Welcome to the club, I guess!

[adef187]

Thanks, I'll be mindful of that. Especially since I'm still active-duty and on flight status, I have to be very careful about what medications I take. 

[TigerPaws]

Thanks, I'll be mindful of that. Especially since I'm still active-duty and on flight status, I have to be very careful about what medications I take.

I have flown sense before I could drive so I understand. Good luck! Fly Low and Fast. Remember being at Angles 70 is NO fun, 50' at 500 knots, now that is FUN!!

[adef187]

Well, I'm a C-130 guy. So as the Beastie Boys would say, "Low and slow, that is the tempo" 

[expedient-traveller]

Multi-engine prop jobs! Oh yeah!!! Dad flew C-54's during WW2 (Army Air Corp).

[TigerPaws]

Multi-engine prop jobs! Oh yeah!!! Dad flew C-54's during WW2 (Army Air Corp).

Transport and Bomber Pilots = Knuckle Draggier's and Fighter Pilot School Washouts. Bombardiers, Navigators and WISO = Flunked out of Bomber Pilot School.

Fighter Pilot = Drunk telling lies and taking all of the credit.

Ground Crew = Forgotten Hero's

[adef187]

Hell yeah! I'm a Flight Engineer, so I do all the work and get none of the credit. But I have the best damned seat in the house!

[TigerPaws]

Hell yeah! I'm a Flight Engineer, so I do all the work and get none of the credit. But I have the best damned seat in the house!

Long story short. AC-130 ferry flight - Pilot Lt. Col. logging a few hours, Copilot, Butter Bar Lt. (total noob) plus Grizzled 30+ year Flight Engineer. 10,000 AGL loafing along fat dumb and happy. Minor turbulence reported in storm, penetrate storm. Woops! F-5 Tornado, 250 mph surface winds, tops to Angles 50+. Deep S-H-I-T!!!

Longest 5 minutes ever, Aircraft pops out other side surprisingly right side up. Pilot takes deep breath asks how bad? Grizzled Flight Engineer “Uh! Sir I think we have a problem” Pilot looks left, sees fuel pouring out of wing tanks, looks at Copilot who is staring straight ahead and is as white as a Ghost. Flight Engineer, sir it is just as Fing bad over here.

Landed at first available field with foam fire suppression capabilities (Navy base).

Bird totaled, pounded by Soccer Sized Hail, serious structural damage. Crew, got seriously drunk.

[expedient-traveller]

That is simply amazing! Wow!! Thanks for sharing that with us. Soccer ball sized hail. Yikes!

[hammer]

My last port-of-call was western Australia (Pirth). We stopped off at Diego Garcia where I caught a C130 to head back to Norfolk VA! That as you may already know takes around 24 hours with stops along the way. That seemed to be the longest 3 days of my life, lol! That was the end of my longest 3rd med deployment that started in the med, and ended in Australia for me. After 3 weeks of debreafing, and a couple weeks of freedom, I joined the MN Army National Gaurd, a chopper unit. Had to see if the grass was greener on the other side and after 7 years I decided it wasn't.

[adef187]

Hell yeah! I'm a Flight Engineer, so I do all the work and get none of the credit. But I have the best damned seat in the house!

Long story short. AC-130 ferry flight - Pilot Lt. Col. logging a few hours, Copilot, Butter Bar Lt. (total noob) plus Grizzled 30+ year Flight Engineer. 10,000 AGL loafing along fat dumb and happy. Minor turbulence reported in storm, penetrate storm. Woops! F-5 Tornado, 250 mph surface winds, tops to Angles 50+. Deep S-H-I-T!!!

Longest 5 minutes ever, Aircraft pops out other side surprisingly right side up. Pilot takes deep breath asks how bad? Grizzled Flight Engineer “Uh! Sir I think we have a problem” Pilot looks left, sees fuel pouring out of wing tanks, looks at Copilot who is staring straight ahead and is as white as a Ghost. Flight Engineer, sir it is just as Fing bad over here.

Landed at first available field with foam fire suppression capabilities (Navy base).

Bird totaled, pounded by Soccer Sized Hail, serious structural damage. Crew, got seriously drunk.

DAMN! Snake bit! 

[adef187]

My last port-of-call was western Australia (Pirth). We stopped off at Diego Garcia where I caught a C130 to head back to Norfolk VA! That as you may already know takes around 24 hours with stops along the way. That seemed to be the longest 3 days of my life, lol! That was the end of my longest 3rd med deployment that started in the med, and ended in Australia for me. After 3 weeks of debreafing, and a couple weeks of freedom, I joined the MN Army National Gaurd, a chopper unit. Had to see if the grass was greener on the other side and after 7 years I decided it wasn't.

It never is, is it? 

[adef187]

Update time. 
Heard back from my doctor and while I don't specifically remember what the numbers were, this is the breakdown: my body is producing almost no testosterone at all, and my estrogen levels are roughly three times what they should be. She also said that what testosterone my is producing, is being converted into other hormones rather than being allowed to act as it should.  
She suggested testosterone treatment to see if I'll respond, but if I don't, we may have to consider the other route. Just letting you all know what's up...

[TigerPaws]

adef187,

Thank you for the update it is always nice to know the rest of the story.

Be careful of direct Testosterone therapy, there are serious side effects. The creams and roll-on's are problematical as well because Testosterone is easily transferred through direct and indirect contact. Anyone else around you can and often will be affected, be especially careful of the women in your life. The effects can be dramatic.

If your Liver is playing a part in converting various hormones to Estrogen or Estrogen like compounds then you may want to consider a diet which improves Liver function. Stay away from anything that is made with or contains Phytoestrogens or similar compounds as these can and often will aggravate your low Testosterone effects.

The issue with Estrogen receptors is that we all have them to one extent or another and once these hormone receptors are excited they multiply which is a feedback loop building upon itself.