Is it my thyroid?

I finally got around to getting that blood test last week. Yeah, it was weeks since I got the prescription, but I just didn’t have time. I didn’t want to take the kids, so that only leaves two days a week when I could go while they’re in school. It was a fasting test, and on none of those two days between my doctor’s appointment and Wednesday last week did I have the energy to drive to the lab without some caffeine first. It would have been seriously dangerous.

So I finally went, got there around 9:30, and they couldn’t do one of the tests. The cortisol test must be done between 7AM and 9AM. WTH! They did the rest though, and everything came back normal. I’m going next week for the cortisol.

I told my husband about it, and said that my guess is that cortisol can only be measured in the morning, or something. He pondered about that: since I am up until like 2AM or so, and don’t really come awake until after 10, isn’t my 7AM equal to someone else’s 10AM? I didn’t know - I don’t even know what cortisol is, except that if you have adrenal insufficiency, you are low on it. So I looked it up. According to WebMD , cortisol levels are highest in the morning, and they change if a person works shift work or sleeps at other times of the day. I guess I should have looked it up first, and let the lab know that I’d only been awake for an hour or so when I got there.