Ironically, WATER RETENTION!!

[BeBe]

Linda,  I understand what you meant now  Thanks for clarifying that for me.

Bebe, you look awfully young to have a bp of 140/90. that's a little high isn't it? Oddly I have hypoglycemia too, my family Dr sent me twice to get the glucose test b/c he didn't believe the results the first time! He thought the lab screwed it up LOL I would think that a bs of 70 after a
Starbucks thinga ma jigger is low, I agree with all the sugar in those you should have been higher. Is there an coorelation of hypoglycemia with SJS I hadn't read or heard anything myself.

My doctor has been getting on my nerves lately because he's so cavalier about my (many) issues.  I hadn't remembered the drink until well after I had the test, so I guess he figures 70 was fine, but has been lax on some other things, IMO!  I mean, it's MY body, and I know that something like this new, extra 3 inches on my waist, mostly my waist, when I DON'T GAIN WEIGHT THERE normally, is something to take note of, especially when it's happened in the past 6 months.  He just says it's because of my age!  My MOTHER, who had 4 kids, (I've never had any,) didn't start putting weight on around her middle until menopause, until age 50.  I know, we're all different, but I've found out I'm NOT menopausal, so it's not that, and I never even eat more than 2000 calories a day if that, and some days I wake up 3 lbs. heavier on a day when I ate much fewer calories the day before!  Things like that don't add up to me.   Today is one of those days.  I was 125 yesterday and have a bad cold, haven't eaten even as much as normal, yet, today, 131, and noticably thicker in the waist.
It's making me crazy!  I expect to be this way again til I get my period, 3 &1/2 weeks from now, that's been the pattern.  Then a one week reprieve.

I was dx'd with high bp, well, "labile" high bp- it fluctuated a lot, which went along with my tachycardia and the MVP.  I used to be on beta-blockers for that, but had to stop as I got more active and physically conditioned because my heart rate got too slow and I felt bad, then I no longer needed the beta-blockers.  I can't take them now for the BP, apparently, because my pulse is already too low to start with!  Gotta make an appt. with "Dr. Cavalier," who also didn't think I needed to go back to a cardio, even though before I moved to this city, my old cardio said I should see him in 2 years, and it's been 4 since I've seen one.
grr...

[JJ]

After having my third daughter at 25 i was to have a tubal the next day...they pulled me off the table
because my BP had jumped to stroke lvl....after being in the ICU for about three days and not getting
my BP under control they had a new doc come in and he put me on HCTZ...I lost nine pounds of just
water weight in one day and my BP went down to a not as serious lvl. I take Lisinopril/HCTZ now
for my BP...the only concern is my Kidneys from taking it...seems like its always something that
helps one thing causes something else..cant even take steroids cause im allergic...lol..

JJ

[BeBe]

I'm working with a couple of theories, until I see the doctor, about what might be going on.  It could be the morphine I take for my back pain.  I started that over a year ago and after the first 4 months, I did start to slowly gain weight, going from a very svelte, (and too thin, really,) 112 to my average adult weight of 120.  Then I started to hang there for a couple of months, and then in Sept., this extra 5-10 jumped on my frame.  I haven't changed anything in my life, not meds, not eating habits, (except to eat less to see if it makes a difference like it always has, and this time it isn't,) not lifestyle.
I did have a slight allergic reaction to the morphine for the first several months - just a hive or two on occasion and some itching and a little peticiae(sp?) but it only happened over 15 mg and I only used to take that much.  I stopped getting those symptoms the more often I increased the dose to 30 a day, and was up to that most days for the past several months with no more itching, etc.  BUT- I do have occasions of mild angioedema in the face, too, which can also be caused by a reaction to morphine, I just discovered!  Some mornings, I wake up and my lips and eyelids are swollen.  Lately, it's ALL my lower abdomen.
And I just found out that one CAN have angioedema THERE, too!!!!   So I'm biting the bullet and this is day 2 with no morphine.
I'm going to try to find another med other than opiates, or maybe see if they'll give me an injection in the sacroiliac, where the main problem is.
I swelled up REALLY BADLY in the feet, ankles when on Fentanyl before the morphine, even though dr. said he didn't think it was that, I found that it, too, can cause edema, and I never had it before or since that way!

I should print that paragraph out for when I see my doctor, because after reading that, I see a pattern!  It doesn't explain the high BP, though.

The OTHER thing I've been wondering about is my kidney function.  That could cause the high BP AND the swelling if they aren't working right, I think...wonder if the kidney problems related to Sjogren's do those things..

[Tinker]

Hi Bebe,

Well, I gave up on losing any wt by stopping the neurontin.  The neuro did confirm that could be it, but after a week or so off of it, I only lost 2 lbs. and couldn't sleep.

So, I started back on it 3 days ago and I'm now sleeping.  Thank goodness.

I don't know why, but I just have a feeling that I am going to drop this weight and soon.  I have tried to cut back, but I wasn't eating much to start with.

Good luck with your edema and I hope you figure it out.  I bought a lot of sale clothes on Coldwater Creek.com so now, I have to stay at this weight or lose to wear them!!  They were cheap in the outlet that I couldn't pass them up.  Maybe the new duds will be a motivator.  UGH!  I hate being chubby.  I still haven't started the prednisone.  No guts!  But after our little trip, I have to give it a shot. (only 10 mg every other day.)                               Tinker

                                                                                           

[BeBe]

Tinker,
I wish you luck!  Seriously, though, I have, (or maybe I should say, "had," a really fast metabolism, and Neurontin KILLED it to the point that NOTHING I did made a bit of difference to my weight.  As long as I was on it, all it did was continue to go UP!  Topamax was SO much better.

