking about him.

I will be praying for you all!!

I had a little accident 2-1/2 weeks ago.   Got my little toe caught on the metal handle of a big, heavy, bucket of cat litter.  I was moving so quickly, I couldn't stop quickly enough when it got caught.  I lunged forward with the toe still hooked on that handle.   When I stopped, I turned back to free my toe from that handle.   After I got it loose, the darned toe was sticking straight out sideways from my foot.  It was at a 90 degree angle to my foot.   I knew it was fractured.   I have to say, looking at my toe that way made me really freaked me out!    It didn't look like it was part of my body any longer.   And I can tell you, it hurt like #@!!!!!!!     Went to the ER at the hospital.   It was the longest bone of the little toe.   It's a clean break.  Broke the darned bone straight through.  The 2 bone halves are now way out of alignment.   I was praying the doctor would not want to set it, because it was hurting so badly I didn't want anybody touching it!    He said after the bone smooths over when it heals, it will be ok.  I was happy to hear that.  I hope he's right.     He taped the toes up and told me to follow up with an orthopedist within a day or 2.    I did.   The orthopedist taped up the toes and gave me a big boot to wear for at least 4 weeks.

It's the little toe on my right foot, so now I can't drive!   My husband, daughter, and daughter-in-law have been my taxi drivers.   It just figures, I had 5 appointments scheduled within 2 weeks of the accident!   And, of course, I needed to go to the store.   So I've been keeping them all very busy.    

I have had a LOT of heel pain and pain on the bottoms of my feet for the past 5-1/2 years.   It got VERY bad a few months before and after my parathyroid surgery.   If you recall, it was so bad, I was on crutches.  I just could not walk on them.    The worst of it was standing.   I just couldn't stand still at all on my feet.    Then eventually they improved. The pain never went away completely, but it did improve to the point that I no longer needed crutches.   The pain finally stopped when I was walking, but was still there when I stood still.     Well, when I fractured this toe and had to start wearing the boot, both heels and the bottoms of both feet started hurting TERRIBLY again!!!    So I not only had the pain of the stupid fractured toe, I also had all of that heel and foot pain again.   It has not been a good couple of weeks!      The doctor in the ER prescribed Vicodin for pain.   I only took it the night it happened, and then I tried to tough it out.   It wasn't easy, but I did made it.    Problem was, the heel pain was excruciating, and I couldn't handle THAT!     One day it got so bad, I took the Vicodin for that instead of for the toe!    I could handle the toe pain but not that heel and foot pain!  

A week before I broke the toe, my husband and I decided to start cleaning out our attic.   You need to understand here that I save EVERYTHING!!   I am not a hoarder.   My house is not cluttered, but I just can't get rid of many things, so I stick them up in the attic.    My kids are 43 and almost 41.  I still have all of their baby and childhood clothes, including socks, underwear, shoes, bibs, coats, etc.   I also have all of their toys and all of the papers they did in school!    So cleaning out our attic is no small task!    And, I don't know what is wrong with me, but some of the clothes had gotten a little dusty, because I just had them in plastic bags, and some of the bags had gotten torn up there.    So I decided to wash EVERY article of clothing that had been stored!    I had to wash thousands of items!!!   I was washing many loads of laundry every day for close to 3 weeks!    I know I'm nuts.

Since I broke my toe a week after we brought the stuff down from the attic, I was then hobbling around in pain in that boot trying to get all of this work done.    I sorted everything and put all of the pieces of matching sets together.   I also sorted a LOT of my kids toys and tiny things they had saved and stored up there.    Then I had them both go through it all to see if they wanted any of it.   They have been stopping in periodically to take care of this.    

We started putting things back up into the attic yesterday.   I did manage to get rid of quite a bit.   My husband and my son were very proud of me.     They were very surprised.     I still can't get rid of my kids' clothes!!!    I don't know why.   I told them they can do whatever they want with this stuff when I'm gone, but I just can't get rid of it now.

Now I need to start getting ready for Easter.   I really don't know if I have any energy left for this.   I have been beyond exhausted.   I am so wiped out, I'm nauseous.   I honestly think I now have a cortisol problem on top of everything else.   I have been suspecting this for a few years, but the symptoms are VERY bad now.   I am starting to wonder if stress has something to do with the heel and foot pain.   My massage therapist said it appears to her to be a muscular issue, so that would make sense.   I am going to be ordering that 4-point cortisol saliva test very soon.

So that is what I've been up to.   How is everybody else doing?

Audrey