Dawn,
Thank you for the post. I was on travel all day yesterday and have had problems getting my laptop back on line until a few minutes ago..
You've done nothing wrong and have followed the protocol correctly. You've loaded vitamin D3 aggressively, experienced a favorable drop in CH frequency, (just not the complete cessation of your CH that you and I wanted), you've seem your GP, obtained the assays for serum 25(OH)D3, calcium and PTH and stopped taking vitamin D3. These were all correct actions. It's the followup course of action that's important now.
Stay off the vitamin D3 for 10 days to two weeks then see your GP for another set of assays for your serum 25(OH)D3, calcium and PTH. Be sure to ask your GP for the high sensitive C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP) assay. It's likely you've inflammation and/or an immune system response to allergens cooking away. Either of these conditions make it difficult for vitamin D3 to do its thing preventing your CH. If your hs-CRP is elevated, you and your GP need to look for the cause. Be sure to drink 2.5 liters of water in the 24 hours prior to the blood draw for these labs.
In the meantime, you need to drink 2.5 liters of water a day and avoid calcium rich foods like all dairy products and any calcium supplements.
I would take as many of the Antihistamine Full Monty supplements you can get. They're listed in the email I sent you. If you can't find all of them, ask your GP for an Rx for a first-generation antihistamine like Diphenhydramine HCL and take as directed. I would also ask for an Rx for oxygen as a CH abortive at 15 liters/minute if you've not already done so.
As an immune system response to allergens in your environment or diet is likely, starting the Atkins-Ketogenic diet is a good idea. Start it with a 24-hr fast drinking 2.5 liters of water a day and taking all the supplements less the vitamin D3 daily. The fast will burn through the glycogen (blood starch) stored in the liver and this will help push you into mild ketosis. Our bodies metabolize ketones just fine. Exercise is also important. I'm 78 and have found 10 minutes fast walking makes a big difference.
CH attacks during airline travel is an interesting phenomenon experienced by most CHers. Airliner cabins are pressurized to an altitude of 7,000 to 8,000 feet while the jet is flying at 30,000 to 37,000 feet. This results in a drop in alveolar oxygen of up to 7%. As the CH syndrome is sensitive to variations in oxygen, a drop of 5% to 7% is sufficient to trigger CH.
Bottom line, you're on the right track. Following the course of action above will bring your serum calcium back into its normal reference range and when that happens, your parathyroids will respond with more PTH and that will bring it back into its normal reference range. The hard part is getting inflammation and allergic reactions under control. Once you've done that, you've sufficient vitamin D3 and 25(OH)D3 in your system to help prevent your CH. Once your serum calcium and PTH are back in their respective normal reference ranges, you can resume vitamin D3 at a maintenance dose of 50,000 to 100,000 IU/week.
Take care, hang in there and please keep us posted.
V/R, Batch