I'm trying to adjust to the body I have now, but honestly, the WORST TIME in my WHOLE LIFE was the year and 1/2 that I was overweight and I had two crying spells, (yes, with lots of tears...I have them this week,) today over it because between being sick with a nasty cold for the past 7 days and depressed and worried about it becoming an infection and that I'll "never" be well enough to do things again, and my 130 lb. body that only seems to be gradually climbing with every menstrual cycle, I just kind of lost it!  I hardly recognize myself, and I don't have clothes for "this" body- not just in size, but style...I got away with a ton of things when I was a size 2 or 4 that I wouldn't dare wear now, at a 6 or (maybe even) 8.  I was used to being able to do that, and more than that, a lot of my identity is tied up in it, too, so I feel like I've lost that as well. 
It's like, "yesterday," (seems like it was,) I was a small-boned, petite, slim 44 yr. who only ever had to be concerned with the size of her butt in clothes, and who had, by today's standards, an almost impossibly small (24-25 in) waist, and I woke up and I'm suddenly just another puffy, doughy middle-aged woman who looks as if she's in sweats no matter how tailored the clothes might be because of the body underneath!
Sorry, I had to vent to someone besides my poor husband who had to hear it all day!

I have noticed that my heart rate is back up to "my" normal resting rate of about 75 again since stopping the potassium supplements, so I was right about that slowing it down too much, so with any luck, maybe that'll help boost my metabolism once I become active again after this cold.
I'm going to make an appt. with my GP tomorrow for a regular checkup and take my husband along to back me up this time, and tell him, "look at my chart back to this time last year- SEE A PATTERN?" and "Hey, doc, don't you remember how, in Feb. of THIS YEAR, I was concerned about my weight BECAUSE I WAS A BIT TOO THIN, and you said, 'don't worry about it, hey, women would kill you for that,' yet, by the next visit, a few months later, even your PA noted that I had a weight GAIN that was significant and had yet ANOTHER by the one after that, yet when I was concerned about the weight GAIN, you just told me that there were 'only 2 ways you gain weight, eat too much or exercise too little,' even though I told you I HADN'T CHANGED ANYTHING!!"   GRR.

I'll insist he does thyroid, kidney tests...maybe some metabolic ones like cortisol, too.  If he still gives me a hard time, it's time for a female GP!!!

[Scottietottie]

Hi BeBe

Could you be heading into perimenopause?? If you're havuing those blood tests done ask for FSH (or is it FHS?) as well. It's to do with hormones that will tell you if you're approaching menopause or not anyway.
Before menopause people often gain a bit of weight because oestrogen is stored in fat and the body realises that it needs some in storage. Now why that happens to some - and not others - is a mystery - but worth exploring.

I can't imagine 130lbs looking fat I must admit.  I used to weigh 112 lbs and am now 182 and have never had steroids but I do have a thyroid problem. I totally understand not liking the new body shape. I jut got rid of mirrors and reckon if I can't see me - what I look like is other people's problem - not mine!

Take care - Scottie 

[BeBe]

Hi BeBe

Could you be heading into perimenopause?? If you're havuing those blood tests done ask for FSH (or is it FHS?) as well. It's to do with hormones that will tell you if you're approaching menopause or not anyway.
Before menopause people often gain a bit of weight because oestrogen is stored in fat and the body realises that it needs some in storage. Now why that happens to some - and not others - is a mystery - but worth exploring.

I can't imagine 130lbs looking fat I must admit.  I used to weigh 112 lbs and am now 182 and have never had steroids but I do have a thyroid problem. I totally understand not liking the new body shape. I jut got rid of mirrors and reckon if I can't see me - what I look like is other people's problem - not mine!

Take care - Scottie 

Scottie,

I know, 130 isn't that bad, it's just "not me."  And it's because so much of it is in my middle now, which I never had before, even when I neared 130 once before. And whenever my weight went even a few lbs. off, all I ever had to do was just stop BINGING all day long and eat normal amounts of food and I'd go right back to my normal weight.  Now, nothing I'm doing or not doing is changing it.  I noticed that when wearing jeans/anything that constricts my lower abdomen, I seem to have a harder time breathing when walking, but not because they aren't the right size or because I can't get air into my lungs, it feels like it's the compression on my lower abs that does it, which is weird.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that the cold I had is "gone," but my submandibular salivary glands are still swollen as well as parotids a bit more than usual and lymph glands as well!!  So I even look fatter from the neck up!!  arg!  I'm having a little trouble swallowing, and not just from saliva issues, it feels swollen in my throat.  Colds are only supposed to last a week at most, and never involve the salivary glands like this!  I don't know what to do.  I feel like taking my husband's prednisone just to reduce the inflammation, but I'm worried that I'll get (or have) and infection on top of it.

Also, I should have mentioned that I've had those hormone tests twice this year.  FSH, LH and estradiol, in Feb when I had lost weight for no reason and was too thin, (like around 108,) and again 2 months ago.  When I was too thin, I also hadn't gotten a period for 2 months and they said my estrogen was too low, but now it's all fine, and my gyn said there's no chance that I'm near menopause, so I know the weight's not from that.  I had assumed it was, too, when it first started happening...

[Scottietottie]

Hi BeBe - well back to the drawing board. I'd certainly insist on thyroid tests as it can yoyo your weight either way. I'd also get a copy of the results because the high end of normal or the low end of normal doesn't 'fit' everybody. With weight gain - do get a copy of what they say the TSH measures.

Did your gynae say why she was so sure you were nowhere near menopause?  I know people who've started in their thirties right up to people who never started till they were well into their fifties. There seems to be a huge possible range for it.

Good luck with the doc and the tests.

Take care - Scottie