Retest level is 38! But.....

[Seattleanne]

Hey guys,
So I got my retest back and I'm up to 38. This is from a start of 9. But I still feel most of the symptoms. Is it because I still need time to heal all the damage? I'm soooooo happy to be getting good results in the numbers! Now maybe just wait some more??
I'm going to continue with 10,499iu/day of d3and aim for 60.
What do you all think about the time aspect?

[Seattleanne]

Alifogg: yay! Congrats on the increase :)
It really is a hard thing to see the numbers go up and still feel as bad as ever. I had a moment of panic too... Better now. I feel like a kid in the back of the car saying 'are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' This trip is taking forever.... But like you said, we didn't get to this point quickly either.
Thanks again to everyone for being here and being awesome!

[9na]

It all sounds reasonable to me - and good point about higher levels preventing further damage! because I have had some new symptoms even some time after I started D-supplements - but I guess that is because I was still low at the time, and therefore my body was (and might still be) suffering.

I look forward to learning more about the dietary guidelines :)

Hope your busy day was good - we have a fun virus in the house at the time... :p

See you :)

[alifogg]

Yes, you are right... I have had it on good authority that D levels do not fluctuate easily. I guess it was hard to get my head around the fact that my levels have gone up so easily and quickly (I suppose giving birth probably helped!) but my symptoms are still so severe.

I have now gained some acceptance that getting the levels up is one thing, but that recovery from the damage done is another thing altogether that will take up to a year. I suppose the good thing about getting levels up is that further damage will not occur.

I am in the middle of a really busy day but I will start a new thread this evening about the dietary recommendations I have been following - who knows if they were the thing that brought up my levels so effectively...

Speak soon!

[9na]

Congratulations with great test results to you! :) You've done great, and very quickly!

I would like to know more about the no grain or cheese-thing - gluten free and dairy free, or is other dairy products alright? (I need my calsium ;) ).

About the fluctuating symptoms - I'm not sure if they mean that your d-level is fluctuating too, I guess it just means that your body still is working hard with the d...? Seems like this process takes a lot of time. I've read somewhere (possibly in the post linked to further up) that one should give it 6 months. It's very hard, because we want improvement SO much, but unfortunately the body takes it's time.. ;) Summer will be good, though! :)

[Phyllis2010]

I second the congratulations and also recommend the post 9na suggests. I'm hoping that once you're in the 40s your symptoms will improve. I've often thought that if I can get my levels into the 60s and I still have symptoms then that will act as a differential and whatever symptoms I have at that point might be due to something else....38 is a vast improvement from 9 (I'm at 41) but I always remind myself that "normal" begins at 32...So, congratulations and be patient I think this all takes time. The way I see it that I"ve probably been deficient for years so I can't expect things to resolve quickly.

Alifogg, acutally two of my docs have talking about reaching a "plateau." Apparently, the endo doesn't want me to increase my d3 dose because he doesn't know if I've reached a plateau or my levels are still rising...I do feel that my levels fluctuate somewhat though not as much as when I was trying to megadose. I try to keep my levels at a steady state by taking D3 throughout the day instead of in one dose...

[alifogg]

I got my blood test results today. After about 2 months of supplementing 10k Vit D3 daily plus taking chelated Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc; an occasional UV sunbed; eliminating cheese and grains from my diet (as recommended in 'The Vitamin D Cure'), my levels have gone from 20nmol to 109nmol (If you are working in ng/ml, those figures would be approx 8ng/ml to 43ng/ml)

I wish I could decipher some of the medical research available on the internet better, however, from what I can gather, levels will tend to rise and fall until a 'baseline' plateau is reached and symptoms will fluctuate accordingly. My experience seems to support this as I was feeling great around the time of the blood test (UV sunbed before the test and a beautiful sunny day) but had a terrible flare up of symptoms at the weekend after several rainy days spent indoors...

Could that account for the ongoing symptoms despite raised levels? After all, the blood test is a snapshot of a single day.

I may be totally wrong - please let me know your thoughts!

[Seattleanne]

Thanks 9na!! Especially for the reminder post :)
I got a little panicked. I'm better now :)

[9na]

Congratulations once again with the great result! :)

Obviously I don't have much experience to share when it comes to this, but I remembered this post: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Undiagnosed-Symptoms/what-happens-after-treatment-with-vitamin-d-deficiency/show/1151898