Adrenal venous sampling (3) - unofficial results

Three and a half weeks ago I underwent the Adrenal Venous Sampling (AVS) procedure; I was told at the time that there would be results after two weeks but so far I have not received them. This might be because the results have been sent directly to my nephrologist and/or because the hospital is currently reducing all non-essential activities because of a dispute with the Ministry of Health regarding the transfer of money.

In the mean time, I have noticed that my weight has been steadily increasing since my appointment with the endocrinologist at the beginning of July (coincidentally the morning of my father's funeral), when he changed some of my blood pressure medication. One of the medicines that he removed contains a diuretic so there exists the possibility that the amount of water in my body is increasing. I weighed myself last Thursday and was horrified to discover that I had added 3.5 kg since that consultation. I later checked my weight in the clinic; there is a small difference between the traditional scales there and my electric scale, but the readings at home are near enough correct.

So I decided to write to the endocrinologist, asking about the results and telling him about the weight problem.  In about two thirds of the cases of primary aldosteronism, both adrenal glands pump out the same amount of aldosterone whereas one third of the cases have one adrenal gland pumping out much more than the other. The treatment for the one third is surgery, whereas the two thirds have to manage the condition with medicine. The endocrinologist called me this morning to inform me that the results show that I am with the statistics: I am in the two thirds group and so there will be no surgery. Better to find this out before any surgery rather than afterwards....

I have an appointment with the endocrinologist in a few weeks (after the Jewish High Holidays) but at the moment it's not clear whether that appointment will take place (because of the industrial dispute). I think that I'll reach out to the nephrologist.

For some reason, I woke up five or six times last night, each time going to the toilet (normally it's only once a night). Due to the amount of liquid that I passed, I decided to weigh myself again this morning - about 1.5 kg disappeared overnight. I'm still 2 kg over what I would consider to be the maximum weight, but at least there is an indication of what the problem is. The endocrinologist said that I can resume taking the diuretic medication if I want to in order to see if it makes any difference.