Cortisol. Who knew?

Five parties in three days. Christmas is, indeed, upon us.

So I had a physical two weeks ago. Though my emotional state is in repair, I haven't been feeling like myself physically. Even though I'm averaging over 8 hours of sleep a night, I pretty much require a nap every day. That isn't like me. At all. My runs are becoming, increasingly, walks. I catch myself looking at the clock, a lot, in yoga, or spin, or whatever I'm doing. Simply put, I'm tired. And that just isn't like me. So, because I know myself pretty well, I figured something was wrong. Thyroid, or maybe adrenal fatigue. I went into the Dr and ran those two ideas by him. Why are Dr's so funny ~ when I mentioned Adrenal fatigue his eyebrows shot up and he said "Well, somebodys been doing some reading!". Like ~ if you dont feel well isn't it common TO DO some reading? Anyway.

I went the next day for fasting bloodwork. Everything was coming back normal. Suddenly I got an email that there was a message from my Dr in my online file. I went in and sure enough, my cortisol levels are sky high. Super. He sent me an endocrinologist that he wanted me to go see ASAP. Of course, she isn't taking new patients until "late Spring", so I'm going to the B team. Even there, I can't get in until Feb 2nd, so I will just sit around, wondering what is wrong with me, until then. Some good info on Adrenal Fatigue here. Is this just a delayed response to all of the stress that I was under this summer and fall? Have I literally worn out my poor little adrenal glands by keeping myself in a state of chronic stress with all of the moving uncertainty and the difficulty we went through with staging the house and "moving"? Have I overdone cardio? I mean, I barely did much over the summer as I don't feel right dragging the kids to the gym over their summer vacation, and then pretty much went back to my normal routine once fall hit. After reading some message boards about high cortisol I bought some Rhodiola and Holy Basil and have started taking it. However, after being up late with parties thursday, friday and saturday all I can think is "I'M STRESSING MY ADRENAL GLANDS DAMMIT". And you know what? For this next week there simply isn't much that I can do about it. I taught twice yesterday, I teach today and Wednesday and again next weekend, and a special power class on NY's Day. I think, however, I may declare a moratorium on all working out for January. I recently went to our local SPCA to sign up to be a volunteer dog walker. We are thinking about *maybe* *Maybe* getting a dog after our move, and I thought that since I'm enjoying my newfound walking habit so much, I might as well take a shelter dog along. The shelter is only 1/2 mile from my home, and it would be nice to have some company on my long walks. So. For January I'm going to do another Whole30, focus on NOT working out other than the classes I teach and the walks I take, and see if with my continuing a daily meditation practice I can be in somewhat better shape come my Appointment on Feb 2. A vacation and some time on Florida beaches can't hurt either. One major stressor was the idea of listing the house and doing all of that garbage again. In taking the time that I would be at the gym and instead tackling one project a day around the house, it should be a no brainer to have the house ready to list in early February. We got great news on that front, we think that we are getting a 100% transfer to our new location, which takes of SO much pressure of every aspect of the move. I will know more in about 3 weeks, but assuming that that comes through for us, things are really looking up. Good news for my adrenal glands. Of course, if the issue is a tumor or something, all of this relaxing and meditating and whatnot won't do a thing. *I hope it's not a tumor*. Isn't adrenal fatigue something that sounds so white people problems? Like, only I could stress myself into an actual medical condition. Or depress myself into one. Its a little frustrating, I have to admit.

I'm kind of angry at myself. Of course, being angry at myself is useless, and self defeating, I did my best. It was a hard summer. I used the tools that I had to do my best, and yes, depression has a physical price. Is this it? Maybe. I guess I will know more after my appointment.