I did gluten free this time for two weeks. I will say that it cleared up my diarrhea, which I really appreciate. Unfortunately, it didn’t do anything else for me and had no effect on my sweating.

Then I heard from someone taking Isocort, which I’d somehow managed never to consider. I’m going to get a bottle of it in about 10 days, and I’ll try working it into my daily routine and decreasing my Armour.

I’ve never met an endocrinologist in my country who understands the interaction of the adrenals and the thyroid, and every time I’ve asked one to test my adrenals, he’s either refused or ordered the wrong test and read it the wrong way.

So maybe the Isocort will help a bit?

I went to his office the other day to tell him that I’d finished the Clonidine and that I didn’t like it. Since I’m unemployed, I offered to sit in his reception area and wait until he had a spare minute to talk to me. But his receptionist sent me away and said that the doctor would call me later. When he called, he agreed that I should stop the Clonidine. He said that he could prescribe some beta blockers, but that the effect would likely be the same. He also said that there were some pretty hardcore surgical options to address the sweating, but he wouldn’t recommend them.

Then he divested again, telling me that I should go to my family doctor and get him to submit a request to the HMO for a second opinion with a specialist at Mass General. Apparently, this is something the HMO offers for people on their supplementary plans. Perhaps I’ll do this. Perhaps I won’t.

In the mean time, I’m starting a gluten-free diet. I’ve done the gluten free diet several times, but usually combined with something else. Once it was no grains, once gluten-free and dairy-free, a couple times paleolithic. I have long believed that I might have Celiac disease, especially after I failed to rule it out with genetic testing about five and a half years ago (HLA DQ2 was not detected; HLA DQ8 was detected). Still, the blood tests usually come back in the normal range toward the high end, and I’ve had two upper endoscopies that were clean, as well as a colonoscopy.

Both hypothyroidism and Celiac can affect pretty much every part of the body, so excessive sweating could be caused by Celiac, as well as the fact that I had diarrhea every day for the past 17 days.

I’m two days into the gluten-free diet and feeling ok. I’m a little bloated because of all the fruit, but I’m having an easier time than I did in the past because I’m eating rice and dairy and processed foods. I plan to keep it up for two weeks and then evaluate how I feel and whether the sweating has diminished at all.

This sounds awfully familiar to me. Growing up it was always “stress” that was causing me severe indigestion and discomfort. Whether it was constipation or diarrhea, bloating, gas, cramps, aches or anything else, my mother and the pediatrician always said “stress.” How many times when I was 10 fucking years old could I explain to them that I was not “stressed” and I had nothing to be stressed about?

Years later an actual doctor gave me an actual diagnosis of an actual disease – Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. She might have been the only doctor who ever believed me that “stress” was not my problem. Now whenever I go to the endocrinologist or the family physician on my HMO and try to tell them that I am treating my Hashimoto’s and still experiencing crappy quality of life symptoms (fatigue, tiredness in the evening, sweating, weight gain), I’m back to hearing about “stress.”

My acne was never severe. It never covered all or most of my face and it never left me scarred and pockmarked. For this I am tremendously grateful. Every day when I look at my face and see the pimples that I do have, I am silently relieved not to be one of the small minority of people whose faces are ruined by it.

Even though I was never an extreme case, for the last 16 years I have always had at least one pimple. Sometimes it’s many more, like eight. They’re always in different stages of recovery, sometimes normal, sometimes whiteheads, sometimes blackheads (depending on what part of my face), sometimes on different parts of my body, but they’re always present.

I’ve called it “moderate but persistent” or “mild but persistent” acne and I still think those terms describe it best. When I was a teenager, I used every type of topical treatment known to medical science. Creams, gels, you name it, I tried it. Over the counter, prescription, only available in third world countries – it’s all been on my face. Retin-a, Differin gel, the stuff made from Dead Sea sulphur – gross. Then I moved on to the antibiotic treatments. They destroyed my digestive system (not that it wasn’t already destroyed) and gave me terrible diarrhea.

Eventually, when I was 17 and 18 I did two cycles of Accutane, the absolute last-ditch weapon used by dermatologists on patients for whom they’ve lost hope, the medication with so many side effects that they basically come out and tell you never to use it. My face practically peeled itself completely off when I was on Accutane. The acne faded away. Then I stopped the Accutane and the pimples came right back. I’ve never heard of anyone whose acne returned, as strong as ever, after two cycles of Accutane. Neither had my family physician or my dermatologist.

For the past six years or so, I’ve been following versions of the acne.org regimen. I wouldn’t exactly say it works, but I would say that it certainly doesn’t irritate my face or make the situation any worse than it already was. Perhaps it even does help a little. I’ve also lately tried eliminating certain foods from my diet to see if one of them might be triggering outbreaks. In addition, I drink at least two liters of water a day to keep everything flushed.

I have a hunch that the acne is tied to my endocrine problems. It’s possible that my Hashimoto’s could have some effect on my testosterone levels. But the last time my testosterone was checked, in spring 2004, my doctor said it was normal (I don’t know if she meant normal for an average person or normal for a 23 year old boy). But I also know that acne is largely genetic. My mom once said that my dad had it when he was growing up.

It would be nice to have clear skin for once. I am average in appearance, and when my acne is bad it makes people not pay attention to me – but when it’s not so bad, I can always get girls to talk to me. I often forget how it is, or don’t realize that I have a new pimple, and embarrass myself, and I am too old for that to be happening. Acne is for teenagers – I put in my time and now I want it to go away!