Diagnosis: Low Testosterone

My younger brother Jon (on the right) did the Eagleman Half-Ironman Triathlon this past Sunday.  I made the trip over to Cambridge, MD to see him do the event, really cool.  They had a great set-up, it was a great day, and Jon completed his FIRST half-ironman triathlon.  That's us above after the event.

Above pic is Jonnie in the last 200 yards of the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run adventure.

Cezanne's new Prius!  Doing our part to stimulate the economy and not stimulate the environment.

Bono is taking a nap, a pup after my own heart.

Cezanne's family: Bro Ryan, Step-Mom Sarah, Dad Dave, her and me.  This was us during her Grandma's 80th birthday weekend about an hour north of Pittsburgh.

Now, onto the subject of this post.  I have my testosterone levels checked about twice a year or more often if I feel it necessary, given how I'm feeling.  My body doesn't produce much of the stuff given my bilateral testicular cancer, so I have to supplement my body with it by rubbing gel on my shoulders and stomach every morning.  Males need testosterone to maintain normal energy levels, libido and longer term: deep voice and lean muscle amongst a bunch of other things.  Malaise or depression is also a symptom of low testosterone.

So, my level was 151 from the blood that was drawn on May 27th.  Normal range for males is 280 - 800.  Testosterone fades as you age...but right now I don't even have the testosterone of an 80 year-old man (I'm guessing).  When I look back on the past few months, I remember I had been complaining of being overly tired to my wife Cezanne.  When the Endocrinologist asked how I was feeling I said more tired than usual, but gave the excuse that I had just got back from a week long vacation of hiking, biking, etc.  When I think back to the cycling season, there was a point when my performance and desire to compete dropped off, possibly coinciding with my testosterone level.

I talked with the Doc today and I'll get my blood drawn tomorrow to verify the reading.  During my cancer treatments, they took a baseline testosterone level (before the surgery that left my body without the ability to produce the necessary levels normally).  That reading was 610.  Since being on the replacement testosterone my levels have fluctuated, but we've normally been able to keep the levels between 500-700.  It's tough though because after a while it seems like the same dose isn't providing the same level.  Maybe external factors play a part.  I don't think it's an issue with how I've recently been putting it on.  My wife says I'm the "model" patient because I put it on at basically the same time every day and never miss a dose.

Maybe the tiredness and loss of desire to compete are in my head and the reading I take tomorrow will be normal, but it would definitely help explain things a bit.  Working 13 hours a day at the new job isn't helping the tiredness either.

I also got a CBC (complete blood count) taken and on the bright side, my Hematocrit (HCT) level was 49.1.  Nice!  I'm almost illegal by anti-doping standards, which is anything over 50.  I've seen mine before at around 43 and 47.

Besides all this, things are going well.  The new job hasn't been too crazy yet, but I typically work 7am-8pm Monday through Friday.  Most permanent employees come in the office work Saturdays too and some even come in on Sundays depending on the workload.  Capitol Hill is an interesting place and it's got it's own set of strange rules and language that I'm starting to learn.

I got up at 4am one Tuesday morning, so I could ride the trainer from 4-5am before getting ready for work, but I didn't enjoy that.  Riding the trainer at the end of a 13 hour day, on a full stomach wasn't fun either.  So, my riding has been limited to the weekends which isn't too great for getting/staying in racing shape and for that matter, neither does my low testosterone level and general feeling of fatigue.

I signed up for a 3 stage/2 day race this weekend that I was really looking forward to, but I'm not going to be able to do it.  I've signed up for 2 more races this year, both in July and I hope I get to do them.  I'm kind of writing this season off and hope to be able to dedicate more time to riding next year.  It's a bummer because I think this year started with a lot of promise.

These long work hours will last until the end of December, then I hope to resume some good winter training.  But, I actually don't know where Cezanne and I will be living!  I took this temporary assignment and thought I'd be going back to the job I had before (since I was scheduled to be in that position from November 2008 to November 2011), but someone was ordered into my position.  So, I'll have to negotiate with my detailer for a new set of orders.  We are hoping we'll stay in D.C. for at least the next 2 years.

Cezanne and I just had our 2-year anniversary on June 17th.  We're going out to a nice dinner this weekend.  She's been absolutely awesome while I've been working these hours.  She's typically up helping me get out the door in the morning and then making dinner for when I get home.  She's a sweetheart and doing most everything lately!

Long blog post...but I haven't had much time to write lately.  I don't have the energy right now to go back and check for grammar errors, so oh well!